about how many years old is our solar system?
Put the following into perspective: the size of our solar system; the distance to nearby stars; the size of the Milky Way Galaxy; the size of the observable universe. The observable universe, The Milky Way Galaxy, Distances to nearby stars, solar system. The Oort cloud, which is thought to be the source for long-period comets, may also exist at a distance roughly a thousand times further than the heliosphere. The Solar System is located in the Orion Arm, 26,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. Suppose we make a scale model of our solar system, with the Sun the size of a grapefruit. The planets are all much smaller than the Sun. Four planets are within about 20 meters of the Sun, while the rest planets are spread much farther apart. The Oort cloud is a hypothetical spherical cloud of up to a trillion icy objects that is thought to be the source for all long-period comets and to surround the Solar System at roughly 50,000 AU (around 1 light-year (ly)), and possibly to as far as 100,000 AU (1.87 ly). However, our best estimates place the age of the Solar System at 4.5 to 4.55 billion years. The Sun is about 4.57 billion years old, so is the solar system.The age of the Solar System is determined through the radiometric dating of heavy elements such as uranium. Measurement of radioactive decay rates allow us to determine when the elements in the Solar System were formed. Of those objects that orbit the Sun directly, the largest eight are the planets, with the remainder being significantly smaller objects, such as dwarf planets and small Solar System bodies. Of the objects that orbit the Sun indirectly, the moons, two are larger than the smallest planet, Mercury. The Solar System formed 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter. If we represent the solar system on a scale that allows us to walk from the Sun to Pluto in a few minutes, then: the planets would all be marble size or smaller and the nearest stars would be thousands of miles away. exists and is an alternate of . About 4.5 billion years old, that's how old our sun is once the sun is formed anything orbiting it be it Gases, dust or boiling planets of magma its classed as a solar system.  How many light years in diameter is the solar system? The diameter of the solar system is approximately 7,500,000,000  miles and light travels 5,865,696,000,000 miles in a year, so the  diameter of the solar system is about 0.0…013 light years. The Sun is about 4.57 billion years old, so is the solar system. The age of the Solar System is determined through the radiometric dating of heavy elements such as uranium. Measurement of radioactive decay rates allow us to determine when the elements in the Solar System were formed.
4.6 billion years