Types Of Solar System Planets
Mainly, there are two types of planets in our solar system:-
According to scientists, our Universe has billions of planets but our solar system only has 8. There are other different types of planets that exist but are not in our Solar System, such asrogue planets and exoplanets.
Now, check below some informative and educational facts about the eight planets of our solar system.
Solar System: Planets In Order
Alex BolanoPRO INVESTOR
A solar system is a collection of planets, comets, and other orbiting celestial bodies gravitationally bound to a central star. Our sun is the center of a solar system that contains 8 planets. Among these 8 planets are over 180 moons, with the majority centered on the larger planets. In addition to the 8 planets and their respective moons, there is a handful of dwarf planets, comets and asteroids occupying our solar neighborhood.
Our solar system is over 4 billion years old and was formed from the compressed remains of a giant interstellar molecular cloud. The sun was formed through the high heat and pressure of the compressed cloud as it gravitationally collapsed in on itself. The resulting spinning accretion disk flung out clouds of gas and matter that eventually coalesced into the planets in their elliptical orbits. The 4 innermost planets are all small, mostly composed of rock and metals. Earth is included in these 4 terrestrial planets. The 4 outer planets are massive in comparison and are composed primarily of gasses. The first 6 planets have been known to humans since antiquity, while numbers 7 and 8 were discovered only within the last 400 years. Despite having 8 total planets 99% of the mass of the solar system is contained in the sun. Of that 1% not contained in the sun, the majority of that mass is contained in a single planet, Jupiter.
Habitability And Search For Life
During the late nineteenth century, it was widely accepted in the astronomical community that Mars had life-supporting qualities, including the presence of oxygen and water. However, in 1894 at observed the planet and found that “if water vapor or oxygen occur in the atmosphere of Mars it is in quantities too small to be detected by spectroscopes then available”. That observation contradicted many of the measurements of the time and was not widely accepted. Campbell and repeated the study in 1909 using better instruments, but with the same results. It wasn’t until the findings were confirmed by in 1925 that the myth of the Earth-like habitability of Mars was finally broken. However, even in the 1960s, articles were published on Martian biology, putting aside explanations other than life for the seasonal changes on Mars. Detailed scenarios for the metabolism and chemical cycles for a functional ecosystem were being published as late as 1962.
The lack of a magnetosphere and the extremely thin atmosphere of Mars are a challenge to sustaining organic life: the planet has little across its surface, poor insulation against bombardment of the and insufficient atmospheric pressure to retain water in a liquid form ” rel=”nofollow”> sublimes to a gaseous state). Mars is nearly, or perhaps totally, geologically dead the end of volcanic activity has apparently stopped the recycling of chemicals and minerals between the surface and interior of the planet.
Curiosity
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The Great Red Spot Of Jupiter
The most famous aspect of Jupiter is its Great Red Spot. It is a massive storm with 400mph+ winds that has been active for several centuries, and is larger than Earth itself!
The first ever report of this anticyclonic storm dates from, May 1664 after being observed by Robert Hooke. A year later, Giovanni Cassini confirmed the sighting.
The Great Red Spot rotates counter-clockwise, and measures 16,350 km . The highest clouds are 8 km higher than other clouds on Jupiter.
Nine Planets Become 12 With Controversial New Definition
The tally of planets in our solar system would jump instantly to a dozen under a highly controversial new definition proposed by the International Astronomical Union .
Eventually there would be hundreds as more round objects are found beyond Neptune.
The proposal, which sources tell SPACE.com is gaining broad support, tries to plug a big gap in astronomy textbooks, which have never had a definition for the word planet. It addresses discoveries of Pluto-sized worlds that have in recent years pitched astronomers into heated debates over terminology.
- The asteroid Ceres, which is round, would be recast as a dwarf planet in the new scheme.
- Pluto would remain a planet and its moon Charon would be reclassified as a planet. Both would be called plutons, however, to distinguish them from the eight classical planets.
- A far-out Pluto-sized object known as 2003 UB313 would also be called a pluton.
That would make Caltech researcher Mike Brown, who found 2003 UB313, formally the discoverer of the 12th planet. But he thinks its a lousy idea.
Its flattering to be considered discoverer of the 12th planet, Brown said in a telephone interview. He applauded the committees efforts but said the overall proposal is a complete mess. By his count, the definition means there are already 53 known planets in our solar system with countless more to be discovered.
IAU members will vote on the proposal Thursday, Aug. 24. Its fate is far from clear.
The definition
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Cultural And Historical Viewpoint
, representing the , and a , . Earth is sometimes as a . In many cultures it is a that is also the primary . in many religions involve the creation of Earth by a supernatural deity or deities. The , developed in the mid-20th century, compared Earth’s environments and life as a single self-regulating organism leading to broad stabilization of the conditions of habitability.
, particularly during the Apollo program, have been credited with altering the way that people viewed the planet that they lived on, called the , emphasizing its beauty, uniqueness and apparent fragility. In particular, this caused a realization of the scope of effects from human activity on Earth’s environment. Enabled by science, particularly , humans have started to take globally, acknowledging the impact of humans and the .
Scientific investigation has resulted in several culturally transformative shifts in people’s view of the planet. Initial belief in a was gradually displaced in by the idea of a , which was attributed to both the philosophers and . Earth was generally believed to be until the 16th century, when scientists first concluded that it was , one of the planets of the Solar System.
Solar System Formation And Discovery
Approximately 4.5 billion years ago a dark cloud of gas and dust began to collapse. As it shrank, the cloud flattened into a swirling disk known as a solar nebula, according to NASA Science .
The heat and pressure eventually became so high that hydrogen atoms began to combine to form helium. The nuclear reactions released vast amounts of energy and our sun was formed.
The sun accumulated about 99% of the available matter and the remaining material further from the sun formed smaller clumps inside the spinning disk. Some of these clumps gained enough mass that their gravity shaped them into spheres, becoming planets, dwarf planets and moons. Other leftover pieces became asteroids, comets and smaller moons that make up our solar system.
Read more: How did the solar system form?
For millennia, astronomers have followed points of light that seemed to move among the stars. The ancient Greeks named them planets, meaning “wanderers.” Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were known in antiquity, and the invention of the telescope added the Asteroid Belt, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and many of these worlds’ moons. The dawn of the space age saw dozens of probes launched to explore our system, an adventure that continues today.
There have been five human-made objects so far, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, New Horizons, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, that have crossed the threshold into interstellar space.
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How To Memorize The Order Of The Planets
The easiest way to remember the order of the 8 planets is to use a mnemonic device. Its simply a memorable sentence where the first letter of each word is the same first letter in the planets name.
The most popular mnemonic device is: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles.
The first letter of each word is M V E M J S U N which recalls the planets name: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Magnetic Field And Core
In 1967, found Venus’s to be much weaker than that of Earth. This magnetic field is induced by an interaction between the and the , rather than by an internal as in the Earth’s . Venus’s small provides negligible protection to the atmosphere against .
The lack of an intrinsic magnetic field at Venus was surprising, given that it is similar to Earth in size and was expected also to contain a dynamo at its core. A dynamo requires three things: a liquid, rotation, and . The core is thought to be electrically conductive and, although its rotation is often thought to be too slow, simulations show it is adequate to produce a dynamo. This implies that the dynamo is missing because of a lack of convection in Venus’s core. On Earth, convection occurs in the liquid outer layer of the core because the bottom of the liquid layer is much higher in temperature than the top. On Venus, a global resurfacing event may have shut down plate tectonics and led to a reduced through the crust. This effect would cause the mantle temperature to increase, thereby reducing the heat flux out of the core. As a result, no internal geodynamo is available to drive a magnetic field. Instead, the heat from the core is reheating the crust.
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What Caused The Planets To Be In That Order
The solar system began as a giant cloud of gas and dust where, at one point, gravity gathered enough matter to create the Sun, while the planets formed from the remnants of dust and gas left over after the Sun formed.
There are many theories as to why the planets are in this particular order, but none are 100% confirmed. It is thought that the solar winds may have pushed most of the gases further into the solar system where the gas giant formed, leaving behind mostly rock and dust that led to the formation of the rocky planet. This would explain why the inner solar system is populated only by rocky planets while the outer solar system is populated only by gas giants.
To date, we do not know exactly why the planets are in this precise order, but we can imagine that it is mostly due to a long list of random factors that happened during the formation of the solar system, gravitational influences, impacts with other celestial bodies, etc.
Saturn: The Ringed Jewel Of The Solar System
– Day: About 10.5 Earth hours
– Number of moons: 82
If you put Saturn in a bathtub it would float as Saturn has an average density that is less than water. You’d just need to find a bathtub big enough
When polymath Galileo Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an object with three parts: a planet and two large moons on either side. Not knowing he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped astronomer entered a small drawing a symbol with one large circle and two smaller ones in his notebook, as a noun in a sentence describing his discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they were rings.
The rings are made of ice and rock and scientists are not yet sure how they formed. The gaseous planet is mostly hydrogen and helium and has numerous moons.
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Dwarf Planets In Order From The Sun
Beyond Neptune is the trans-Neptunian region, which is where Pluto and several other dwarf planets are found. To date, this region is largely unexplored.
As mentioned above, a dwarf planet is in direct orbit of the Sun and has enough gravity to pull its mass into a round shape.
However, dwarf planets do not have sufficient gravity to attract or push away smaller bodies in order to clear their orbit and therefore, do not fit the definition of a planet .
The term dwarf planet, coined by Stern, was adopted by the IAU in 2006 as a category of sub-planetary objects.
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Could There Be Life On Mercury
Finding life on Mercury is extremely unlikely. Because of its proximity to the sun, the planet faces extreme temperatures and solar radiation all year round, making survival almost impossible.
The planet does not have a layered atmosphere like the Earth to retain heat, instead, it has a surface boundary exosphere meaning the surface temperatures vary from one extreme to the other, and range from -173 °C during the night to 427 °C in the daytime .
It is possible that microorganisms could have lived on the planet millions of years ago, but no living thing is believed to be able to survive on the planet today.
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Why Is Pluto Not A Planet
Not that long ago, Pluto was considered a planet in our Solar System, so why is it no longer the case?
Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930, and was officially classified as the ninth planet. It stayed this way until the 1990’s when some new discoveries were made thanks to better scientific equipment. One of these discoveries was the Kuiper Belt in 1992, where thousands of icy objects were found orbiting the sun.
The Kuiper Belt happens to be in the same region as Pluto, and many scientists started to wonder if Pluto should instead be classified as a large KBO rather than a planet.
When you think about it, Pluto is much smaller than the other eight planets and even smaller than several of our planetary moons. It is also very different in composition compared to the other planets, and cannot be in any of the three categories . On top of that, it has a huge moon, Charon, which does not orbit around Pluto but rather shares its orbit, making Pluto-Charon a double planetary system.
After reviewing all of these facts, scientists agreed that it was better to classify Pluto as the largest Kuiper Belt Object and not a planet. In 2006, after yet new discoveries , the IAU decided to create a new category of space objects, dwarf planets, where Pluto and four other objects were added.
Ancient And Medieval Observations
The ancient named Mars , the god of war and plague. During Sumerian times, Nergal was a minor deity of little significance, but, during later times, his main cult center was the city of . In Mesopotamian texts, Mars is referred to as the “star of judgement of the fate of the dead.” The existence of Mars as a wandering object in the night sky was also recorded by the ancient and, by 1534 BCE, they were familiar with the of the planet. By the period of the , the were making regular records of the positions of the planets and systematic observations of their behavior. For Mars, they knew that the planet made 37 , or 42 circuits of the zodiac, every 79 years. They invented arithmetic methods for making minor corrections to the predicted positions of the planets. In , the planet was known as . Commonly, the Greek name for the planet now referred to as Mars, was Ares. It was the Romans who named the planet Mars, for their god of war, often represented by the sword and shield of the planet’s namesake.
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What Is The Correct Order Of Objects In The Solar System From Smallest To Largest
To ensure that the list stays stuck, just think of something along the lines of Mercury Met Venus Every Night Until Saturn Jumped. Essentially, this indicates that the size of the planets in order from smallest to largest is Mercury, Mars, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter.
What is the order of size of our galaxy?
Size of our galaxy is of the order of 1020 metre.
Jupiter: The Largest Planet In Our Solar System
– Day: 9.8 Earth hours
– Number of moons: 79
Its swirling clouds are colorful due to different types of trace gases including ammonia ice, ammonium hydrosulfide crystals as well as water ice and vapor.
A famous feature in its swirling clouds is Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a giant storm more than 10,000 miles wide, first observed in 1831 by amateur astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. It has raged at more than 400 mph for the last 150 years, at least.
Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and with 75 moons, including the largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede.
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All Dwarf Planets In The Solar System
As of today, there are a total of five dwarf planets in the Solar System recognized by the IAU. They are Pluto, Ceres, Makemake, Haumea, and Eris. But what makes these objects dwarf planets and not planets?
Dwarf planets are large objects that are round and orbit the Sun, but have not cleared their orbital path from other similar objects. Each of these dwarf planets are located in the Kuiper Belt, besides Ceres which lies in the main asteroid belt.
Although only five dwarf planets have been officially classified so far, it is believed that several hundred more are present in the Solar System. Lets learn more about each of the five main dwarf planets. The order of the dwarf planets from closest to farthest from the Sun is Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
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Natural Satellites : 83
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Light speed from Sun: 82 min
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System. Just like Jupiter, it does not have a solid surface and is made entirely of gas.
Saturn is the most beloved planet in the Solar System, by both visual astronomers and amateur astrophotographers. Why? The rings of course!
Saturn has a total of 7 rings, each home to millions of chunks of ice and rocks orbiting the planet.
Saturns rings have gaps between them, one gap in particular, known as the Cassini Division, is very noticeable in both professional and amateur observations. The ring system is just about 30 feet thick, but extends up to 175,000 miles !
