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The solar system

The solar system has been thought to contain not only the planets, but numerous other things at various times which I will list from the centre out:

  1. The sun - also known as the star called Sol
  2. The planet Vulcan - now known not to exist
  3. The planet Mercury
  4. The planet Venus - see also the Transit Photos
  5. The planet Earth and the Moon
  6. The planet Mars and it's satellites
  7. The asteroid belt - once thought to be the remains of a planet
  8. The planet Jupiter and it's satellites
  9. The planet Saturn and it's satellites
  10. The planet Uranus and it's satellites
  11. The planet Neptune and it's satellites
  12. Pluto and it's satellites (which sometimes orbits closer than Neptune) was officially classified as not being a planet in 2006.
  13. Planet X, also known as planet 10 and Persephone - which is now thought not to exist
  14. The Kuiper belt (including objects like Quaoar, Sedna, Xena and possibly Pluto)
  15. The Oort cloud - extends up to 1 light year away

Of course the sol system is just one of the systems in our galaxy - the milky way

Special note must be made about Xena and Pluto. If Pluto is a planet, then Xena must be. However other objects like Quaoar and Sedna give reasonable grounds to say that Pluto may have been miss-classified.

There is some suggestive evidence that disaster causing comet storms may be periodic. if this is true, there may be a companion star named Nemesis which comes close to the Oort cloud every 26 million years.

The specifications for the star Nemesis can be constrained as follows:

  1. Orbital Period: approximately 26 million years
  2. Brightness: must be fairly dim, else it would be obvious, and brighter in the sky than the planets
  3. Maximum Distance: 2.5 light years (where it must currently be)