The primary components of the solar system are the sun and the planets. Except for Mercury and Venus, all the planets have one or more satellites. There is also an asteroid belt situated between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter, and the Oort cloud, a vast cloud surrounding the planetary system and extending outward approximately 3 light years from the sun. The Oort cloud is the source of comets that occasionally approach the planetary region.

The sun is a G2 main sequence star, one of 200 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. The sun was formed 4.57 billion years ago. It is 26,000 light years from the galactic center. Looking at the solar system from the north direction, the planets orbit the sun in a counterclockwise direction.

The chemical composition of the sun, by mass, is 73.46% Hydrogen, 24.85% Helium, 0.77% Oxygen, 0.29% Carbon, 0.099% Silicon, and trace amounts of other elements. The sun generates light and heat from thermonuclear Hydrogen fusion.

The closest stars to the sun are the three stars forming the Alpha Centauri star system, Proxima Centauri and Alpha Centauri A and B. This system is centered 4.36 light years from the sun. Alpha Centauri A and B orbit each other, and Proxima Centauri and the pair orbit each other at a greater distance. Proxima Centauri, a main sequence M5.5 star, is the closest, 4.25 light years away from our sun.