Talking about the solar system or the Sun or the universe has always remained a matter of fascination for almost everyone. While thinking about our existence, we get trapped into an endless number of questions such as:
- How was our solar system formed?
- How big is the universe?
- Why the Earth is so much special in comparison to others?
Apart from this, there are many more questions that can come in your mind when you think about life gazing at the stars on a clear sky night.
The Solar System
Our solar system in which we live is a part of the Galaxy Milky Way. Scientists estimate that there can be billions of such solar systems in Milky Way. As of now, there are as many as 500 such solar systems that are explored by scientists. Similarly, there are many more Galaxies across the universe.
Formation of the Solar System
It is said that our solar system was formed as many as 4.5 billion years ago. The formation was due to collapsing of a dense cloud of dust and interstellar gas. Solar nebula was formed initially which was a swirling structure with different materials. Due to swirling, many of the materials reached the center due to gravity, and soon out of extreme pressure and combination of hydrogen atoms with helium, the Sun was formed.
Also, many of the materials were clumping together that were formed into different planets, dwarf planets, and moons.
The Planets
Our solar systems consist of the Sun, 8 planets, 5 dwarf planets, more than 200 moons, more than 3500 comets, and a huge number of asteroids.
- In our solar system, there are 8 official planets that are categorized into inner planets and outer planets.
- The inner planets are the Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars that are mostly rocky in structure.
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune form the outer planets and these are structured with gasses and ice.
- There are also 5 dwarf planets among which Pluto was known a long time back and was earlier also considered among the official planets. But lately, scientists have come up with more dwarf planets and hence the 5 of them are Ceres, Makemake, Eris, Pluto, and Haumea. These are small in size in comparison to other planets.
- Mercury is also smaller in size while the planets Jupiter and Saturn are huge. Mars, Neptune, and Uranus are bigger in size than the Mercury but smaller than Earth and Venus.
- Earth and Venus are smaller than Saturn and Jupiter. The Earth and Venus are quite often referred to as twins as they are formed at the same time when the Earth was formed.
- It has been researched that the distance between the Earth and the Sun is a perfect one to offer an optimal temperature to the Earth so that water can stay in a liquid state, and life can thrive on the planet.
Other Bodies in the Solar System
Apart from the planets that are revolving around the Sun, there are also many other bodies that exist in the Solar System such as the moon.
- The moon is known to be the natural satellites of the planets. There are different numbers of moons revolving around different planets in our solar systems such as the biggest planet Jupiter has the largest number of moons among which 79 has been identified as of now.
- The Earth has just one moon.
- Apart from the Moon, there are also other bodies such as asteroids and comets that make an important place in the Solar System. The space in between Mars and Jupiter is the exact place where different asteroids and comets revolve.
Artificial Bodies
How do you think such interesting facts and figures reach us from the Solar System? Just telescopes and similar gadgets cannot help you in knowing the in-depth details of the universe.
Scientists from different countries keep on sending different artificial satellites to space. As technology advanced, artificial satellites were also sent in the space to revolve around the Earth for various purposes such as communication, remote sensing, weather forecasting, and others. Today, if you are able to see different programs on your television, it is possible due to the satellites that revolve around the Earth. Also, there are different satellites sent to space to revolve around other planets also to know more about that particular planet.
Scientists are on a mission to find out whether there is life possible on some other planet other than Earth or not. One of the most researched planets in this context is Mars. India successfully has planted PSLV-C25 in the orbit of Mars in the year 2014.
You May also Like To Read:
