Our Solar System
What is the Solar System?
 |
| The Solar System |
Birth of the Solar System
 |
| Depiction of our Infant Solar System |
The planets and the solar system were formed from a huge cloud of gases and dust particles left over when a massive star exploded as a supernova.
The gas drifted in space and it's thought that another supernova explosion nearby may have caused a pressure wave to pass through the cloud that caused clumping to occur. As the matter clumped together, gravity in that area got stronger which attracted more matter which in turn increased the gravitational pull. As more and more matter fell toward the high-density area, due to conservation of momentum it began to spin - rather like water going down a plug hole. The result was that as the gravity intensified, the spin became faster resulting in a flat disk of gas and dust surrounding a central high-density sphere of gas.
Gravity was also working within the disk of rotating gas and dust pulling matter together to form primitive planets within the gas disk.
Eventually, the temperature and pressures in the central sphere became so high that the atoms began fusing together (nuclear fusion) and the Sun ignited producing heat and light and also the solar wind - an out streaming of subatomic particles.
The heat of the Sun and the solar wind immediately began to have an effect on the huge cloud of gas and particles in the disk. Volatile substances such as water ice near the Sun would heat and sublimate into gas, and these and other gases such as hydrogen would be gently accelerated away from the Sun by the solar wind.
At the distance of Jupiter, the temperature the Sun was not high enough to cause the water ice to evaporate and so this meant that large quantities of solid material were available to build larger planets. These planets could, therefore, attract and keep hold of more of gas from the gas disk. This is one theory as to why the gas giants became so large, and why there is a divide in planet size between the small inner rocky planets and the outer gas giants.
As time continued, the workings of gravity and the solar wind eventually resulted in the solar system becoming as we know it today. A mostly empty space with eight surviving planets, five dwarf planets, a band of possibly millions of asteroids. All of this is thought to be surrounded by a cloud of icy comets - preserved remains of that early dust from which the solar system formed.
 |
| The Milky Way Galaxy |
The Planets of our Solar System
1. Mercury-
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. However, it is not the hottest planet in the solar system (which is Venus) because it has virtually no atmosphere which means the heat from the Sun cannot travel from the daylight side to the night time side. So the sunny side gets very hot (+430 degrees C) and the shaded side gets very cold (-180 degrees C). This is the wildest temperature range of any planet in the solar system. The average temperature is measured at about +167 degrees C.
2. Venus-
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun and orbits in an almost circular orbit at 108 million km. It is the hottest planet in the entire Solar System. 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.
3. Earth-
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.
4. Mars-
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is also often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide.
5. Jupiter-
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is the fifth planet out from the Sun. It is two and a half times more massive than all the other planets in the solar system combined. It is made primarily of gases and is therefore known as a "gas giant".
6. Saturn-
Best known for its fabulous ring system, Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in our solar system. Like Jupiter, Saturn is a gas giant and is composed of similar gasses including hydrogen, helium, and methane.
7. Uranus-
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It’s not visible to the naked eye and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. Uranus is tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It’s not visible to the naked eye and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. Uranus is tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees.
8. Neptune-
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, making it the most distant in the solar system. This gas giant may have formed much closer to the Sun in the early solar system history before migrating out to its current position.
I would also like to give a special mention to the former planet Pluto which was previously the 9th planet from the Sun. In August 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded the status of Pluto to that of “dwarf planet” bringing the planet count of the Solar System from 9 down to 8.
I hope this post has brushed up your memories of school when we studied solar system for the first time and might have got you you excited to get a deeper knowledge about space. I will try to post more about other heavenly bodies in the coming days.
That's it for now. Stay Safe. Stay Healthy.
Comments
Post a Comment