Solar System
Formation of Our Solar System
Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Law of Orbit
Law of Area
Law of Period
Family Members of Solar System
Planets
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Order of Planets
According to distance from the Sun
According to distance from the Earth
According to size of Planets
Dwarf Planets
Asteroids
Meteors
Comets
Importance Of Jupiter
"In the vastness of space and immensity of time, it is my joy to share a planet and an epoch with Annie."
Solar System
Our Solar System is a system of Sun, planets & their moons, asteroids, comets in which the Sun is the center and all other objects of the solar system revolve around it. The Sun influences all the objects of its system. All the other objects seem to revolve around the Sun because the Sun bends or curves the space more than any other object in his system. It is because it has 99.97% mass of its system.
In our solar system, there is only one star i.e Sun, around which all objects revolve. But there are infinitely many such systems in our Universe where these types of systems exist.
Formation of Our Solar System
Our Solar System was formed from the gas and dust of a huge nebula that was the remains of a star after its supernova explosion. The first member of our solar system is our Sun, who is the king of the Solar System.
After millions of years when the accretion disk formed, the formation of small rocks and planets takes place and starts the building blocks that will lead them as our present solar system is.
Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion
Kepler, one of the greatest scientists and astronomers, described "how planets revolve around its Star.” Kepler gave 3 laws that define planetary motion.
Law of Orbits
According to this law, all the planets revolve around the sun on an elliptical path and the sun is situated at one of the two foci.
Law of Area
According to this law, the line joining the sun and the planet sweeps equal areas in equal time intervals.
OR
The areal velocity of a planet remains constant, it means that the planet moves faster when it is closer to the sun and moves slower when it is farther from the sun.
Law of Periods
According to this law, the square of the time period of a planet's revolution around the Sun is directly proportional to the cube of the mean distance between the sun and the planet.
Family Members of Solar System
- Planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune).
- Dwarf Planets (Pluto, Cheron, Ceres, Xena).
- Asteroids.
- Meteors.
- Comets.
There are many other minor celestial bodies that are not included in the above list.
Planets
Planets are those celestial bodies that revolve around the Sun or any other star. Planets can be said to be of two types i.e. Rocky planets and Gas Giant planets.
The International Astronomical Union has set the following rules for planets.
- It should have a very huge mass.
- It should revolve around the sun.
- It should not interfere with the orbits of other planets.
These are the reasons why Pluto was discarded in the Prague Summit of 2006.
Satellites are those celestial objects that revolve around a Planet.
Mercury
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun. Due to which it is very hot and there is least or you can say no hope for the presence of water(H2O) on this planet.
- It rotates about its axis in 59 days.
- Revolution period: 88 dys and has the shortest year.
- Mercury has no satellites.
Venus
Venus is known as Earth's twin. It is also known as Morning or an Evening Star, since it can be seen early in the morning or in evening as per its position in different seasons. It is the 3rd brightest object in the sky, that can be seen with naked eye after sun and the moon, it is due to its high albedo effect (percentage reflection of light), which is about 70%. Venus is the hottest planet of our solar system due to the presence of GreenHouse Gas "CO2" in excess amounts (about 97%).
Venus is slightly smaller than Earth, about 500 km less in diameter. It is said that once there may be a lot of water on Venus but due to excessive heat of the sun and its smaller size leads to weaker gravity which can't take the water vapors back to surface. But scientists claim that there may still be a hidden possibility of life.
There are no satellites around Venus.
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the sun, also known as Blue Planet due to its blue colored clouds and oceans. It is the only planet in our solar system where life exists.
Shape of Earth: Oblate Spheroid.
Earth has a huge amount of water on its surface, about 70% of the earth's surface is covered by water.
Earth has only one natural satellite, 'moon'.
Scientists claim that according to radiometric dating and other evidence, the Earth was formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earth supports that rarest environment which is necessary and perfect for the blooming of life. That is why our Earth is so Special and Unique. And, as per me it is also true that we are not alone in this Universe....
Mars
It is the 4th and the farthest terrestrial planet from the Sun, also known as "Red Planet". Its rotation period is nearly the same as that of Earth i.e. 24.6 hrs. Its atmosphere contains mainly Carbon, Nitrogen and Argon.
Mars has two satellites named Phobos and Deimos.
There were several space missions done regarding research on Mars, these are Vikings, Pathfinder, Mars Odyssey, Mars Orbiter Mission.
Various Space missions have been sent to Mars and Mars is currently under observation. Martian Storms are regular on the whole planet, causing a lot of dust storms which can last for months and it is a big challenge for the rovers over there to manage themselves.
Jupiter
Jupiter is a gas giant and is the largest of all the planets. It is almost 11 times as compared to our Earth. Jupiter has a great Red Spot i.e a cyclone.
Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet of our solar system, i.e completes 1 rotation in just 10 hrs. But its revolution period is 12 years. Its atmosphere mostly contains hydrogen and helium.
As of current news, Jupiter has 79 satellites revolving around it.
NASA's Juno spacecraft was launched in the year 2011 but it arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.
Saturn
Saturn is the second largest gas giant planet after Jupiter. Its attractiveness is its rings that makes it different from other planets.
It is the least dense of all the planets. Compared to our Earth, it is 30 times less dense.
- Rotation period is 10.3 hrs.
- The Revolution period is 29 years.
- Satellites = 82.
Cassini Spacecraft field closely to the planet's ring.
Uranus
Uranus also has some faint rings. Uranus is 98 degrees tilted about its orbit.
- The Revolution period is 84 years.
- Rotation period is 10.8 years.
- Satellites = 27.
There is no spacecraft that visited Uranus. Only 'Voyager 2' has just passed by this planet in 1986.
Neptune
Neptune when seen through a telescope appears as a "Greenish Star" due to the presence of 'Methane' gas.
- The Revolution period is 165 years.
- Rotation period is 15.7 days.
- Satellites = 14.
The only that has reached Neptune was the 'Voyager 2' in 1989.
Both planets, Uranus and Neptune are known as Jovian Twins.
Order of Planets
According to distance from the Sun
- Mercury.
- Venus.
- Earth.
- Mars.
- Jupiter.
- Saturn.
- Uranus.
- Neptune.
According to distance from the Earth
- Venus.
- Mars.
- Mercury.
- Jupiter.
- Saturn.
- Uranus.
- Neptune.
According to size of planets
- Jupiter.
- Saturn.
- Uranus.
- Neptune.
- Earth.
- Venus.
- Mars.
- Mercury.
Dwarf Planets
Dwarf planets are those planets that have not enough mass or size or any other condition that is required to be a planet, but they are also not so small to be considered as an asteroid or any other small celestial body. This means that they are intermediate to those of planets and other small objects.
So a separate group is classified in which these types of celestial bodies are considered and it is named as the 'Dwarf Planet' group.
Dwarf Planets are also known by their other name as 'Plutones'. Some of the dwarf planets or plutones are Pluto, Ceres, Xena-2003 UB 313, Cheron.
Pluto was discarded as a planet in 2006, after the Prague summit. But NASA was not totally satisfied with this decision and in future it may again be welcomed as a Planet.
Asteroids
Asteroids are those deformed rocky, comparatively small celestial bodies that revolve around the Sun. Generally, they are found in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. This rocky debris has a strip of about 547 million kms.
According to the astronomers, Asteroids originate from the result of the explosion of a planet. So the asteroids are the parts of a planet that have passed away due to collision and explosion.
Meteors
Meteors are those bright objects that are seen in the night sky as a shooting star. Generally it is a small celestial body which mistakenly gets into our Earth's atmosphere and the friction due to the atmosphere raises the temperature of these objects and they start burning and glow up and it is being seen as a breaking star or shooting star.
Some of these celestial bodies are comparatively bigger and can't burn up totally in the sky. The small parts of these bodies reach the surface of Earth and then their name changes and rank increases as a "Meteorite".
But some may be very big and might be able to break the Earth's atmosphere and reach the surface of Earth while it is larger than the size of some big buildings. These types of phenomena are very dangerous and can cause a big disaster, even the extinction of mankind. Thankfully, there are some countries like the USA, who like to do research on them and always observe the near earth objects (NEO) that may potentially pose a threat to the earth.
Comets
Comets also revolve around the Sun. Comets are basically the objects that are cold and have a very long orbit. Since most of the time they are far from the sun, hence they are cold. They are basically made up of Ice, Methane, Ammonia, Carbon dioxide, etc.
As a comet comes closer to the sun, the heat of the Sun affects the matter on it and it starts melting, and the vaporized matter goes in the opposite direction of the Sun or movement of the comet, therefore appears as the tail of the comet that goes very long.
Halley's comet is a well known comet that appears again and again in a period of about 76 years. Last time it appeared in 1986 and in the near future it will be seen in the year 2062. So, be prepared and excited.
Importance of Jupiter
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system and it is a gas giant. It has prevented our Earth many times from the asteroid attacks, when asteroids were coming towards the inner solar system and they are always a threat for Earth, Jupiter's huge gravity changes the direction of those asteroids.
Jupiter is saving our Earth from the attacking asteroids from millions and billions of years. So, it means that for the origin of life on Earth, Jupiter also plays an important role because if continuous asteroid showers had happened in the past the pre-conditions for the existence of life would not have met and life would not have originated on Earth.
We are not alone in the Universe.
There is another world in our Universe, where living creatures would be present. Don't know what their appearance is, maybe like us or anything else, but they surely exist because we are not the only ones who are living on Earth in this entire Universe.
Do remember this one line, that has been proved several times that 'what we call impossible, is not always'.
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