OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM The Sun, Planets and Dwarf Planets

FACTS ABOUT OUR SOLAR SYSTEM  

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The Solar System consists of the Sun and its planetary system of eight planets, their moons, and other non-stellar objects. It formed 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun, with most of the remaining mass contained in Jupiter. The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, called the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants". All planets have almost circular orbits.

THE SUN 

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Evidence suggests that the Sun's position on the main sequence puts it in the "prime of life" for a star, in that it has not yet exhausted its store of hydrogen for nuclear fusion. The Sun is growing brighter; early in its history it was 70 percent as bright as it is today. The Sun is was born in the later stages of the universe's evolution, and thus contains more elements heavier than hydrogen and helium ("metals" in astronomical parlance) than older population II stars. Elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed in the cores of ancient and exploding stars, so the first generation of stars had to die before the universe could be enriched with these atoms. The oldest stars contain few metals, while stars born later have more. This high metallicity is thought to have been crucial to the Sun's developing a planetary system, because planets form from accretion of "metals".

PLANETS CLOSE TO THE SUN  

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MERCURY Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, the distance between them is 0.4 AU It is the smallest planet in our Solar System (0.055 Earth masses) It doesn’t have any natural satellites It has a relatively large iron core and thin mantle, which have not been adequately explained yet

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VENOUS Venous is 0.7 AU close to the Sun It is close in size to Earth (0.8015 Earth masses) It has no natural satellites It is the hottest planet in our Solar System, 400 °C and it’s also much drier than Earth It has no magnetic field

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EARTH Earth is 1 AU close to the Sun It is the largest and the densest of the four planets, Mercury, Venous, Mars It is the only planet that in our Solar System where life exist It’s the only planet where water can be found It’s atmosphere is different from the other planets, because it contains 21% oxygen in order to life existence It has a natural satellite, Moon.

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MARS

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Mars is 1.5AU away from the Sun It is smaller than Earth (0.5 Earth masses) It’s atmosphere contains mostly carbon dioxide It’s surface pressure is 6.1 millibars (0.6 percent of Earth’s) It’s red color is from the iron oxide It has two natural satellites, Deimos and Phobos, which are very tiny

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PLANETS FAR FROM THE SUN 

JUPITER

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Jupiter (5.2 AU), at 318 Earth masses, is 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets put together. It is composed largely of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's strong internal heat creates a number of semi-permanent features in its atmosphere, such as cloud bands and the Great Red Spot. Jupiter has 67 known satellites. The four largest, Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, show similarities to the terrestrial planets, such as volcanism and internal heating. Ganymede, the largest satellite in the Solar System, is larger than Mercury.

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SATURN Saturn (9.5 AU), distinguished by its extensive ring system, has several similarities to Jupiter, such as its atmospheric composition and magnetosphere. Although Saturn has 60% of Jupiter's volume, it is less than a third as massive, at 95 Earth masses, making it the least dense planet in the Solar System. The rings of Saturn are made up of small ice and rock particles. Saturn has 62 confirmed satellites; two of which, Titan and Enceladus, show signs of geological activity, though they are largely made of ice. Titan, the second-largest moon in the Solar System, is larger than Mercury and the only satellite in the Solar System with a substantial atmosphere.

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URANUS Uranus (19.6 AU), at 14 Earth masses, is the lightest of the outer planets. Uniquely among the planets, it orbits the Sun on its side; its axial tilt is over ninety degrees to the ecliptic. It has a much colder core than the other gas giants, and radiates very little heat into space. Uranus has 27 known satellites, the largest ones being Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda.

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NEPTUNE Neptune (30 AU), though slightly smaller than Uranus, is more massive (equivalent to 17 Earths) and therefore more dense. It radiates more internal heat, but not as much as Jupiter or Saturn. Neptune has 13 known satellites. The largest, Triton, is geologically active, with geysers of liquid nitrogen. Triton is the only large satellite with a retrograde orbit. Neptune is accompanied in its orbit by a number of minor planets, termed Neptune trojans, that are in 1:1 resonance with it.

DWARF PLANETS

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A dwarf planet, as defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is a celestial body in direct orbit of the Sun that is massive enough that its shape is controlled by gravitational forces rather than mechanical forces (and is thus an ellipsoid), but has not cleared the neighboring region of other objects. More explicitly, it is a planetary-mass object—it has sufficient mass to overcome its internal compressive strength and achieve hydrostatic equilibrium—but is neither a planet nor a satellite. The term dwarf planet was adopted in 2006 as part of a three-way categorization of bodies orbiting the Sun, brought about by an increase in discoveries of trans-Neptunian objects that rivaled Pluto in size, and finally precipitated by the discovery of an even more massive object, Eris.

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PLUTO Pluto is 39 AU away of Sun It is the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt It was discovered in 1930 It is no longer thought to be a normal planet in our Solar System, but a dwarf It’s largest moon, Charon, has an almost same mass with it

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MAKEMAKE Makemake is 45.79 AU away from the Sun It is smaller than Pluto It is the brightest object in Kuiper belt after Pluto It was named a dwarf planet in 2008

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HAUMEA The distance between Haumea and Sun is 43.13 AU It is about the same size as Makemake It has two natural satellites It was named a dwarf planet in 2008