25 December 2018

Mass of the Solar System

The Sun is 99.8% of the mass of the solar system.  Jupiter is about 70% of all the mass in the solar system that is not the sun.  Ganymede, the Moon, and all the dwarf planets and moons are all less massive than Mercury, most by a lot. The total mass of the asteroid belt and all the comets is around 3e21...way less.   It's remotely possible that there's something big in the Oort cloud, but unlikely.

The lightest brown dwarfs are believed to mass abut 2.5e28 kg, roughly 13 times heavier than Jupiter.  The lightest actual stars are believed to mass about 1.5e29, about 75 times the mass of Jupiter. 

The solar system is the sun plus little stuff.  There will never be another sun in the solar system, unless it captures a passing star.


mass in kg, diameter and distance in km
NameMassDiameterDistance from Sun
Sun1.9891e301.39e60
Mercury3.3e2348895.7e7
Venus4.87e241.20e41.08e8
Earth5.97e241.27e41.50e8
Mars6.42e2367792.28e8
Jupiter1.90e271.40e57.80e8
Saturn5.68e261.16e51.43e9
Uranus8.68e255.01e42.87e9
Neptune1.02e264.92e44.5e9
Planets2.68e27



01 December 2018

2019 Calendar

Tue 1 Jan      New Year's Day
Mon 21 Jan   Martin Luther King Day (Holiday)
Sat 2 Feb      Groundhog's (midwinter) Day
Sun 3 Feb     Superbowl LIII, Atlanta, GA
Tue 5 Feb     Chinese New Year, begins year of the Pig, 4717
Mon 18 Feb  Presidents Day (Holiday)
Sun 10 Mar   Daylight Savings Time begins  
Wed 20 Mar  21:58UT (14:58PDT)  Spring Equinox
Fri 19 Apr     Passover begins at sundown
Sat 20 Apr      Passover ends at sundown
Sun 21 Apr      Easter
Wed 1 May     May Day (midspring)
Sun 5 May      Ramadan begins
Mon 27 May  Memorial Day (Holiday)
Tue 4 Jun       Ramadan ends 
Fri 21 Jun    15:54UT (08:54PDT) Summer Solstice
 Thu 4 Jul       Independence Day (Holiday)
Thu 1 Aug     Midsummer day   
Mon 2 Sep     Labor Day (Holiday)
Mon 23 Sep     07:50UT (00:50PDT) Autumn Equinox
Sun 29 Sep      Sundown Rosh Hashana begins year 5780
Tue 8 Oct       Sundown Yom Kippur
Mon 14 Oct    Columbus Day (Holiday for some people)
Thu 31 Oct     Hallowe'en
Fri 1 Nov      Mid autumn day
Sun 3 Nov      Daylight Savings Time ends 
Mon 11 Nov    Veterans Day  
Thu 28 Nov   Thanksgiving (Holiday)
Fri 29 Nov     Holiday
Sun 22 Dec     Sundown  Hannuka begins
Sun 22 Dec    04:19UT (Sat 21Dec 20:19PST) Winter Solstice 
Wed 25 Dec   Christmas (Holiday)
Mon 30 Dec   Sundown, Hannuka ends



Days off work in bold

Astronomical and calendar events in italic