The Earth is a relatively small celestial object. It is the third planet orbiting an average star, our Sun, located in the Orion arm, sometimes called the Orion Spur; it is a minor arm located in between the Sagittarius Arm and the Perseus arm of the Milky Way, a barred spiral galaxy. Our solar system orbits the central bulge of our galaxy at a radius of 1.7 billion AU and our period of galactic revolution is 230 million years at a tangential velocity of 828,000 km/hr relative to the center. Our solar system has one main sequence star, 4 inner rocky planets, the asteroid belt, 4 outer large gaseous planets, the Kuiper Belt of small icy objects, and the outermost Oort Cloud of icy objects made of water, ammonia, and methane. It extends from…show more content…

The supernova process generates elements more massive than iron, like the heavier elements we find within our solar system, and ejects them.