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SOLAR SYSTEM
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The sun with the celestial bodies that revolve around it in its gravitational field
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("solar system" is a kind of...):
scheme; system (a group of independent but interrelated elements comprising a unified whole)
Meronyms (parts of "solar system"):
interplanetary medium (interplanetary space including forms of energy and gas and dust)
Meronyms (members of "solar system"):
Venus (the second nearest planet to the sun; it is peculiar in that its rotation is slow and retrograde (in the opposite sense of the Earth and all other planets except Uranus); it is visible from Earth as an early 'morning star' or an 'evening star')
Uranus (a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 7th planet from the sun has a blue-green color and many satellites)
Sun (the star that is the source of light and heat for the planets in the solar system)
Saturn (a giant planet that is surrounded by three planar concentric rings of ice particles; the 6th planet from the sun)
Pluto (a large asteroid that was once thought to be the farthest known planet from the sun; it has an elliptical orbit)
major planet; planet ((astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction)
outer planet ((astronomy) a major planet whose orbit is outside the asteroid belt (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto))
Neptune (a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 8th planet from the sun is the most remote of the gas giants)
minor planet; planetoid (any of numerous small celestial bodies that move around the sun)
Mercury (the smallest planet and the nearest to the sun)
Mars; Red Planet (a small reddish planet that is the 4th from the sun and is periodically visible to the naked eye; minerals rich in iron cover its surface and are responsible for its characteristic color)
Edgeworth-Kuiper belt; Kuiper belt (a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune)
Jupiter (the largest planet and the 5th from the sun; has many satellites and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky)
earth; globe; world (the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on)
Holonyms ("solar system" is a part of...):
heliosphere (the region inside the heliopause containing the sun and solar system)
Context examples:
"It is going extremely fast and on such a trajectory that we can say with confidence that this object is on its way out of the solar system and not coming back."
(Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System, NASA)
Unlike every other planet in the solar system, Uranus is tipped over almost onto its side.
(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)
However, geologists and astronomers have struggled to extend the astronomical time scale farther back than 50 million years because of solar system chaos, which has made the time scale unpredictable beyond a certain point.
(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)
In the 1950s, scientists figured out that a solar wind blows from the sun to the edges of the solar system.
(Newest solar telescope produces first images, National Science Foundation)
Rhea, like many moons in the outer solar system, appears dazzlingly bright in full sunlight.
(Regarding Rhea, NASA)
Observations will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life.
(Rosetta closing in on comet, NASA)
Additionally, brown dwarfs will help scientists study exoplanets, planets outside our solar system, as the atmosphere of cool brown dwarfs is similar to what astronomers expect to find at many exoplanets.
(Powerful Auroras Found at Brown Dwarf, NASA)
Ahuna Mons is a volcanic dome unlike any seen elsewhere in the solar system, according to a new analysis led by Ottaviano Ruesch of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, and the Universities Space Research Association.
(Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research, NASA)
For the first time, researchers have detected water vapor signatures in the atmosphere of a planet beyond our solar system that resides in the habitable zone, the region around a star in which liquid water could potentially pool on the surface of a rocky planet.
(Hubble Finds Water Vapor on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet for 1st Time, NASA)
Astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is 12 times the size of Jupiter, striking not only for its size but also for the fact that it is not orbiting any star.
(Astronomers Discover New Planet Not Orbiting Any Star, VOA)
