The solar system is approximately 24,000 to 27,000 light-years away from the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains an estimated 100 billion to 400 billion stars, with the Sun being just one of them.

The Sun, a G2V spectral type main-sequence star, holds 99.86% of the known mass within the solar system and governs it through gravity.

Jupiter and Saturn, the two most giant planets in the solar system, account for over 90% of the remaining mass and are still part of the hypothetical Oort Cloud, with the percentage of mass they occupy yet to be determined.

The orbits of the major celestial bodies in the solar system lie near the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, known as the ecliptic. Planets are close to the ecliptic, while comets and Kuiper Belt objects often have noticeable inclinations.

When viewed from the north, most celestial bodies in the solar system, including planets, orbit the Sun counterclockwise, with some exceptions like Halley's Comet.

All celestial bodies orbiting the Sun adhere to Kepler's laws of planetary motion, with their orbits being ellipses centered on the Sun. The closer a body is to the Sun, the faster it moves.

While planets have nearly circular orbits, the orbits of many comets, asteroids, and Kuiper Belt objects are highly elliptical, and some even exhibit parabolic trajectories.

In the vast expanse of space, various methods can represent the distances of each orbit in the solar system. Generally, the farther a planet or belt is from the Sun, the greater the distance from the preceding one, with a few exceptions.

As of October 2019, the solar system includes the Sun, eight planets, nearly 500 satellites, and at least 1.2 million asteroids. There are also dwarf planets and comets. Taking Neptune's orbit as the boundary, the solar system's diameter is about 60 astronomical units, approximately 9 billion kilometers.

Using the heliopause as a boundary, the Sun's distance to the solar system's edge can reach 100 astronomical units (at its thinnest). Using the Oort Cloud as a boundary, the solar system's diameter may be around 200,000 astronomical units.

The solar system's formation began approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a giant interstellar molecular cloud. Most of the mass in the solar system is concentrated in the Sun, with Jupiter being the largest of the remaining bodies. The eight planets revolve counterclockwise around the Sun.

There are also smaller bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and numerous objects in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Many satellites orbit planets or smaller bodies, and each outer planet has a planetary ring beyond its outermost moon.

In 2023, scientists from institutions such as the French National Center for Scientific Research discovered a potential widespread aurora mechanism in the solar system.

Currently, the solar system is located in the Orion Arm, approximately 26,000 to 28,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way. It moves at 220 km/s around the galactic center, completing an orbit roughly every 225 to 250 million years. The Milky Way has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years, with an estimated 200 billion to 400 billion stars and a significant number comparable to the Sun in size and brightness, totaling around a hundred billion.

In the vastness of the Milky Way, the solar system, with the Sun as a member, is relatively ordinary. The Milky Way and around 50 galaxies, including the Magellanic Clouds and the Andromeda Galaxy, form the Local Group. The Local Group and approximately 100 other galaxy groups constitute the Virgo Supercluster (also known as the Local Supercluster).

The Virgo Supercluster is part of the Laniakea Supercluster, which includes about 100,000 galaxies like the Milky Way. Laniakea has a diameter of about 500 million light-years, making it one of the most significant known structures in the observable universe. The observable universe itself has a diameter of approximately 93 billion light-years.