The solar system includes the Sun and all of the objects orbiting it. This includes planets, asteroids, meteorites and comets as well as the space in which they all move.
According to the opinion of astronomers, space, time and matter were created in a dense, hot explosion: the Big Bang. In the course of a long process, first the Sun and then the planets formed out of the primal nebula.
Many ancient cultures believed that the Sun and Moon were gods. They built temples and offered many sacrifices to honour them.
Ptolemy developed a worldview that remained valid for a long time. He believed that the Earth was the center of the universe around which everything else rotates. Many hundreds of years later, Copernicus put forward the theory that all planets revolve around the Sun.
The invention of the first telescope was another great step for astronomy. Important scientists such as Galileo, Newton and Herschel made significant discoveries in the fields of gravitation and the origin of stars and galaxies.
