Fascinating astronomy: interesting facts about the planets of the solar system. Secrets of the Universe: Basic Information about Planets and Space

Astrophysics - comparatively young science. But it was she who began to study interesting facts about the planets of the solar system, everything about their structure and composition. Having separated from astronomy, she studies physical composition of celestial bodies.

The sky has always been the object of close attention and interest of mankind. The stars have been observed since the time of the mythical Atlantis. The structure of celestial bodies, the trajectories of their movement, the change of seasons on Earth - all this was attributed to the influence of stars. Many theories were confirmed, others were rejected. Over time it was discovered that the Earth not the only planet in our galaxy.

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List of celestial bodies

Moving on to describing the interesting features of each, you need to list all the small and large planets of the solar system. A table indicating the position from the sun will be placed just below. Here we will limit ourselves to an alphabetical listing:

• Venus;
• Earth;
• Mars;
• Mercury;
• Neptune;
• Saturn;
• Jupiter;
• Uranus.

Attention! It is noteworthy that the top three included bodies on which, according to science fiction writers, people would eventually settle. Scientists doubt this option, but everything is subject to science fiction.

Curious facts

Everyone has seen the film “Carnival Night,” so there is no need to retell the plot. But even in terms of New Year's celebrations, which are discussed in the film, there should be a report on the topic: “Is there life on Mars?”

What happened to the lecturer and the report itself is well known to the audience. There is often information about Mars in the news.

Astronomical information also includes the fact that it rotates along the fourth trajectory, if we count from the Sun, belongs to the terrestrial group etc.

Mars

It is interesting that all the names of the nearest planets are named after ancient Roman gods. Mars is the god of war according to ancient mythology. There is a little confusion as many consider him to be a fertility god. Both are right. The Romans considered him the god of fertility, who could both destroy and save the harvest. Then, already in ancient Greek mythology, he received the name Ares (Mars) - the god of war.

Attention! Red Planet - Mars acquired its unofficial name due to the high iron content on its surface, which gives it a reddish tint. God received his formidable name in Greek mythology for the same reason. The reddish tint resembled the color of blood.

Few people know that the first month of spring is named after the god of fertility. It sounds the same in almost any language. Mars - March, Mars – March.

Mars is considered one of the most interesting planets in the solar system for children:

1. The highest point on Earth three times lower than the highest point on Mars. Mount Everest is over 8 km high. Mount Olympus (Mars) - 27 km.
2. Due to weaker gravity on Mars you can jump three times higher.
3. Like Earth, Mars has 4 seasons. Each lasts 6 months, and the entire a year is 687 Earth days(2 earth years -365x2=730).
4. It has its own Bermuda Triangle. Of every three satellites launched towards it, only one returns. Two disappear.
5. Moons of Mars (there are two of them) revolve around it at approximately the same speed towards each other. Because orbital radii are different, they never collide.

Venus

An inexperienced user will immediately answer that the hottest planet in the solar system is the first from the sun - Mercury. However our Earth's twin Venus will easily give him a head start. Mercury has no atmosphere, and although it 44 days heated by the Sun, it spends the same number of days cooling down (A year on Mercury is 88 days). Venus due to the presence of an atmosphere with a high content of carbon dioxide maintains high temperature constantly.

Attention! Located between Mercury and Earth, Venus is almost constantly under a “greenhouse” cap. The temperature stays around 462 degrees. For comparison, lead melts at a temperature of 327 degrees.

Facts about Venus:

1. She has no companions, but itself is so bright that it can cast a shadow.
2. A day on it lasts more than a year - 243 earth days(year - 225).
3. 3. All planets in the Solar System rotate counterclockwise . Only Venus rotates the other way.
4. The wind speed on it can reach 360 km/h.

Mercury

Mercury - first planet from the Sun. Let's look at some interesting information about him:

1. Despite the dangerous proximity with his hot neighbor, he there are glaciers.
2. Mercury boasts geysers. Because there is no oxygen on it, they consist of pure hydrogen.
3. American research satellites detected presence of a small magnetic field.
4. Mercury is eccentric. Its trajectory has an ellipse, the maximum diameter of which is almost twice the minimum.
5. Mercury is covered in wrinkles and, since it has a minimum atmospheric thickness. As a result the inner core cools down, shrinking. Therefore, his mantle was covered with wrinkles, the height of which could reach hundreds of meters.

Saturn

Saturn, despite the minimal amount of light and heat, not covered by glaciers, since its main components are gases: helium and hydrogen. It is one of the ringed planets in the Solar System. Galileo, who first saw the planet, suggested that the rings were a trace of the movement of two satellites, but they rotate very quickly.

Interesting information:

1. Shape of Saturn - oblate ball. This is due to the rapid rotation of the celestial body around its axis. Its diameter at the widest part is 120 thousand km, at the narrowest - 108 thousand km.
2. It ranks second in the solar system in terms of the number of its satellites - 62 pieces. At the same time, there are giants larger than Mercury, and there are very small ones with a diameter of up to 5 km.
3. The main decoration of the gas giant are its rings.
4. Saturn is 760 times larger than Earth.
5. Its density is second only to water.

Researchers have proposed an interesting interpretation of the last two facts when teaching children:

• If you create a bag the size of Saturn, then it would fit exactly 760 balls, the diameter of which is equal to the globe.
• If a giant bathtub comparable to its size was filled with water, then Saturn would float on the surface.

Pluto

Pluto is of particular interest.

Until the end of the twentieth century, it was considered the most the farthest planet from the Sun, but due to the discovery of the second asteroid belt beyond Neptune, in which fragments were found weighing and diameter exceeding Pluto, since the beginning of the 21st century it has been transferred to the status of dwarf planets.

An official name to designate bodies of this size has yet to be invented. At the same time, this “shard” has five of its satellites. One of them, Charon, is almost equal in its parameters to Pluto itself.

There is no planet in our system with a blue sky, except for Earth and... Pluto. In addition, it is noted that there is a lot of ice on Pluto. Unlike Mercury's ice sheets, this ice is frozen water, since the planet is quite far from the main body.

Jupiter

But the most interesting planet is Jupiter:

1. He has rings. Five of them are fragments of meteorites approaching him. Unlike Saturn's rings, they do not contain ice.
2. The moons of Jupiter were named after the mistresses of the ancient Greek god after whom he was named.
3. It is the most dangerous for radio and magnetic devices. Its magnetic field can damage the instruments of a ship that tries to approach it.
4. The speed of Jupiter is also interesting. Days on it are only 10 hours, and year is the time during which it occurs revolution around a star, 12 years.
5. The mass of Jupiter is several times greater than the weight of all other planets orbiting the Sun.

Earth

Interesting facts.

1. The South Pole - Antarctica, contains almost 90% of all the ice on the globe. Almost 70% of the world's fresh water is located there.
2. Longest mountain range is underwater. Its length is more than 600,000 km.
3. The longest range on land is the Himalayas (over 2500 km),
4. The Dead Sea is the second deepest point in the world. Its bottom located at 400 meters below ocean level.
5. Scientists suggest that our celestial body used to have two moons. After a collision with him, the second one crumbled and became an asteroid belt.
6. Many years ago, the globe was not green-blue, as in today's photographs from space, but purple, due to the large number of bacteria.

These are not all the interesting facts about planet Earth. Scientists can tell hundreds of interesting, sometimes funny, pieces of information.

Gravity

The simplest interpretation of this term is attraction.

People walk on a horizontal surface because it attracts. A thrown stone still falls sooner or later - gravity effect. If you are unsure on a bike, you fall - gravity again.

The solar system and gravity are interconnected. Celestial bodies have their own orbits around the star.

Without gravity, there would be no orbits. This entire swarm flying around our star would scatter in different directions.

Attraction is also reflected in the fact that all planets are round in shape. Gravity depends on distance: several pieces of any substance are mutually attracted, resulting in a ball.

Table of length of day and years

It is clear from the table that the further the object is from the main luminary, the shorter the day and the longer the years. Which planet has the shortest year? On Mercury it is only 3 earth months. Scientists have not yet been able to confirm or refute this figure, because not a single earthly telescope can constantly observe it. The proximity of the main luminary will definitely damage the optics. The data was obtained through space research vehicles.

The length of the day also depends on body diameter and the speed of its rotation. The white planets of the Solar System (terrestrial type), the names of which are presented in the first four cells of the table, have a rocky structure and a rather slow speed.

10 interesting facts about the solar system

Our solar system: Planet Uranus

Conclusion

The giant planets located beyond the asteroid belt are mostly gaseous, due to which they rotate faster. Moreover, all four have poles and an equator rotate at different speeds. On the other hand, since they are at a greater distance from the star, their complete orbit takes quite a long time.

All space objects are interesting in their own way, and each of them contains some kind of mystery. Their study is a long and very interesting process, which every year reveals to us new secrets of the Universe.

Many interesting facts about the solar system are known, but some still remain unknown. Thanks to astronomy, we know what the solar system is. Not everyone knows interesting facts about this. Astronomical knowledge is amazing and extraordinary, and you won’t be lost with it.

1. Jupiter is considered the largest planet in the solar system.

2. There are 5 dwarf planets in the Solar System, one of which has been reclassified as Pluto.

3. There are very few asteroids in the Solar System.

4. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system.

5. About 99% of the space (by volume) in the Solar System is occupied by the Sun.

6. The satellite of Saturn is considered one of the most beautiful and original places in the solar system. There you can see a huge concentration of ethane and liquid methane.

7. Our solar system has a tail that resembles a four-leaf clover.

8. The sun follows a continuous 11-year cycle.

9. There are 8 planets in the solar system.

10. The solar system is fully formed thanks to a large gas and dust cloud.

11. Spacecraft flew to all the planets of the solar system.

12. Venus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates counterclockwise around its axis.

13. There are 27 satellites.

15. A huge mass of solar system objects fell on the Sun.

16. The solar system is part of the Milky Way galaxy.

17. The sun is the central object of the solar system.

18. The solar system is often divided into regions.

19. The sun is a key component of the solar system.

20. The solar system was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago.

21. The most distant planet in the solar system is Pluto.

22. Two regions in the Solar System are filled with small bodies.

23. The solar system was built contrary to all the laws of the Universe.

24. If you compare the solar system and space, then it is just a grain of sand in it.

25. Over the past few centuries, the solar system has lost 2 planets: Vulcan and Pluto.

26. Researchers claim that the solar system was created artificially.

27. The only satellite of the Solar System that has a dense atmosphere and whose surface cannot be seen due to cloud cover is Titan.

28. The region of the solar system that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune is called the Kuiper belt.

29. The Oort cloud is the region of the solar system that serves as the source of a comet and a long orbital period.

30. Every object in the solar system is held there due to the force of gravity.

31. The leading theory of the solar system involves the emergence of planets and satellites from a huge cloud.

32. The solar system is considered the most secret particle of the Universe.

33. There is a huge asteroid belt in the Solar System.

34. On Mars you can see the eruption of the largest volcano in the solar system, which is called Olympus.

35. Pluto is considered to be the outskirts of the solar system.

36. On the satellite Europa there is a global ocean in which there may be life. The oxygen content in the water on Europa allows it to support not only single-celled life forms but also larger ones.

37. The largest satellite of the solar system is Ganymede, which is located in the orbit of the planet Jupiter. Diameter - 5286 km. He is greater than Mercury.

38. Pallas is considered the largest asteroid in the solar system.

40. The solar system mainly consists of hydrogen.

41. The Earth is an equal member of the solar system.

42. The sun heats up slowly.

43. Oddly enough, the largest reserves of water in the solar system are in the sun.

44. The equator plane of each planet in the solar system diverges from the orbital plane.

45.The satellite of Mars called Phobos is an anomaly of the Solar system.

46. ​​The solar system can amaze with its diversity and scale.

47. The planets of the solar system are influenced by the sun.

48. The outer shell of the Solar system is considered to be the haven of satellites and gas giants.

49. A huge number of planetary satellites of the solar system are dead.

50. In 1802, the largest asteroid, with a diameter of 950 km, was Ceres. But on August 24, 2006, it was recognized as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union.

More than 50 years ago, space exploration began. Following the launch of the first satellite, spacecraft soon went to other planets in the solar system. And although hopes of finding life on other planets have not yet come true, a lot of interesting things have been found on them. Interesting facts about the planets of the solar system are in this post.

The closest and farthest

The closest object in the solar system to Earth is the Moon. The Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth and is located at a distance of 384 thousand km. As for other planets, due to rotation around the Sun, the distance between them is constantly changing, but Venus periodically turns out to be closest to Earth - at a distance of 38 million km. And the Sun is 150 million km from the Earth.

The planet closest to the Sun in the Solar System is Mercury; it periodically approaches the Sun at a distance of up to 46 million km. The most distant object discovered so far is a dwarf planet under the symbol VP113. VP113 has an elongated orbit, with its closest distance from the Sun being approximately 12 billion kilometers and its farthest being more than 66 billion. If Mercury makes a revolution around the Sun in 88 days, then VP113 takes 4270 years!

The most distant objects in the solar system that have been studied and photographed at close range are Pluto and its satellite Charon.

The New Horizons spacecraft, which studied Pluto, flew to it for more than 9 years, covering 5 billion km during this time.

Most similar to Earth

It was previously believed that the planet most similar to Earth was Venus. It has almost the same mass and radius (just a little smaller), in addition, Venus is closest to Earth. Therefore, for a long time, scientists hoped that the conditions on Venus would be close to those on Earth, but after the USSR launched the first spacecraft to Venus, it became clear that these hopes were not justified. It turned out that on the surface of Venus there is a monstrous atmospheric pressure - 90 times higher than on Earth, and the temperature exceeds 460 degrees - on Venus even hotter than on Mercury! So in reality, Mars turned out to be most similar to Earth. The average temperature on Mars is -60°C - the same as in Antarctica in winter, but near the equator it can sometimes rise to +20°C. In addition, the inclination of Mars' axis to the orbital plane, as well as the period of revolution around its axis, are also very close to those on Earth. Dry river beds have been found on Mars, and recent studies indicate that liquid water even now exists on the planet.

dry riverbeds on Mars

The most studied planet

It is not surprising that the planet most similar in climatic conditions to Earth was of interest to scientists in the first place. More than 40 spacecraft were launched to study Mars, although not all of them managed to successfully reach the planet (for comparison, only one spacecraft was sent to study Mercury). 4 rovers have already been sent to Mars to explore its surface, and 4 more rovers are planned to be sent in the near future.

Panorama of Mars, compiled from many photos taken by the Curiosity rover:

By switching to full screen mode and rotating the photo with your mouse, you can feel like you're on Mars.

Other records of the Solar system

The largest planet is Jupiter. It is 11 times larger than Earth in size and 318 times larger in mass. However, Jupiter, like the 3 following planets - Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, is a gas giant, and the largest rocky planet in the solar system is the Earth.

The planet with the largest temperature differences on its surface is Mercury. The temperature on it ranges from + 430 ºС on the sunny side and to – 180 ºС on the night side.

Venus is the planet that rotates the slowest on its axis. It rotates around its axis in 243 days, and around the Sun in 224 days. That is, one year on Venus is shorter than one day.

Mars has the highest mountains and deepest canyons in the solar system. The height of the Olympus volcano on Mars is 27 kilometers from the base, and the depth of the canyon in the Valles Marineris is 8 kilometers.

Jupiter and Saturn have the largest number of satellites - each of the planets has more than 60 of them, while Mercury and Venus have no satellites at all. In addition, Saturn has rings - the most impressive in the solar system. The rings consist of billions of small fragments, and the total width of the rings exceeds 400 thousand km.

Saturn and its rings

In the list of the largest objects in the solar system (including the Sun), the Earth ranks sixth, and the Moon ranks 14th. In total, 17 objects larger than 2 thousand km and 29 objects larger than 1000 km were discovered in the Solar System. and more than 60 - over 500 km in size.

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Planets of the Solar System: scientific research, high-resolution photos, interesting facts, detailed descriptions of space objects, new information about the planets.

The Universe is a huge place for exploration, but do not forget that within the Solar System there remains a lot of amazing information about the solar planets, whose characteristics may surprise. Let's explore interesting facts about the planets of the solar system for children and adults with high-resolution photos.

Interesting facts about the planets of the solar system

Mercury is hot, but has ice

The first planet from the Sun, Mercury, managed to hide ice reserves on its surface. It seems simply unreal, but the ice is hidden in permanently shadowed crater formations where the sun's rays never fall. The source is believed to be comets. MESSENGER recorded icy spots at the North Pole and spotted organics that act as a building block for life.

Venus has no satellites

The first two planets of the solar system are devoid of satellites, which seems unexpected, because the rest do. Saturn has 60 of them! And some appear as captured asteroids. What's wrong with this couple? No one knows for sure, but some believe that Venus previously had a moon that crashed into the planet or was absorbed by the Sun.

Ancient Mars had a thick atmospheric layer

Behind the life-rich Earth lies a sad, cold desert - Mars. But look closer and you'll notice gullies that can be formed by the action of water. It is believed that the planet previously had a denser atmosphere. But where is she? Perhaps it's all about the influence of the sun, which gradually tore out the light molecules.

Jupiter is a comet killer

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, 318 times more massive than Earth. Therefore, any nearby comets simply succumb to its influence and fly to certain death. In ancient times, it was Jupiter that was responsible for the huge number of comets in the inner system. And it destroyed Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994.

How old are Saturn's rings?

Interesting facts about the planets of the solar system could not avoid this moment. A magnificent system of rings, represented by ice and stone fragments, is concentrated around Saturn. They were noticed back in the 1600s in the first telescopic survey. But how old are they? Nobody knows for sure. Some believe that they formed billions of years ago from the solar nebula, while others blame the relatively recent destruction of a large satellite.

Uranium is more active than we thought

In 1980, Voyager 2 flew past the planet Uranus and captured incredible activity. Recent studies show a huge number of long-period storms. No one yet knows what exactly fuels this activity.

Supersonic winds on Neptune

Earthlings have to deal with hurricanes from time to time, but they will never compare to the situation on Neptune. There the wind accelerates to 1770 km/h. Just so you understand, this is faster than the speed of sound.

You can see the earth's magnetic field

Our planet Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that protects all living things from dangerous solar particles. NASA constantly monitors the Sun to protect astronauts on the ISS and its satellites. But we can look at the magnetic field during the aurora period. This is the moment when stellar particles come into contact with the upper atmospheric layer.