The solar system The Solar System is located in the Milky Way, a barred spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 100,000 light-years containing more than 100 billion stars The Sun resides in one of the Milky Way's outer spiral arms, known as the Orion-Cygnus Arm or Local Spur. The Solar System is the system where all planets are attached to each other, other moons and the Sun, all bound by gravity, either directly or indirectly. It consists of a star; the Sun, the planets; a total of nine, dwarf planets; such as Pluto, moons and millions of asteroids, comets and meteoroids. The Solar System also contains smaller objects. The asteroid belt, which lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, mostly contains objects composed, like the terrestrial planets, of rock and metal. Beyond Neptune's orbit lie the Kuiper belt and scattered disc, and beyond them a newly discovered population of sednoids. ...