UNIT I

THE SOLAR SYSTEM

At the end of this unit, students will be able to:

Know and understand the different theories regarding the origin of the
solar system.
To grasp knowledge about the composition and different solar activities of
the sun.
To be thoroughly familiar with the nine planets, its structure, composition
and its moons.
To understand how unique and special Earth is from the other planets.
 Chapter 1

Solar System and Its Origin

People have been watching the sky for thousands of years and wondered
exactly what is out there. With advances in telescopes as well as spaceships
which have physically traveled to various planets, a considerable amount of
knowledge has been obtained to better understand the universe near to us.

The name of our system comes from the old Latin word for the Sun: Sol.
Because the Sun is the largest object in the system and all other bodies orbit
around it, it became known as the Solar system.

What is the Origin of the Solar System?

The sun and the celestial bodies that revolve around it, including the
planets with their satellites, comets
and meteors, comprise the solar
system. Before the modern
heliocentric or sun-centered system
of planetary motions was described
by Nicolaus Copernicus in 1543, the
earth had been assigned the central
place in the universe. The sun, the
moon, and the five bright planets
(Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and
Saturn) were believed to circle around the earth within the sphere of the fixed
stars. The most enduring arrangement of this geocentric earth-centered plan was
the Ptolemaic System. Copernicus, however, placed the planets in circular
paths around the sun and placed the earth as the sixth planet with its satellites,
the moon.

On the other hand, there were some scientists who continued studying the
origin of the solar system. They have formulated theories to prove and explain
the origin of the solar system.
 A German Philosopher, Immanuel
Kant, in 1755, and a French
Mathematician, Laplace, in 1796, published
closely hypotheses which postulated that
the solar system was derived from the
condensation of an enormously dispersed
gaseous atmosphere surrounding the sun.
Increased rotational velocity of this
atmosphere during condensation was
assumed to have produced a discoidal shape, the plane the disk coinciding with
that of the suns equator. When velocity reached a critical point, centrifugal force
would throw off part of the gas as a ring and materials of each ring gradually
assembled into a gaseous globe, which eventually became a solid planet
revolving around the sun in a circular orbit like that of the ring from which it was
formed. While these gaseous globes were contracting, most of them abandoned
the rings, which assembled into satellites revolving in circles around these
planets. Thus, according to the hypotheses called the Nebular Hypotheses, the
solar systems developed with observed regularities in its motions.

When other discrepancies

seemed to invalidate the hypothesis of
rotational instability, a second theory,
the Planetesimal Theory, was
formulated. It supposed that the
planetary system was formed from
materials removed from the sun by
great gravitational attraction. The
gaseous projection was pulled from the
sun by tidal action caused by a passing
star. The projection masses of gases
which revolved around the sun. At first,
the masses were very hot. They cooled and contracted and became solid bodies
of varying sizes and distances from the sun. The larger bodies attracted smaller
ones and became planet. The smaller bodies became asteroids, meteors and
satellites of planets.
 Another theory was formulated by a German physicist Carl Friedrich von
Weizsacken and U.S. chemist Harold C. Urey, called the Dust Cloud Theory in
1945. The nebula was assumed to
have a composition mainly of
hydrogen and helium, like the sun,
with only 1% of heavier elements.
The mass of this dust cloud was
originally 10% of the suns mass or
about a hundred times as great as
the present combined mass of the
planets and satellites. The nebula
was much flattened by its rotation, which was of the planetary type in that the gas
molecules moved faster as they were closer to the sun. Interactions of the gas
molecules accelerated the lighter ones so that they mostly escaped from the
nebula. The interactions also produced swirls, forming lumps in the nebula that
could grow to become planets and satellites.

Another theory, the Protoplanet Hypothesis, was

proposed in 1949 by Gerald P. Kuoper. According to this theory,
the original nebula was so massive that on further contraction
and flattening, it broke into separate cloud or protoplanets.
These remained stable in the tidal field of the sun. As they
contracted, they developed denser cores surrounded by large
atmospheres of the lighter gases. Later, the shrinking primitive
sun became enough to emit powerful corpuscular and
ultraviolet radiations. The radiations drove away into the space
remnants of the nebula and the large atmosphere of the
planets, which thus looked like a swarm of comets with tails.
This hypothesis proposed a process that could have developed
planetary systems around many stars. Indeed, it has been
surmised that the majority of the yellow stars, like the sun, may
possess systems of planets.

The solar system where the earth belongs is just a small part of the
vastness that we call the universe. No one knows its boundaries nor its origin.
What is the Solar System?

At the center of the Solar System is the Sun. This is but one of billions of
stars in the sky, but is important to us as it gives us warmth and energy for us to
use. There are many worlds that are near the Sun, each of them is as different as
you can possibly imagine. All of these worlds that either orbit the Sun or orbit a
planet going around the Sun make up what we call the Solar System. As you
read each of the sections about these different worlds, we will explore the
differences between all of these worlds, and hopefully you will understand how
unique and special the Earth is as well.

There are a total of nine planets in our system. The inner-most planet is
called Mercury. This is followed by Venus and then our Earth. Beyond Earth is an
orange-hued planet called Mars. In the outer part of the system are four giant
planets called Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The outermost planet is a
small world named Pluto.

Our system also includes many other bodies. The moons are small worlds
that orbit the planets, in much the same way as the planets orbit the Sun.

The solar wind is a hot gas that erupts from the sun and flies away into
space. This gas travels past the planets into outer space. The place where this
gas reaches the very thin gas between the stars is at the edge of the solar
system. This bubble of gas is about 100 times as far from us as the Earth is from
the Sun. Beyond that is a lot of empty space. The nearest star to the Sun is
thousands of times further away than the size of the entire Solar System. It's a
very, very big universe out there.

Who Discovered It?

Prior to 1781, there were only seven known bodies in our solar system,
besides the Earth. These seven were the Sun, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars,
Jupiter, and Saturn. These had been known since humans first began to observe
the sky at night. There were also visitors called comets that would appeared in
the sky for a time, then fade away.

The Babylonians believed that each of these objects was related to a

different deity, and their calendar used a seven-day week. The practice of naming
the seven visible objects of the solar system still continues to this day. Each of
the English words for the day of the week comes from an old name for a god or
goddess. In English this is a mixture of both Norse and Roman gods, but in other
languages the connection to the Roman names of the planets is more apparent.

Weekday Object Related Norse Spanish Equivalent

Sunday Sun Domingo
Monday Moon Lunes
Tuesday Mars Tyr Martes
Wednesday Mercury Woden (also Odin) Mircoles
Thursday Jupiter Thor Jueves
Friday Venus Frige (also Freyr) Viernes
Saturday Saturn Sabado

Galileo Galilei first turned a telescope on the sky and began to write
down what he saw. Among the things he saw were four moons orbiting Jupiter.
As time passed and the telescope was improved, more objects were found. In
1655, Christian Huygens discovered the moon Titan orbiting Saturn. In 1781 Sir
William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. In 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi
discovered the first asteroid. Many more asteroids were later discovered by
astronomers.

The discovery of the planet Neptune did not come by chance, but was
found using math. Astronomers had made tables of where each body should
appear in the future. But Uranus did not match the predictions. So a model was
made to account for the difference. This model predicted that the gravity from an
unknown planet was pulling on Uranus. The model also predicted about where
the mystery planet would be found. This planet was then found in 1846.

The last planet Pluto was later found in 1930 using the same method.

How it was formed?

Our Solar System is part of a much larger system called the Milky Way.
This is a vast mix of dust, gas, stars, and other objects that is called a galaxy.
Our galaxy rotates about the center, and if you could see it from a long, long way
off it would look like a wispy pin-wheel.

Within our Milky Way galaxy are clouds of dust and gas where stars are
born. Our Solar System was created in just such a cloud. A part of this cloud
began to collapse under the pull of its own gravity. As it got smaller, it formed a
big, spinning disk of gas and tiny particles of dust. This disk was thickest at the
middle, and this part slowly collapsed to form the early Sun.
 The remainder of
the disk continued to rotate about the Sun in the center. The tiny
particles of dust were now close enough so that they would
often collide, and some of these would
stick together. The bits of dust
would slowly collect to form
grains. These would in turn
join to form lumps the size of gravel,
then pebbles.

As the objects grew in size, a

few grew larger than the rest and began to pull
on the other rocks with their gravity.
The rocks grew ever bigger,
reaching the size of mountains
which crashed together with
powerful force. In the end
there were only a few
massive bodies left, which
swept up the rest of the disk to
form the planets, moons, and asteroids.

While this was going on, the Sun began to glow from the huge energy
released by its own collapse. The temperature at the center of the Sun reached a
million degrees, and it turned into a furnace that could create more energy by
smashing tiny atoms together.

This energy rose up to the surface and was emitted as light, heat, and
other forms. This energy being emitted by the Sun swept away any surviving tiny
particles and gas from the inner Solar System, leaving behind only the larger
objects.

What will happen to it?

About four thousand million years from now, the Sun will have used up
most of fuel. It will begin to enter the final stages of its life. It will expand into a
huge star called a Supergiant. The size of this star will be so big that several of
its planets will be inside, including the Earth. These planets will be burnt to a
crisp inside the very hot atmosphere.
 Eventually the sun will begin to throw off its outer atmosphere, forming an
immense sphere of faintly glowing gas that astronomers call a planetary nebula.
The sun will then shrink down into a small star called a white dwarf. This will be
about 100 times as small as the current sun we see. It will then slowly begin to
cool and grow ever fainter over time.

Did you know that

Eris is the largest dwarf planet in the Solar System and it
orbits the sun at three times the distance of Pluto.
Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known place in the
universe.
95% of all matter in the Universe is invisible, and is called
The Dark Matter.

REVIEW QUESTIONS:
1. Discuss the origin of the Solar Sytem.
2. What is the Solar System?
3. Discuss the different theories on how the Solar system was
created.
 4. What comprises the Solar System?
5. Discuss how the Solar System was formed.

Identification: Write the correct answer.

1. He is the first person who turned a telescope on the sky and
began to write down what he saw.
2. He discovered the moon Titan orbiting Saturn in 1655.
3. Who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781?
4. He discovered the first asteroid in 1801. Who is he?
5. What planet was found using math?
6. When was the last planet Pluto found/discovered?
7. It is a hot gas that erupts from the sun and flies away into
space.
8. When the sun will shrink down into a small star, it will be called
as a ________.

Chapter 2

The Sun Source of life

The Sun is a large ball of very hot gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. It is
the power house of the Solar System. It's our nearest star. Scientists can tell
what is going on inside a star from its color. Without the sun there would be no
 life on Earth. We depend on the sun for
energy.

The Sun is our very own star, at the

center of our solar system. The Sun is
formally designated as a yellow dwarf
(because of its place on the HR diagram).
However, the Sun appears white to the
human eye -- it only looks yellow or orange
when its rays are being scattered by Earths
atmosphere during sunrise and sunset. And it
is now thought to be brighter and larger than
about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way
galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs (stars
with low mass that shine in a relatively cool
red).

How big is the sun?

The Sun is very big - much, MUCH

bigger than the Earth! It is 1,392,000 km
or 109 Earths across and contains more
than 99.9% of the solar system's mass. If
you could somehow stand on the surface
of the Sun, you would weigh 28 times as
much. A grown person would weigh as
much as a car.

More than a million Earths could fit

into the volume of the sun! It doesn't look that big from where we stand, though.
That's because the sun is about 150,000,000 km away. At that distance, it takes
light from the sun over eight minutes to reach the Earth. Compared to other stars,
the sun is about average-sized.

What are the Parts of the Sun?

To the naked eye, the sun appears to be a uniformly brilliant disk of light
but seen through a telescopic, it has several separate and distinct features
(figure). At the center, we see deeper into the atmosphere toward the brilliant
interior. On the edges, we look through the outer layers along the curved surface
which appears to the darker. A brilliant red ring, a layer of gas about 8,000 miles
thick on the surface, flashes. This is called the chromosphere (color-sphere).
Under this is a very thin layer of brilliantly glowing gas about 100 miles deep
which is the source of the suns light. This layer is known as the photosphere
(light-sphere). Beneath the photosphere is the hot, dense mass of gases which
compose the inferior of the sun. During a total eclipse, the sun can also be seen
to have a halo of faint silver-white light surrounding it. This is the corona or
crown which extends in all directions to a distance of a million miles or more.
The white light of the corona is very faint compared to the intense light of the
photosphere.

What are Sunspots?

Sunspots are slightly

cooler areas on the surface of
the sun that appear as dark areas. They only appear dark against the brightness
of the rest of the surface of the sun. Despite their appearance, they are still
extremely bright brighter than an electric arc. The number of sunspots seen
rises and falls over an 11 year cycle. Sunspots appear when the Sun's magnetic
field is concentrated, impeding the flow of energy.

What is the Life Expectancy of the Sun?

Knowledge of how the sun obtains its energy could help us estimate how
long it can continue to supply the earth with life-giving warmth and light. All the
pieces of evidence are now available to show that there is sufficient hydrogen
remaining in the sun to allow it to continue producing energy at the present rate
for the next five to ten billion years.

There is also a possibility that the sun will suddenly become a nova or
exploding star (stars which are known to become thousands of times more
brilliant without any prior warning). If this happens, the earth would certainly be
destroyed. However, only a few novas are observed among the millions of stars
in our galaxy, and it appears that the chance of any one star such as the sun
suddenly exploding is very slight.

Solar Activity

Our Sun is a dynamic, active, and constantly changing star. Solar activity
is driven by intense magnetic fields, generated deep within the solar interior then
buoyantly rising up through its surface. Plasma caught in the magnetic field lines
allows us to see these fields, as in the previous composite image.
 On the left is a true color image of the Sun. The dark splotches are called
sunspots. The image on the right, taken at the same time, is a map of the
magnetic fields on the Sun. White indicates a positive field, and black a negative
one (grey indicates little or no field). Note how the sunspots are associated with
the magnetic fields most activity on the Sun is a result of complex magnetic
fields!

A close-up view of the Sun's surface, observed by NASAs Transition

Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE) mission, shows vast loop structures
made of superheated plasma trapped in magnetic field lines. About 10 Earths
could fit across any one of these loops! These areas of solar activity can contain
multiple loops, often in tunnel formations, that can persist for weeks.

Did you know thate sun contains 99.8 percent of the total
mass of the solar system.
Each day of the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to evap
The sun contains 99.8 percent of the total mass of the solar system.
Each day of the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to
evaporate.
The Sun is flattened on the top and the bottom.
The Sun shrinks five feet every hour.
Four million tons of hydrogen dusts are destroyed on the Sun every
second.
It is impossible for the Solar Eclipse to last more than 8 minutes.
Youd need to explode one hundred billion tons of Dynamite every
second to match the energy produce be the sun.
The Sun is so large that about one million Earths could fit inside it.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is between the sun and the
earth.
Review Questions:

1. Why is the Sun the source of life?

2. How big is the Sun compared to Earth? Discuss.
3. Discuss the parts of the Sun.
4. Discuss the life expectancy of the Sun.
5. Discuss the Solar Activity.

Identification: Answer the following questions:

1. It is the nearest to Earth.

2. A very thin of brilliantly glowing gas about 100 miles deep which
the source of the Suns light.
3. What is the power source of the Solar System?
4. The Sun can also be seen to have a halo of faint silver-white
light surrounding it during a total eclipse. It is called _________.
5. It is a large ball of very hot gas, mostly hydrogen and helium.
6. _________ are slightly cooler areas on the surface of the Sun
that appear as dark areas.
7. Stars which are known to become thousands of times more
brilliant without any prior warning.
8. It is a brilliant red ring, a layer of gas about 8,000 miles thick on
the surface.

Chapter 3
 The Planets
The planet is an astronomical body orbiting a star or a stellar remnant that:

Is massive enough to be rounded

by its

own gravity,
Is not massive enough to cause
thermonuclear fusion, and
Has cleared its neighboring region of Planetisimals.

The definition of planet, since the word was coined by the ancient Greeks,
has included within its scope a wide range of celestial bodies. Greek
astronomers employed the term asteres planetai "wandering stars", for star-like
objects which apparently moved over the sky. Over the millennia, the term has
included a variety of different objects, from the Sun and the Moon to satellites
and asteroids.

By the end of the 19th century the word planet, though it had yet to be defined,
had become a working term applied only to a small set of objects in the Solar
System. After 1992, however, astronomers began to discover many additional
objects beyond the orbit of Neptune, as well as hundreds of objects orbiting other
stars. These discoveries not only increased the number of potential planets, but
also expanded their variety and peculiarity. Some were nearly large enough to be
stars, while others were smaller than Earth's moon. These discoveries
challenged long-perceived notions of what a planet could be.

MERCURY

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is a terrestrial planet and the
second smallest planet after Pluto. Only one spacecraft has flown by Mercury,
Mariner 10, which was launched by the U.S. on November 3, 1973. Much of what
we know about this planet came from this mission.
How big is Mercury?

Mercury is about 4879 km in

diameter, which makes it a little over a third
as big as the Earth is across. It's small
enough that eighteen balls of modeling clay
the size of Mercury could be rolled together
to make one the size of Earth. In fact, the
diameter of Mercury is only about one and a
half times the diameter of our moon.
 What is its surface like?

Mercury has craters like

those on the Earth's moon. They
were made when asteroids or
comets crashed into the surface.
The largest crater we've seen on
Mercury is the Caloris Basin. The
surface also has big cliffs called
scarps. They were made long ago
when Mercury cooled down and
shrank. This shrinking caused the
surface to get wrinkled in some
places, which created the scarps. There are also plains. Some of them may have
been made by lava flows long ago.

VENUS
Venus is the second closest planet to the
sun, and was named after the Roman
goddess called Venus. It is in a category
called terrestrial planets this means that it is
very similar in size and was created close to
the same way as our planet Earth. In fact,
sometimes it is called Earth's "sister planet"
as they are somewhat alike in both size and
roughly a similar distance from the Sun.

How big is the planet?

Venus is very close in size to earth and

with a diameter of about 12,100 km or
almost 95% of the size of the Earth. This
is one of the reasons why Venus is often
considered to be the "twin" to the Earth.
It is also made up of very similar
minerals to those found on the Earth.

What is its surface like?

Venus has a very interesting surface. It is very, very dry and also hot enough to
melt lead on its surface. We could not survive on the planet because of this.
Anyone attempting to walk on the surface of Venus would boil to death, be
squashed flat by the air pressure, and then have their remains eaten away by the
corrosive atmosphere. Despite all of this, there are some features on the surface
of Venus that are surprisingly similar to features on the Earth.

EARTH
 Earth, our home planet, is the only
planet in our solar system known to
harbor life life that is incredibly diverse.
All the things we need to survive exist
under a thin layer of atmosphere that
separates us from the cold, airless void of
space.

How big is the Earth?

The Earth is 12,742 km in diameter. It's the largest terrestrial planet in the solar
system. The Earth weighs 5,973,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. (That's nearly
6 trillion trillion kilograms).

What is its surface like?

Earth's surface is
made of continents
and oceans. There are
also islands in the
oceans. The top layer
of Earth is called the
crust. It divided into
pieces called tectonic plates. They move very
slowly, carrying continents with them. The places
where they meet are called fault lines. On fault
lines, magma can seep up through the cracks and
create volcanoes (once on the surface it's called
lava.) When fault lines move apart they create new
land (these are called constructive margins) and
where they move towards each other one of them
goes underneath the other (these are called
destructive margins.) When they slide past each
other, great tension builds up due to friction - when
this tension is released the plates move rapidly and
sharply in one direction, creating earthquakes.

THE MOON

The Moon is Earth's only permanent natural

satellite. Twelve people landed and walked on it in
the 1960s and 1970s. They collected and brought
back rocks that were studied to find more about
the Moon.
 How
big is the Moon?

The Moon is 3,476 km wide. This is just over a quarter of Earth's diameter.
That makes the Moon a relatively large one. Most other planets are much larger
than their moons. Because of this, Earth and the Moon had been called a double
planet.

What is its surface like?

The Moon does not have any air or liquid water.

There is no life on the Moon. During the day it
becomes very hot. At night it grows icy cold. A
person going to the Moon needs an air supply
and a special suit.

What are the phases of the moon?

The Moon looks different at different times. This

happens because the Sun lights up different parts
of the Moon as the Moon moves in its orbit. This is
called the phase of the Moon.

New Moon
Full Moon
Quarter of the Moon

MARS
 Mars is the fourth planet from the
sun. It is a terrestrial planet, because it
is very similar to the Earth in terms of
atmosphere and surface features.

How big is the planet?

Mars is 6,804.9 km or 0.533 Earths in

diameter. That makes it a little more than
half of Earth's diameter, so its volume is
around 15% that of the Earth.

What is its surface like?

 The surface of Mars is dry and dusty. The highlands of the southern
hemisphere have more craters than the lower areas in the northern
hemisphere. One of the craters is the huge Hellas Planitia. There is an area
called the Tharsis Bulge that has four huge volcanos. These volcanos have
not erupted for millions of years. The largest one is Olympus Mons. It is 27
km tall, making it the highest mountain in the solar system and much higher
than Mount Everest on Earth. It is 540 km across, making it too big to see the
whole thing from the surface of Mars. Mars has a huge canyon called Valles
Marineris that is much bigger than the Grand Canyon on Earth. It is 4000 km
long, up to 7 km deep and up to 200 km wide. It it thought that Valles
Marineris was made when the surface cracked when the Tharsis Bulge
formed.

What are its moons like?

Mars have two moons namely Phobos and Deimos. It is believed that these
moons did not originally orbit Mars, but were instead a part of the Asteroid
belt. When these pieces of the Solar System came close to Mars, they were
captured by the gravity of Mars and went into relatively stable orbits around
Mars. Like the Earth's moon, these moons are in a tidal lock, always keeping
the same face towards Mars while they are in orbit.

Phobos is actually quite tiny compared to most other moons in the Solar
System. It is not a round sphere-like object, but irregularly shaped, so its size
is not always the same across. At the largest extreme, it is 26 km across, and
the smallest is about 18 km across.

Deimos is one of the smallest moons in the solar system at only 12 km in

diameter, or about 1/2 the diameter of Phobos. Surprisingly, however,
Deimos was spotted and identified as a moon before Phobos, partly because
of its greater distance from Mars. It is also very irregular in shape, due to is
smal size.

Jupiter

Jupiter is by far the largest planet within our solar system: two and a half
times larger than all of the other planets put together. It is the fifth planet from
the Sun and one of the brightest planets. Jupiter is sometimes called a "gas
giant" because most of this planet is made up of liquid and gas.
Jupiter's magnetic field is the largest single thing in the solar system. It is 26
million kilometers across, making it about 20 times bigger than the Sun. It
has a tail that extends past Saturn's orbit. If it could be seen from Earth, it
would appear to be five times the size of the full moon.

How big is the planet?

Jupiter is 142,984 km or 11.209 Earths in diameter at the equator. That

makes it about one tenth as big as the sun. About 1,400 Earths could fit into
the volume of Jupiter. It is 133,709 km or 10.517 Earths in diameter from pole
to pole. Jupiter's rapid rotation makes it bulge out at the equator.

What is its surface like?

Jupiter does not have a solid surface. This enormous planet has a relatively
small solid and rocky core. Liquids and gases surround this core and blend
with the atmosphere.

What are its moons like?

Jupiter has 63 known moons. There are four major moons that were
discovered by Galileo in 1610. Those moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and
Callisto. They are called the Galilean moons. There are often eclipses on
Jupiter's cloud tops by the Galilean moons.

There are four small moons orbiting inside Io's orbit. That group is called
the Amalthea group because Amalthea is the largest one. They are all small
and potato shaped. Amalthea is very red. The material of Jupiter's rings
came from meteors knocking it off of those moons.
Io is Jupiter's closest major moon. It is 3643.2 km across, slightly larger than
Earth's Moon. It has volcanos and molten sulfur lakes. There are not very
many craters if there are any at all because the volcanic activity would cover
them up.

Europa is 3,121.6 km across, about ten percent smaller than Earth's Moon. It
is made of silicates and has a layer of smooth water ice 10 to 30 km thick.
There are also some large spots on the surface.

Ganymede is 5262.4 km across, making it 380 km bigger than Mercury. It is

Jupiter's largest moon and the largest moon in the solar system. It had plate
tectonics like Earth. There are older darker regions and newer areas with
grooves where the plates moved. Newer craters have bright rays around
them from material thrown up by impacts. Older craters look flat and faded
because the icy surface does not hold the shape of the crater as well as rock
does over long periods of time.

Callisto is 4820.6 km acr about the same size as Mercury. It has many
craters. Like craters on Ganymede, the older craters had faded. The largest
crater is Valhalla.

The other moons are tiny ones in several groups outside the orbits of the
major moons, there is a small moon, Themisto and four groups of little
moons that orbit very far from Jupiter.

Saturn

How big is the planet?

Saturn is 120,536 km or 9.449 Earths in diameter at the equator. It is only
108,728 km or 8.552 Earths in diameter from pole to pole. It is bigger at the
equator because it spins fast enough to budge out.

What is its surface like?

Saturn has no surface that you could stand on without going deep into its
atmosphere. The atmosphere has bands, but they're not as colorful as
Jupiter's.

What are its rings like?

Saturn's rings are composed of silica rock, iron oxide, and ice particles
ranging in size from specks of dust to the size of a small automobile.

What are its moons like?

Saturn has at least 48 moons. The exact number of Saturn's moons will
never be known because of the similar sizes of the moons and the chunks of
ice in Saturn's rings.

Shepherd moons are small potato shaped moons in or near Saturn's rings.
They control the ring particles with their gravity. Six of them are known and
there may be more.

Mimas is made mostly of water ice with a little rock. It has a large crater for
its size called Herschel. It is 130 km across, making it about a third as big as
Mimas.
Enceladus is made of ice. It has smooth areas, cracks and some craters. The
smooth areas are younger. Craters there got erased within the past 100
million years.

Tethys is an icy moon that has many craters, including the huge Odysseus. It
is 400 km across, a quarter as big as Tethys. The crater had become
flattened because the icy material doesn't hold its shape as well as rock
would.

Dione is made of lots of ice and maybe some rock in the core. It has lots of
craters. The craters are flattened because the ice doesn't hold their shape as
well as rock. One side has bright white lines that are cliffs made of ice. There
is one moon, Helene, that is ahead of Dione in its orbit.

Rhea is an icy moon similar to Dione with some rock in the core. It has many
craters on one side and the other side has some bright white icy areas.

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the second largest one in the solar
system. It is the only moon in the solar system that has a thick atmosphere.

Hyperion is made of water ice with a little rock. It is potato shaped. It wobbles
instead of rotating in the same way other moons do.

Iapetus it made of ice with a little rock. It has a light area, Roncevaux Terra
with craters. There is a big dark area called Cassini Regio that covers half of
Iapetus. The dark material may be made of organic compounds.

Phoebe is made of ice and rock, but looks dark because it has a layer dark
material on the outside. It also looks rough. Other moons There are two
groups of small outer moons. Phoebe is part of the outermost group.
Uranus

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, was discovered by William
Herschel on March 13, 1781. It is a gas giant and the third largest planet in
the Solar System.

How big is the planet?

Uranus is 51,118 km or 4.007 Earths in diameter. This means that about four
Earths placed in a line side by side would be as long as Uranus is across.

What is its surface like?

Uranus has no surface that you could stand on without going deep into the
atmosphere.

What are its moons like?

Uranus has 27 discovered moons, which places it third in the solar system
for number of moons! The five main ones are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania
and Oberon.

Miranda is the smallest and closest of Uranus's major moons. It is mainly

made of water ice, and silicate rocks. There are also some methane related
organic compounds. Miranda also has canyons 20 km deep.

Ariel is half water ice with the rest being silicate rocks and methane ice.0
Ariel doesn't have many craters and has big canyons.
Umbriel is made of lots of water ice and some silicate rocks and methane ice.
It is also the darkest of Uranus's major moons.

Titania is the largest moon of Uranus. The majority of it is water ice, with
quite a lot of silicate thrown in with some methane related organic
compounds. Like Ariel, Titania also has some huge canyons.

Oberon is the outermost of the major moons of Uranus. It is very similar to

Titania in what it is made of. It has many craters. Some of them have white
rays around them and dark crater floors. The dark material may be made of
organic compounds.

There are 13 tiny moons known to be orbiting Uranus inside Miranda's orbit.
Nine more tiny moons are known to be in big orbits beyond Oberon's orbit.

Neptune

Neptune is very similar to Uranus, but it is slightly smaller in diameter and

more massive.

How big is the planet?

Neptune has a diameter of 49,528 km across at the equator and 48,681 km

from pole to pole. It is almost as big as four Earths in a row. It bulges out a
little at the equator because of its rotation, but not as much asupiter and
Saturn.

What is its surface like?

Neptune is a gas giant so it does not have a surface that you can stand on
without going deep into its atmosphere. The atmosphere looks blue-green. It
has some dark blue spots. When the Voyager probe went by Neptune in
1989, there was a large one called the Great Dark Spot. Now it is gone and
there are new spots.

What are its rings like?

Neptune has some faint rings that are dark and hard to see. There are
clumps in some parts of the rings where the material is more dense. It could
be because of the gravity of the nearby small inner moons of Neptune.

What are its moons like?

Neptune has 13 known moons. There could be more. Inner moons There
are five small potato shaped moons orbiting close to Neptune.

Proteus is a dark moon about 420 km across. It is irregularly shaped, but it is

almost big enough for its gravity to pull it into a sphere. In Roman mythology
Proteus was Neptune's herdman who could change into any shape he
wanted.

Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. Scientists think that it is a lot like Pluto.
It is 2700 km across. It is made of rock and some water ice. It has a surface
temperature of 236 C making it the coldest world visited by spacecraft.
Triton has a very thin atmosphere made up nitrogen and a little methane.

Nereid is an irregularly shaped moon about 340 km across. Its orbit is very
eccentric or noncircular. It may have been captured by Neptune or moved
into the eccentric orbit by Triton's gravity when Triton got captured. In Roman
mythology nereids were sea nymphs.

There are five other known moons. They are small potateo-shaped moons
far from Neptune. There could be more yet to be discovered.

Pluto

Pluto, the ninth planet in the Solar System, was accidentally discovered by
the astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh in Arizona on February 18, 1930.

How big is the planet?

Pluto is the smallest of all of the planets in the Solar System, weighing only
13,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms. While this may seem large, it's
only about 1/500th of the Earth's mass. If you were to cut Pluto in half and
measure the length on the inside, you'd find that Pluto is 2390 kilometers
across, and with a little math you could figure out that its surface area is
about 17,950,000 square kilometers (or 1/30th of the Earth's) and that its
volume is 7,150,000,000 (or 1/15th of the Earth's).

What is its surface like?

We don't really know for sure. No spacecraft has ever been there, and Pluto
is so far away from Earth that even the best telescopes can't see any detail.
It is certainly very cold, about-230C. The surface of Pluto is covered with
ice, but not the same kind of ice that is found on Earth. The ice that covers
Pluto is believed to be made mostly of nitrogen. Pluto also has a very thin
atmosphere of nitrogen and methane which may freeze out when Pluto
moves further from the Sun. Some powerful telescopes like the Hubble
Space Telescope have observed some seasonal changes as Pluto moved
closer to the Sun and then moved further away, due to the nature of its orbit
around the Sun.

What is its moon like?

 Pluto has one moon: Charon. Charon is about half the size of Pluto in length
and, much like Pluto, is believed to be covered with ice. Unlike Pluto,
however, the ice covering Charon is thought to be made of water rather than
nitrogen. In Roman mythology Charon ferried the shades of the dead across
the river Lethe to the land of the dead.

THE UNIVERSE

There are also a lot of much smaller objects called asteroids. These are
big chunks of rock or metal that is mostly found orbiting the Sun between Mars
and Jupiter. We also get visitors from the cold outer edge of our system that are
called comets. These are big lumps of ice and dust. Comets can form immense
tails when they come close to the Sun and start to melt.

Can you imagine how enormous the universe is? The universe includes
everything that exists. Itthe total of all empty space,matter, and radiation.
 The Universe is all of time and space and its contents. It
includes planets, moons, minor planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic
space, and all matter and energy. The size of the entire Universe is unknown.

Stars

Years ago, people thought stars had magical powers, such as

causing illness or bringing good luck. People looked at the patterns of
stars in the sky and gave them names.

The Birth of a Star

Stars are created from large clouds of dust in space. These clouds are called
nebulae; one cloud is a nebula. Occasionally, in a nebula, some of the dust
gravitates toward a core. As the particles of dust collide, the core
temperature increases. The density increases as more dust is pulled toward
the core. Eventually the temperature and density create enough pressure to
stop more particles from gravitating towards the core. This means that the
star is done changing at this stage. Depending on the temperature of the
core one of two things may happen.

1) The Temperature is too Low

This results in a so called brown dwarf. These objects are not actually stars
because hydrogen is not converted into helium. The reason for that is the
temperature never became high enough for such a reaction to occur.
Brown dwarfs aren't very visible or large.

2) The Temperature is Good

If a star becomes hot enough, atoms of hydrogen are made into atoms of
helium. This is when a star is considered a real star. But not all stars stop at
turning hydrogen into helium. When larger stars run out of hydrogen, they
turn helium into carbon, and carbon into other elements.

The Life of a Star

Stars last a long time. Most of the stars we see today will still be visible long
after you and I are dead. But not all stars last the same amount of time. How
long a star lasts depends on the mass of the star. Stars with lower masses
contain less hydrogen, but convert hydrogen at a slower rate. This slower
rate causes small stars to last longer. Our sun is a small star and should last
for over a billion years. Large stars last only millions of years.
The Beginning of the End

Eventually a star must raise the core temperature, and there is no hydrogen
left. At this point the star will start to burn helium. The core shrinks rapidly
and the outer regions of the star start to drift away. This means the star
appears larger, and because the outer regions are cooler, the star appears
redder. Stars such as these are called Red Giants.

The End Eventually gravity overcomes the pressure (caused by temperature

and density within the core), and a star dies. When this happens, the matter
in the star returns to space so that the cycle may begin again. Exactly how
this happens depends on the mass of the star.

What happen when a star died?

A constellation is defined as a random pattern seen in the stars. The stars were
not arranged into shapes, so constellations started as a matter of opinion. Today,
there is a recognized set of constellations. The constellations recognized today
were the patterns that made the most sense to people in the past.

Different types of constellations

Latin for water carrier or cup carrier

Best viewed in: October

While one of the biggest, most famous, and oldest named constellations,
Aquarius is faint and often hard to find/see. In Greek mythology, Aquarius
represented Ganymede, a very handsome young man. Zeus recognized the lads
good looks, and invited Ganymede to Mt. Olympus to be the cupbearer of the
gods. For his service he was granted eternal youth, as well as a place in the night
sky.
Latin for eagle
Best viewed in: late summer, September

Aquila was the eagle that in Greek mythology actually bore Ganymede (Aquarius)
up to Mt. Olympus. The eagle was also the thunderbolt carrier for Zeus.

Latin for ram

Best viewed in: December

While many constellations have gone through various iterations of mythological

stories, Aries has always been the ram. This constellation is one of 12
constellations that form the zodiac the constellations that straddle the suns
path across the sky (known in scienctific terms as the ecliptic). In ancient times,
that gave the constellations of the zodiac special significance.
In Greek mythology, Aries is the ram whose fleece became the Golden Fleece.
The Golden Fleece is a symbol of kingship and authority, and plays a significant
role in the tale of Jason and the Argonauts.

Latin for greater dog

Best viewed in: February

Canis Major represents the famed Greek dog Laelaps. There are a few origin
stories, but the common theme is that he was so fast he was elevated to the
skies by Zeus. Laelaps is also considered to be one of Orions hunting dogs,
trailing behind him in the night sky in pursuit of Taurus the bull.
No Latin meaning, its the name of a queen in Greek mythology
Best viewed in: November

Cassiopeia, in Greek mythology, was a vain queen who often boasted about her
beauty. She was the mother of Princess Andromeda, and in contrast to other
figures being placed in the sky in honor, Cassiopeia was forced to the heavenly
realms as punishment. As the story goes, she boasted that her beauty (or her
daughters, depending on the story) was greater than that
of the sea nymphs. This was
quite an offense, and she
was banned to the sky for all to
gawk at.
Latinized Greek for swan
Best viewed in: September

Multiple personas take on the form of the swan in Greek mythology. At one point
Zeus morphed into a swan to seduce Leda, mother of both Gemini and Helen of
Troy. Another tale says that Orpheus was murdered and then placed into the sky
as a swan next to his lyre.

Latin for twins

Best viewed in: February

Gemini represents the twins Castor and Pollux. While the twins mother was
Leda, Castors father was the mortal king of Sparta, while Polluxs father was
King Zeus (He seduced Leda in the form of a swan, remember? These stories
tend to all tie together!). When Castor was killed, the immortal Pollux begged
Zeus to give Castor immortality, which he did by placing the brothers in the night
sky for all time.
Latin for lion
Best viewed in: April

Leo has been a great lion in the night sky across almost all mythological
traditions. In Greek lore, Leo is the monstrous lion that was killed by Hercules as
part of his twelve labors. The lion could not be killed by mortal weapons, as its fur
was impervious to attack, and its claws sharper than any human sword.
Eventually Hercules tracked him
down and strangled the great
beast, albeit losing a finger in the
process.

Latin for lyre

Best viewed in: August

Lyra is associated with the myth of Orpheus the great musician (remember him
from earlier?). Orpheus was given the harp by Apollo, and its said that his music
was more beautiful than that of any mortal man. His music could soothe anger
and bring joy to weary hearts. Wandering the land in depression after his wife
died, he was killed and his lyre (harp) was thrown into a river. Zeus sent an eagle
to retrieve the lyre, and it was then placed in the night sky.

Named for Orion, the mythological Greek hunter

Best viewed in: January

Orion is one of the largest and most recognizable of the constellations. It is

viewable around the world, and has been mentioned by Homer, Virgil, and even
the Bible, making it perhaps the most famous constellation.

Orion was a massive, supernaturally gifted hunter who was the son of Poseidon.
It was said he regularly hunted with Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt) on the island
of Crete, and that he was killed either by her bow, or by the sting of the great
scorpion who later became the constellation Scorpius.
Latin for fish (plural)
Best viewed in: November

The two fish of the sky represent Aphrodite and her son Eros, who turned
themselves into fish and tied themselves together with rope in order to escape
Typhon, the largest and most vile monster in all of Greek mythology.

Latin for scorpion

Best viewed in: July

There are a variety of myths associated with the scorpion, almost all of them
involving Orion the hunter. Orion once boasted that he could kill all the animals
on the earth. He encountered the scorpion, and after a long, fierce fight, Orion
was defeated. It was such a hard-fought battle that it caught the eye of Zeus, and
the scorpion was raised to the night sky for all eternity.
 Latin for bull

Best viewed in: January

Taurus is a large and prominent fixture in the winter sky. As one of the oldest
recognized constellations, it has mythologies dating back to the early Bronze
Age. There are several Greek myths involving Taurus. Two of them include Zeus,
who either disguised himself as a bull or disguised his mistress as a bull in
multiple escapades of infidelity. Another myth has
the bull being the 7th labor of Hercules after the
beast wreaked havoc in the countryside.

Latin for larger bear

Best viewed in: April

The Big Dipper is popularly thought of as a constellation itself, but is in fact an

asterism within the constellation of Ursa Major. It is said to be the most
universally recognized star pattern, partially because its always visible in the
northern hemisphere. It has great significance in the mythologies of multiple
cultures around the world.
The Greek myth of Ursa Major also tells the story of Ursa Minor (below). Zeus
was smitten for a young nymph named Callisto. Hera, Zeuss wife, was jealous,
and transformed Callisto into a bear. While in animal form, Callisto encountered
her son Arcas. Being the man that he was, he was inclined to shoot the bear, but
Zeus wouldnt let that happen, and so turned Arcas into a bear as well, and
placed mother (Ursa Major) and son (Ursa Minor)
permanently in
the night sky.

Latin for smaller bear

Best viewed in: June

Ursa Minor is famous for containing Polaris, the North Star. Many people
erroneously think that the North Star is directly over their heads, but thats only
true at the North Pole. For most people in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be
dipped into the night sky.
 Other Celestial Bodies

Comets

People now look forward with interest to

sighting a comet but for many centuries, comets were believed to have an
evil influence on human affairs; particularly they were believed to foretell
plagues, wars, and death. It was once thought that comets were made of
vapor that has risen from the earth. It was not until 17 th century that they
began to be properly understood. In 1682, a comet appeared and was
observed by the astronomer Edmund Halley; it was later named after him. He
studied the written accounts of comets that have been appearing from time
to time since 1337. Based on his studies, scientists realized that comets could
be regular visitors.

The nucleus or core of a comet resembles a large dirty snowball that it

is thought to consist of about 25% dust and chunks of rocky and metallic
materials, and about 75% ice. The ice is mainly frozen water with a mixture of
compounds containing methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide radicals. Of
the approximately 650 comets that have so far been scientifically recorded,
the largest has a nucleus measuring 42 miles in diameter and the smallest,
about 0.3 mile. Smaller comets, undoubtedly excess but they do not become
bright enough to be detected by light telescope. When a comet passes close
to the sun, it loses some of its matter, usually about .3% of its mass per orbit.
The nucleus of comet is slightly less denser than water and is covered by a
thin crust of dust. Comets are fragile and have been observed breaking up
into fragments.

As a comet comes near the sun, its ice begins to sublimate, to pass
directly from solid to gas. The gas carries with it some of the loosely bound
dust particles. The gases spread out around the nucleus, forming a large, thin
atmosphere called the coma. Sunlight causes the atoms in the coma to glow
as pearly, spherical patch of light up to 62,000 miles in diameter. If the
supply of gases from the nucleus changes, a comet can brighten or fade
unexpectedly so astronomers cannot predict how bright comet will become.

As the comet approaches the sun, the solar wind, which consists of
high-speed atomic nuclei, protons and electrons, sweeps commentary gasses
away from the sun, producing a straight tail of up to 93 miles in length. A
second tail, consisting of dusk particles, may also appear. This dust tail is
shorter and more curved than the gas tail. Comet tails always point away
from the sun because of the force exerted by solar wind and radiation on the
commentary material. When a comet travels away from the sun, therefore, its
tails is always in front.

A comet dies also because the gases that form its tail fly off into space.
Thus, a comet loses some of its mass every time it swings about the sun. In
time all the frozen gases of the comets nucleus evaporate. Then, the comet
breaks apart.

Comets can be divided into two groups: short-period comets with

orbital periods of less than 200 years and long-period comets with periods on
the order of million years. Comets can hit the earth. The Tunguska explosion
that occurred in 1903 in central Siberia is thought to have resulted from such
a collision.

According to one widely accepted view on their origin, comets as old as

the solar system and are the remnants of the building blocks that produce
Uranus and Neptune. They were tugged out of their nearly circular orbits into
extremely elongated orbits by the gravitational fields of the outer planets
which were still forming. In the Oort Cloud Theory, hundreds of millions of
comet nuclei exists in a region called The Oort Cloud which resound the solar
system like a bubble. Such nuclei may travel out of the cloud when disturbed
by the gravitational force of nearby star, and enter the inner solar system.
 HISTORIC COMETS

Name First Seen (year) Period of Orbit (in years)

Absolute Magnitude
Dalley 240 B.C 76.09
4.6

Tycho Brahe 1577 -- 1.8

Kirch 1680 8,814 4.0

De Cheseaux 1744 -- 0.5

Lexell 1770 5.60 7.7

Bieta 1772 6.62 7.5

Encke 1768 3.32 9.0

Flaugerues 1811 3,094 0.0

Pons-Winneeckle 1819 6.34 8.8

Great Comet of 1843 1843 512.57

4.9

Donati 1858 1,950 3.3

Tebbutt 1861 409.11 3.9

Cruis 1882 756.37 0.8

Wolf 1884 8.43 6.2

Morehouse 1908 -- 4.2

Schwassmann-Wachman 1925 15.03 5.0

Makos 1957 -- 4.5

Arend-Roland 1957 3,000 5.0

Humason 1962 -- 1.5

Seki-Lines 1962 879.88 6.0

Tago-Sato-Kosaka 1969 420,000 --

Bennett 1970 1,680 5.0

Kohoutek 1973 75,000 6.5

West 1976 500,000 5.9

ASTEROIDS
 The nine planets and there are not alone in space. There are
other heavenly bodies in the solar system that, like the planets,
revolve around the sun in fixed orbits.

These bodies are called asteroids. There are about hundred

asteroids within the solar system. Most of them in orbit between those
of Mars and Jupiter, called the asteroid belt. Astronomers have a hard
time studying asteroids because of their tiny sizes. Beyond Jupiter,
only an unusually sizes asteroids would have a chance of being
observed.

There was a theory that asteroids were little pieces of a planet

that was broken up by the gravitational force of Jupiter, but it did not
have much support because the number of asteroids is great and
their combined mass is less than 5% of the moon. Such combined
matter is too little even a small planet.

The largest asteroid discovered was Ceres with a diameter of

480 miles. Most asteroids only have diameters of less than fifty miles.

Some asteroids come quiet close to the earth. Hermes is one

them. 1937, it passed the earth at only twice the distance of the
moon. Fortunately, it was moving fast enough to escape the
gravitational pull of the earth.

The spectra of asteroids can be used to obtain rough estimates

of their mineral properties. The asteroids are divided into several
classes with different spectra which have been compared with those
of mineral and rocks from the earth, the moon, and many meteorites.
The spectra of some asteroids classes closely match those of some
types of meteorites. This evidence shows that some meteorites are
fragments of certain classes of asteroids.

Although no asteroid has been photographed at a close range,

they are known to have rounded and irregular shapes.
Meteors

Meteors are popularly known as shooting stars, but actually

they are not stars. They are lumps or irregularly shaped masses of
metals rocks that are speeding around in space. When such a swiftly
moving body penetrates the atmosphere and become so heated from
air resistance that it begins to glow, it is called meteorite.

THE LARGEST ASTEROIDS

Name Diameter(km)

Ceres 1,000

Pallas 608

Vesta 538

Hygeia 450

Euphrosyne 370

Interamnia 350

Davida 323

Cybele 309

Europa 289

Meteors, which are initially cold and dark masses, blow up

when they enter the earths atmosphere. This happens because of
the resistance of the atmosphere and the friction among meteors,
causing them to burn and glow. They are called falling stars
because of their apparent brightness and the motion they make
against the background of a fixed star. To observers, they look as if
they are falling.

It may take a meteor millions, even thousands of millions of

years before it strikes out in the atmosphere but the luminous
phenomenon it produces is fleeting, lasting for only a fraction of a
second in most cases and rarely exceeding a small fraction of a
minute.

Once in a while, a meteor does not burn up completely. A piece

of a meteor that lands on the surface of the earth is called a
meteorite. It is any natural solid body that originates from outer
space. Each meteorite provides us with a specimen of objects
populating outer space. With meteorites, we can determine directly
the composition of matter existing beyond the earth and moon. This is
because, as these particles pass through the outer atmosphere, they
can be collected by special devices that are installed on artificial
satellites. We can also draw conclusions about the time when it
became to being.

Meteorites are made up of iron, nickel, and other metals that

can be also found on earth. They are classified into three: iron
meteorites, stone meteorites, and stony iron.

Large numbers of meteorites are believed to have struck the

earth and produced craters. Meteor Craters near Arizona was formed
be the impact of an iron-nickel meteorite.
 Stars

Years ago, people thought stars had magical powers, such as

causing illness or bringing good luck. People looked at the patterns of
stars in the sky and gave them names.

NEW DISCOVERIES

Scientists continue to search for more discoveries about the universe.

Oftentimes, their discoveries lead to more questions. Does life exist

Is there a
elsewhere? Can humans live in another planet?

planet in the universe with the same

conditions necessary for life? How big the
universe exactly?