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Planets of the solar system and their names. What is the Solar System? Almost everything on planet Earth is a rare element
It's hard to believe, but once upon a time Space was completely empty. There were no planets, no satellites, no stars. Where did they come from? How was the Solar System formed? These questions have troubled humanity for many centuries. This article will help give some idea of what Space is and reveal interesting facts about the planets of the Solar System.
How it all began
The Universe is the entire visible and invisible Cosmos, along with all existing cosmic bodies. Several theories have been put forward for its appearance:
3. Divine intervention. Our Universe is so unique, everything in it is thought out to the smallest detail, that it could not arise by itself. Only the Great Creator can create such a miracle. It is absolutely not a scientific theory, but it has a right to exist.
Disputes about the reasons for the true emergence of outer space continue. In fact, we have an idea of the solar system, which includes a burning star and eight planets with their satellites, galaxies, stars, comets, black holes and much more.
Amazing discoveries or interesting facts about the planets of the solar system
Outer space beckons with its mystery. Each celestial body keeps its own mystery. Thanks to astronomical discoveries, valuable information about celestial wanderers appears.
Closest to the sun is Mercury. There is an opinion that he was once a satellite of Venus. But as a result of a cosmic catastrophe, the cosmic body separated from Venus and acquired its own orbit. A year on Mercury lasts 88 days, and a day lasts 59 days.
Mercury is the only planet in the solar system where you can observe the movement of the Sun in the opposite direction. This phenomenon has a completely logical explanation. The speed of the planet's rotation around its axis is much slower than the movement in its orbit. Because of this difference in speed conditions, the effect of changing the movement of the Sun occurs.
On Mercury you can observe a fantastic phenomenon: two sunsets and sunrises. And if you move to the 0˚ and 180̊ meridians, you can witness three sunsets and sunrises per day.
Venus comes next after Mercury. It lights up in the sky during sunset on Earth, but can only be observed for a couple of hours. Because of this feature, she was nicknamed "Evening Star". It is interesting that the orbit of Venus lies inside the orbit of our planet. But it moves along it in the opposite direction, counterclockwise. A year on the planet lasts 225 days, and 1 day lasts 243 Earth days. Venus, like the Moon, has a change of phases, transforming either into a thin sickle or into a wide circle. There is an assumption that some types of terrestrial bacteria can live in the atmosphere of Venus.
Earth- truly the pearl of the solar system. Only on it there is a huge variety of life forms. People feel so comfortable on this planet and don’t even realize that it is rushing along its orbit at a speed of 108,000 km per hour.
The fourth planet from the Sun is Mars. He is accompanied by two companions. A day on this planet is equal in length to that of Earth – 24 hours. But 1 year lasts 668 days. Just like on Earth, the seasons change here. Seasons also cause changes in the appearance of the planet.
Jupiter- the largest space giant. It has many satellites (more than 60 pieces) and 5 rings. Its mass exceeds the Earth by 318 times. But, despite its impressive size, it moves quite quickly. It turns around its own axis in just 10 hours, but covers the distance around the Sun in 12 years.
The weather on Jupiter is bad - constant storms and hurricanes, accompanied by lightning. A striking representative of such weather conditions is the Great Red Spot - a vortex moving at a speed of 435 km/h.
Distinctive feature Saturn, definitely are his rings. These flat formations are made of dust and ice. The thickness of the circles ranges from 10 - 15 m to 1 km, width from 3,000 km to 300,000 km. The rings of the planet are not a single whole, but are formed in the form of thin spokes. The planet is also surrounded by more than 62 satellites.
Saturn has an incredibly high rotation rate, so much so that it is compressed at the poles. A day on the planet lasts 10 hours, a year lasts 30 years.
Uranus, like Venus, it moves around the star counterclockwise. The uniqueness of the planet lies in the fact that it “lies on its side”, its axis tilted at an angle of 98˚. There is a theory that the planet took this position after a collision with another space object.
Like Saturn, Uranus has a complex ring system consisting of a collection of inner and outer rings. Uranus has 13 of them in total. It is believed that the rings are the remains of a former satellite of Uranus that collided with the planet.
Uranus does not have a solid surface; a third of its radius, approximately 8,000 km, is a gas shell.
Neptune- the last planet of the solar system. It is surrounded by 6 dark rings. The most beautiful shade of sea green gives the planet methane, which is present in the atmosphere. Neptune completes one orbit in 164 years. But it moves quickly enough around its axis, and a day passes in
16 hours. In some places, Neptune's orbit intersects with Pluto's orbit.
Neptune has a large number of satellites. Basically, they all orbit in front of Neptune's orbit and are called internal. There are only two external satellites accompanying the planet.
You can observe it on Neptune. However, the flares are too weak and occur throughout the planet, and not exclusively at the poles, as on Earth.
Once upon a time there were 9 planets in outer space. This number included Pluto. But due to its small size, the astronomical community has classified it as a dwarf planet (asteroid).
These are the interesting facts and amazing stories about the planets of the solar system that are revealed in the process of exploring the black depths of space.
> Solar system
solar system– planets in order, the Sun, structure, system model, satellites, space missions, asteroids, comets, dwarf planets, interesting facts.
solar system- a place in outer space in which the Sun, the planets in order, and many other space objects and celestial bodies are located. The solar system is the most precious place in which we live, our home.
Our Universe is a huge place where we occupy a tiny corner. But for earthlings, the Solar System seems to be the most vast territory, the farthest corners of which we are only beginning to approach. And it still hides a lot of mysterious and mysterious formations. So, despite centuries of study, we have only opened the door to the unknown. So what is the solar system? Today we will look at this issue.
Discovering the Solar System
In fact, you need to look into the sky and you will see our system. But few peoples and cultures understood exactly where we exist and what place we occupy in space. For a long time we thought that our planet was static, located in the center, and other objects rotated around it.
But still, even in ancient times, supporters of heliocentrism appeared, whose ideas would inspire Nicolaus Copernicus to create a true model where the Sun was located in the center.
In the 17th century, Galileo, Kepler and Newton were able to prove that planet Earth revolves around the star Sun. The discovery of gravity helped to understand that other planets follow the same laws of physics.
The revolutionary moment came with the advent of the first telescope from Galileo Galilei. In 1610, he noticed Jupiter and its moons. This will be followed by the discovery of other planets.
In the 19th century, three important observations were made that helped to calculate the true nature of the system and its position in space. In 1839, Friedrich Bessel successfully identified an apparent shift in stellar position. This showed that there is a huge distance between the Sun and the stars.
In 1859, G. Kirchhoff and R. Bunsen used the telescope to conduct a spectral analysis of the Sun. It turned out that it consists of the same elements as the Earth. The parallax effect can be seen in the bottom picture.
As a result, Angelo Secchi was able to compare the spectral signature of the Sun with the spectra of other stars. It turned out that they practically converge. Percival Lowell carefully studied the distant corners and orbital paths of the planets. He guessed that there was still an undisclosed object - Planet X. In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh noticed Pluto at his observatory.
In 1992, scientists expanded the boundaries of the system by discovering a trans-Neptunian object, 1992 QB1. From this moment on, interest in the Kuiper belt begins. This is followed by the findings of Eris and other objects from Michael Brown's team. All this will lead to a meeting of the IAU and the displacement of Pluto from the status of a planet. Below you can study in detail the composition of the Solar system, considering all the solar planets in order, the main star the Sun, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the Kuiper belt and the Oort Cloud. The solar system also contains the largest planet (Jupiter) and the smallest (Mercury).
Structure and composition of the solar system
Comets are clumps of snow and dirt filled with frozen gas, rocks and dust. The closer they get to the Sun, the more they heat up and emit dust and gas, increasing their brightness.
Dwarf planets orbit the star, but have been unable to remove foreign objects from orbit. They are smaller in size than standard planets. The most famous representative is Pluto.
The Kuiper Belt lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, filled with icy bodies and formed as a disk. The most famous representatives are Pluto and Eris. Hundreds of ice dwarfs live on its territory. The farthest away is the Oort Cloud. Together they act as a source of arriving comets.
The solar system is only a small part of the Milky Way. Beyond its border there is a large-scale space filled with stars. At the speed of light it would take 100,000 years to cover the entire area. Our galaxy is one of many in the Universe.
In the center of the system is the main and only star - the Sun (main sequence G2). The first are the 4 terrestrial planets (inner), the asteroid belt, 4 gas giants, the Kuiper belt (30-50 AU) and the spherical Oort Cloud, extending to 100,000 AU. to the interstellar medium.
The Sun contains 99.86% of the entire system mass, and gravity is superior to all forces. Most of the planets are located near the ecliptic and rotate in the same direction (counterclockwise).
Approximately 99% of the planetary mass is represented by gas giants, with Jupiter and Saturn covering more than 90%.
Unofficially, the system is divided into several sections. The inner one includes 4 terrestrial planets and an asteroid belt. Next comes the outer system with 4 giants. A zone with trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) is separately identified. That is, you can easily find the outer line, since it is marked by the large planets of the solar system.
Many planets are considered mini-systems because they have a group of satellites. Gas giants also have rings - small bands of small particles revolving around the planet. Typically large moons arrive in a gravitational block. On the lower layout you can see a comparison of the sizes of the Sun and the planets of the system.
The sun is 98% hydrogen and helium. Terrestrial planets are endowed with silicate rock, nickel and iron. The giants consist of gases and ices (water, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide).
Bodies in the Solar System that are distant from the star have low temperatures. From here, the ice giants (Neptune and Uranus) are distinguished, as well as small objects beyond their orbits. Their gases and ices are volatile substances that can condense at a distance of 5 AU. from the sun.
Origin and evolutionary process of the Solar System
Our system appeared 4.568 billion years ago as a result of the gravitational collapse of a large molecular cloud represented by hydrogen, helium and a small amount of heavier elements. This mass collapsed, resulting in rapid rotation.
Most of the mass gathered in the center. The temperature was rising. The nebula was shrinking, increasing the acceleration. This resulted in flattening into a protoplanetary disk containing a hot protostar.
Due to the high boiling level near the star, only metals and silicates can exist in solid form. As a result, 4 terrestrial planets appeared: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Metals were scarce, so they were unable to increase their size.
But the giants appeared further out, where the material was cool and allowed the volatile ice compounds to remain solid. There was much more ice, so the planets dramatically increased in size, attracting huge amounts of hydrogen and helium into the atmosphere. The remnants failed to become planets and settled in the Kuiper belt or retreated to the Oort Cloud.
Over 50 million years of development, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the protostar triggered nuclear fusion. Thus the Sun was born. The wind created the heliosphere and scattered gas and dust into space.
The system remains in its usual state for now. But the Sun develops and after 5 billion years completely transforms hydrogen into helium. The core will collapse, releasing a huge energy reserve. The star will increase in size by 260 times and become a red giant.
This will lead to the death of Mercury and Venus. Our planet will lose life because it will become hot. Eventually, the outer layers of stars will burst into space, leaving behind a white dwarf the size of our planet. A planetary nebula will form.
Inner Solar System
This is a line with the first 4 planets from the star. They all have similar parameters. This is a rocky type, represented by silicates and metals. Closer than the giants. They are inferior in density and size, and also lack huge lunar families and rings.
Silicates form the crust and mantle, and metals are part of the cores. All except Mercury have an atmospheric layer that allows them to shape weather conditions. Impact craters and tectonic activity are visible on the surface.
Closest to the star is Mercury. It is also the tiniest planet. The magnetic field reaches only 1% of Earth's, and the thin atmosphere causes the planet to be half-hot (430°C) and freezing (-187°C).
Venus similar in size to the Earth and has a dense atmospheric layer. But the atmosphere is extremely toxic and acts as a greenhouse. 96% consists of carbon dioxide, along with nitrogen and other impurities. Dense clouds are made from sulfuric acid. There are many canyons on the surface, the deepest of which reaches 6,400 km.
Earth best studied because this is our home. It has a rocky surface covered with mountains and depressions. In the center is a heavy metal core. There is water vapor in the atmosphere, which smoothes the temperature regime. The Moon rotates nearby.
Due to appearance Mars received the nickname Red Planet. The color is created by the oxidation of iron materials on the top layer. It is endowed with the largest mountain in the system (Olympus), rising to 21229 m, as well as the deepest canyon - Valles Marineris (4000 km). Much of the surface is ancient. There are ice caps at the poles. A thin atmospheric layer hints at water deposits. The core is solid, and next to the planet there are two satellites: Phobos and Deimos.
Outer Solar System
Gas giants are located here - large planets with lunar families and rings. Despite their size, only Jupiter and Saturn can be seen without the use of telescopes.
The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter with a rapid rotational speed (10 hours) and an orbital path of 12 years. The dense atmospheric layer is filled with hydrogen and helium. The core can reach the size of the Earth. There are many moons, faint rings and the Great Red Spot - a powerful storm that has not calmed down since the 4th century.
Saturn- a planet that is recognized by its gorgeous ring system (7 pieces). The system contains satellites, and the hydrogen and helium atmosphere rotates rapidly (10.7 hours). It takes 29 years to go around the star.
In 1781, William Herschel found Uranus. A day on the giant lasts 17 hours, and the orbital path takes 84 years. Holds huge amounts of water, methane, ammonia, helium and hydrogen. All this is concentrated around the stone core. There is a lunar family and rings. Voyager 2 flew to it in 1986.
Neptune– a distant planet with water, methane, ammonium, hydrogen and helium. There are 6 rings and dozens of satellites. Voyager 2 also flew by in 1989.
Trans-Neptunian region of the Solar System
Thousands of objects have already been found in the Kuiper belt, but it is believed that up to 100,000 with a diameter of more than 100 km live there. They are extremely small and located at large distances, so the composition is difficult to calculate.
The spectrographs show an icy mixture of hydrocarbons, water ice and ammonia. Initial analysis showed a wide color range: from neutral to bright red. This hints at the richness of the composition. A comparison of Pluto and KBO 1993 SC showed that they are extremely different in surface elements.
Water ice was found in 1996 TO66, 38628 Huya and 20000 Varuna, and crystalline ice was noticed in Quavar.
Oort cloud and beyond the solar system
This cloud is believed to extend to 2000-5000 AU. and up to 50,000 a.u. from the star. The outer edge can extend to 100,000-200,000 au. The cloud is divided into two parts: spherical outer (20000-50000 AU) and internal (2000-20000 AU).
The outer one is home to trillions of bodies with a diameter of a kilometer or more, as well as billions with a width of 20 km. There is no exact information about the mass, but it is believed that Halley's comet is a typical representative. The total mass of the cloud is 3 x 10 25 km (5 lands).
If we focus on comets, most of the cloud bodies are composed of ethane, water, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. The population is 1-2% made up of asteroids.
Bodies from the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud are called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) because they are located further than Neptune's orbital path.
Exploring the Solar System
The size of the solar system still seems immense, but our knowledge has expanded significantly with the sending of probes into outer space. The boom in space exploration began in the mid-20th century. Now it can be noted that all solar planets have been approached at least once by terrestrial spacecraft. We have photos, videos, as well as soil and atmosphere analysis (for some).
The first artificial spacecraft was the Soviet Sputnik 1. He was sent into space in 1957. Spent several months in orbit collecting data on the atmosphere and ionosphere. In 1959, the United States joined with Explorer 6, which took pictures of our planet for the first time.
These devices provided a huge amount of information about planetary features. Luna-1 was the first to go to another object. It flew past our satellite in 1959. Mariner was a successful mission to Venus in 1964, Mariner 4 arrived at Mars in 1965, and the 10th mission passed Mercury in 1974.
Since the 1970s The attack on the outer planets begins. In 1973, Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter, and the next mission visited Saturn in 1979. A real breakthrough was the Voyagers, which flew around large giants and their satellites in the 1980s.
The Kuiper Belt is being explored by New Horizons. In 2015, the device successfully reached Pluto, sending the first close images and a lot of information. Now he is rushing to distant TNOs.
But we longed to land on another planet, so rovers and probes began to be sent in the 1960s. Luna 10 was the first to enter lunar orbit in 1966. In 1971, Mariner 9 settled near Mars, and Verena 9 orbited the second planet in 1975.
Galileo first orbited near Jupiter in 1995, and the famous Cassini appeared near Saturn in 2004. MESSENGER and Dawn visited Mercury and Vesta in 2011. And the latter still managed to fly around the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015.
The first spacecraft to land on the surface was Luna 2 in 1959. This was followed by landings on Venus (1966), Mars (1971), asteroid 433 Eros (2001), Titan and Tempel in 2005.
Currently, manned vehicles have only visited Mars and the Moon. But the first robotic one was Lunokhod-1 in 1970. Spirit (2004), Opportunity (2004) and Curiosity (2012) landed on Mars.
The 20th century was marked by the space race between America and the USSR. For the Soviets it was the Vostok program. The first mission came in 1961, when Yuri Gagarin found himself in orbit. In 1963, the first woman flew, Valentina Tereshkova.
In the USA they developed the Mercury project, where they also planned to launch people into space. The first American to go into orbit was Alan Shepard in 1961. After both programs ended, countries focused on long-term and short-term flights.
The main goal was to land a man on the moon. The USSR was developing a capsule for 2-3 people, and Gemini was trying to create a device for a safe lunar landing. It ended with the fact that in 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the satellite. In 1972, 5 more landings were carried out, and all were Americans.
The next challenge was the creation of a space station and reusable vehicles. The Soviets formed the Salyut and Almaz stations. The first station with a large number of crews was NASA's Skylab. The first settlement was the Soviet Mir, operating in 1989-1999. In 2001 it was replaced by the International Space Station.
The only reusable spacecraft was Columbia, which completed several orbital flights. The 5 shuttles completed 121 missions before retiring in 2011. Due to accidents, two shuttles crashed: Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003).
In 2004, George W. Bush announced his intention to return to the Moon and conquer the Red Planet. This idea was also supported by Barack Obama. As a result, all efforts are now spent on exploring Mars and plans to create a human colony.
All these flights and sacrifices have led to a better understanding of our system, its past and future. IN modern model There are 8 planets, 4 dwarf planets and a huge number of TNOs. Let's not forget about the army of asteroids and planetesimals.
On the page you can find out not only useful information about the solar system, its structure and dimensions, but also get detailed description and characteristics of all planets in order with names, photos, videos, diagrams and distance from the Sun. The composition and structure of the solar system will no longer be a mystery. Also use our 3D model to explore all the celestial bodies yourself.
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The boundless space, despite the apparent chaos, is a fairly harmonious structure. In this gigantic world, the immutable laws of physics and mathematics also apply. All objects in the Universe, from small to large, occupy their specific place, move along given orbits and trajectories. This order was established more than 15 billion years ago, since the formation of the Universe. Our solar system, the cosmic metropolis in which we live, is no exception.
Despite its colossal size, the Solar System fits within the human framework of perception, being the most studied part of the cosmos, with clearly defined boundaries.
Origin and main astrophysical parameters
In a Universe where there are an infinite number of stars, there are certainly other solar systems. There are approximately 250-400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone, so it cannot be ruled out that worlds with other life forms may exist in the depths of space.
Even 150-200 years ago, people had meager ideas about space. The size of the Universe was limited by telescope lenses. The Sun, Moon, planets, comets and asteroids were the only known objects, and the entire cosmos was measured by the size of our galaxy. The situation changed dramatically at the beginning of the 20th century. Astrophysical exploration of outer space and the work of nuclear physicists over the past 100 years have given scientists insight into how the Universe began. The processes that led to the formation of stars became known and understood. construction material for the formation of planets. In this light, the origin of the solar system becomes clear and explainable.
The Sun, like other stars, is a product of the Big Bang, after which stars formed in space. Objects of large and small sizes appeared. In one of the corners of the Universe, among a cluster of other stars, our Sun was born. By cosmic standards, the age of our star is small, only 5 billion years. At the site of her birth, a gigantic construction site was formed, where, as a result of the gravitational compression of the gas and dust cloud, other objects of the solar system were formed.
Each celestial body took on its own form and took its assigned place. Some celestial bodies, under the influence of the Sun's gravity, became permanent satellites, moving in their own orbit. Other objects ceased to exist as a result of the counteraction of centrifugal and centripetal processes. This whole process took about 4.5 billion years. The mass of the entire solar economy is 1.0014 M☉. Of this mass, 99.8% is the Sun itself. Only 0.2% of the mass comes from other space objects: planets, satellites and asteroids, fragments of cosmic dust orbiting around it.
The orbit of the Solar System has an almost circular shape, and the orbital speed coincides with the speed of the galactic spiral. As it passes through the interstellar medium, the stability of the solar system is given by gravitational forces acting within our galaxy. This in turn provides stability to other objects and bodies of the Solar System. The movement of the Solar system takes place at a considerable distance from the super-dense star clusters of our galaxy, which carry potential danger.
In terms of its size and number of satellites, our solar system cannot be called small. There are small solar systems in space that have one or two planets and, due to their size, are barely noticeable in outer space. Representing a massive galactic object, the solar system moves through space at a tremendous speed of 240 km/s. Even despite such a rapid run, the Solar System completes a full revolution around the center of the galaxy in 225 -250 million years.
The exact intergalactic address of our star system is as follows:
- local interstellar cloud;
- local bubble in the Orion-Cygnus arm;
- The Milky Way galaxy, part of the Local Group of galaxies.
The Sun is the central object of our system and is one of the 100 billion stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy. In terms of its size, it is a medium-sized star and belongs to the spectral class G2V Yellow dwarfs. The diameter of the star is 1 million. 392 thousand kilometers, and it is in the middle of its life cycle.
For comparison, the size of Sirius, the brightest star, is 2 million 381 thousand km. Aldebaran has a diameter of almost 60 million km. The huge star Betelgeuse is 1000 times larger than our Sun. The size of this supergiant exceeds the size of the solar system.
Our star's closest neighborhood neighbor is considered to be Proxima Centauri, which will take about 4 years to reach at the speed of light.
The Sun, thanks to its enormous mass, holds eight planets near it, many of which, in turn, have their own systems. The position of objects moving around the Sun is clearly demonstrated by the diagram of the Solar System. Almost all the planets in the solar system move around our star in the same direction, along with the rotating Sun. The orbits of the planets are practically in the same plane, have different shapes and move around the center of the system at different speeds. Movement around the Sun is counterclockwise and in one plane. Only comets and other objects, mainly those located in the Kuiper belt, have orbits with a large angle of inclination to the ecliptic plane.
Today we know exactly how many planets there are in the Solar System, there are 8 of them. All celestial bodies of the Solar System are at a certain distance from the Sun, periodically moving away or approaching it. Accordingly, each of the planets has its own, different from the others, astrophysical parameters and characteristics. It should be noted that 6 of the 8 planets in the Solar System rotate around their axis in the direction in which our star rotates around its own axis. Only Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction. In addition, Uranus is the only planet in the solar system that practically lies on its side. Its axis is inclined 90° to the ecliptic line.
Nicolaus Copernicus demonstrated the first model of the solar system. In his view, the Sun was the central object of our world, around which other planets, including our Earth, revolve. Subsequently, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton improved this model by placing objects in it in accordance with mathematical and physical laws.
Looking at the presented model, one can imagine that the orbits of space objects are located at equal distances from each other. The solar system in nature looks completely different. The greater the distance to the planets of the solar system from the Sun, the greater the distance between the orbit of the previous celestial object. The table of distances of objects from the center of our star system allows you to visually imagine the scale of the solar system.
As the distance from the Sun increases, the speed of rotation of the planets around the center of the Solar System slows down. Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, completes a full revolution around our star in just 88 Earth days. Neptune, located at a distance of 4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, makes a complete revolution in 165 Earth years.
Despite the fact that we are dealing with a heliocentric model of the solar system, many planets have their own systems consisting of natural satellites and rings. The satellites of the planets move around the mother planets and obey the same laws.
Most of the satellites of the Solar System rotate synchronously around their planets, always turning the same side towards them. The Moon is also always turned to the Earth with one side.
Only two planets, Mercury and Venus, do not have natural satellites. Mercury is even smaller in size than some of its satellites.
Center and boundaries of the solar system
The main and central object of our system is the Sun. It has a complex structure and consists of 92% hydrogen. Only 7% is used for helium atoms, which, when interacting with hydrogen atoms, become fuel for an endless nuclear chain reaction. At the center of the star there is a core with a diameter of 150-170 thousand km, heated to a temperature of 14 million K.
A brief description of the star can be reduced to a few words: it is a huge natural thermonuclear reactor. Moving from the center of the star to its outer edge, we find ourselves in the convective zone, where energy transfer and plasma mixing occur. This layer has a temperature of 5800K. The visible part of the Sun is the photosphere and chromosphere. Our star is crowned by the solar corona, which is the outer shell. The processes occurring inside the Sun affect the entire state of the Solar System. Its light warms our planet, the force of attraction and gravity keep objects in near space at a certain distance from each other. As the intensity of internal processes decreases, our star will begin to cool. The consumable stellar material will lose its density, causing the star's body to expand. Instead of a yellow dwarf, our Sun will turn into a huge Red Giant. For now, our Sun remains the same hot and bright star.
The border of the kingdom of our star is the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. These are extremely remote areas of outer space that are influenced by the Sun. In the Kuiper belt and in the Oort Cloud there are a lot of other objects of various sizes that in one way or another influence the processes occurring inside the Solar system.
The Oort Cloud is a hypothetical spherical space that surrounds the Solar System along its entire outer diameter. The distance to this region of space is more than 2 light years. This area is home to comets. It is from there that these rare space guests, long-period comets, come to us
The Kuiper Belt contains residual material that was used during the formation of the Solar System. These are mainly small particles of space ice, a cloud of frozen gas (methane and ammonia). There are also large objects in this area, some of which are dwarf planets, and smaller fragments similar in structure to asteroids. The main known objects of the belt are the dwarf planets of the solar system Pluto, Haumea and Makemake. A spaceship can reach them in one light year.
Between the Kuiper Belt and deep space, a highly sparse region exists at the outer edges of the belt, mostly consisting of remnants of cosmic ice and gas.
Today, it is possible that large trans-Neptunian space objects exist in this region of our star system, one of which is the dwarf planet Sedna.
Brief characteristics of the planets of the solar system
Scientists have calculated that the mass of all planets belonging to our star is no more than 0.1% of the mass of the Sun. However, even among this small amount, 99% of the mass comes from the two largest cosmic objects after the Sun - the planets Jupiter and Saturn. The sizes of the planets in the solar system vary greatly. Among them there are babies and giants, similar in their structure and astrophysical parameters to failed stars.
In astronomy, it is customary to divide all 8 planets into two groups:
- planets with a rocky structure are classified as terrestrial planets;
- planets, which are dense clumps of gas, belong to the group of gas giant planets.
Previously it was believed that our star system includes 9 planets. Only recently, at the end of the 20th century, Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt. Therefore, the question of how many planets are in the solar system today can be firmly answered - eight.
If we arrange the planets of the solar system in order, the map of our world will look like this:
- Venus;
- Earth;
- Jupiter;
- Saturn;
- Uranus;
In the very middle of this parade of planets is the asteroid belt. According to scientists, these are the remains of a planet that existed in the early stages of the solar system, but died as a result of a cosmic cataclysm.
The inner planets Mercury, Venus and Earth are the planets closest to the Sun, closer than other objects in the Solar System, and therefore are completely dependent on the processes occurring on our star. At some distance from them is the ancient God of War - the planet Mars. All four planets are united by similarities in structure and identity of astrophysical parameters, therefore they are classified as planets of the Terrestrial group.
Mercury, a close neighbor of the Sun, is like a hot frying pan. It seems paradoxical that, despite its close location to the hot star, Mercury experiences the most significant temperature differences in our system. During the day, the surface of the planet heats up to 350 degrees Celsius, and at night the cosmic cold rages with a temperature of 170.2 °C. Venus is a real boiling cauldron, where there is enormous pressure and high temperatures. Despite its gloomy and dull appearance, Mars today is of greatest interest to scientists. The composition of its atmosphere, astrophysical parameters similar to those on Earth, and the presence of seasons give hope for the subsequent development and colonization of the planet by representatives of terrestrial civilization.
Gas giants, which for the most part are planets without a solid shell, are interesting for their satellites. Some of them, according to scientists, may represent cosmic territories in which, under certain conditions, the emergence of life is possible.
The terrestrial planets are separated from the four gas planets by the asteroid belt - the internal boundary beyond which lies the kingdom of the gas giants. Next behind the asteroid belt, Jupiter, with its attraction, balances our solar system. This planet is the largest, largest and densest in the solar system. The diameter of Jupiter is 140 thousand km across. This is five times more than our planet. This gas giant has its own system of satellites, of which there are about 69 pieces. Among them, real giants stand out: the two largest satellites of Jupiter - Ganymede and Calypso - are larger in size than the planet Mercury.
Saturn, the brother of Jupiter, also has a huge size - 116 thousand km. in diameter. Saturn's retinue is no less impressive - 62 satellites. However, this giant stands out in the night sky with something else - a beautiful system of rings encircling the planet. Titan is one of the largest satellites of the solar system. This giant has a diameter of more than 10 thousand km. Among the kingdom of hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia there can be no known forms of life. However, unlike their host, Saturn's moons have a rocky structure and a hard surface. Some of them have an atmosphere; Enceladus is even supposed to have water.
The series of giant planets continues with Uranus and Neptune. These are cold, dark worlds. Unlike Jupiter and Saturn, where hydrogen predominates, here there is methane and ammonia in the atmosphere. Instead of condensed gas, high-temperature ice is present on Uranus and Neptune. In view of this, both planets were classified into one group - ice giants. Uranus is second in size only to Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Neptune's orbit has a diameter of almost 9 billion kilometers. It takes the planet 164 Earth years to go around the Sun.
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune represent the most interesting objects for study today for scientists.
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Despite the enormous amount of knowledge that humanity possesses today, despite the achievements of modern means of observation and research, a lot of unresolved questions remain. What kind of solar system actually is, which planet may later turn out to be suitable for life?
Man continues to observe the nearest space, making more and more new discoveries. In December 2012, the whole world could watch an enchanting astronomical show - a parade of planets. During this period, all 7 planets of our solar system could be seen in the night sky, including even such distant ones as Uranus and Neptune.
A closer study today is carried out with the help of space automatic probes and devices. Many of them have already managed not only to fly to the most extreme regions of our star system, but also beyond its borders. The first artificially created space objects that managed to reach the boundaries of the solar system were the American probes Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11.
It is interesting to theoretically speculate how far these devices will be able to advance beyond the borders? Launched in 1977, the American automatic probe Voyager 1, after 40 years of work studying planets, became the first spacecraft to leave our system.
Our home in space is the Solar System, a star system consisting of eight planets and part of the Milky Way galaxy. In the center is a star called the Sun. Age solar system- four and a half billion years. We live on the third planet from the sun. Do you know about other planets in the solar system?! Now we will tell you a little about them.
Mercury- the smallest planet in the solar system. Its radius is 2440 km. The period of revolution around the Sun is 88 Earth days. During this time, Mercury manages to rotate around its own axis only one and a half times. A day on Mercury lasts approximately 59 Earth days. The orbit of Mercury is one of the most unstable: not only the speed of movement and its distance from the Sun, but also the position itself changes there. There are no satellites.
Neptune- the eighth planet of the solar system. It is located quite close to Uranus. The radius of the planet is 24547 km. A year on Neptune is 60,190 days, that is, about 164 Earth years. Has 14 satellites. It has an atmosphere in which the strongest winds have been recorded - up to 260 m/s.
By the way, Neptune was discovered not through observations, but through mathematical calculations.
Uranus- the seventh planet in the solar system. Radius - 25267 km. The coldest planet has a surface temperature of -224 degrees. A year on Uranus is equal to 30,685 Earth days, that is, approximately 84 years. Day - 17 hours. Has 27 satellites.
Saturn- the sixth planet of the solar system. The radius of the planet is 57350 km. It is second in size after Jupiter. A year on Saturn is 10,759 days, which is almost 30 Earth years. A day on Saturn is almost equal to a day on Jupiter - 10.5 Earth hours. It is most similar to the Sun in the composition of chemical elements.
Has 62 satellites.
The main feature of Saturn is its rings. Their origin has not yet been established.
Jupiter- the fifth planet from the Sun. It is the largest planet in the solar system. The radius of Jupiter is 69912 km. This is as much as 19 times larger than the Earth. A year there lasts as many as 4333 Earth days, that is, almost less than 12 years. A day is about 10 Earth hours long.
Jupiter has as many as 67 satellites. The largest of them are Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Europa. Moreover, Ganymede is 8% larger than Mercury, the smallest planet in our system, and has an atmosphere.
Mars- the fourth planet of the solar system. Its radius is 3390 km, which is almost half the size of the Earth. A year on Mars is 687 Earth days. It has 2 satellites - Phobos and Deimos.
The planet's atmosphere is thin. Water found on some areas of the surface suggests that some kind of primitive life on Mars was once before or even exists now.
Venus- the second planet of the solar system. It is similar in mass and radius to the Earth. There are no satellites.
The atmosphere of Venus consists almost entirely of carbon dioxide. The percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 96%, nitrogen - approximately 4%. Water vapor and oxygen are also present, but in very small quantities. Due to the fact that such an atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect, the temperature on the surface of the planet reaches 475 °C. A day on Venus is equal to 243 Earth days. A year on Venus is 255 days.
Pluto is a dwarf planet on the edges of the solar system, which is the dominant object in a distant system of 6 small cosmic bodies. The radius of the planet is 1195 km. Pluto's orbital period around the Sun is approximately 248 Earth years. A day on Pluto is 152 hours long. The mass of the planet is approximately 0.0025 the mass of the Earth.
It is noteworthy that Pluto was excluded from the category of planets in 2006 due to the fact that in the Kuiper belt there are objects that are larger or equal in size to Pluto, which is why, even if it is accepted as a full-fledged planet, then in this case it is necessary Add Eris to this category - which is almost the same size as Pluto.
Hello dear readers! In this post we will talk about the structure of the solar system. I believe that it is simply necessary to know about what place in the Universe our planet is located, as well as what else is in our Solar System besides planets...
The structure of the solar system.
solar system is a system of cosmic bodies, which, in addition to the central luminary - the Sun, includes nine large planets, their satellites, many small planets, comets, cosmic dust and small meteoroids that move in the sphere of the predominant gravitational action of the Sun.
In the middle of the 16th century, the general structure of the solar system was discovered by the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. He refuted the idea that the Earth is the center of the Universe and substantiated the idea of the movement of planets around the Sun. This model of the solar system is called heliocentric.
In the 17th century, Kepler discovered the law of planetary motion, and Newton formulated the law of universal attraction. But only after Galileo invented the telescope in 1609, it became possible to study the physical characteristics of the solar system and cosmic bodies.
Thus, Galileo, observing sunspots, first discovered the rotation of the Sun around its axis.
Planet Earth is one of nine celestial bodies (or planets) that move around the Sun in outer space.
The main part of the solar system is made up of planets, which rotate around the Sun at different speeds in the same direction and almost in the same plane in elliptical orbits and are at different distances from it.
The planets are located in the following order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. But Pluto sometimes moves away from the Sun by more than 7 billion km, but due to the enormous mass of the Sun, which is almost 750 times greater than the mass of all other planets, it remains in its sphere of gravity.
The largest of the planets- This is Jupiter. Its diameter is 11 times the diameter of the Earth and is 142,800 km. The smallest of the planets- This is Pluto, whose diameter is only 2,284 km.
The planets that are closest to the Sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are very different from the next four. They are called terrestrial planets, since, like the Earth, they consist of solid rocks.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are called Jovian-type planets, as well as giant planets, and unlike them, they consist mainly of hydrogen.
There are also other differences between the Jovian and terrestrial planets. The “Jupiterians”, together with numerous satellites, form their own “solar systems”.
Saturn has at least 22 moons. And only three satellites, including the Moon, have terrestrial planets. And above all, Jovian-type planets are surrounded by rings.
Fragments of planets.
There is a large gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where another planet could fit. This space is actually filled with many small celestial bodies called asteroids, or minor planets.
Ceres is the name of the largest asteroid, with a diameter of about 1000 km. To date, 2,500 asteroids have been discovered that are significantly smaller in size than Ceres. These are blocks with diameters that do not exceed several kilometers in size.
Most asteroids orbit the Sun in the wide “asteroid belt” that lies between Mars and Jupiter. The orbits of some asteroids extend far beyond this belt, and sometimes come quite close to Earth.
These asteroids cannot be seen with the naked eye because their sizes are too small and they are very far away from us. But other debris - such as comets - can be visible in the night sky due to their bright shine.
Comets are celestial bodies that are composed of ice, solid particles and dust. Most of the time, the comet moves in the far reaches of our solar system and is invisible to the human eye, but when it approaches the Sun, it begins to glow.
This occurs under the influence of solar heat. The ice partially evaporates and turns into gas, releasing dust particles. The comet becomes visible because the cloud of gas and dust reflects sunlight. The cloud, under the pressure of the solar wind, turns into a fluttering long tail.
There are also space objects that can be observed almost every evening. They burn up when they enter the Earth's atmosphere, leaving a narrow luminous trail in the sky - a meteor. These bodies are called meteoroids, and their sizes are no larger than a grain of sand.
Meteorites are large meteoroid bodies that reach the earth's surface. Due to the collision of huge meteorites with the Earth in the distant past, huge craters were formed on its surface. Almost a million tons of meteorite dust settle on Earth every year.
Birth of the Solar System.
Large gas and dust nebulae, or clouds, are scattered among the stars of our galaxy. In the same cloud, about 4600 million years ago, Our solar system was born.This birth occurred as a result of the collapse (compression) of this cloud under the influence of I eat the forces of gravity.
Then this cloud began to rotate. And over time, it turned into a rotating disk, the bulk of the matter concentrated in the center. The gravitational collapse continued, the central compaction constantly decreased and warmed up.
The thermonuclear reaction began at a temperature of tens of millions of degrees, and then the central condensation of matter flared up as a new star - the Sun.
Planets were formed from dust and gas in the disk. The collision of dust particles, as well as their transformation into large lumps, occurred in internal heated areas. This process is called accretion.
The mutual attraction and collision of all these blocks led to the formation of terrestrial planets.
These planets had a weak gravitational field and were too small to attract the light gases (such as helium and hydrogen) that make up the accretion disk.
The birth of the Solar System was a common occurrence - similar systems are born constantly and everywhere in the Universe. And maybe in one of these systems there is a planet similar to Earth, on which intelligent life exists...
So we have examined the structure of the Solar system, and now we can arm ourselves with knowledge for its further application in practice 😉
