The Solar System consists of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, whether they orbit

it directly or by orbiting other objects that orbit it directly. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets that form the planetary system around it, while the remainder are significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies (SSSBs) such as comets and asteroids. The Solar System formed 4. billion years ago from the gra!itational collapse of a giant molecular cloud. The !ast majority of the system"s mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass contained in #upiter. The four smaller inner planets, $ercury, %enus, &arth and $ars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of roc' and metal. The four outer planets, called the gas giants, are substantially more massi!e than the terrestrials. The two largest, #upiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium( the two outermost planets, )ranus and *eptune, are composed largely of substances with relati!ely high melting points (compared with hydrogen and helium), called ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as +ice giants+. ,ll planets ha!e almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane. The Solar System also contains regions populated by smaller objects. The asteroid belt, which lies between $ars and #upiter, mostly contains objects composed, li'e the terrestrial planets, of roc' and metal. Beyond *eptune"s orbit lie the -uiper belt and scattered disc, lin'ed populations of trans.*eptunian objects composed mostly of ices. /ithin these populations are se!eral do0en to more than ten thousand objects that may be large enough to ha!e been rounded by their own gra!ity. Such objects are referred to as dwarf planets. 1dentified dwarf planets include the asteroid 2eres and the trans.*eptunian objects 3luto and &ris. 1n addition to these two regions, !arious other small.body populations, including comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust, freely tra!el between regions. Si4 of the planets, at least three of the dwarf planets, and many of the smaller bodies are orbited by natural satellites, usually termed +moons+ after &arth"s $oon. &ach of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other small objects. The solar wind, a flow of plasma from the Sun, creates a bubble in the interstellar medium 'nown as the heliosphere, which e4tends out to the edge of the scattered disc. The Oort cloud, which is belie!ed to be the source for long.period comets, may also e4ist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. The heliopause is the point at which pressure from the solar wind is e5ual to the opposing pressure of interstellar wind. The Solar System is located within one of the outer arms of the $il'y /ay, which contains about 677 billion stars.