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. 

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.

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.
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.


Pluto, the dwarf planet.
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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