SOLAR SYSTEM

The solar system is made up of the sun and its family of heavenly bodies. The sun is the central and the largest member of the solar system. The other members revolve around the sun. These other members are the nine planets, asteroids and comets. The nine planets are the Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Each planet controls the orbit of its own satellites by its own mass, through the suns great pull changes these orbits slightly. The gravity of the sun works to pull the planet toward the sun. The gravity of the sun keeps the planet from leaving the solar system. Centrifugal force keeps the planet from being pulled into the sun. The interaction of these two forces keeps the planets in their orbits. They have followed the same paths for millions of years and will continue to follow them for many more. The nine planets can be grouped into two classes. The four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) and the outer most planets (Pluto) are called terrestrial or earthlike planets. The other planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are in the other class, the gas giant. The terrestrial are relatively small and solid. The gas giant are truly gigantic, they may have solid cores but they are surrounded by very deep atmospheres of gases mostly unlike mans air. The orbits of the planet are not perfectly circular. They are elliptical. The planets move at the different speeds. Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, makes the shortest trip and travels fastest. Pluto takes the longest time to complete the journey around the sun. The distance from the sun influences the speed at which a planet moves. There is fairly regular scheme of gaps between the orbits of the planets. A German astronomer figured out and noticed that there was a planet missing between Mars and Jupiter. In the area, there should have been a planet, thousands of tiny bodies have been discovered. These asteroids or tiny planets orbit around the sun. They are large rock and smaller pebble-like particles called meteorites / meteors. The SUN

The sun is a star like most of the little pinpoints of light that are seen at night. The Sun is a member of a large group of stars called a galaxy. There are 10 billion stars in the pancake-shaped milky way , mans galaxy. The sun is situated on one of the arms of this spiral galaxy, about halfway between the edge of the galaxy and the center.

MERCURY

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the smallest planet. It is the second smallest planet (believed to be the smallest until the discovery that Pluto is actually much smaller than originally thought), and also the fastest in its orbit since it is the innermost planet. In fact, the name Mercury derives from its speed in moving around its orbit.

Mercury is similar to the Moon. Mercurys surface is heavily cratered and very old. It has no plate tectonics. On the other hand, Mercury is much denser than the Moon. Mercury is the second densest major body in the solar system, after Earth. Mercury has only a relatively thin silicate mantle and crust. Mercury has a very thin atmosphere consisting of atoms blasted off its surface by the solar wind. Because Mercury is so hot, these atoms quickly escape into space. Thus in contrast to the Earth and Venus whose atmospheres are stable, Mercurys atmosphere is constantly being replenished.

VENUS Venus is the second planet from the sun and the sixth largest planet. Venus is close in size to Earth, and like Earth, has a thick silicate mantle around an iron core, a substantial atmosphere and evidence of internal geological activity. It is much drier than Earth and its atmosphere is ninety times as dense. It has no natural satellites. Venus is the hottest planet due to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. No definitive evidence of current geological activity has been detected on Venus, but it has no magnetic field that would prevent depletion of its substantial atmosphere, which suggests that its atmosphere is regularly replenished by volcanic eruptions.

EARTH

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, it is the largest of the inner planets and the only planet known to support life and to have liquid water at the surface. Earths outer surface is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic plates, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of the surface is covered with saltwater oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water, necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planets surface. Earths interior remains active, with a thick layer of relatively solid mantle, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron inner core. Earth interacts with other objects in outer space, including the Sun and the Moon. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26 times it rotates about its axis. This length of time is a sidereal year, which is equal to 365.26 solar days. The Earths axis of rotation is tilted 23.4 away from the perpendicular to its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solar days). Earths only known natural satellite, the Moon, which began orbiting it about 4.53 billion years ago, provides ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt and gradually slows the planets rotation. A cometary bombardment during the early history of the planet played a role in the formation of the oceans. Later, asteroid impacts caused significant changes to the surface environment.

MARS

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is commonly referred to as the Red Planet.

Mars atmosphere is different from Earth atmosphere. It is composed of carbon dioxide with small amounts of other gases. Mars was considered the best candidate for harboring extraterrestrial life. Astronomers thought they saw straight lines crisscrossing its surface. This led to the popular belief that irrigation canals on the planet had been constructed by intelligent beings. And people believed in the tale of invading Martians to cause a near panic. Another reason for scientists to expect life on Mars had to do with the apparent seasonal color changes on the planets surface. This phenomenon led to speculation that conditions might support a bloom of Martian vegetation during the warmer months and cause plant life to become dormant during colder periods. Mars has no evidence of artificial canals or flowing water, all was a surface that contains craters and natural channels. In 1976, the three biology experiments aboard the landers discovered unexpected chemical activity in the soil of Mars, but there was no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms in the soil near the landing sites. Mars is self-sterilizing. They believe the combination of solar ultraviolet radiation that saturates the surface, the extreme dryness of the soil and the oxidizing nature of the soilchemistry prevent the formation of living organisms in the soil of Mars. The question of life on Mars at some time in the distant past remains open.

JUPITER

Jupiter is he fifth planet from the sun, the largest planet and most massive in the solar system, its period of revolution about the sun of 11.86 years at a mean distance of 778 million kilometers, a mean diameter of approximately 142,000 kilometers, and a mass approximately 318 times that of Earth. Jupiter is a gas giant made up of hydrogen and helium. It turns on its axis faster than any other planet in the solar system, taking less than ten hours to complete one rotation; this rapid rotation draws its atmospheric clouds into distinct belts parallel to its equator. Jupiter has a simple ring system that is composed of an inner halo, a main ring and a Gossamer ring. Those rings are very tenuous and are composed of dust particles kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids. Jupiter has 63 known satellites (as of Feb 2004): the four large Galilean moons plus many more small ones some of which have not yet been named. Jupiter is very gradually slowing down due to the tidal drag produced by the Galilean satellites. Also, the same tidal forces are changing the orbits of the moons, very slowly forcing them farther from Jupiter.

SATURN

Saturn is the most distant of the bright planets as seen from the Earth. It is sixth planet from the Sun, it is one of the four giant planets and the second-largest of all known planet in our solar system, after Jupiter. Saturn can be seen with the naked eye, but it looks like only a tiny yellow speck. Through a telescope, Saturn can be seen to be a multi-colored globe thicker through its center than it is through the poles. Astronomers believed that Saturns ring are actually millions and millions of tiny satellites. Particles of dust or powder and small pebbles or rocks are probably orbiting around the planet.

Saturn hosts an extensive atmosphere composed primarily of Hydrogen and Helium. Its volume is 755 times greater than that of Earth. Winds in the upper atmosphere reach 500 meters per second in the equatorial region. These super-fast winds, combined with heat rising from within the planets interior, cause the yellow and gold bands visible in the atmosphere. Saturns ring system is the most extensive and complex in the solar system, extending hundreds of thousands of kilometers from the planet. Saturns rings are made mostly of water ice, and they found braided rings, ringlets, and spokes dark features in the rings that circle the planet at different rates from that of the surrounding ring material. Two of Saturns small moons orbit within gaps in the main rings. Saturn has 52 known natural satellites (moons) and there are probably many more waiting to be discovered. Titan is Saturns largest satellite, it is a bit bigger than the planet Mercury.

URANUS

Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, it is the third largest in the solar system. Its spin axis almost in the plane of its orbit about the Sun. This produces unusual seasons and also causes unique magnetic and electric field structures. The magnetic fields of Uranus are very irregular. Its magnetic field is about 48 times more powerful than Earths magnetic field. Uranus is tipped on its side and experiences seasons that last over 20 years, the temperature differences on the summer and winter sides do not differ greatly because the planet is so far from the Sun. Uranus has a faint ring system and 27 known moons. The high cliffs and winding valleys of the moon indicates partial melting of the interior, with icy material occasionally drifting to the surface.

NEPTUNE Neptune is the outermost planet of the gas giants and the eighth planet from the Sun. Neptune orbits the Sun once every 165 years. It is invisible to the naked eye because of its extreme distance from Earth. Neptune is actually the farthest planet from the Sun for a 20-year period out of every 248 Earth years. The main axis of Neptunes magnetic field is tipped over by about 47 degrees compared with the planets rotation axis. It is about 27 times more powerful than that of Earth. Neptunes atmosphere extends to great depths, gradually merging into water and other melted ices over a heavier. Neptunes blue color is the result of methane in the atmosphere. Neptune has six rings and 13 moons.