The Planets in our Solar System
Sun:
The sun is which all the planets
orbit round it. It is 1 of several billion stars in our galaxy.
Without the heat and light from the sun Earth may to have been a dead planet.The
sun is 4 billion years old and is growing bigger. Astrophysicist
have taken estimates that in several more billion years the sun will die
out and no longer give out light.
Mercury:
The closest planet to the sun.
This is like the Earth's moon in nearly everyway but it has a hot molten
surface which if it did have an atmosphere it still would have been unbearable
to live.
Venus:
2nd Closest to the sun. This
does have a similar atmosphere to the earth but due to the greenhouse effect
it traps all the heat in. This has been going on for several million
years and now has made Venus even hotter than Mercury.
Scientists say that if a space
probe is sent here it will most likely to melt.
Earth:
The 3rd planet in the solar system.
It has a single moon orbiting the Earth. This planet is similar in size
and mass of Venus. It is the only inhabitable planet for humans in
this solar system. It has been said that the greenhouse effect that
Venus has can also occur here if heat starts to get trapped here (over
several million years).
Mars:
The 4th planet. It has a
slightly similar mass to the Earth. But this is a desert barron planet
where life was once thought to have existed. No life can exist now
because the atmosphere does not have any oxygen and water, but it might
have had this once. Several space probes have been sent to this planet
since the 1970's there objective to find out more about this planet and
whether there are any martians living on this planet. A face was
found on the land of this planet by the voyager space probe but that was
its biggest mystery.
Jupiter:
The biggest gas giant in the Earth's
solar system. It is said to to be 314 times the size of the Earth
and if all the other 8 planets joint up together would still not
be sufficient enough to be bigger or equivalent size to sthe size of jupiter.
The great red spot on Jupiter is a 300 year old twister and the 2 times
the size of the Earth. There are several other smaller twisters which
have been noticed but the great red spot is one of its most famous features.
Saturn:
Saturn is the 5th planet closest
to the sun an the second largest planet. Saturn is also a gaseous
giant and similar to Jupiter although it may not have the same size and
mass. It still has all the similar features as Jupiter but without
the famous spot. Instead it has a ring round. It's giant ring
which is orbiting it has theorised that the ring was once one of Saturn's
satelites (moons) which collided with another moon or a giant meteor/comet
and after several many years when it settled down started to orbit Saturn.
This may have happened many millions of years ago.
Uranus:
Uranus is the 6th planet and the
3rd largest planet of the three gaseous giants that orbit our solar system.
Voyager 2 space probe is the only probe to come across this gaseous giant
and found two things of interest of which one was puzzling. It did
have winds like the other two giants but they were faint. And also
that its north and south pole were tilted about where our equator would
have been. Meaning that there was more sunlight going to its north
and south pole than anywhere else.
Neptune:
Nepune is the 4th largest planet,
another gaseous giant and the 8th closest planet to the sun. It has
several small rings which, are very faint orbiting it. It's winds
are even faster than those of Jupiter and Saturn with wind speeds of up
to 700 mph. For a brief time voyager 1 sent pictures back to Earth,
showing a twister half the size of that of the great red spot on Jupiter.
The planet has an eternal heat source which radiates more than twice as
much energy as it receives form the Sun.
Pluto:
The 9th and the furthest
planet from the sun. It is also the smallest planet, even smaller
than the Earth's moon. Pluto has not had any space probes travelling
to it and all the data that has been received is by the hubble space telescope.
There is a theory that this is a barron ice planet and therefore below
that ice there maybe be some life but no one knows this. For several
years the orbit of Pluto comes into the orbit of Neptune and therefore
becomes the 8th closest planet and Neptune the distant.
For more information on each of these planets click on the sub title.