Talk:Solar System

Suggestion to change the first section

Hello, I'm new to Wikipedia! I find that the first section right now only focus on individual objects and didn't talk about the Solar System as a whole. I don't know if this first section is suitable for Wikipedia, so please give me feedback if you are a wikipedia veteran.

The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it, like planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, moons and comets. It is home to many astronomical objects that can be seen in the night sky.

At the center of the Solar System is the Sun. The Sun is a main-sequence star that fuse hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere. The Solar System can be divided into three regions. The inner Solar System is the closest to the Sun, containing four terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the asteroids, which includes the asteroid belt between Mars's and Jupiter's orbit. The outer Solar System contains two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune), and the Kuiper belt just outside of Neptune's orbit. The trans-Neptunian region is still largely unexplored, theorized to contain dwarf planets and many more smaller icy bodies. Going further away, the gravitational influence and solar wind effect from the Sun gradually fade, eventually becoming indistinguishable from interstellar space. However, many objects by their nature do not strictly belong into one region, such as comets.

In the 16th century, Copernican heliocentrism proposed that the Sun is motionless and revolved around by celestial objects. Over centuries of astronomy and decades of spaceflight, this model evolved into a modern understanding of the Solar System. It is now known that the Solar System is one of many planetary systems with their own gravitational spheres of influence and motion around the Milky Way galaxy. Empirical evidence suggests that the Solar System formed about 4.6 billion years ago, when a region of a molecular cloud collapsed into the early Sun and a protoplanetary disk. As subfields of astronomy, planetary science and space weather heavily depend on the study of the Solar System Logusmonkey (talk) 22:41, 4 September 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for your input. Per WP:LEAD, the lead section is intended as a summary of the article as a whole, so yes there is a heavy focus on the individual components. The "Discovery and exploration" section only forms a small part of that. But yes, a brief mention would be appropriate. Praemonitus (talk) 04:40, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

References

Edit request

For some reason, even though my account is autoconfirmed, I cannot initiate an edit. I was reading this sentence: "To save on fuel, some space missions make use of gravity assist maneuvers, such as the two Voyager probes accelerating when flyby planets in the outer Solar System and the Parker Solar Probe decelerating closer towards the Sun after flyby with Venus." The phrase "accelerating when flyby planets" does not sound correct. Perhaps "when flying by planets" would work better? Dogman15 (talk) 03:55, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

Apparently, "flybying" is a word with precidence in journals, but the writer in me refuses to accept it. Serendi^podous 14:33, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

How about "...accelerating during their flyby of planets..." and "...after a flyby of Venus..."? Praemonitus (talk) 14:57, 25 February 2025 (UTC)

That sounds good. Dogman15 (talk) 19:37, 26 February 2025 (UTC)

Not active

The MOS talk page is not checked very often. It's possible that Earth, the Moon, and the Sun could continue to be capitalized and we could change it so that the solar system is not. The points or lack of them illustrate why that should occur. Aromatize (talk) 23:54, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

Wonder of wonders, there's even more prior explanation freely available in these archives too:

• Talk:Solar System/Archive 9 § Requested move 23 May 2018

Tempting to at least try putting in some effort when asking others to do the same, isn't it? Remsense ‥ 论 23:57, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

Is this talk page a bit more active?Aromatize (talk) 23:58, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

It was certainly active in 2018. Remsense ‥ 论 23:59, 7 May 2025 (UTC)

Please go away, do I need to report you as a stalker? Aromatize (talk) 00:06, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Please stop endeavoring to waste others' time as much as you possibly can because you refuse to understand at all why things are as they are. "I don't like being told" isn't a magic spell to circumvent engaging with what you're doing wrong. Remsense ‥ 论 00:07, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Other page

I opened a discussion on the MOS page. If this talk page and article and the commensurate ones are not even viewed very often it could be some time before there are additional comments. Aromatize (talk) 00:51, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Last time I'll reply to you since I've made my point thoroughly: this talk page has roughly 2,000 editors watching it and 600 editor views a month. If you don't get replies, it's for the reason I told you multiple times, i.e. no one wants to spoonfeed the same points to someone who feels entitled to that, while somehow oblivious to any possibility of being wrong. Who in their right mind would see your replies and think you'll accept a counterargument if they spell it out for you? Remsense ‥ 论 01:02, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Since I'm not in my right mind, I'll take a crack at it. Hello Aromatize, and I admire your persistness and notice you need a bit of work on WP:CIVILITY. But, that said, Wikipedia's astronomical objects guideline covers Solar System because it is an astronomical object. That has been further proven since even the last requested move discussions took place. A Wikipedia article, List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System, covers five amazing space missions, each of which has mapped or is mapping the shape of the Solar System. Its boundries. It's a definable astronomical object, as are the planetary systems of other stars. Wikipedia recognizes the Solar System as a unique name which pertains to the Sun and its reach before entering interstellar space. Maybe this will do? Thanks. Randy Kryn (talk) 01:46, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

Here's enough for me. time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick

He uses solar system, not Solar System. The New York Times has Solar System. I would say it's being debated. Aromatize (talk) 02:52, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

I'm unsure what you want us to do here. As others pointed out, whether or not to capitalize "Solar System" has been discussed quite thoroughly and consensus for around two decades has been to capitalize. As you bring up here, in wider usage both "solar system" and "Solar System" are commonly used, meaning that either case would be acceptable here on Wikipedia. As consensus is evidently on the latter though, there is little reason to change it to the former. ArkHyena (they/any) 03:46, 8 May 2025 (UTC)

I think it could be something that is in progress. Even if it isn't right now it may be in the near future. Leaving it how it is seems alright. You can understand it was confusing. There are other items to do on Wikipedia which aren't as much in flux. Maybe you and I will be doing some of those. Aromatize (talk) 03:51, 8 May 2025 (UTC)