Planet Neptun: Facts About Neptune

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and last of the known planets. While it is the third largest planet with respect to mass, it is only the fourth largest in terms of diameter. Due to its blue coloration, Neptune was named after the Roman god of the Sea.


Planet Profile

Equatorial Diameter: 49,528 km
Polar Diameter: 48,682 km
Mass: 1.02 × 10^26 kg (17 Earths)
Moons: 14 (Triton)
Rings: 5
Orbit Distance: 4,498,396,441 km (30.10 AU)
Orbit Period: 60,190 days (164.8 years)
Surface Temperature: -201 °C
Discovery Date: September 23rd 1846
Discovered By: Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Galle


Size Of Neptune Compared To The Earth

Facts About Neptune

It takes Neptune 164.8 Earth years to orbit the Sun. On 11 July 2011, Neptune completed its first full orbit since its discovery in 1846.
Neptune was discovered by Jean Joseph Le Verrier. The planet was not known to ancient civilizations because it is not visible to the naked eye. The planet was initially called Le Verrier after its discoverer. This name, however, quickly was abandoned and the name Neptune was chosen instead.
Neptune is the Roman God of the Sea. In Greek, Neptune is called Poseidon.
Neptune has the second largest gravity of any planet in the solar system – second only to Jupiter.
The orbit path of Neptune is approximately 30 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. This means it is around 30 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The largest Neptunian moon, Triton, was discovered just 17 days after Neptune itself was discovered.
Neptune has a storm similar the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. It is commonly known as the Great Dark Spot and is roughly the size of Earth.
Neptune also has a second storm called the Small Dark Spot. This storm is around the same size as Earth’s moon.
Neptune spins very quickly on its axis. The planets equatorial clouds take 18 hours to complete one rotation. The reason this happens is that Neptune does not have a solid body.
Only one spacecraft, the Voyager 2, has flown past Neptune. It happened in 1989 and captured the first close-up images of the Neptunian system. It took 246 minutes – four hours and six minutes – for signals from Voyager 2 to reach back to Earth.
The climate on Neptune is extremely active. In its upper atmosphere, large storms sweep across it and high-speed solar winds track around the planet at up to 1,340 km per second. The largest storm was the Great Dark Spot in 1989 which lasted for around five years.
Like the other outer planets, Neptune possesses a ring system, though its rings are very faint. They are most likely made up of ice particles and grains of dust with a carbon-based substance coating them.
Neptune has 14 known moons. The largest of these moons is Titan – a frozen world which spits out particles of nitrogen ice and dust from below its surface. It is believed that Titan was caught by the immense gravitational pull of Neptune and is regarded as one of the coldest worlds in our solar system.
Neptune has an average surface temperature of -214°C – approximately -353°F.
MORE INFORMATION AND FACTS ABOUT NEPTUNE

When scientific discoveries are made there is often a debate (sometimes heated) as to who deserves credit. The discovery of Neptune is one such example. Shortly after the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, scientists noticed that its orbit had significant fluctuations that were not expected. To solve this mystery, they proposed the existence of another planet whose gravitational field would account for such orbital variances.

In 1845, the English astronomer John Couch Adams completed his calculations as to the position of this unknown planet. Although he submitted his findings to the Royal Society (the leading English scientific organization), his work was met with little interest. However, a year later the French astronomer Jean Joseph Le Verrier made known his calculations that were strikingly similar to those of Adams. As a result of the two men’s independent estimates being so close, the scientific community took notice and began its search for the planet in the region of the sky Adams and Le Verrier had predicted. On September 23, 1846, the German astronomer Johann Gall observed the new planet near to where Adam’s calculations had forecasted and even closer to those of Le Verrier.

Le Verrier was initially given credit for the discovery. As a result, an international dispute arose, with one faction championing Adams and the other Le Verrier. This conflict, however, was not shared between the two men themselves. Eventually, the campaign for each side cooled, and both men were given credit.

Until the Voyager 2 spacecraft fly-by in 1989, little was known about Neptune. This mission provided new information about Neptune’s rings, number of moons, atmosphere and rotation. Additionally, Voyager 2 discovered significant features of the moon Triton. There are no official planetary missions scheduled to Neptune in the near future.

ATMOSPHERE

Neptune’s upper atmosphere is composed of 80% hydrogen (H2), 19% helium and trace amounts of methane. Similar to Uranus, the blue coloration of Neptune is due in part to its atmospheric methane, which absorbs light having a wavelength corresponding to red. Unlike Uranus, Neptune is a deeper blue, and, therefore, some other atmospheric component must be present in the Neptunian atmosphere that is not found in Uranus’ atmosphere.

Two significant weather patterns have been observed on Neptune. The first, seen during the Voyager 2 fly-by mission, are the Dark Spots. These are storms comparable to the Great Red Spot found on Jupiter. However, a difference between these storms is their duration. Whereas the Great Red Spot has lasted for centuries, the Dark Spots are much more shortly lived as is evident by their disappearance when Neptune was viewed by the Hubble Space Telescope just four years after the Voyager 2 fly-by.

The second of the two weather patterns observed by Voyager 2 is the swiftly moving white storm system, nicknamed Scooter. This type of storm system, which is much smaller than the Dark Spots, also appears to be short-lived.

As with the other gas giants, Neptune’s atmosphere is divided into latitudinal bands. The wind speed achieved in some of these bands is almost 600 m/s, the fastest known in the Solar System.

INTERIOR

The interior of Neptune, similar to that of Uranus, is made of two layers: a core and mantle. The core is rocky and estimated to be 1.2 times as massive as the Earth. The mantle is an extremely hot and dense liquid composed of water, ammonia and methane. The mantle is between ten to fifteen times the mass of the Earth.

Although Neptune and Uranus share similar interiors, they are, however, quite distinct in one way. Whereas Uranus emits only about the same amount of heat that it receives from the Sun, Neptune emits nearly 2.61 times the amount of the sunlight it receives. To place this in perspective, the two planets’ surface temperatures are approximately equal, yet Neptune receives only 40% of the sunlight that Uranus does. Additionally, this large internal heat is also what powers the extreme winds found in the upper atmosphere.

ORBIT & ROTATION

With the discovery of Neptune, the size of the known Solar System increased by a factor of two. With an average orbital distance of 4.50 x 109 km, it takes sunlight almost four hours and forty minutes to reach Neptune. Moreover, this distance also means that a Neptunian year lasts about 165 Earth years!

Neptune’s orbital eccentricity of .0097 is second smallest behind that of Venus. This small eccentricity means that the orbit of Neptune is very close to being circular. Another way of looking at this is to compare Neptune’s perihelion of 4.46 x 109 km and its aphelion of 4.54 x 109 km and notice that this is a difference of less than two percent.

Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune rotates very quickly as compared to the terrestrial planets. With a rotational period of a little over 16 hours, Neptune has the third shortest day in the Solar System.

The axial tilt of Neptune is 28.3°, which is relatively close to the Earth’s 23.5°. What is amazing is that, even at such a far distance from the Sun, Neptune still experiences seasons (though more subtly) similar to those on Earth as a result of its axial tilt.

RINGS

Currently, Neptune is known to have thirteen moons. Of these thirteen only one is large and spherical in shape. This moon, Triton, is believed to have originally been a dwarf planet captured by Neptune’s gravitational field, and, thus, not a natural satellite of the planet. Evidence for this theory comes from Triton’s retrograde orbit of Neptune; that is, Triton orbits in the opposite direction that Neptune rotates. With a recorded surface temperature of -235° C, Triton is the coldest known object in the Solar System.


Neptune has three major rings&#8212Adams, Le Verrier and Galle. This ring system is much fainter than that of the other gas giants. In fact, some of the rings are so dim that it was believed at one time that they were incomplete. However, images from the Voyager 2 fly-bys show extremely faint rings.

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Planet Uranus: Facts About Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It’s not visible to the naked eye, and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. Uranus is tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees. It is often described as “rolling around the Sun on its side.”


Uranus Planet Profile

Equatorial Diameter: 51,118 km
Polar Diameter: 49,946 km
Mass: 8.68 × 10^25 kg (15 Earths)
Moons: 27 (Miranda, Titania, Ariel, Umbriel & Oberon)
Rings: 13
Orbit Distance: 2,870,658,186 km (19.22 AU)
Orbit Period: 30,687 days (84.0 years)
Surface Temperature: -197 °C
Discovery Date: March 13th 1781
Discovered By: William Herschel

Size Of Uranus Compared To The Earth

Facts About Uranus

Uranus was officially discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781:
It is too dim to have been seen by the ancients. At first Herschel thought it was a comet, but several years later it was confirmed as a planet. Herscal tried to have his discovery named “Georgian Sidus” after King George III. The name Uranus was suggested by astronomer Johann Bode. The name comes from the ancient Greek deity Ouranos.

Uranus turns on its axis once every 17 hours, 14 minutes:
The planet rotates in a retrograde direction, opposite to the way Earth and most other planets turn.

Uranus makes one trip around the Sun every 84 Earth years:

During some parts of its orbit one or the other of its poles point directly at the Sun and get about 42 years of direct sunlight. The rest of the time they are in darkness.

Uranus is often referred to as an “ice giant” planet:
Like the other gas giants, it has a hydrogen upper layer, which has helium mixed in. Below that is an icy “mantle, which surrounds a rock and ice core. The upper atmosphere is made of water, ammonia and the methane ice crystals that give the planet its pale blue color.

Uranus hits the coldest temperatures of any planet:
With minimum atmospheric temperature of -224°C Uranus is nearly coldest planet in the solar system. While Neptune doesn’t get as cold as Uranus it is on average colder. The upper atmosphere of Uranus is covered by a methane haze which hides the storms that take place in the cloud decks.

Uranus has two sets of rings of very thin set of dark coloured rings:
The ring particles are small, ranging from a dust-sized particles to small boulders. There are eleven inner rings and two outer rings. They probably formed when one or more of Uranus’s moons were broken up in an impact. The first rings were discovered in 1977 with the two outer rings being discovered in Hubble Space Telescope images between 2003 and 2005.

Uranus’ moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare and Alaxander Pope:
These include Oberon, Titania and Miranda.  All are frozen worlds with dark surfaces. Some are ice and rock mixtures.  The most interesting Uranian moon is Miranda; it has ice canyons, terraces, and other strange-looking surface areas.

Only one spacecraft has flown by Uranus:
In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft swept past the planet at a distance of 81,500 km. It returned the first close-up images of the planet, its moons, and rings.


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Planet Saturn: FACTS ABOUT SATURN

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and second largest planet of the Solar System in terms of diameter and mass. If compared, it is easy to see why Saturn and Jupiter have been designated as relatives. From atmospheric composition to rotation, these two planets are extremely similar. Because of these factors, Saturn was named after the father of the god Jupiter in Roman mythology.


Planet Profile

Equatorial Diameter: 120,536 km
Polar Diameter: 108,728 km
Mass: 5.68 × 10^26 kg (95 Earths)
Moons: 62 (Titan, Enceladus, Iapetus & Rhea)
Rings: 30+ (7 Groups)
Orbit Distance: 1,426,666,422 km (9.58 AU)
Orbit Period: 10,756 days (29.5 years)
Surface Temperature: -139 °C
First Record: 8th century BC
Recorded By: Assyrians



SIZE OF SATURN COMPARED TO THE EARTH

FACTS ABOUT SATURN

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, and last of the planets known to ancient civilizations. It was known to the Babylonians and Far Eastern observer.
Saturn is one of five planets able to be seen with the naked eye. It is also the fifth brightest object in the solar system.
In Roman mythology Saturn was the father of Jupiter, king of the gods. This relationship makes sense given that the planets Saturn and Jupiter are similar in so many respects, including size and composition. The Greek counterpart is known as Cronus.
The most common nickname for Saturn is “The Ringed Planet”, a nickname arising from the large, beautiful and extensive ring system that encircles the planet. These rings are mostly made from chunks of ice and carbonaceous dust. They stretch out more than 12,700 km from the planet but are only a mere 20 meters thick.
Saturn gives off more energy than it receives from the Sun. This unusual quality is believed to be generated from the gravitational compression of the planet combined with the friction from large amount of helium found within its atmosphere.
It takes Saturn 29.4 Earth years to orbit the Sun. This slow movement against a backdrop of stars led to the planet being nicknamed “Lubadsagush” – or “oldest of the old” – by the ancient Assyrians.
Saturn has the fastest winds of any other planet in our solar system. These winds have been measured at approximately 1,800 km per hour (1,100 miles per hour).
Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system. It is made mostly of hydrogen and has a density which is less than water – which technically means that Saturn would float. The layers of hydrogen get denser further into the planet, eventually becoming metallic and leading to a hot interior core.
Saturn has 150 moons and smaller moonlets. All of these moons are frozen – the largest of which are Titan and Rhea. The moon Enceladus also appears to have an ocean hidden below its frozen surface.
Saturn’s moon Titan is the second largest moon in the Solar System, behind Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. It has a complex and dense atmosphere made mostly of nitrogen and is composed from water ice and rock. The frozen surface of Titan has liquid methane lakes and a landscape which is covered with frozen nitrogen. It is possible that Titan may be a harbour for life – but that life would not be similar to life on Earth.
Saturn is the flattest of the eight planets. With a polar diameter that is 90% of its equatorial diameter, Saturn is the flattest of all the planets. This is because of the planet’s low density and fast rotation speed – it takes Saturn 10 hours and 34 minutes to turn on its axis.
Saturn has oval shaped storms which are similar to those of Jupiter. Scientists believe that the hexadiagonal-shaped pattern of clouds around Saturn’s north pole may be a wave pattern in the upper clouds. There is also a vortex over the south pole which resembles hurricane storms on Earth.
Saturn appears a pale yellow color because its upper atmosphere contains ammonia crystals. Below this top layer of ammonia ice are clouds that are largely water ice. Even further below that are layers of sulfur ice and cold hydrogen mixtures.
Saturn has been visited by four spacecraft. These are Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2 and the Cassini-Huygen mission. Cassini entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004 and continues to send back information about the planet, its ring and many moons.
The magnetic field on Saturn is slighter weaker than Earth’s magnetic field. Saturn’s magnetic field strength is around one-twentieth the strength of Jupiter’s
Saturn is known as a gas giant, but scientists believe it has a solid rocky core surrounded by hydrogen and helium
Saturn and Jupiter combined account for 92% of the entire planetary mass in the solar system.
The interior of Saturn is very hot, reaching temperatures of up to 11,700°C (21,000 °F).
Saturn is 1,424,600,000 km from the Sun. This is around 0.9 billion miles.

MORE INFORMATION AND FACTS ABOUT SATURN

Other than Earth, Saturn is easily the most recognizable planet in the Solar System. The reason for this is obvious. Although the other gas giants possess a planetary ring system, none can match the size or beauty of the one found encircling Saturn.

Saturn is the last of the planets known to ancient civilizations. It is also one of the least understood in modern times. With the Cassini-Huygens planetary mission that is currently underway, scientists hope to not only learn more about Saturn, but also Saturn’s moons and its planetary ring system.

ATMOSPHERE

Saturn’s atmosphere is composed of roughly 96% hydrogen and 4% helium, with trace amounts of ammonia, acetylene, ethane, phosphine and methane. It has a thickness of approximately 60 km. In the highest layer of the atmosphere, wind speeds reach 1,800 km/h, easily some of the fastest in the entire Solar System.

Although not as visible as those seen on Jupiter, Saturn does possess a horizontally banded cloud pattern. Furthermore, these bands are considerably wider near Saturn’s equator than those found at Jupiter’s equator. These cloud patterns were unknown until the Voyager missions beginning in the 1970s. Since that time, technology has increased to the point that Earth-based telescopes can now view them.

Another fascinating phenomenon that can be found in Saturn’s atmosphere is the appearance of great white spots. These are storms on Saturn, which are analogous to the Great Red Spot found on Jupiter, though they are much shorter lived. The Hubble Space Telescope observed such a storm in 1990, though it was not present when the Voyager spacecraft had flown by in 1981. Based on historical observations, it appears that these storms are periodic in nature, occurring approximately once per Saturnian orbit.

INTERIOR

The interior of Saturn is believed to be extremely similar to Jupiter’s in the composition of its three layers. The innermost layer is a rocky core between 10-20 times as massive as the Earth. The core is encased in a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen. The outermost layer is composed of molecular hydrogen (H2). The only significant difference between the interiors of Saturn and Jupiter is thought to be the thickness of the two outer layers. Whereas Jupiter has a metallic hydrogen layer of 46,000 km and molecular hydrogen layer of is 12,200 km, those same layers on Saturn have a thickness of 14,500 km and 18,500 km, respectively.

Saturn, like Jupiter, emits approximately 2.5 times more radiation than it receives from the Sun. This is due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism, which essentially creates energy through gravitational compression of the planet due to its enormous mass. However, unlike Jupiter, the total amount of energy emitted cannot be accounted for through this process alone. Instead, scientists have suggested that the planet generates additional heat through the friction of helium rain.

A unique feature of Saturn is that it is the least dense planet in the Solar System. Although Saturn may have a dense, solid core, the large gaseous outer layer of the planet makes its average density a mere 687 kg/m3. As result, Saturn is lighter than water.

ORBIT & ROTATION

The average orbital distance of Saturn is 1.43 x 109 km. This means that Saturn is, on average, about 9.5 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The result of such a long distance is that it takes sunlight about an hour and twenty minutes to reach Saturn. Moreover, given Saturn’s distance from the Sun, it has a year lasting 10,756 Earth days; that is, about 29.5 Earth years.

At .0560, Saturn’s orbital eccentricity is the third greatest behind Mercury’s and Mars’. The effect of this large eccentricity is a substantial distance between the planet’s perihelion (1.35 x 109 km) aphelion (1.50 x 109 km) of about 1.54 X 108 km.

Saturn’s axial tilt of 26.73 is very similar to the Earth’s. Thus Saturn also experiences seasons like the Earth. However, due to Saturn’s distance from the Sun, it receives significantly less solar radiation year-round, and so Saturn’s season are much more subtle than those on Earth.

Much like Jupiter, Saturn is very interesting when it comes to its rotation. Having a rotational speed of roughly 10 hours 45 minutes, Saturn is second only to Jupiter for the fastest rotation in the Solar System. This extreme rotation causes the planet’s shape to take on the shape of an oblate spheroid; i.e. a sphere that bulges near its equator.

A second feature of Saturn’s rotation is the different rotational speeds found between the different visible latitudes. This phenomenon is due to Saturn being primarily gaseous rather than solid.

RINGS

The ring system of Saturn is the most prominent found in the Solar System. They are composed primarily of billions of tiny ice particles, with traces of dust and other debris. This composition explains why the rings are visible to Earth-based telescopes—ice is very reflective of sunlight.

There are seven broad classifications among the rings: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, each receiving its name in the order it was discovered. The main rings most visible from Earth are A, B and C. Each ring is really just a collection of thousands of smaller rings packed very closely together. Furthermore, between each ring there are gaps. At 4,700 km and occurring between rings A and B, Cassani is the largest of these gaps.

The main rings begin roughly 7,000 km above Saturn’s equator and extend out another 73,000 km. Interestingly, though this radius is substantial, the actual thickness of the rings is no more than about one kilometer.


The most common theory used to explain the formation of the rings is that a medium-sized moon orbiting Saturn broke apart due to tidal forces when its orbit became too close to Saturn.

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Planet Jupiter: Facts About Jupiter

The planet Jupiter is the fifth planet out from the Sun, and is two and a half times more massive than all the other planets in the solar system combined. It is made primarily of gases and is therefore known as a “gas giant”.


Jupiter Planet Profile
Equatorial Diameter: 142,984 km
Polar Diameter: 133,709 km
Mass: 1.90 × 10^27 kg (318 Earths)
Moons: 67 (Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto)
Rings: 4
Orbit Distance: 778,340,821 km (5.20 AU)
Orbit Period: 4,333 days (11.9 years)
Surface Temperature: -108°C
First Record: 7th or 8th century BC
Recorded By: Babylonian astronomers

Size Of Jupiter Compared To The Earth

Facts About Jupiter

Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system:
Only the Sun, Moon and Venus are brighter. It is one of five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth.

The ancient Babylonians were the first to record their sightings of Jupiter:
This was around the 7th or 8th century BC. Jupiter is named after the king of the Roman gods. To the Greeks, it represented Zeus, the god of thunder. The Mesopotamians saw Jupiter as the god Marduk and patron of the city of Babylon. Germanic tribes saw this planet as Donar, or Thor.

Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets:
It turns on its axis once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. The rapid rotation flattens the planet slightly, giving it an oblate shape.

Jupiter orbits the Sun once every 11.8 Earth years:
From our point of view on Earth, it appears to move slowly in the sky, taking months to move from one constellation to another.

Jupiter has unique cloud features:
The upper atmosphere of Jupiter is divided into cloud belts and zones. They are made primarily of ammonia crystals, sulfur, and mixtures of the two compounds.

The Great Red Spot is a huge storm on Jupiter:
It has raged for at least 350 years. It is so large that three Earths could fit inside it.

Jupiter’s interior is made of rock, metal, and hydrogen compounds:
Below Jupiter’s massive atmosphere (which is made primarily of hydrogen), there are layers of compressed hydrogen gas, liquid metallic hydrogen, and a core of ice, rock, and metals.

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system:
Jupiter’s moons are sometimes called the Jovian satellites, the largest of these are Ganymeade, Callisto Io and Europa. Ganymeade measures 5,268 km across, making it larger than the planet Mercury.

Jupiter has a thin ring system:
Its rings are composed mainly of dust particles ejected from some of Jupiter’s smaller worlds during impacts from incoming comets and asteroids. The ring system begins some 92,000 kilometres above Jupiter’s cloud tops and stretches out to more than 225,000 km from the planet. They are between 2,000 to 12,500 kilometres thick.

Eight spacecraft have visited Jupiter:
Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini, Ulysses, and New Horizons missions. The Juno mission is its way to Jupiter and will arrive in July 2016. Other future missions may focus on the Jovian moons Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, and their subsurface oceans.



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Planet Mars: Facts About Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Named after the Roman god of war, and often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide.

Mars Planet Profile
Mass: 0.642 x 10^24 kg (0.107 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 6,805 km
Polar Diameter: 6,755 km
Equatorial Circumference: 21,297 km
Known Moons: 2
Notable Moons: Phobos & Deimos
Orbit Distance: 227,943,824 km (1.38 AU)
Orbit Period: 686.98 Earth days (1.88 Earth years)
Surface Temperature: -87 to -5 °C
First Record: 2nd millennium BC
Recorded By: Egyptian astronomers

Size Of Mars Compared To The Earth

Facts About Mars
Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass:
Even though Mars has only 15% of the Earth’s volume and just over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s (meaning you could leap nearly three times higher on Mars).

Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system:
Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600km in diameter. Despite having formed over billions of years, evidence from volcanic lava flows is so recent many scientists believe it could still be active.

Only 18 missions to Mars have been successful
As of September 2014 there have been 40 missions to Mars, including orbiters, landers and rovers but not counting flybys. The most recent arrivals include the Mars Curiosity mission in 2012, the MAVEN mission, which arrived on September 22, 2014, followed by the Indian Space Research Organization’s MOM Mangalyaan orbiter, which arrived on September 24, 2014. The next missions to arrive will be the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, comprising an orbiter, lander, and a rover, followed by NASA’s InSight robotic lander mission, slated for launch in March 2016 and a planned arrival in September, 2016.

Mars has the largest dust storms in the solar system:
They can last for months and cover the entire planet. The seasons are extreme because its elliptical (oval-shaped) orbital path around the Sun is more elongated than most other planets in the solar system.

On Mars the Sun appears about half the size as it does on Earth:
At the closest point to the Sun, the Martian southern hemisphere leans towards the Sun, causing a short, intensely hot summer, while the northern hemisphere endures a brief, cold winter: at its farthest point from the Sun, the Martian northern hemisphere leans towards the Sun, causing a long, mild summer, while the southern hemisphere endures a lengthy, cold winter.

Mars Distance from the Sun
Mars Distance from the Sun & Orbital Eccentricity
Pieces of Mars have fallen to Earth:
Scientists have found tiny traces of Martian atmosphere within meteorites violently ejected from Mars, then orbiting the solar system amongst galactic debris for millions of years, before crash landing on Earth. This allowed scientists to begin studying Mars prior to launching space missions.

Mars takes its name from the Roman god of war:
The ancient Greeks called the planet Ares, after their god of war; the Romans then did likewise, associating the planet’s blood-red colour with Mars, their own god of war. Interestingly, other ancient cultures also focused on colour – to China’s astronomers it was ‘the fire star’, whilst Egyptian priests called on ‘Her Desher’, or ‘the red one’. The red colour Mars is known for is due to the rock and dust covering its surface being rich in iron.

There are signs of liquid water on Mars:
For years Mars has been known to have water in the form of ice. The first signs of trickling water are dark stripes or stains on crater wall and cliffs seen in satellite images. Due to Mars’ atmosphere this water would have to be salty to prevent it from freezing or vaporising.

One day Mars will have a ring:
In the next 20-40 million years Mars’ largest moon Phobos will be torn apart by gravitational forces leading to the creation of a ring that could last up to 100 million years.


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Planet Earth: Facts About Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets. The Earth is the only planet in our solar system not to be named after a Greek or Roman deity. The Earth was formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago and is the only known planet to support life.

Planet Profile
Mass: 5,972,190,000,000,000 billion kg
Equatorial Diameter: 12,756 km
Polar Diameter: 12,714 km
Equatorial Circumference: 40,030 km
Known Moons: 1
Notable Moons: The Moon
Orbit Distance: 149,598,262 km (1 AU)
Orbit Period: 365.26 Earth days
Surface Temperature: -88 to 58°C

Size Of The Earth Compared To The Moon

Facts About The Earth
The Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing:
This deceleration is happening almost imperceptibly, at approximately 17 milliseconds per hundred years, although the rate at which it occurs is not perfectly uniform. This has the effect of lengthening our days, but it happens so slowly that it could be as much as 140 million years before the length of a day will have increased to 25 hours.

The Earth was once believed to be the centre of the universe:
Due to the apparent movements of the Sun and planets in relation to their viewpoint, ancient scientists insisted that the Earth remained static, whilst other celestial bodies travelled in circular orbits around it. Eventually, the view that the Sun was at the centre of the universe was postulated by Copernicus, though this is also not the case.


Earth Distance from the Sun
Earth has a powerful magnetic field:
This phenomenon is caused by the nickel-iron core of the planet, coupled with its rapid rotation. This field protects the Earth from the effects of solar wind.

There is only one natural satellite of the planet Earth:
As a percentage of the size of the body it orbits, the Moon is the largest satellite of any planet in our solar system. In real terms, however, it is only the fifth largest natural satellite.

Earth is the only planet not named after a god:
The other seven planets in our solar system are all named after Roman gods or goddesses. Although only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were named during ancient times, because they were visible to the naked eye, the Roman method of naming planets was retained after the discovery of Uranus and Neptune.

Of all the planets in our solar system, the Earth has the greatest density:
This varies according to the part of the planet; for example, the metallic core is denser than the crust. The average density of the Earth is approximately 5.52 grams per cubic centimetre.


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Planet Venus: Facts About Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earth’s sister planet due the their similar size and mass. The surface of the planet is obscured by an opaque layer of clouds made up of sulfuric acid.

Planet Profile
Mass: 4,867,320,000,000,000 billion kg (0.815 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 12,104 km
Polar Diameter: 12,104 km
Equatorial Circumference: 38,025 km
Known Moons: none
Notable Moons: none
Orbit Distance: 108,209,475 km (0.73 AU)
Orbit Period: 224.70 Earth days
Surface Temperature: 462 °C
First Record: 17th century BC
Recorded By: Babylonian astronomers

Size Of Venus Compared To The Earth

Facts About Venus
A day on Venus lasts longer than a year:
It takes 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis. The planet’s orbit around the Sun takes 225 Earth days, compared to the Earth’s 365.

Venus is often called the Earth’s sister planet:
The Earth and Venus are very similar in size with only a 638 km difference in diameter, Venus having 81.5% of the Earth’s mass. Both also have a central core, a molten mantle and a crust.

Venus rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets:
This means that Venus is rotating in the opposite direction to the Sun, this is also know as a retrograde rotation. A possible reason might be a collision in the past with an asteroid or other object that caused the planet to alter its rotational path. It also differs from most other planets in our solar system by having no natural satellites.

Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky:
Only the Moon is brighter. With a magnitude of between -3.8 to -4.6 Venus is so bright it can be seen during daytime on a clear day.

Atmospheric pressure on Venus is 92 times greater than the Earth’s:
While its size and mass are similar to Earth, the small asteroids are crushed when entering its atmosphere, meaning no small craters lie on the surface of the planet. The pressure felt by a human on the surface would be equivalent to that experienced deep beneath the sea on Earth.

Venus is also known as the Morning Star and the Evening Star:
Early civilisations thought Venus was two different bodies, called Phosphorus and Hesperus by the Greeks, and Lucifer and Vesper by the Romans. This is because when its orbit around the Sun overtakes Earth’s orbit, it changes from being visible after sunset to being visible before sunrise. Mayan astronomers made detailed observations of Venus as early as 650 AD.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system:
The average surface temperature is 462 °C, and because Venus does not tilt on its axis, there is no seasonal variation. The dense atmosphere of around 96.5 percent carbon dioxide traps heat and causes a greenhouse effect.

Venus Distance from the Sun
Venus Distance from the Sun
A detailed study of Venus is currently underway:
In 2006, the Venus Express space shuttle was sent into orbit around Venus by the European Space Agency, and is sending back information about the planet. Originally planned to last five hundred Earth days, the mission has been extended several times. More than 1,000 volcanoes or volcanic centres larger than 20 km have been found on the surface of Venus.

The Russians sent the first mission to Venus:
The Venera 1 space probe was launched in 1961, but lost contact with base. The USA also lost their first probe to Venus, Mariner 1, although Mariner 2 was able to take measurements of the planet in 1962. The Soviet Union’s Venera 3 was the first man-made craft to land on Venus in 1966.

At one point it was thought Venus might be a tropical paradise:
The dense clouds of sulphuric acid surrounding Venus make it impossible to view its surface from outside its atmosphere. It was only when radio mapping was developed in the 1960s that scientists were able to observe and measure the extreme temperatures and hostile environment. It is thought Venus did once have oceans but these evaporated as the planets temperature increased.


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Facts About Venus, Planet Venus, Venus, Venus Facts,

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Planet Mercury: Facts About Mercury

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun, Mercury completes three rotations about its axis and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun. Thirteen times a century Mercury can be observed from the Earth passing across the face of the Sun in an event called a transit, the next will occur on the 9th May 2016.

Planet Profile
Mass: 330,104,000,000,000 billion kg (0.055 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 4,879
Polar Diameter: 4,879
Equatorial Circumference: 15,329 km
Known Moons: none
Notable Moons: none
Orbit Distance: 57,909,227 km (0.39 AU)
Orbit Period: 87.97 Earth days
Surface Temperature: -173 to 427°C
First Record: 14th century BC
Recorded By: Assyrian astronomers

Size Of Mercury Compared To The Earth

Facts About Mercury

A year on Mercury is just 88 days long:

One solar day (the time from noon to noon on the planet’s surface) on Mercury lasts the equivalent of 176 Earth days while the sidereal day (the time for 1 rotation in relation to a fixed point) lasts 59 Earth days. Mercury is nearly tidally locked to the Sun and over time this has slowed the rotation of the planet to almost match its orbit around the Sun. Mercury also has the highest orbital eccentricity of all the planets with its distance from the Sun ranging from 46 to 70 million km.

Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System:

One of five planets visible with the naked eye a, Mercury is just 4,879 Kilometres across its equator, compared with 12,742 Kilometres for the Earth.

Mercury is the second densest planet:

Even though the planet is small, Mercury is very dense. Each cubic centimetre has a density of 5.4 grams, with only the Earth having a higher density. This is largely due to Mercury being composed mainly of heavy metals and rock.

Mercury has wrinkles:

As the iron core of the planet cooled and contracted, the surface of the planet became wrinkled. Scientist have named these wrinkles, Lobate Scarps. These Scarps can be up to a mile high and hundreds of miles long.

Mercury has a molten core: 

In recent years scientists from NASA have come to believe the solid iron core of Mercury could in fact be molten. Normally the core of smaller planets cools rapidly, but after extensive research, the results were not in line with those expected from a solid core. Scientists now believe the core to contain a lighter element such as sulphur, which would lower the melting temperature of the core material. It is estimated Mercury’s core makes up 42% of its volume, while the Earth’s core makes up 17%.

Mercury is only the second hottest planet:

Despite being further from the Sun, Venus experiences higher temperatures. The surface of Mercury which faces the Sun sees temperatures of up to 427°C, whilst on the alternate side this can be as low as -173°C. This is due to the planet having no atmosphere to help regulate the temperature.

Mercury Distance from the Sun

Mercury Distance from the Sun

Mercury is the most cratered planet in the Solar System:

Unlike many other planets which “self-heal” through natural geological processes, the surface of Mercury is covered in craters. These are caused by numerous encounters with asteroids and comets. Most Mercurian craters are named after famous writers and artists. Any crater larger than 250 kilometres in diameter is referred to as a Basin. The Caloris Basin is the largest impact crater on Mercury covering approximately 1,550 km in diameter and was discovered in 1974 by the Mariner 10 probe.

Only two spacecraft have ever visited Mercury:

Owing to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is a difficult planet to visit. During 1974 and 1975 Mariner 10 flew by Mercury three times, during this time they mapped just under half of the planet’s surface. On August 3rd 2004, the Messenger probe was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, this was the first spacecraft to visit since the mid 1970’s.

Mercury is named for the Roman messenger to the gods:

The exact date of Mercury’s discovery is unknown as it pre-dates its first historical mention, one of the first mentions being by the Sumerians around in 3,000 BC.

Mercury has an atmosphere (sort of):

Mercury has just 38% the gravity of Earth, this is too little to hold on to what atmosphere it has which is blown away by solar winds. However while gases escape into space they are constantly being replenished at the same time by the same solar winds, radioactive decay and dust caused by micrometeorites

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Facts About Mercury, Mercury, Mercury facts, Planet Mercury, Size Of Mercury,

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