The Solar System, located in the Milky Way Galaxy, is our celestial neighborhood. Our Solar System consists of 8 planets, several dwarf planets, dozens of moons, and millions of asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. . The Solar System[d] is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the masses that orbit it, most prominently its eight planets, of which Earth is one. [11] The system formed about 4. 6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, creating the Sun and a protoplanetary. . Of the objects orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, called Trans-Neptunian Objects, TNO, Pluto and the three other other dwarf planets (known as of early 2013) in that realm are called plutoids. They are: Haumea, Makemake and Eris. These, and many other bodies, are members of the vast Kuiper Belt. . Erik Gregersen is a senior editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica, specializing in the physical sciences and technology. Before joining Britannica in 2007, he worked at the University of Chicago Press on the. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive. . While astronomers have discovered thousands of other worlds orbiting distant stars, our best knowledge about planets, moons, and life comes from one place. They are all bound by gravity to the Sun, which is the star at the center of the Solar. . The Wikimedia Foundation is a recognized public welfare institution (ANBI). If you make a recurring donation, you will be debited by the Wikimedia Foundation until you notify us to stop. We'll send you an email which will include a link to easy cancellation instructions. Sorry to interrupt, but. .