2060 Chiron is a small Solar System body in the outer Solar System, orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal, it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs—bodies orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. Chiron is named after the centaur Chiron in Greek mythology.
Hubble Space Telescope image of Chiron and its coma, taken in 1996
Depiction of Chiron and its rings
The Solar System is the gravitationally bound system of the Sun and the objects that orbit it. It was formed 4.6 billion years ago when a dense region of a molecular cloud collapsed, forming the Sun and a protoplanetary disc. The Sun is an ordinary main sequence star that maintains a balanced equilibrium by the fusion of hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing this energy from its outer photosphere.
Montage of the largest bodies in the Solar System. The asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are not added because the individual asteroids are too small to be shown.
Diagram of the early Solar System's protoplanetary disk, out of which Earth and other Solar System bodies formed
A diagram depicting the habitable zone boundaries around stars, and how the boundaries are affected by star type.
The Sun in true white color
