Formation and evolution of the Solar System timescale of their formation. At the current locations it would have taken millions of years for their cores to accrete. This means that Uranus and Neptune may have formed closer to the Sun—near or even between Jupiter and Saturn—and later migrated or were ejected outward (see Planetary migration below). Motion in the planetesimal era was not all inward toward the Sun; the "Stardust" sample return from Comet Wild 2 has suggested that materials from the early formation of the Solar System migrated from the warmer inner Solar System to the region of the Kuiper belt. After between three and ten
Mercury (planet) into an elliptical orbit, then chemical rockets will fire to deposit the mapper probe into a circular orbit. Both probes will operate for one terrestrial year. The mapper probe carries an array of spectrometers similar to those on "MESSENGER", and will study the planet at many different wavelengths including infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma ray. Mercury (planet) Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. Its orbital period around the Sun of 87.97 days is the shortest of all the planets in the Solar System. It is named after the Roman deity Mercury, the messenger of the