On this post you will be able to read some valuable information about our Solar System !
The Solar System is our home , as planet Earth comes around on this system !
Below you will be able to find some information about the planets of the Solar System .
The diagram above shows all the planets and dwarf planets (and also the
moon and the asteroid belt) in order from the sun. It also includes
information on the diameter, mass and orbital period of each body and
also a diagram showing the orbit of each body from the sun.
Following you will be able to find some valuable information about every planet .
Let us make a list of them , than we will give a full information on them :
- 1. Mercury
- 2. Venus
- 3. Earth
- 4. Mars
- 5. Jupiter
- 6. Saturn
- 7. Uranus
- 8. Neptune
- 9. Planet Nine (Planet - Nibiru - Still not proved)
1. Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It orbits in a highly
elliptical orbit ranging from 46 million km (29 million miles) from the
Sun out to 70 million km (43.5 million miles).
It takes about 88 Earth days to orbit the Sun but rotates on its axis
once every 59 Earth days. Because of the slow rotation, a single day on
Mercury (mid day to mid day) takes 176 Earth days. Its axial tilt is
remarkably small at 3/100ths of a degree. Much smaller than any other
planet.
Mercury is quite small with a diameter of 4,878km, (2/5ths that of
Earth) and only 5% of Earth’s mass. Its gravity on the surface is 1/3rd
of Earth’s.
Mercury has almost no atmosphere and is blasted by the Sun during the
day and exposed to cold space during the night. This means that it
undergoes some of the widest temperature swings of any body in the Solar
System with temperatures reaching +430 C and dipping down to -180 C.
It has a highly cratered rocky surface and is known to have an iron
core. However its magnetic field is much weaker than the Earth’s (1% as
strong). Initially RADAR waves reflected from the surface of Mercury
indicated that water ice might be present at the poles. It has recently
been confirmed by the Messenger Spacecraft that
ice water does indeed exist in deep craters at the poles the interiors of which are permanently shrouded in shadow.
Because Mercury is so close to the Sun, it is only ever seen with the
naked eye just before sunrise and just after sunset. At all other times
it is masked by the brightness of the Sun.
The Greeks had two names for Mercury, "Apollo" when it appeared in
the morning and "Hermes" when it appeared in the evening.
In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and
thievery, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger
of the Gods. The planet probably received this name because it moves
so quickly across the sky.
Before 2011 it had only been visited by 1 spacecraft - the Mariner 10 Spacecraft which performed 3 fly-pasts in 1974/75 mapping about 45% of its surface.
Mercury was recently being studied by the Messenger Spacecraft . Messenger entered Mercury's Orbit on 18th March 2011, the first man
made object ever to do so. Messenger was impacted into the surface of
Mercury on April 30, 2015, at a speed of more than 3.91 kilometres per
second (8,750 miles per hour), marking the end of operations for the
hugely successful Mercury orbiter.
Amongst other things, Messenger discovered that:
1. Mercury's weak magnetic field is not symmetrical which allows more solar radiation to hit the south pole than the north.
2. Water ice exists at the poles where it is hidden from the Sun in deep craters.
3. The iron core of Mercury is much larger than expected meaning it has a much thinner rocky crust.
4. There is a lot of sulphur on Mercury, 10 times as much as we see
on Earth or Mars, giving rise to suggestions of past volcanic activity.
5. Tectonic features on the surface suggest the core has shrunk as it
cooled reducing the planets diameter by 7km in radius - this is much
more than expected.
All of the discoveries help us to understand the formation processes of Mercury and thus the formation of the solar system.
Because of its inhospitable environment, Mercury has been one of the least explored of the inner solar system planets.
The next mission to Mercury will be ESAs Bepicolumbo Mission to launch in April, 2018.
2. Venus
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun and orbits in an almost
circular orbit at 108 million km. As it orbits, Venus comes closer to
Earth than any other planet in the solar system and can come to within
about 40 million km.
Venus takes about 225 Earth days to orbit the Sun and rotates at the
incredibly slow rate of once every 243 days - and in a clockwise
direction (as seen from looking down on the Suns north pole). Only
Uranus (which almost spins on its side) also has a clockwise spin. A day
on Venus (sunrise to sunrise) lasts 117 Earth days.
Venus has a gentle axial tilt of 3 degrees.
Venus, with a diameter of 12100 km, it is very nearly
the same size as Earth (1000km smaller), and has 80% of Earth’s mass.
its gravity on the surface is 90% that of Earth’s.
Venus has a very dense atmosphere with pressures at the surface over
90 times that of Earth’s. The atmosphere is comprised of carbon dioxide
with thick clouds of sulphur dioxide. This atmosphere has the strongest
greenhouse effect known in the solar system which keeps the planet at a
reasonably constant temperature of 460 degrees C. This makes Venus the
hottest planet in the solar system, far hotter even then mercury which
is twice as close to the Sun.
The surface of Venus, although hidden from view by thick clouds, has
been mapped using radar and it is known that is is covered by large flat
volcanic plains with two higher areas of land (continents) with
mountains and valleys. The surface also shows impact craters and volcano
like structures. Venus has a very weak magnetic field.
Because Venus so close to the Sun, it is often the first star to
appear in the evening and the last to disappear in the morning. hence it
has long been known as the "evening star" and the "morning star".The early Greeks named these two aspects of Venus "Phosphorus" and
"Hesperus" and the Romans "Lucifer", (literally "Light-Bringer"), and
"Vesper".
Attempts to send probes to the planet started in the infancy of space
flight. In 1961, the Russian probe Venera 1 was sent to impact with the
planet, but communications were lost in transit. The USA then attempted
to launch mariner 1 in 1962, but it was destroyed by a command from the
control centre a few minutes after launch as it veered of course.
Mariner 2 was launched a month later and made a fly past of Venus in
December of 1962 and was the first successful robotic interplanetary
mission. It successfully measured the atmosphere, surface temperature
magnetic field and radiation levels.
The Russians sent the probe Venera 3 in 1966 which became the first
probe to enter the atmosphere of another planet. Unfortunately it
returned no planetary data. It was followed by Venera 4 which did return
data which showed among other things, that the atmosphere was much
denser than expected. Using the data from Venera 4, improved probes
Venera 5 and 6 were also sent the the planet in the 60's neither
surviving long enough to reach the surface. Mariner 5 also performed a
fly-by and data was shared between Russian and American scientists.
During the 70's and 80's many more missions were sent to the planet
with Venera 7 being the first probe to send data from the surface
(rather than just the atmosphere) of another planet. Venera 9 and 10
were the first missions to send back images of the surface of Venus.
These were the first images received from the surface of another planet.
Venera 11 and 12 both suffered lens cap release failures preventing
images from being returned.
Then Venera 13 analysing Luna soil samples and Venera 15 and 16
entering orbit to map the surface using radar. The Americans sent
Mariner 10 to photograph the planet in detail and the Pioneer Venus
project sent an Orbiters and 4 atmospheric probes to the surface. In the
90's NASA's Magellan Spacecraft orbited the planet from 1990 to 1994 before deliberately crashing into the planet.
Venus was last studied by Europe's Venus Express Spacecraft which orbited the planet from April 2006 until crashing into it some time in January, 2015.
Venus Express made many discoveries including:
1. There are unstable vortices in the atmosphere at the poles.
2. There appears to be ongoing volcanic activity beneath the clouds detected as heat sources and sulphur clouds.
3. Venus seems to be spinning slower (by 6.5 minutes a day) than
measured by the Magellan spacecraft giving rise to speculation on how
molten its core is.
4. Wind speeds in the upper atmosphere increased from 300kmph to 400kmph throughout the mission.
5. There is a very cold layer (-175 degrees C) 125km up in the
atmosphere that has much hotter layers above and below it. This layer
might contain frozen carbon dioxide snow.
The Messenger probe also made measurements during two fly-pasts in 2006/7 on its way to mercury.
Venus is currently being studied by the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki .
A rocket motor failure prevented Akatsuki from entering orbit in 2010
causing it to orbit the Sun for 5 years before being inserted into orbit
in December 2015 using its thrusters. Since May 2016 it has been
carrying out scientific studies of the Venusian atmosphere.
Among other observations, Akatsuki has discovered a bow wave in the
Venusian atmopshere which seems to be caused as the winds blow over the
Venusian continent called Aphrodite Terra, which reaches an altitude of
approximately 5 km
3. Earth and the Moon - HOME
The third closest planet to the Sun is Earth and is the largest and
densest of the inner planets. Earth orbits in a reasonably circular at
150 million km and is the first of the planets to have a moon. Earth is
of course the only place that we know of that has life.
Earth takes 365.25 Earth days to orbit the Sun and rotates once every
23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Because it rotates around the Sun
the length of a day on Earth (sunrise to sunrise) takes 24 hours.
The Earth has an axial tilt of 23.4 degrees and a diameter of 12742km.
The Earth is thought to be 4.54 billion years old and has been
accompanied by the Moon for most of that time. It is believed that the
Moon was formed when a large Mars sized body impacted the Earth causing
enough material to be ejected which eventually coalesced into the Moon.
The Moon has had the effect of stabilising Earth’s axial tilt and is
the source of the Earth’s ocean tides.
The Moon is 3,474km in diameter (27% that of Earth) and orbits at a
distance of between about 362,000 to 405,000 km. It has also been
affected by the gravitational pull of the Earth which has over time
caused the Moon's rotation to be slowed until it matches the time it
takes to orbit the Earth. This is why the same side of the Moon always
faces the Earth.
Earth is protected from solar radiation by a strong magnetic field
generated by movement of its core which is mainly comprised of molten
iron.
All this characteristics are responsible of LIFE on our planet .
The science is trying to find the same characteristics on other planets and as a challenge it is one of the most difficult tasks that the humanity has ever took ... Maybe one day it will surprise us !
LETS HOPE TO FIND LIFE !
LETS HOPE TO BE SAFE !
4. Mars
Mars is the fourth closest planet to the Sun and orbits in an fairly eccentric orbit at around 230 (+-20) million km.
Mars takes about 686 Earth days to orbit the Sun. It has a tilt (25.1
degrees) and rotational period (24 hour 37 minutes) which are both
similar to the Earth with a day (sunrise to sunrise) lasting 24 hours,
39 mins. Because of the tilt it also has seasons in the same way as the
Earth does.
Mars is about half the size of the Earth with a diameter of 6,792km.
However its mass is only a tenth of Earth’s with gravity on the surface
being around 37% that of Earth’s.
Because Mars no longer has a magnetic field to protect it, Mars has
lost its original atmosphere due to the effects of the solar wind
interacting with the atmosphere causing atoms to be lost into space.
Spacecraft have detected streams of atoms trailing off into space behind
Mars. As a result the atmospheric pressure on Mars is 1% that on Earth.
It is comprised of mostly (95%) carbon dioxide.
Mars is very cold. Not
only is it about 1.5 times further from the Sun than Earth, it also has a
thin atmosphere which cannot store much heat. Because of this the
temperature ranges from about -87 degrees C in winter up to a maximum of
-5 degrees C in summer.
Mars is very dusty and prone to huge dust storms which can envelop
the entire planet. These are more likely to occur when the planet is
closest to the Sun.
Evidence has been increasing that liquid water has sculpted the
landscape of Mars in the past and is probably flowing, or rather seeping
through the rocks during periods within salts called perchlorate salts.
The video below talks about the details of this discovery.
Mars is named after the Roman god of war and has been known since
before Babylonian times where it was associated with Nergul, a god of
war, fire and destruction - possibly inspired by its red colour.
Possibly because Mars has a more benign environment than that of any
of the other inner planets (other than Earth of course) it has received
quite a few robotic explorers.
The first successful fly-by of Mars was performed by Mariner 4 in
1965. Mariner 9 in 1971 became the first probe to orbit another planet
when it entered Mars orbit. Shortly after 2 Soviet probes Mars2 and
Mars3 became the first to successfully land on another planet - even
though they ceased functioning very shortly after. 1976 saw the US
Viking mission with two orbiters and two landers. The landers
successfully relayed images of the Mars surface and other measurements
and continued working for up to 6 years.
In 1988 the soviets sent 2 probes (phobos 1 and 2) to photograph and
land on the moons. One lost communications in transit and the other
successfully photographed the phobos but failed before deploying its
landers. Mars Global Surveyor entered the Mars orbit in 1997 and spent 4
years mapping Mars in detail. Also in 1997 Mars Pathfinder landed on
the surface with its robotic vehicle Sojourner which was able to wander
up to 0.5 km from the lander and took many photographs and measurements
from the rocks and soil. Another lander, Phoenix, landed in the polar
regions of Mars and confirmed the presence of water on Mars
Since the year 2000, many additional probes have reached Mars and now
provide detailed monitoring of the planets atmosphere and geography.
The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity landed in 2004 for their 90 day mission. They both exceeded their
mission objectives with Spirit eventually failing in March 2010 and
Opportunity is still performing (as of September 2016) and has exceeded
a marathon distance of over 42 kilometres travelled .
Mars is lucky enough to have 2 small moons - both discovered in August
1877 by Asaph Hall. Phobos is tiny - only about 22km across- orbiting
very close to Mars (9300km from its centre or 6000km above its surface)
every 7 hours. It can be described as a non symmetrical, heavily
cratered, dirty rock. Deimos however, is even smaller. It is only 12km
across and orbits at 23,000 km every 30 hours. The origins of the moons
are disputed but it is likely they are captured asteroids. However their
near perfect circular orbits which align with the planets equator could
point toward them originating on or with Mars
Mars is currently host to five functioning spacecraft: three in orbit – the Mars Odyssey , Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; and two on the surface – Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity. Defunct spacecraft on the surface include MER-A
Spirit and several other inert landers and rovers such as the
Phoenix lander, which completed its mission in 2008. Observations by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.
5. Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth closest planet to the Sun and is the first of
what are called the outer planets (being outside the asteroid belt). It
is by far the largest planet in the solar system having two and a half
times as much mass as all the other planets put together and one
thousandth the mass of the Sun. This is so large that the Sun and
Jupiter actually orbit each other about a point just outside of the Suns
surface.
Jupiter orbits the Sun once very 12 years (at about 780 million km)
and is comprised of gas (75% hydrogen and 24% helium) and is presumed to
have a rocky core surrounded by a sea of liquid metallic hydrogen which
forms a ball 110,000km in diameter. Jupiter’s total diameter is 142,984
km.
In the upper atmosphere is a cloud layer 50km thick. The clouds
are comprised of ammonia crystals and other compounds which are arranged
into bands moving at different speeds at different latitudes. The Great
Red Spot is a large stable storm vortex laying between two layers.
Considering its size, Jupiter rotates very quickly at one rotation at
just under once every 10 hours.
This means that at the equator there is
quite a large centrifugal force which means the planet has a pronounced
bulge - its diameter around the equator is 9000km greater than the
diameter measured at the poles.
Jupiter has many satellites (more than 60) but most of these are quite small (less than 10km
diameter). The four largest moons (named above) which were discovered by
Galileo Galilei in 1610 are named after the lovers of Zeus. These
moons are generally larger than the Earth’s moon with diameters ranging
from 3100km to 5200km. Three of the moons are locked together in an
orbital resonance in which for every orbit Ganymede takes, Europa takes
exactly two orbits and Io exactly four orbits.
The closest to Jupiter, Io, has over 400 volcano's and is incredibly
geologically active. This is thought to be due to Jupiter’s strong
gravitational field constantly squeezing the moon as it orbits which
warms the moons interior.
The next of the Galilean moons is Europa. Its surface is very smooth
and comprised of water ice, possibly floating on a sea of liquid water.
It's thought to have a rocky centre and has a thin oxygen atmosphere.
Because of the presence of water it is thought to be a good candidate
to find life outside of the Earth.
Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system and is larger
than the planet Mercury. It is also covered in ice but is less
geologically active with its surface marked by craters and ridges.
Callisto, the last of the Galilean moons is comprised of even
quantities of rock and ice and a thin atmosphere of carbon dioxide and
oxygen. It is possible it has liquid water buried 100km below its
surface.
Jupiter is named after the Roman king of the gods also known as Jove who was based on the Greek god Zeus.
Jupiter was first visited by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft in 1973
closely followed by Pioneer 11 in 1974. These spacecraft obtained the
first close-up images of Jupiter and its red spot and moons and also
measured Jupiter’s massive magnetic field. They are still traveling out
of the solar system, but have lost communications with Earth.
The next visitors were Voyager 1 and 2 in 1979 and discovered, among
other things, the faint Jovian ring system, several new natural
satellites, volcanic activity on Io.
The Ulysses spacecraft which was designed to study the Sun used
Jupiter’s gravitational field (1992) to swing it out of the plane of the
ecliptic to allow it to orbit over the Suns poles.
Galileo became the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter in 1995,
orbiting the planet for 7 years before being deliberately crashed into
the planet in order to ensure that it did not crash into, and
contaminate, Europa. During its mission it collected a huge amount of
data on the entire Jovian system and even witnessed the Shoemaker-Levy 9
comet impact in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere.
The Cassini probe flew past in 2000 and imaged Jupiter’s atmosphere revealing many unknown features.
The New Horizons probe flew past in 2007 on its way to Pluto and studied the Jovian moons, magnetic field and ring system.
NASA currently has a mission underway to study Jupiter in detail from a polar orbit. Named
Juno ,
the spacecraft launched in August 2011, arrived in July 2016 and will
orbit the planet until 2018 when it will be de-orbited into Jupiter. It
passes very close to Jupiter on each orbit and therefore has to survive
Jupiter's intense radiation belts.
The next planned mission to the Jovian system will be the European Space Agency's Jupiter Ice Moon Explorer (JUICE), due to launch in 2022.
6. Saturn
Saturn is the sixth closest planet to the Sun. It is the second
largest planet in the solar system having a radius 9 times that of Earth
(57,000 km) and a mass 95 times that of Earth.
Saturn orbits the Sun once very 29 years (at about 1400 million km)
and is mainly comprised of gas (96% hydrogen and 3% helium) and is
presumed to have a rocky core surrounded by a sea of liquid metallic
hydrogen which forms a ball some 56,000km in diameter. The upper layers
are thought to comprise of liquid water, ammonium hydrosulfide, hydrogen
and helium.
Saturn's core is quite hot (11,700 degrees C) and it generates more
heat than it receives from the Sun. The further from the planets centre,
the less the temperature with the temperature reaching around -180
degrees in the upper atmosphere, and 0 degrees C at around 350km deep. The cloud layers of Saturn are similar to those of Jupiter except
that the banding is weaker and wider.
Saturn also has a short lived but
periodical storm called the great white spot which seems to occur every
Saturnian year.
Saturn rotates at around 10 hours 39 minutes. The precise figure
(like that of all gas giants) is not certain since there are several
ways of measuring the rotation of a body which has no fixed visual
references.
Saturn's Rings - Saturn is of course best known for its ring system. These were first
seen by Galileo Galilei in 1610 who, quite understandably, was confused
by them and thought Saturn was being accompanied by two other planets
which sat either side of it. In 1655 Christian Huygens using an improved
telescope was able to see enough detail to suggest that there was a
ring around Saturn.
The rings extend from 7000km to 120,000km above the surface of
Saturn. Incredibly, they are estimated at being between 1 km to 10
meters thick comprising of mainly ice particles ranging in size from
dust to boulders a few meters across. The gaps in the rings are caused
by the gravitational effects of Saturn's moons, and also by larger
"moonlets" which inhabit the rings causing particles to be nudged into
banded orbits. Recent observations have discovered that there are some
distortions in the rings causing particles to rise some 4km out of the
normal ring plane due to the tilted orbit of certain moons. The rings
are thought to be either the remnants of a moon destroyed in orbit or
simply by material left over by the formation of the solar system.
Moons : Titan... and the others - Saturn has 62 moons with only seven being large enough to become spherical in shape. By far
the largest of all of Saturn's moons is Titan which is larger than the
planet Mercury, and the second largest moon in the solar system
(Jupiter’s Ganymede being the largest). Titan is 5,150 km in diameter
and has a dense atmosphere of nitrogen with traces of methane. It has
large lakes of liquid methane/ethane on its surface and may have a
subsurface ocean of liquid water which occasionally erupts to the
surface.
The next largest moon to Titan is Rhea which has a diameter of
1,530km (30% Titans diameter). It is an icy body (75% ice, 25% rock)
with a heavily cratered surface. The other moons of Saturn tend to have
similar characteristics being comprised mainly of ice and rock and all
being heavily cratered. Two notable moons include Mimas which shows an
impact crater with a radius 1/3rd that of the moon, Iapetus which has
remarkable colouring with one side being black as soot and the other as
white as snow. This colouring is thought to be the result particles
being kicked up from impacts on the moon Phoebe which lay in Iapetus's
orbit. As Iapetus passed through these particles they were deposited on
Iapetus's leading hemisphere causing it to darken.
Saturn is named after the Roman gods Saturnus (equivalent to the
Greek god Cronus) which was the god of agricultural and harvest.
Saturn was first visited by the Pioneer 11 spacecraft in 1979 which
discovered among other things additional rings in the ring system, and
the moon Epimetheus which it almost (within 4000km) collided with.
The Voyager probes were the next to study Saturn with Voyager 1
taking the first high resolution images of Saturn, its rings and moons
in 1980. Voyager 2 took more images in 1981 but a failure in its camera
pointing ability resulted in losing some expected imagery.
In 2004 the Cassini Spacecraft
became the first probe to enter into orbit around Saturn releasing the
Huygens probe which entered Titans atmosphere early in January 2005. The
Huygens probe successfully landed on the surface of Titan sending back
images and data during its descent and from the surface. Cassini has
made many fly-pasts of Saturn's moons and ring systems making many new
discoveries including new rings and weather systems. The Cassini
spacecraft is intended to continue to study the Saturnian system until
2017 when it will be deliberately crashed into Saturn.
7. Uranus
Uranus is the seventh closest planet to the Sun and the third largest
and fourth heaviest of the planets. It diameter (50,000km) is four
times that of Earth with a mass over 14 times that of Earth.
Uranus orbits the Sun once very 84 years (at about 2900 million km)
but is unusual in that it spins on its side (with an axial tilt of 97
degrees). This means that its moons and also its faint ring system also
orbit in plane perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic.
It is believed to be comprised of a small rocky core surrounded by a
deep mantle of water, ammonia and methane. This is in turn surrounded by
an atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane with an upper cloud
layer. Another oddity in Uranus is the fact that it is very cold. All
the other gas giant planets emit more heat radiation than they receive
due to very hot cores, but Uranus does not. A temperature of -224
degrees C has been measured in Uranus' atmosphere - the coldest in the
solar system.
Uranus Rings - Uranus has the second most extensive ring system of the solar system
after Saturn. The rings, which are very difficult to see from ground
based observations, were first discovered in 1977 by measuring the
intensity of a star as Uranus and its rings passed in front of it. There
are 13 known rings with radii of 38,000km to 98,000km. They are
comprised of ice and some darker material which results in them being
much darker than the rings of Saturn.
Uranus has 27 known moons
with sizes ranging from over 1500 km diameter down to under 20km. The
moons consist of ice, rock and other trace elements. Some of the inner
moons undergo gravitation interactions with each other which may in many
millions of years lead to instabilities and collisions.
Uranus, under clear dark skies, is actually visible to the naked eye.
However it is very dim and its 84 year periodicity means that it moves
slowly across the sky. However it is interesting that it was not
noticed by the ancients and was only observed for the first time by Sir
William Herschel in 1781 using a telescope. It was initially named
Georgium Sidus
(George's Star) by Herschel after King George III. However this
unpopular name was eventually discarded and it was renamed Uranus
after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus is the only planet to be named
after a Greek god, rather than a Roman deity.
To date Uranus has been visited only once - by the Voyager 2
spacecraft. The fly-by occurred in 1986 and resulted in the discovery of
10 new moons and 2 rings. It also measured the chemical composition of
the atmosphere and photographed the planet and its moons. This data is
still being studied and In 2016 researchers claimed to have discovered
evidence for two new moons which may be causing disturbances in its
inner most rings.
A "Uranus Orbiter and Probe" mission is in the study stages.
8. Neptune
Neptune is the eighth closest planet to the Sun and is (since the
relegation of Pluto) the last Planet in the Solar System. It is similar
in size and composition to Uranus with a diameter of 49,000km and a
mass of over 17 times that of Earth.
Uranus orbits the Sun once very 165 years at about 4500 million km.
This is 30 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth which means that
the strength of sunlight at Neptune is 1% of its strength at Earth.
Neptune spins on an axis with a tilt of 28 degrees, which is quite
similar to that of the Earth, every 16 hours.
Unlike Uranus' almost completely bland cloud layer, Neptune's weather
systems are more pronounced with great dark spot storm systems being
seen in the southern and northern hemispheres and other visible banding.
Wind speeds of up to 600m/s have also been observed. Due to its great
distance from the Sun, it is not surprising that the planet is one of
the coldest with temperatures of -220 degrees C in the upper atmosphere.
The core is thought to be at around 5200 degrees C.
Neptune has extraordinary weather and is the most windy planet in
our solar system. Logically speaking planets further away from the Sun
must have weaker winds, because wind is driven by the Sun's energy and
planets that receive less sunlight should have weaker winds. However,
Neptune has extremely strong winds, which can reach speeds of about
2,000 kilometers per hour.
Neptune's Rings - Neptune has a ring system comprised of three main rings with radii
between 63,000 km and 42,000km which appear to have a clumpy structure
in which they form arcs rather than complete rings. It is believed that
gravitational effects from Neptune's moons may cause the clumping.
Moons Triton - Uranus has 13 known moons
of which Triton (2700km diameter) is the most significant. The next
largest moon, Proteus, is only 420km in diameter. Triton is the only
large moon to orbit in retrograde (e.g. in the opposite direction to
most orbits) and is thought to be a captured object rather than created
in orbit. It has a very thin atmosphere of Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide and
methane. Although it has a surface temperature of around -230 degrees
C, it is thought to be geologically active with cryovolcanism (low
temperature volcanoes) producing eruptions of water and ammonia which
freeze to form complex valleys and ridges.
Neptune is invisible to the naked eye and was unknown to the
ancients. It was first discovered when astronomers noticed anomalies in
the orbit of Uranus and suggested that an as yet undiscovered planet
could be the cause. In 1846 Neptune was observed near the position
predicted by Urbain Le Verrier. This was the first planet to be
discovered by mathematical prediction. Le Verrier proposed the name
Neptune (Roman god of the sea) for the planet since it was in keeping
with naming planets after Roman deities (other than Uranus which is
Greek).
To date Neptune (like Uranus) has been visited only once - again by
the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The fly-by occurred in 1989 and resulted in
many discoveries including Neptune's weather systems, rings and 6 more
moons. It also provided an accurate measurement of Neptune's mass which
allowed discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune to be solved.
There are currently no missions planned to visit Neptune, since the
Neptune Orbiter and Probe mission was dropped in favour of the Uranus
Orbiter and Probe mission.
9. Planet Nine
Planet Nine is a hypothetical large planet in the
far outer Solar System, the gravitational effects of which would explain
the improbable orbital configuration of a group of trans-Neptunian
objects (TNOs) that orbit mostly beyond the Kuiper belt.
In a 2014 letter to the journal
Nature, astronomers Chad
Trujillo and Scott S. Sheppard inferred the possible existence of a
massive trans-Neptunian planet from similarities in the orbits of the
distant trans-Neptunian objects Sedna and 2012 VP113. On 20 January
2016, researchers Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown at Caltech
explained how a massive outer planet would be the likeliest explanation
for the similarities in orbits of six distant objects, and they
proposed specific orbital parameters.
The predicted planet could be a super-Earth, with an estimated mass of
10 Earths (approximately 5,000 times the mass of Pluto), a diameter two
to four times that of Earth, and a highly elliptical orbit with an
orbital period of approximately 15,000 years.
This planet has not been discovered yet, and if it exists, it will be
hard to spot because it is far away and therefore will reflect very
little light and have a very low temperature. Although this theory has
gained some support over the years, there are still sceptics who offer
other theories to try to explain the observed features in the movements
of some trans-Neptunian objects.
Due to our research we have also found that Planet Nine (also called Nibiru) is considered as a threat to planet Earth . It is believed that Planet Nine will collapse with Planet Earth during its orbit around the Sun . Everything is yet to be confirmed !
Other
Our Solar System also contains so called "Dwarf Planets" !
This planets are :
1. Ceres
2. Pluto
3. Haumea
4. Makemake
5. Eris
These small planets even have moons around them , which is an interesting fact !
Below you will find some information about this small planets !
1. Ceres
Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun and lies between Mars
and Jupiter in the region of the asteroid belt. It is composed of rock
and ice and is 950 km (590 mi) in diameter. It is the largest object in
the asteroid belt and contains approximately a third of the total mass
of the asteroid belt.
Although classified as a dwarf planet, it is quite
small with a diameter less than a third that of the Moon, and a mass
of about 1.2% that of the Moon. It is thought to have a rocky core surrounded by a 100km crust of
water ice. Such a volume of ice would be more that the total volume of
fresh water on the Earth. A thin atmosphere of water vapour sublimating
from the ice is possible. The maximum temperature at the surface with
the sun overhead is estimated to be a balmy -38 degrees C.
Its orbit is over 4.5 years long and is inclined by 10 degrees to the
plane of the ecliptic. At its extremes it reaches 0.5 Au (e.g. the half
the distance as the Earth is from the sun) away from the ecliptic
plane.
It has no moons.
2. Pluto
Pluto is the second largest dwarf planet after Ceres, and is about
1/6 the mass of the Moon. It has an diameter of 2370km and is made of
rock and ice with a thin atmosphere of nitrogen, methane and carbon
monoxide. It has a temperature of around -230 degrees C.
Its 248 year elliptical orbit occasionally takes it inside the orbit
of Neptune. However the orbit remains stable because it orbits exactly 2
times for every 3 orbits of Neptune. The orbit is also inclined by 17
degrees to the plane of the ecliptic ensuring it remains distant from
Neptune.
Pluto is of course the most well known dwarf planet because of its
previous classification as the outermost planet of the solar system.
Rather like Ceres before it, it has suffered because of the number of
similar objects now discovered in the same region mean that it can no
longer be thought of as one of the major planets.
Pluto was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh on the 18th February 1930
after a long search for "Planet X" which was thought to exist due to
perturbations in the orbit of Neptune.
It was initially thought to be as large as Neptune but as better
observations became possible its estimated mass was constantly reduced
until , in the 1970s, it was found to weigh less that 1% that of the
Earth.
The name Pluto, after the god of the underworld, was proposed by
Venetia Burney, an eleven-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England, who
was interested in classical mythology. She suggested it in a
conversation with her grandfather Falconer Madan who passed the name to
astronomy professor Herbert Hall Turner, who cabled it to colleagues in
the United States. It was then chosen after a vote against other
candidate names.
Pluto was visited for the first time ever by the New Horizons
spacecraft which reached its closest approach on July 14, 2015.
Scientific observations of Pluto began 5 months before closest approach
and continued for a month after the encounter.
3. Haumea
Haumea is one of the stranger dwarf planets in that it does not
appear to be spherical. It has an extremely fast (for a planet)
rotation of once every 4 hours and this has pulled it into a ellipsoidal
shape - rather like a squashed rugby (or American football) ball,
spinning on its side. Strange - but apparently still in hydrostatic
equilibrium.
It orbits the sun once every 283 years and inhabits a similar area of
space in the Kuiper Belt as Pluto. Its orbit is inclined by 28 degrees
to the ecliptic meaning it spends most of its time a long way above or
below the ecliptic plane. It is thought to be comprised of rock with a
thin covering of crystalline ice which is as bright as snow.
However the
low temperature (-220 degrees C) and high radiation should mean that
the crystalline ice should have turned to a red coloured amorphous ice
over the last 10 million years or so meaning that Haumea's surface is
possible much newer than expected.
It has a mass equal to 6% that of the Moon.
Haumea has two moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka. These icy bodies have
diameters of about 350km and 170km and orbit Haumea every 49 and 18 days
respectively. Again the fact that they have crystalline ice means their
surfaces are possibly relatively new.
Haumea was discovered in 2004/5 with some doubt over who actually
gets the credit for it. A team at Caltech, USA and a team from the
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain both put in claims and
which are being contested. However it seems that the Caltech team got
the pleasure of naming it "Haumea" after the Hawain goddess of fertility
and childbirth.
Because the team discovered Haumea on the 28th December, the team
nicknamed it "Santa" and later the two moons "Rudolph" and "Blitzen".
However due to IAU guidelines that classical Kuiper belt objects be
named after mythological beings associated with creation, the Hawain
names were chosen (with Hi'iaka and Namaka being Haumea's children) for
the official names.
There have been no robotic missions to Haumea and none are currently underway.
4. Makemake
Makemake's orbit is similar to Haumea in that it resides in the
Kuiper Belt with a 29 degree inclination to the ecliptic and with a 320
year period orbit. It has a diameter of around 1430km and appears to be
reddish in colour. Like Pluto it has methane and possibly large amounts
of ethane and tholins at its surface, and is covered by a very thin
atmosphere at -240 degrees C. It's thought to be spherical with a
rotation of once every 8 hours.
Makemake has no (detected) moons which makes determining its mass difficult.
Makemake was discovered in 2005 by the same Caltech team who
discovered Hameua and Eris, all of which were announced at the same
time. Initially codenamed "Easter Bunny" since it was discovered near
Easter, it was officially named "Makemake", the creator of humanity and
god of fertility in the mythos of the Rapanui, the native people of
Easter Island. This name was chosen in part to preserve the object's
connection with Easter.
Just like Haumea, there have been no robotic missions to Makemake and none are currently underway.
5. Eris
Eris has an orbital period of 557 years and was at its furthest from
Sun in 1977 at 97 AU (e.g. 97 Earth orbit radius). It will come to its
closest point to the Sun at sometime around 2257 (38 AU). With an orbit
at almost 45 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic it travels over 30 AU
to the north and 50 AU to the south of the ecliptic. It is currently
(2014) around 30 AU from the ecliptic plane on the southern side but
getting closer.
Apart from long-period comets and space probes, Eris and its moon
are currently the most distant known objects in the Solar System. Eris
appears grey in colour and shows traces of methane in its atmosphere -
rather like Pluto. The surface temperature varies between -217 and -240
degrees Celsius and its diameter, at 2400km, is thought to be similar to
Pluto’s with a mass of around 1/5 that of the Moon.
A moon "Dysnomia" orbits Eris every 15 days. Because of the problems
with observing such a small object at such distances many details about
Dysnomia are vague. The diameter is thought to be somewhere between 150
and 650km.
Discovered by the same team as Haumea and Makemake in 2005, it was
initially nicknamed "Xena" after the warrior princess TV character - and
also because it began with X as in the fabled "Planet X". It was
eventually named after the Greek goddess Eris, a personification of
strife and discord.
The moon, Dysnomia, was named after the Greek
goddess of lawlessness who was Eris' daughter. Mike Brown (the team
leader) says he picked it for similarity to his wife's name, Diane. The
name also retains an oblique reference to Xena who was portrayed on TV
by Lucy Lawless.
As we have made a research , there are currently no missions planned to visit Eris.
CONCLUSION
According to these facts we may say that the Solar System has yet a lot of spots to reveal .
There are a lot of planets and objects to be found in our Solar System and the humans aim to reveal them one by one and step by step . Our technology is evolving and approaches has been made .
All the subject of the "Univers Science" is focused on finding additional forms of life , somewhere else . As we know there are a lot of questions and evidences that science should study and reveal .
Thousand , millions , billions of planets , stars , solar systems are out there in the Universe ... and they are waiting for us to visit them .
One thing is for sure ,
WE ARE NOT ALONE
THANK YOU FOR READING AND FOR YOUR TIME !
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Natural selection acts to
preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a
member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and
learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it
on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same
species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged)
members of the species.
Natural selection is the preservation of a
functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the
wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic
breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic
changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to
breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time.
Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over
time.
Natural selection acts to
preserve and accumulate minor advantageous genetic mutations. Suppose a
member of a species developed a functional advantage (it grew wings and
learned to fly). Its offspring would inherit that advantage and pass it
on to their offspring. The inferior (disadvantaged) members of the same
species would gradually die out, leaving only the superior (advantaged)
members of the species.
Natural selection is the preservation of a
functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the
wild. Natural selection is the naturalistic equivalent to domestic
breeding. Over the centuries, human breeders have produced dramatic
changes in domestic animal populations by selecting individuals to
breed. Breeders eliminate undesirable traits gradually over time.
Similarly, natural selection eliminates inferior species gradually over
time.
