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As well as the Planets there are countless Moons that orbit them some of them their own magnificent worlds of fire water and ice.
Friday 17 September 2010
The Planets!
The Solar System!!
Just a little video to give an idea of the structures, distances and the size of the objects that make up our solar system and beyond.
Mercury !
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| The Solar systems smallest planet and the closest to the Sun Mercury has been dubbed the dead planet it has no atmosphere. A day is longer than a year. |
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| Image taken by the Mariner probe 1974. |
Venus !
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Named after the roman god of love. Venus is the closest planet to us and is regarded as a twin to earth being almost the exact size. However the two worlds are very different Venus has a surface temp of 900 degrees celsius. |
Carl Sagan! Equation for Life !
In this video Carl Sagan discusses the likelihood of life in our Universe.
Mars !
The red planet named after the roman god of war. It is believed that mars once had large oceans and that liquid water could lie beneath its ice caps.
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| A sunset on Mars, picture taken by probe (Spirit mission). |
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| Human face on mars, image taken during the viking mission 1976. The face turned out to be an illusion formed by the direction of the light. |
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| Spirit also took this spooky image of a lifelike figure. |
Ceres ! And the dwarf planets !
In between Mars and Jupiter is an area called the astroid belt. It is regarded as the bone yard of the solar system all the left over particles that did not form into planets. The largest object within this area is a small planet called Ceres. Ceres is known as a dwarf planet and is one of five in the solar system.
A dwarf planet is an object that orbits the sun and is rounded, it is not however a planet on the basis that it has not cleared its own orbit of all objects of a similar size. Pluto was striped of its planet status as its orbit path is to full due to the kyper belt.
Ceres
Has a rocky core and an ice mantle there is therefor a possibility that liquid water could flow beneath its surface. Something that NASA's recent dawn mission hopes to unearth. SEE VIDEO BELOW !!
Named after the god of the underworld due to its distance from the sun. Pluto has an egg shaped orbit and was effectively striped of its planet status by professor Mike Brown in jan 2005 after the discovery of Eris.
ErisThe largest Dwarf planet discovered by Mike Brown 2005, its is considered a TNO trans Neptunian object. |
| Makemake Named after the Rapanui god Makemake. |
Haumea
Haumea is unique due to its shape it has a slight curvature giving the dwarf planet the appearance of an american football.
Jupiter and Its Moons!
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Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is a huge gas giant and is surrounded by 62 moons this has brought many to dub it as a miniature solar system. On its surface there are huge storms the most prominent its huge red eye. Jupiter is regarded as the solar systems vacuum cleaner due to its massive gravitational pull. Some scientists believe we owe our very existence to the gas giant as it has cleared out a path for the inner planets to exist, destroying harmful solar missiles before they reach us. Jupiters Moons ! |
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| Ganymede The largest moon in the solar system, and the most heavily cratered. |
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| Io Is covered in active volcanos, over 100. This moon draws its energy from the huge gravitational pull of Jupiter as it orbits it is constantly pulled in by the gas giant, this movement creates enough energy for Io to shoot out magma 200 miles into space. |
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| Europa The ice queen, its surface is made entirely of ice. Its cracked surface pattern has led scientists to believe that tidal forces could be responsible below the ice crust. The existence of liquid water could mean that primitive life could exist beneath the surface of Europa. |
Saturn the ringed planet!
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| Saturn Lord of the rings, Saturn is the 2nd largest planet in the solar system. It is a huge gas ball surrounded by ice rings. The planet has an on going polar storm larger than the United States and lightning 1 million times more powerful than on earth. Less dense than water it would float on the ocean. |
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| Saturn's Rings Discovered by Gallilao in 1610. Saturn's rings are made up of billions of pieces of space debri. Many believe they are a result of smashed up moons. There are 7 ring regions, they are as wide as 21 earths laid side by side and as thin as 65 feet. The rings however are eroding and wont be around forever. |
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In 1610 when Gallilao 1st sighted Saturn he recorded what he saw from his crude telescope, these are the the earliest record of saturn s rings. Gallilao was unsure what these shapes were to him they appeared to be 2 circular objects either side of the planets mass. |
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In 1979 Voyager made a mysterious discovery. Saturn appeared to have a perfect hexagon at its north pole. The hexagon is the planets Polar vortex similar to that of earths but different in shape. |
Saturns moon's Titan and Enceladus !
Titan a world very similar to our own!
Titan is the solar systems 2nd largest moon and arguably its most interesting.
As part of the Cassini mission a probe was landed on Titan to explore the
mysterious moon shrouded in cloud. The probe found a landscape covered in
mountains dunes winds and liquid methane rivers. Titan had a atmosphere
10 times thicker than earth but the correct measures of methane and
hydrogen to stimulate organic compounds. The problem being the atmosphere
is to cold, 300 degrees below freezing.
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Pictures taken by the probe revealing a world not to dissimilar to ours. The Cassini probe landed on a surface consisting of liquid and solid an almost slush type material. |
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These images are scientifically accurate artist depictions of the Cassini landing. |
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Enceladus About one 8th the size of our own moon. Enceladus is a very active moon, this ice ball is being constantly pulled by saturn s gravity this causes its icy surface to rub against itself this friction causes heat. In turn the heat makes massive geysers, and huge eruptions 100 miles into the air. These huge eruptions prove there is water on the moon the energy that heats this water could provide nutrients for life to exist and be sustained |
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| These are satellite images of Enceladus's magnificent eruptions. |
Wednesday 15 September 2010
The outer planets! Uranus and Neptune and Pluto.
Uranus
Named after the greek goddess of the sky. Uranus is an ice giant, the planet has an off centre axis meaning it spins on its side. Scientists have recently discovered it has faint rings believed to have formed due to a huge collision into one of its 27 moons.
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These dusty rings captured by NASA's hubble telescope are beleved to have formed due to a comet colliding into one of its moons or a collision between moons. The planets 27 moons circle uranus once a day or every 12 hours compared to the 28 days it takes our moon to orbit earth. A collision therefor is imminent meaning that uranus's rings could grow. |
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Neptune Named after the roman god of the seas. Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun, due to pluto s demotion. The planet rotates rapidly powering the most ferocious winds in the solar system over 1000 miles per hour. The planet heats its atmosphere from within, this huge amount of internal heat is a mystery to scientists and has led many to believe that the planet is still forming, so gravity is compressing its gases to generate huge amounts of internal heat. |
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In 1989 Voyager 2 discovered a massive storm in Neptune's southern hemisphere a great dark spot similar to that of Jupiter's red spot. The raging storm is a massive 8000 miles wide large enough for our earth to fit in the centre. Scientists were later amazed when five years on it suddenly disappeared. Another dark spot appeared this time in the north making Neptune's storm patterns the most erratic and unpredictable in all the solar system. Triton (below) The largest of Neptune's 13 moons. This is the coldest object in the solar system, 40 degrees above absolute zero. This is because its surface is the most reflective therefor it absorbs no heat. This world however has huge plubes volcanos that rocket 5 miles in the air freezing instantly. This has led scientists to ask the question could there be heated liquid water below its surface.   Deemed no longer a planet by Mike Brown's team in 2005 Pluto was discovered by Clive Tombar, Its surface is made entirely of 3 types of ice. It is 1000 times dimmer than an average earth day, and due to its dead geographical state it posses the oldest rock in the solar system. Pluto's moon, Charon Is the largest moon in comparison to its planets size in the solar system. Pluto has 2 other moons Hydra and Nix.  |
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