The Solar System isn't that hard to understand. Scientists seem to always be "changing" things, but what actually is happening is that we are getting more and more information from satellites we sent out years ago, some nearly 50 years ago, and advances in telescopes and computers, and so on are helping discover more things and fix gaps in our understandings of our solar system! So lets take walk across our solar system as we understand it today.
Our solar system is everything held in place within our suns gravitational pole. So we'll start at the center and make our way to the outside part of the solar system to give you the full picture.
The Sun: Is a star (a giant fusion ball of gas and dust that releases both heat and light). Our star, aka the Sun, is a young small star compared to what we know of.
Now we will talk about the objects within the Suns pull, aka our Solar System, which will include the following: 8 planets (and their moons), 5 Dwarf Planets (and their moons), The Asteroid Belt, The Kuiper Belt, and countless comets and debris.
Planet Mercury: Closest planet to the sun, smallest major planet, greatest temperature variations due to lack of atmosphere ( +800 degrees F on day side, -250 degrees F on night side). Zero Moons
Planet Venus: 2nd planet from sun, very thick atmosphere and distance from Sun make Venus the hottest planet in our solar system, with temperatures reaching over 850 degrees F; that along with the high density of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere make it nearly impossible to probe the planet. Only Planet to have a longer day than year!!! A day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth Days while a Venus year is equal to 224 Earth Days. Zero Moons
Planet Earth: we are the most unique in the most ways including, advanced life, major amounts of liquid water, hottest core temperature, and diverse atmosphere. 1 Moon
Planet Mars: 4th Planet from the Sun. Closest day equivalence time of Earth (24 hrs. 37min.) and temperature quivalence of Earth (-184 dregrees F to 77 degrees F), and has the largest volcano in our solar system (Olympus Mons).
The Asteroid Belt: A ring of asteroids ranging from the size of you to the size of Rhode Island. It takes about 6 Earth Years for all the asteroids to orbit the Sun.
Dwarf Planet Ceres: Located within the Asteroid Belt, first space body discovered within the Asteroid Belt, Largest Space Body within the Asteroid Belt containing over 25% the total mass of the Asteroid Belt, smallest of planets. Zero Moons
Planet Jupiter: 5th planet from Sun, Largest Body in Solar System other than the Sun, Has a Storm that is more than twice the size of Earth that has been active since it was first discovered over 250 years ago!!! There is no true atmosphere and surface differentiation on Jupiter, instead it just gets denser and denser from the Gas in the Outer Atmosphere to the metal Core. 63 Moons
Planet Saturn: 6th Planet from Sun, Least dense planet containing no solid surface, Highest atmospheric pressures that would crush a space ship like an aluminum pop can, Has thousands of rings but from a distance look like 7 large ones. 60 Moons
Planet Uranus: 7th Planet from Sun, with 11 faint rings that were not seen until Voyager 2 visited the planet in 1986, does not have a solid surface, Has an extreme tilt that makes the planet look as though it is on its side!!! This major tilt of the poles causes winters to last nearly 40 years with no sunlight on the night side of the planet. 27 Moons (one thought to have collided with the planet causing the tilt)
Planet Neptune: 8th Planet from Sun, has 4 very faint rings discovered when voyager 2 passed in 1989, has the Great Dark Spot which is another long lasting storm in the Solar System (like the Great Red Spot) with the fastest wind speeds of all the planets, reaching 1,200 mph! Does not have a solid surface. 13 Moons
The Kuiper Belt: Group of objects that make up the edge of our Solar System, this is where comets outer ranges are before shooting back across the solar system, known as our solar systems "final frontier", reaching about 5 billion miles from the Sun!!! There are tens of thousands of objects that are estimated to still be discovered, and the actual beginning of the Belt is not fully agreed, either starting just after Neptune or just after Pluto. ---all other planets to be mentioned are found in the Kuiper Belt---
**Before we mention the following Dwarf Planets, lets understand the difference between a Planet and a Dwarf. Dwarf Planet -- Large, nearly round object orbiting a star that has not cleared the neighborhood of its orbit (meaning there are many small objects yet to be knocked out of the path like our orbit, or to be scooped up in ring form like Neptune and Saturn) Planet -- Very large, nearly round object orbiting star that has cleared its path. So you'll notice that the only real difference is that Dwarf planets are just too small to clear their orbital paths.
*The Following Planets have never been visited. In 2006 New Horizons Spacecraft was launched to get close and personal with the Kuiper Belt and these Planets. It is scheduled to arrive at Pluto in 2015
Dwarf Planet Pluto: Only Body to be demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet, very odd orbit that causes it to cross over Neptune's orbit, sometimes being closer to the sun! Light from the sun takes over 5 hours to reach Pluto. 3 Moons
Dwarf Planet Haumea (how-may-ah): Unusual football shape, has fastest rotation speed of all planets with a day lasting 4 Earth Hours! Discovered in 2004. 2 Moons
Dwarf Planet MakeMake (Mah-kay-Mah-kay): Coldest average temperatures of all the planets at -406 degrees F.
Dwarf Planet Eris: Largest of the Dwarf Planets (even bigger than Pluto), over 6 Billion miles from the Sun, discovery of this planet caused the controversy of what is a planet.... leading to the demotion of Pluto. 1 Moon
I'll conclude this with 3 additional interesting facts:
Fact One--- Lets say you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, this is how you would match up on the surface of other planets: Mercury-57 pounds, Neptune-180 pounds, Jupiter-381 pounds
Fact 2--- An Earth Year is how long it takes Earth to Orbit the Sun. But the Sun orbits the center of our Galaxy, meaning that a Year for the sun is how long it takes to go all the way around the galaxy, this is known as a Cosmic Year, and a Cosmic Year for our sun is about 225,000,000 years!!!
Fact3--- In the future as our knowledge continues to expand, especially with our spacecrafts soon reaching farther into our solar system than ever before with better instruments of measurements, things will be changed and improved as far as our understanding of the Solar System is concerned. So things to look for in the future:
--Pluto and its moon Charon actually orbit Each Other. Charon is the largest moon related to size of its host planet (the planet it orbits), but as mentioned it actually is orbiting Pluto while Pluto is orbiting it! This means that Charon could very well be promoted from moon to Dwarf Planet.
--Sedna is right now classified as a planetoid object, because not much is known at all. The orbit is so eccentric that it makes it hard to classify because the orbit goes in and out of the Kuiper Belt, and is so far that it can only be seen at certain times when the sunlight makes it bright enough for us to catch a glimpse of. So in the future when more is understood about planetary bodies, perhapse you will also find Sedna being added to Dwarf Planets, making our solar system much larger than thought at the moment, which could also add to the finding of others!
Our solar system is everything held in place within our suns gravitational pole. So we'll start at the center and make our way to the outside part of the solar system to give you the full picture.
The Sun: Is a star (a giant fusion ball of gas and dust that releases both heat and light). Our star, aka the Sun, is a young small star compared to what we know of.
Now we will talk about the objects within the Suns pull, aka our Solar System, which will include the following: 8 planets (and their moons), 5 Dwarf Planets (and their moons), The Asteroid Belt, The Kuiper Belt, and countless comets and debris.
Planet Mercury: Closest planet to the sun, smallest major planet, greatest temperature variations due to lack of atmosphere ( +800 degrees F on day side, -250 degrees F on night side). Zero Moons
Planet Venus: 2nd planet from sun, very thick atmosphere and distance from Sun make Venus the hottest planet in our solar system, with temperatures reaching over 850 degrees F; that along with the high density of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere make it nearly impossible to probe the planet. Only Planet to have a longer day than year!!! A day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth Days while a Venus year is equal to 224 Earth Days. Zero Moons
Planet Earth: we are the most unique in the most ways including, advanced life, major amounts of liquid water, hottest core temperature, and diverse atmosphere. 1 Moon
Planet Mars: 4th Planet from the Sun. Closest day equivalence time of Earth (24 hrs. 37min.) and temperature quivalence of Earth (-184 dregrees F to 77 degrees F), and has the largest volcano in our solar system (Olympus Mons).
The Asteroid Belt: A ring of asteroids ranging from the size of you to the size of Rhode Island. It takes about 6 Earth Years for all the asteroids to orbit the Sun.
Dwarf Planet Ceres: Located within the Asteroid Belt, first space body discovered within the Asteroid Belt, Largest Space Body within the Asteroid Belt containing over 25% the total mass of the Asteroid Belt, smallest of planets. Zero Moons
Planet Jupiter: 5th planet from Sun, Largest Body in Solar System other than the Sun, Has a Storm that is more than twice the size of Earth that has been active since it was first discovered over 250 years ago!!! There is no true atmosphere and surface differentiation on Jupiter, instead it just gets denser and denser from the Gas in the Outer Atmosphere to the metal Core. 63 Moons
Planet Saturn: 6th Planet from Sun, Least dense planet containing no solid surface, Highest atmospheric pressures that would crush a space ship like an aluminum pop can, Has thousands of rings but from a distance look like 7 large ones. 60 Moons
Planet Uranus: 7th Planet from Sun, with 11 faint rings that were not seen until Voyager 2 visited the planet in 1986, does not have a solid surface, Has an extreme tilt that makes the planet look as though it is on its side!!! This major tilt of the poles causes winters to last nearly 40 years with no sunlight on the night side of the planet. 27 Moons (one thought to have collided with the planet causing the tilt)
Planet Neptune: 8th Planet from Sun, has 4 very faint rings discovered when voyager 2 passed in 1989, has the Great Dark Spot which is another long lasting storm in the Solar System (like the Great Red Spot) with the fastest wind speeds of all the planets, reaching 1,200 mph! Does not have a solid surface. 13 Moons
The Kuiper Belt: Group of objects that make up the edge of our Solar System, this is where comets outer ranges are before shooting back across the solar system, known as our solar systems "final frontier", reaching about 5 billion miles from the Sun!!! There are tens of thousands of objects that are estimated to still be discovered, and the actual beginning of the Belt is not fully agreed, either starting just after Neptune or just after Pluto. ---all other planets to be mentioned are found in the Kuiper Belt---
**Before we mention the following Dwarf Planets, lets understand the difference between a Planet and a Dwarf. Dwarf Planet -- Large, nearly round object orbiting a star that has not cleared the neighborhood of its orbit (meaning there are many small objects yet to be knocked out of the path like our orbit, or to be scooped up in ring form like Neptune and Saturn) Planet -- Very large, nearly round object orbiting star that has cleared its path. So you'll notice that the only real difference is that Dwarf planets are just too small to clear their orbital paths.
*The Following Planets have never been visited. In 2006 New Horizons Spacecraft was launched to get close and personal with the Kuiper Belt and these Planets. It is scheduled to arrive at Pluto in 2015
Dwarf Planet Pluto: Only Body to be demoted from Planet to Dwarf Planet, very odd orbit that causes it to cross over Neptune's orbit, sometimes being closer to the sun! Light from the sun takes over 5 hours to reach Pluto. 3 Moons
Dwarf Planet Haumea (how-may-ah): Unusual football shape, has fastest rotation speed of all planets with a day lasting 4 Earth Hours! Discovered in 2004. 2 Moons
Dwarf Planet MakeMake (Mah-kay-Mah-kay): Coldest average temperatures of all the planets at -406 degrees F.
Dwarf Planet Eris: Largest of the Dwarf Planets (even bigger than Pluto), over 6 Billion miles from the Sun, discovery of this planet caused the controversy of what is a planet.... leading to the demotion of Pluto. 1 Moon
I'll conclude this with 3 additional interesting facts:
Fact One--- Lets say you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, this is how you would match up on the surface of other planets: Mercury-57 pounds, Neptune-180 pounds, Jupiter-381 pounds
Fact 2--- An Earth Year is how long it takes Earth to Orbit the Sun. But the Sun orbits the center of our Galaxy, meaning that a Year for the sun is how long it takes to go all the way around the galaxy, this is known as a Cosmic Year, and a Cosmic Year for our sun is about 225,000,000 years!!!
Fact3--- In the future as our knowledge continues to expand, especially with our spacecrafts soon reaching farther into our solar system than ever before with better instruments of measurements, things will be changed and improved as far as our understanding of the Solar System is concerned. So things to look for in the future:
--Pluto and its moon Charon actually orbit Each Other. Charon is the largest moon related to size of its host planet (the planet it orbits), but as mentioned it actually is orbiting Pluto while Pluto is orbiting it! This means that Charon could very well be promoted from moon to Dwarf Planet.
--Sedna is right now classified as a planetoid object, because not much is known at all. The orbit is so eccentric that it makes it hard to classify because the orbit goes in and out of the Kuiper Belt, and is so far that it can only be seen at certain times when the sunlight makes it bright enough for us to catch a glimpse of. So in the future when more is understood about planetary bodies, perhapse you will also find Sedna being added to Dwarf Planets, making our solar system much larger than thought at the moment, which could also add to the finding of others!
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