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planets on the solar system
chapter 11 the solar system
planets on the solar system
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Within Our Solar System there is a Sun, and the eight planets that orbit the Sun. The eight planets are categorized into two groups known as Terrestrial planets, and Jovian planets. There are four terrestrial planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars. These Terrestrial planets are located the closest to the Sun. The word terrestrial is derived from the Latin word terra, meaning ground or Earth like. All Terrestrial planets share a common rocky and solid surface. The other four planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are Jovian planets. Jovian planets are gas giants made of cool elements, such as hydrogen and helium, with rocky cores. Knowing about the eight planets and the Sun in our solar system can help us learn and understand other parts of the Universe in a richer and deeper depth, which can also help us discover new physics laws, and other life.
The first terrestrial planet is Mercury, which is the closest planet to the Sun, and the smallest out of all eight planets in our solar system. Mercury orbits at an average distance of 57,910,000 km or 0.38 astronomical units (AU) from Sun, with a diameter 4,880 km. Also, Mercury has a surface temperature of a high of 840° Fahrenheit (450° Celsius) to a low of -275° Fahrenheit (-170° Celsius). Mercury is also a dense planet, which is composed mostly of iron and nickel with an iron core. In many ways Mercury is similar in looks with Earth’s Moon, since it has many deep craters, no plate tectonics, and is covered by a thin layer of tiny particle silicates. Mercury got its name from the Roman god Mercury, who was regarded to be the speedy messenger between the gods, because the planet seemed to move so quickly in the sky (Mercury).
The next terrestrial planet is ...
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"Uranus: Read More." Solar System Exploration. Nasa, 2013. Web. 02 May 2014. .
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cosmos, the center of everything- the nugget of dense sap, branching vines, the dark burred
Have you ever looked up into the night skies and wondered what might be out there? One question I always wonder is where in the universe might there be a livable planet? Well the answer might be closer than you think, well actually 588 million kilometers away from earth. Jupiter of course is what I’m talking about. Fell first let’s ask the why we might move. Let’s face it earth is not going to be able to be habitable forever in fact ate the rate humans are polluting the atmosphere earth won’t be around that much longer. So might need a new place to live. So could the answer be Jupiter? Before that we need to know a little about the new planet and if it’s able to sustain life. Let’s start with the Jupiter’s history. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter was named after the king of the gods and Roman mythology. The ancient Greeks named the planet after Zeus, the king of the Greek pantheon. In 1610, a man that goes by the name “Galileo Galilei” was looking through his homemade telescope when he came across Jupiter. He notice four objects circling Jupiter and described them as "four fixed stars, totally invisible by their smallness" it was there were he discovered four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, which underwent several name change but are now known as the Galilean moons. This was the first time celestial bodies were seen circling an object other then Earth. Jupiter spins faster than any other planet, taking 10 hours to complete a turn on its axis, compared to that of 24 hours for Earth. This rapid spin makes Jupiter bulge at the equator and flatten at the poles, making the planet about 7 percent wider at the equator than at the poles. This is Jupiter and this is Jupiter next to the earth. Jup...
Within our Solar System lies an abundance of planets, each with their own unique characteristics, including the Terrestrial planets of Venus, Earth, and Mars who vary in many aspects but, most importantly, their atmosphere.
Mercury is in many ways similar to the Moon: its surface is heavily cratered and very old; it has no plate tectonics. On the other hand, Mercury is much denser than the Moon (5.43 gm/cm3 vs 3.34). Mercury is the second densest major body in the solar system, after Earth. Actually Earth's density is due in part to gravitational compression; if not for this, Mercury would be denser than Earth. Mercury has a total area of 75 000 000 square kilometers and is the closest planet to the sun in the solor system. This indicates that Mercury's dense iron core is relatively larger than Earth's, probably comprising the majority of the planet. Mercury therefore has only a relatively thin silicate mantle and crust.
Pluto is small compared to the other planets. Pluto is about half the size of the next smallest planet, Mercury. However, there is no scientific reason whatsoever to pick the size of Mercury as being the size of the smallest object to be called a planet. Mercury itself is less than half the size of Mars, and Mars is only about half the size of Earth or Venus. Earth and Venus are only about one-seventh the size of Jupiter.
The gas giants are a collection of planets in our solar system. As can be told from their name, they are mostly composed of differing mixtures of gases and ices. The gas and ice composition in question varies among the different planets. This mix of gases gives much of the planets an extremely thick atmosphere. At the very center of a gas giant is a core of liquid heavy metals. The gas giants are also called Jovian planets, taken from the largest planet in our solar system: Jupiter. Due to the fact the the majority of a gas giant planet is gas, the planet isn’t very dense and therefore, very large as a result. In fact, all of the gas giants are vastly larger than all of the terrestrial planets. Another common factor of the gas giants are their large amount of moons. The terrestrial planet, Mars, has the largest amount of moons, 2. The amount of moons of Mars is dwarfed in comparison to Saturn’s and Jupiter’s moo...
2,870,990,000 km (19.218 AU) from the Sun, Uranus hangs on the wall of space as a mysterious blue green planet. With a mass of 8.683e25 kg and a diameter of 51,118 km at the equator, Uranus is the third largest planet in our solar system. It has been described as a planet that was slugged a few billion years ago by a large onrushing object, knocked down (never to get up), and now proceeds to roll around an 84-year orbit on its belly. As the strangest of the Jovian planets, the description is accurate. Uranus has a 17 hour and 14 minute day and takes 84 years to make its way about the sun with an axis tilted at around 90° with retrograde rotation. Stranger still is the fact that Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic, hence the expression "on its belly".
Our sun is the central pivot point to which or entire planet and solar system is built around. With out it all life on our planet would cease to exist. Within this paper we will explore how our Sun and solar system formed and came to resemble what we see today.
Pluto is located 7.5 billion kilometers from Earth and is only over 2,000 km in diameter. Pluto has been labeled both a planet and a dwarf planet over the years. As said by USA Today, “a planet is a celestial body that: is in orbit around the sun, is round or nearly round, and has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit, meaning it is not surrounded by objects of similar size and characteristics.” Pluto only follows two of the three rules of a planet. Pluto crosses over Neptune’s orbit and is near other dwarf planets like it. Even though it breaks one rule it was officially named a dwarf planet in “August 2006”, as stated by the Library of Congress. After this event Pluto still only has one correct classification. Pluto is a planet because
Venus, the second planet closest to the Sun and Earth’s closest neighbor, is known for its many wonders and harsh conditions. Venus is possibly the first planet discovered by humans and is said to have been first discovered in 17 B.C. by Babylonian astronomers. Venus is the first planet to be explored by spacecraft although many of these attempts have proven unsuccessful. Fortunately, more than twenty of the spacecraft explorations been proven successful, and through those we have gained knowledge about this wonder of the night sky.
The moon is the only natural satellite of Earth. The moon orbits the Earth from 384,400 km and has an average speed of 3700 km per hour. It has a diameter of 3476 km, which is about ¼ that of the Earth and has a mass of 7.35e22 kg. The moon is the second brightest object in the sky after the sun.
Haas, Cliff. “Where has the night sky gone, and why should we care?”(Apr. 2000): 282
Our solar system has eight planets, their moons and satellites, and they are all orbiting the Sun. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto used to be the ninth planet but IAU changed the definition of planet and Pluto did not meet the standards so it is now a Dwarf planet.
The fourth planet from the sun is Mars. “Mars is named after a mythological figure-the Roman God of War. Due to Mars color it is also known as the red planet. Mercury is the tiniest planet then Mars. Scientist have found that mars has the largest mountain compared to the other planets. Furthermore, this mountain is named Olympus Mons, it is a shield volcano, it is 21 km high and 600 km in diameter. Scientist have discovered recent lava on the planet, therefore the volcano may still be active.