Hành tinh trong hệ mặt trời

Hành tinh trong hệ mặt trời

by: Zarif Saabab

Planets

In our

Solar

System

Diameter: 4,880 km

Distance to Sun:

57,910,000 km (0.38 AU)

Orbital Period: 88 Days

Surface Area: 75,000,000

km2

Number of Moons: 0

Axial Tilt: 0.01º

Mercury is currently the

smallest planet in the

so-lar system It is the also

the closest planet to the

sun The time it takes for

one whole axial rotation

is 58 Earth days so within

two-axial rotation a whole

Mercurial year would pass

Mercury can be mainly seen

in the sky during dawn or

dusk

The name of the

plan-et comes from a Roman winged messenger of the gods because of its fast or-bital speed around the sun when compared to other planets Mercury has a very thin atmosphere compris-ing of only trace elements

of potassium, argon, and oxygen This is because Mercury is closest planet

to the Sun and it is being constantly being

bombard-ed by incrbombard-edible amounts

of solar heat and radiation

Mercury has a very wide range of temperatures from –183ºC to 425ºC al-though it has an average temperature of 170ºC

Its surface mainly contains rocks with high Iron con-tent Mercury has hundred

of large craters all over the surface of the planet by meteorites easily breaking through the flimsy atmos-phere Most of the planet has not been mapped with much detail, so its distin-guishable characteristics are not very well known The first known observa-tion of Mercury was over 5,000 years ago by an an-cient civilization called the Sumerians Mercury has

an incredibly small axial tilt being basically at right angles to the Sun, so that the Sun is always over the equator at any time of its year

1

Mercury

Diameter: 12,100 km

Distance to Sun:

108,200,000 km (0.72 AU)

Orbital Period: 225 Days

Surface Area:

460,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 0

Axial Tilt: 177.3º

Venus is the second

plan-et from the Sun and is the

closest planet to Earth,

with the closest distance

being 38,200,000 km The

time it takes to make one

whole axial rotation is 243

Earth days, so that it takes

longer for Venus to make

an axial rotation than it

does to make a whole orbit

of the Sun

Venus is sometimes bright enough to be seen in the day but during a clear night Venus shines brighter than any other star in the night sky The name of Venus also comes from Roman mythology, specifically the Roman goddess of love

Its atmosphere comprises

of thick and dense carbon dioxide as well as nitrogen and sulfuric acids Venus is only one of two planets in the solar system that has

a retrograde spin which means that it spins in the opposite directions on its axis when compared to the other planets

The highest temperature

in Venus is 500ºC near the equator of the planet, but can get as low as 45ºC at the cloud tops of the

plan-et, but its average surface temperate is 470ºC making

it the hottest planet in the solar system Its surface

is manly rocky and hard with numerous volcanoes all over the planet Venus

is the hottest planet in the solar system because its thick atmosphere and green house gases traps huge amounts of heat from the Sun The Babylonians were the first to record observations of the planet over 3,600 years ago

2

Venus

Diameter: 12,756 km

Distance to Sun:

149,600,000 km (1 AU)

Orbital Period: 365 Days

Surface Area:

510,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 1

Axial Tilt: 23.4º

Earth, the third planet

from the Sun and the only

planet in this solar system

that can support life Earth

is also the largest of the

terrestrial or inner planets,

which comprises of

Mercu-ry, Venus, Earth and Mars

The continents on Earth

have been formed by

mil-lions of years of plate

tec-tonic movements on the

Earths crust

The unit AU or Astronomi-cal Unit comes from the average distance between the Earth and the Sun; it has become a standard unit when measuring the distance from a planet to the Sun The time it takes for one planetary rotation

on its axis is about 23.93 Earth hours Alternate names for Earth are Terra

or Gaia, but the name Earth comes from Old English name Eorthe The atmos-phere mainly comprises of nitrogen and oxygen along with other traces of carbon dioxide, some water vapor and other gases

The atmosphere also pro-tects the surface of the planet by shielding harmful

UV rays from the Sun More than three quarters of the Earths surface is covered with water, which include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, glaciers, and ice caps The lowest temperature ever recorded on Earth is –89ºC and the highest is 58ºC, with an average tempera-ture of 22ºC The surface ranges from tall moun-tains to deep valleys, but mainly covered with wa-ter Over 3,000 years ago early Greek philosophers thought that Earth was a flat dish Earth has only one moon called Luna, and its pull of gravity is what causes the rise and fall of the oceans called tides

3

Earth

Diameter: 6,780 km

Distance to Sun:

227,940,000 km (1.52 AU)

Orbital Period:

687 Earth Days

Surface Area:

144,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 2

Axial Tilt: 25.2º

The forth planet from the

Sun, Mars is the last

plan-et before the main

aster-oid belt separating the

in-ner terrestrial planets from

the Gas Giants The

sur-face of Mars has been very

well documented and huge

maps of the planet have

been made The axial

rota-tion of the planet is 24.62

Earth hours, being very similar to that of Earth, but one orbit around the Sun would take almost twice

as long when compared to Earth The name Mars also comes from the Roman god

of war, but it is also some-times called the Red

Plan-et because of the reddish orange hue of the planet

The planet is bright enough

to be seen with the naked eye on a clear night sky

The atmosphere is mainly comprised of carbon diox-ide with small amounts of nitrogen and argon, with small traces of oxygen and carbon monoxide and wa-ter vapor

The surface is comprised

of mainly Iron Oxide in the form of dust and rock

as well as many big vol-canoes, deep valleys, and large plains Water in the form of ice can be found on the north polar ice cap of Mars, features resembling riverbeds, estuaries and shorelines have led scien-tist to speculate whether life ever existed on Mars Many space probes, landers and rovers were sent to Mars but none of them reported any signs of life

on the planet Over 4,000 years ago ancient Egyptian astronomers were the first

to observe Mars

4

Mars

Diameter: 142,984 km

Distance to Sun:

778,330,000 km (5.20 AU)

Orbital Period: 4,333 Earth

Days (11.8 Earth Years)

Surface Area:

61,400,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 60+

Axial Tilt: 3.13º

The fifth planet from the

Sun and the first of the

outer planets, Jupiter is the

largest planet in the

so-lar system The four outer

planets such as Jupiter are

known as Gas Giants

be-cause they are not mainly

comprised of solid matter

Jupiter has one of the

fast-est axial rotation period as

it just takes the planet only 9.92 hours to make one ro-tation on its axis Jupiter

is the third brightest ob-ject in the night sky after the Moon and Venus The name of Jupiter yet again comes from Roman mythol-ogy, this time from the Ro-man king of the gods, and

is also sometimes called Jove The atmosphere is mostly of hydrogen, hydro-gen sulfide and some he-lium along traces of meth-ane, water vapor, ammonia and other gases Due to its huge gravitational pull Ju-piter has over 60 known natural satellites that orbit around it

Jupiter like the other gas giants is a very cold planet with the lowest tempera-ture being –170ºC and the highest temperature being –110ºC, but has an average temperature of –163ºC Jupiter has a small molten core although there

is no clear surface that can

be seen as it is

surround-ed by many different lay-ers of metallic, liquid, and gaseous hydrogen as well

as other gases Jupiter is

in fact so heavy that it is twice as heavy than all the other planets put

togeth-er, but is still only 1/1000 the mass of the Sun Jupi-ter was first known to the Greeks then the Romans over 3,000 years ago

Jupiter

5

Diameter: 120,536 km

Distance to Sun:

1,420,400,000 km (9.54

AU)

Orbital Period: 10,759

Earth Days (29.5 Earth

Years)

Surface Area:

42,700,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 50+

Axial Tilt: 26.7º

Saturn the sixth planet

from the Sun is the

sec-ond largest planet in the

solar system The density

of the planet is the lowest

in the solar system; in fact

it is so low that it is lower

than the density of water

One whole axial rotation is

approximately 10.77 Earth

hours making it the second fastest behind Jupiter Sat-urn can usually be seen in the night sky but it is not nearly as bright as the

oth-er planets closoth-er to Earth

The name comes from the Roman god of farming, civilization, and prosperity

Its atmosphere much like that of Jupiter comprises of mainly hydrogen and small amounts of helium as well

as trace elements of meth-ane, water vapor, and am-monia The most distinc-tive quality of Saturn is its rings that surround the planet in its equator, these rings are made of billions of ice and rock particles that reflect sunlight to sparkle

The surface temperatures, much like Jupiter are very cold with the lowest tem-perature being –190ºC and the highest being –120ºC, with an average tempera-ture of –130ºC It does have a solid molten core

at a depth of 52,300 km below the surface that is surrounded by layers of metallic and molecular hy-drogen much like Jupiter Due to its light density and fast speed the planet has a bulge in the equator, so it

is wider than it is tall Over 2,500 years ago the Greeks and then the Romans had first known and

document-ed the planet Saturn

6

Saturn

Diameter: 51,118 km

Distance to Sun:

2,870,990,000 km (19.22

AU)

Orbital Period: 30,799

Earth Days (84.1 Earth

Years)

Surface Area:

8,080,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 30+

Axial Tilt: 97.8º

The seventh planet from

the Sun, Uranus is the third

gas giant and also the

sec-ond last planet it the solar

system It is more

specifi-cally known as an ice

gi-ant and is sometimes

pro-nounced as yur-in-as Its

axial rotation is 17.2 Earth

hours Uranus is the one

of two planets that cannot

be seen by the naked eye, and have been discovered

by the use of telescopes

The name for Uranus does not come from the Romans but in fact comes from the Greek god of the heavens, had the name come from the Romans it would have been called ‘Caelus’ Its at-mosphere is quite similar

to that of Jupiter and Sat-urn as it mainly contains hydrogen as well as some helium and methane with traces of ammonia The tilt

of axis is almost at right angles to the Sun so that it seems like the entire

plan-et is on its side

Its surface temperature is colder than both Jupiter and Saturn with the lowest temperature being –214ºC and the highest tempera-ture being –200ºC, it has

an average temperature

of –205ºC Its surface is very gassy with solid sur-faces deep below the at-mosphere, which contains mainly rock and ice The mass of Uranus is more than 27 times that of the mass of Earth Uranus and Neptune were the only two planets that were not know to ancient civilization due to its great distance The first record of Uranus was a dim star-like object

in 1660 but it was in 1781 when it was first identified

as a planet

7

Uranus

Diameter: 49,528 km

Distance to Sun:

4,504,000,000 km (30.06

AU)

Orbital Period: 60,190

Earth Days (164.8 Earth

Years)

Surface Area:

7,620,000,000 km2

Number of Moons: 13

Axial Tilt: 28.3º

The eighth planet,

Nep-tune is the furthest and

last planet in our solar

system it is also the

sec-ond ice giant Neptune is

also the coldest planet in

the solar system being so

far away from the Sun Its

lowest temperature goes

down to –223ºC and the

highest being –218ºC but has an average of –218ºC

Its axial rotation is about 16.1 hours making it

slow-er than that of Uranus but its orbit around the Sun is double that of Uranus Nep-tune also cannot be seen with the naked eye and a telescope is needed to see the planet with its distinc-tive characteristics The name comes from the Ro-man god of the sea partly due to the distinctive dark blue hue of the planet Its atmosphere is again

most-ly hydrogen with some he-lium and traces of methane and ethane The fastest winds in the solar system occur in the atmosphere

of the planet Its surface

is mainly rocks, methane, ammonia, and semi-liquid ice with the core being mainly of molten rocks and metals The dark blue color

of the planet comes from the huge quantity of meth-ane in the atmosphere that traps all red light and only reflects blue light from the Sun Neptune is the other planet that has been dis-covered by the use of tele-scopes first in 1612 by Gal-ileo but officially recorded

as a planet in 1846 by Jo-hann Galle The planet be-ing so far away from the Sun has little to no effect from the heat and light

8

Neptune

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