Introduction
The size of space is enormous and nearly incomprehensible to the human mind. Even though galaxies are primarily of space, they can nonetheless hold more than 100 billion stars. We use terminology like galaxy, the universe, and the r system to describe the many parts of space in an attempt to put this huge region into some type of order we can understand. Although each of them is clearly defined, to the average individual they could sound the same in casual speech. It is difficult to determine which is larger—the Universe, a galaxy, or a solar system—without prior knowledge of the subject.
Although the terms "solar system" and "galaxy" are distinct, they are occasionally used interchangeably. A group of objects with the Sun at its centre is referred to as a solar system. Everything that is considered to revolve around the sun or its planets is referred to as the solar system. The moon is an illustration of a component of our solar system. A galaxy is a vast assemblage of stars that are bound by gravity. A galaxy contains between 100 million and one trillion stars. There are many star systems, star clusters, and interstellar gas. A galaxy can contain many solar systems, but not the other way around.
Although the terms "solar system" and "galaxy" are distinct, they are occasionally used interchangeably. One needs to grasp what a star system is to comprehend the solar system. Planets in a system known as a stellar system revolve around a large star. The gravitational force that exists between them is the cause of this. A particular type of star system called a solar system has the Sun at its centre. Anything that orbits the sun or the planets that orbit the sun is considered to be a part of the solar system. For instance, the moon of Earth is a component of our solar system. In contrast, a galaxy is a vast assembly of stars that are drawn together by gravitational attraction. Within a galaxy, there may be 100 million to more than a trillion stars. It is made up of a variety of star systems, star clusters, and interstellar gas. A galaxy can contain several star systems, but not the other way around.
Although the terms "solar system" and "galaxy" are distinct, they are occasionally used interchangeably. One needs to grasp what a star system is to comprehend the solar system. Planets in a system known as a stellar system revolve around a large star. The gravitational force that exists between them is the cause of this. A particular type of star system called a solar system has the Sun at its centre. Anything that orbits the sun or the planets that orbit the sun is considered to be a part of the solar system. In contrast, a galaxy is a vast assembly of stars that are drawn together by gravitational attraction. Within a galaxy, there may be 100 million to more than a trillion stars. It is made up of a variety of star systems, star clusters, and interstellar gas. A galaxy can contain several star systems, but not the other way around.
The size gap between a solar system and a galaxy may be the most significant. A galaxy can be up to 100,000 light-years long, although the solar system is only one light-year broad. Light can travel this distance in one year, or one light year. Imagine a huge piece of paper with hundreds of millions of dots on it to illustrate the connection between the solar system and a galaxy. On such a piece of paper, the solar system would appear as a single dot, whereas the Milky Way, the galaxy that houses the solar system, would make up all the dots.
Galaxy vs. Solar System
A galaxy and a solar system are fundamentally distinct from one another since each of the stars that make up a galaxy has its solar system. On the other hand, a solar system is a group of planets in orbit around a star. A galaxy is a large, gravitationally bound structure made of stars, stellar remnants, a medium of gas and dust between the stars, and dark matter. The Greek word "galaxies," which means "milky," is where the word "galaxy" originates. It alludes to the Milky Way, our galaxy. The Sun and its eight planets make up the Solar System. The sun is orbited by several satellites, minor planets, and other objects. A massive molecular cloud lost its gravitational pull 4.6 billion years ago, leading to the formation of the Solar System. The majority of the system's cloud mass is held by the Sun, and the remaining portion is held by Jupiter. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the four main planets that make up the outer planets.
Difference Between Galaxy and Solar System in Tabular Form
|
Parameters of Comparison |
Galaxy |
Solar System |
| Definition | It's a huge collection of stars that are held together by gravity. | It is a group of celestial objects that revolve around the sun. |
| Classification | Depending on their size and shape | Nothing to classify |
| Centre | Blackhole | Sun |
| Dark Matter | Yes | No |
| Stars | Between100 million to a trillion stars. | Planets revolve around a single star. |
What is Galaxy?
Solar systems and other celestial bodies make up a galaxy. Similar to solar systems, gravitation holds galaxies together. Huge expanses of mostly space divide the solar systems of galaxies. According to legend, galaxies were categorised based on how they appeared. A common illustration is an elliptical galaxy, which has an elliptical light pattern. Spiral galaxies are disk-shaped and have dusty bending arms.
A galaxy is a vast region of space held together by gravity and made up of stars, dust, interstellar gas, stellar remains, and dark matter. The Greek word "galaxies" is the source of the English word "galaxy." It is challenging to gauge the size of the universe! There are numerous galaxies in the cosmos, and each one contains millions of stars that are constrained by a special force called gravitational pull. The universe contains about 70,000,000,000 stars. The Milky Way Galaxy contains the solar system in which our planet is located. The size of the Universe, which is made up of millions of galaxies, is unfathomable. Radiation and subatomic particles were determined to make up the universe after the great bang. It is debatable whether microscopic particles combined to form clusters and then galaxies after the big bang, or whether the universe systematised as enormous clumps of matter that later divided into galaxies (Nasa World book, 2013). A galaxy is a vast region of space that is teeming with dust, gases (mostly 75% hydrogen and 25% helium), atoms, 100-200 billion stars, interstellar clouds, and planets that are drawn to the galaxy's centre by gravitational pull. Only a few tens of thousands of galaxies have been observed in recent years, out of an estimated 170 billion galaxies.
While most galaxies are thought to contain a supermassive black hole at their centre, which pulls all other galaxies' constituents—such as dust, gases (primarily hydrogen and helium), atoms, stars, interstellar clouds, and planets—there by the force of gravity, astronomers are unsure whether this is true of all galaxies. Galaxies continue to move about one another and occasionally can get close enough that the gravitational attraction between the galaxies can become strong enough to modify the shape of the galaxies. In rare circumstances, the galaxies may collide. If two galaxies collide, they may pass through one another without making any impact or they may join and create star strands that are longer than 100,000 light-years.
Galaxies vary from one another in terms of composition, size, form, and colour. In the cosmos, there are three different kinds of galaxies.
Elevated Galaxies
These galaxies resemble flattened balls of ageing stars and have relatively little gas in them. The most massive galaxies with a trillion stars are also included.
Galaxies in a Spiral
The form has been smoothed by spiral galaxies. They are arranged in spiral arms and have an ancient star bulge in the centre surrounded by a disc of new stars.
Unusual Galaxies
Irregular Galaxies don't have a particular shape, as their name implies. The cosmos contains billions of galaxies, each of which emits a tremendous quantity of heat, radiation, radio waves, and x-rays at its core.
Galaxies are too far away from us; a spacecraft travelling at 60,000 km/hr will take 80,000 years to arrive at the 4.2 light-year-distance Alpha Centauri Galaxy. The sun, the planet, and our solar system are all part of the Milky Way Galaxy. It is made up of deep interstellar space, enormous clouds, and gases that are dispersed throughout it. The vast area of the Milky Way galaxy that is visible from Earth is referred to as the Milky Way.
What is Solar System?
The Solar System is located in one of the Milky Way's 200 billion star-filled outer arms. A galaxy has several solar systems, but no solar system itself. A solar system is made up of a star, like a sun, and the objects that are drawn together by its gravitational pull. The planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids are among these celestial objects. The Sun, a typical star in the Milky Way Galaxy, and the objects that revolve around it make up the solar system. Included in this are the 8 (formerly 9) planets, each of which has around 210 known planetary satellites (moons), innumerable asteroids, some of which have their satellites, comets and other ice bodies, and enormous expanses of extremely tenuous gas and dust known as the interplanetary space.
Ancient astronomers could see the Sun, Moon, and brightest planets with their naked eyes; their observations and calculations of these bodies' motions gave origin to the science of astronomy. The amount of knowledge about the motions, characteristics, and compositions of the planets and other smaller bodies has increased enormously over the past few decades, and the range of observational instruments has expanded to include galaxies outside of the solar system and the edge of the known universe. The solar system, however, continues to serve as both the outermost point of our physical reach and the foundation of our theoretical understanding of the universe. The information gathered by Earth-launched space probes and landers about planets, moons, asteroids, and other bodies has been combined with measurements made by telescopes and other instruments below and above the Earth's atmosphere, as well as with data gleaned from meteorites and Moon rocks brought back by astronauts. Astronomers continue to make significant progress toward this aim as they carefully examine all of this data to fully comprehend the creation and development of the solar system.
Small bodies are any naturally existing objects in the solar system that are not the Sun, a planet, a dwarf planet, or the moon. Examples include comets, meteoroids, and asteroids. In the relatively flat asteroid belt, which is situated between Mars and Jupiter, the vast majority of the several hundred thousand asteroids, sometimes known as minor planets, spin. To distinguish them from the bigger asteroidal objects, the countless asteroidal fragments and other little solid matter particles that make up interplanetary space are frequently referred to as meteoroids. The great majority of the several billion comets in the solar system are contained in two different reservoirs. The Oort cloud, the furthest of all clouds, is a spherical shell that surrounds the solar system at a distance of around 50,000 astronomical units (AU), or more than 1,000 times Pluto's orbital distance. The Kuiper belt, a sizable, disk-shaped region with its major concentration between 30 and 50 AU from the Sun, outside of Neptune's orbit but within a portion of Pluto's orbit, is the second reservoir. One astronomical unit, or 150 million kilometres (93 million miles), is the average distance between Earth and the Sun.
Difference Between Galaxy and Solar System In Points
- A galaxy can contain many solar systems, but a galaxy cannot contain a solar system.
- A galaxy's length is many orders of magnitude longer than the solar system.
- While planets in a solar system revolve around a single star, a galaxy can include anywhere between 100 million and over a trillion stars.
- A galaxy typically has a black hole at its centre, whereas the Sun is the central component of a solar system.
- While star systems inside a galaxy revolve around the galactic centre, planets in solar systems orbit the sun.
Conclusion
The main difference between solar systems and galaxies is their size. There are other distinctions as well, though. A light-year is the length of time it takes for light to traverse a certain distance. A solar system is barely one light-year broad, while a galaxy might be up to 100,000 light-years away. Imagine the structure of a galaxy and the solar system as tens of millions of dots on a large piece of paper. The dots on the paper would depict the Milky Way, the galaxy in which the solar system is housed, and the solar system itself would be a single dot.
References
- Hupp, E.; Roy, S.; Watzke, M. (August 12, 2006). "NASA Finds Direct Proof of Dark Matter". NASA. Archived from the original on March 28, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2007.
- ^ Uson, J. M.; Boughn, S. P.; Kuhn, J. R. (1990). "The central galaxy in Abell 2029 – An old supergiant". Science. 250 (4980): 539–540. Bibcode:1990Sci...25s0..539U.
- Grundy, W. M.; Noll, K. S.; Buie, M. W.; Benecchi, S. D.; Ragozzine, D.; Roe, H. G. (December 2018). "The Mutual Orbit, Mass, and Density of Transneptunian Binary GǃkúnÇʼhòmdímà ((229762) 2007 UK126)" (PDF). Icarus. 334: 30–38. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.12.037. S2CID 126574999. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019.
- ^ "solar (adj.)". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
