Space matters

What is SpaceMatters?

SpaceMatters is a subject for space on PastryGirl.ca where you can learn about space...

Our Solar System

Our solar system has total of 13 Planets. We will discuss the first Eight ones. 

1) Mercury

2) Venus

3) Earth

4) Mars

5) Jupiter

6) Saturn

7) Uranus

8) Neptune

Now, what if you don't remember the order of the Planets?

My Very Elegant Mother Just Served Us Noodles

The letters in Capital will be used for the ordering

M for My is MERCURY

V for Very is VENUS

E for Elegant is EARTH

M for Mother is MARS

J for Just is JUPITER

S for Served is SATURN

U for Us is URANUS

N for Noodles is NEPTUNE

Mercury's Density is the second highest in he solar system at 5.427g/cm3 .  Geologists estimate that its core occupies about 42% of its volume. In addition, its crust believed to be 100-300 kms thick. The surface of the planet mercury is very similar to that of moon in the sense that it is rough and and full of craters and rocks. It is also very dry and dusty seeing that it is the closest to the sun.

Mass (kg)

3.3 x 1023

Diameter (km)

4879.4

Mean density (kg/m3)

5420

Escape velocity (m/s)

4300

Average distance from Sun 

0.387 AU (57,909,175 km)

Rotation period (length of day in Earth days)

58.65

Revolution period (length of year in Earth days)    

87.97

Obliquity (tilt of axis degrees)

0

Orbit inclination (degrees)

7

Orbit eccentricity (deviation from circular)

0.206

Mean surface temperature (K)

452 

Maximum surface temperature (K)

700

Minimum surface temperature (K)

100

Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity)

0.12

Largest known surface feature

Caloris Basin (1350 km diameter)

Atmospheric components

trace amounts of hydrogen and helium

Surface materials

basaltic and anorthositic rocks and regolith

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. After the moon, Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky. It can be seen in the morning sky as well. Venus is almost the same size of the Earth. Venus is also referred to the sister planet because of the same size. Venus is named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty because of it's brightness. 

Early Civilians 

Ancient civilizations knew Venus as "The Morning Star" and "The Evening Star", Based on the assumption that these were two separate objects. The Greeks too, thought of them as two separate stars, "Phosphorus" and "Hesperus". The Romans named the morning Venus "Lucifer", or Light-Bringer, and the evening one "Vesper". The Babylonians understood that the two were a single object. They referred to it as "The Queen of the sky" in their Tablet

Next is Earth, our home planet. Earth might be the only planet in the universe with living things. It's just a theory. Earth has 71% water and 29% land. Only one percent of the earth's water available to us for our daily water supply needs. Information from https://www.epa.gov

The Total surface area of the Earth is about 509 million km2. About 71 %, that is 360,000,000 km2, is covered by water and 29%, that is 149,000,000 km2, by land. 

Beginning of life 

It is said that the first life forms appeared between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years ago. They weren't humans but microscopic micro-organisms called Prokaryotes which were formed in water. See the geochronological scale below.

Today, we all are living in the Cenozoic Era (pronounced: seen-o-zoic). 

Formation of the moon

Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. When the earth was forming in the Solar system, it was very very hot. Some cluster of a planet came in big chunks and came near and near to the Earth. When Earth's temperature Started to cool down, it's atmosphere also started to form. And the cluster from space, began to orbit the Earth like a ring around it. When the Earth's atmosphere grew stronger, those chunks started to form into a sphere like shape. Thus, that cluster became our Satellite, known as Luna/Moon. 

Mars

Mars, also known as the 'Red planet'. Mars was named after the Roman God of war because of its blood-red color, which is caused by the rusty iron-rich rocks. 

Martian moons

 Mars has two, potato-shaped moons called Phobos and Deimos . They might be asteroids that were captured by mars long time ago. See Pictures of Phobos and Deimos below.

Is mars visible to the naked eye?

Yes. Mars reaches an opposition when there is a 180-degree difference between its geocentric longitudes and that of the Sun. every opposition has some significance because Mars becomes visible from Earth, all night, high and fully lit, but the ones of special interest occur when Mars is near the perihelion,because the this is when it is also the closest to Earth.

 Laws of Planetary Motion

German astronomer Johannes Kepler made 3 laws of Planetary Motion. It was discovered that Mars's orbit is circular but Mars follows an elliptical path. This happened because his model with a circular orbit did not match the observations of Mars.

Mass: 641,693,000,000,000 billion kg

Equatorial diameter: 6,805

Equatorial circumference: 21,297 km 

Notable moons: Phobos and Deimos

Orbit period: 686.98 Earth Days (1.88 Earth Days)

Surface Temperature: -87 degrees to -5 degrees Celsius 

These were the Terrestrial planets. What are those? I can't pronounce this funny thing 'Terrestrial' 

Terrestrial (te-rest-tree-ul) planets are planets which:

     1. Must have a Solid surface

     2. Are medium in size

     3. Have very few or no moons

     4. Don’t have ring systems

Now we come to the Jovian Planets. 

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar system. It is one of the Gas Giants. 

Illumination of Jupiter

Because the orbit of Jupiter is outside that of Earth's, the planet always always appears nearly fully illuminated when viewed through Earth-based telescopes.

Jupiter's Geography 

Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly made of Gases like Hydrogen and Helium, like the Sun.  

Jupiter's Moon 

Jupiter's Moons are The largest in the whole solar system. The moons that are noticeable are  Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto... 

Ganymede is the largest moon in the whole solar system and the 7th largest object in the solar system. 

Saturn

Saturn is the second Gas giant and the second Largest Planet in the Solar system. It is known for its Beautiful Rings around it. Saturn has the most number of moons in the whole solar system. It has 82 moons of which 29 are being confirmed and 59 moons are confirmed. One of its moons, i.e. Titan, is larger than the planet, Mercury. While other Jovians also have a ring system, Saturn's are larger and more visible than any other in the solar system. The rings are composed of Water Ice-crystals and a smaller amount of rock, ranging in size from specks of dust to a few particles to the size of large mountains. -Information form TheSolarSystemScope 

Saturn's rings 

Saturn has the most rings in the solar system. It is made of chunks of rocks and ice, dust and other rocky stuff. The planet is orbited by 82 moons out of which 53 are officially named. The planet's rings were first seen by Galileo in 1610 with the help of his telescope. He explained that the rings looked like ears sticking out of Saturn through his telescope!

Life on Titan!?

Even though, Titan is a very chilly place 🥶(with a temp. of -179.6 degrees celsius, or 93.6 kelvin), some organizations say that Titan is the most sociable and strange moon in our solar system. Titan is said to have frozen rivers, rain, clouds, lakes and seas made of methane and ethane. We might even need to carry a lot of perfumes and scented candles because methane doesn't smell that good. 

Spacecrafts on Saturn

Cassini, a space craft, reached Saturn in the year 2004. It was the first spacecraft ever to orbit Saturn. It started orbiting Saturn from 2004 and continued upto 2017. It orbited Saturn for 13 years! 

Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. Uranus receives very little heat or light from the sun, so, it is very cold. Uranus is also known as the upside down planet. As you will see, it's rigs are at the top and bottom of the planet, and not at the left and right sides. Some scientists think that a huge rock like object may have crashed with Uranus, causing it to turn over. It also spins in the opposte direction that Earth does. It takes 84 earth years for uranus to orbit around the sun. If we sent a spacecraft from earth to uranus, it would take more than 8 years for the spacecraft to reach uranus. It is nown to have 27 moons until now and they are named after the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. 

Structure of Uranus

Uranus' primary composition is of Hydrogen and Helium, but it is also made up of 'ices' made of water, methane and ammonia. It is the coldest planet in the solar system, with the temp. of 49 K (-224.15 degrees Celsius)

Jupiter's Moon 

Jupiter's Moons are The largest in the whole solar system. The moons that are noticeable are  Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto... 

Ganymede is the largest moon in the whole solar system and the 7th largest object in the solar system. 

Saturn

Saturn is the second Gas giant and the second Largest Planet in the Solar system. It is known for its Beautiful Rings around it. Saturn has the most number of moons in the whole solar system. It has 82 moons of which 29 are being confirmed and 59 moons are confirmed. One of its moons, i.e. Titan, is larger than the planet, Mercury. While other Jovians also have a ring system, Saturn's are larger and more visible than any other in the solar system. The rings are composed of Water Ice-crystals and a smaller amount of rock, ranging in size from specks of dust to a few particles to the size of large mountains. -Information form TheSolarSystemScope 

Saturn's rings 

Saturn has the most rings in the solar system. It is made of chunks of rocks and ice, dust and other rocky stuff. The planet is orbited by 82 moons out of which 53 are officially named. The planet's rings were first seen by Galileo in 1610 with the help of his telescope. He explained that the rings looked like ears sticking out of Saturn through his telescope!

Life on Titan!?

Even though, Titan is a very chilly place 🥶(with a temp. of -179.6 degrees celsius, or 93.6 kelvin), some organizations say that Titan is the most sociable and strange moon in our solar system. Titan is said to have frozen rivers, rain, clouds, lakes and seas made of methane and ethane. We might even need to carry a lot of perfumes and scented candles because methane doesn't smell that good. 

Spacecrafts on Saturn

Cassini, a space craft, reached Saturn in the year 2004. It was the first spacecraft ever to orbit Saturn. It started orbiting Saturn from 2004 and continued upto 2017. It orbited Saturn for 13 years! 

Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. Uranus receives very little heat or light from the sun, so, it is very cold. Uranus is also known as the upside down planet. As you will see, it's rigs are at the top and bottom of the planet, and not at the left and right sides. Some scientists think that a huge rock like object may have crashed with Uranus, causing it to turn over. It also spins in the opposte direction that Earth does. It takes 84 earth years for uranus to orbit around the sun. If we sent a spacecraft from earth to uranus, it would take more than 8 years for the spacecraft to reach uranus. It is nown to have 27 moons until now and they are named after the characters from William Shakespeare's plays. 

Structure of Uranus

Uranus' primary composition is of Hydrogen and Helium, but it is also made up of 'ices' made of water, methane and ammonia. It is the coldest planet in the solar system, with the temp. of 49 K (-224.15 degrees Celsius) 

Discovery of Uranus

Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus on 13 March, 1781. He thought that this greenish-blue star he was lokking through his homemade telescope, was a comet. But a year later, it was confirmed that it was a planet.