Astronomy today is not only interesting for schoolchildren. Discoveries that expand our knowledge of space, attract the attention of adults. Interesting facts about the planets are published in popular magazines. And this is not surprising, since the availability of the results of studying space objects increases the number of curious people who want to know a little more about the vast space of the Universe. The following are examples of amazing facts related to the solar system.
Classification
All the planets orbiting around our star are divided into two types: those belonging to the earth group and gas giants. They differ in composition, size and some other characteristics. The Earth group includes our home, as well as Mercury, Venus and Mars. For the most part, these planets are composed of silicates and metals. The size of these space bodies is significantly inferior to the dimensions of the gas giants, as the name implies. The latter include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The main substances in their composition are hydrogen and helium. Pluto is now deprived of the status of a planet and assigned to the Kuiper belt objects - ice witnesses of the formation of the solar system located in the space beyond Neptune.
Conditional surface
When studying information about gas giants, interesting facts await at every step. A lot is known about giant planets, and every detail is surprising primarily because it always emphasizes their huge difference from the Earth.
You can start with the fact that on these planets there is no surface in the usual sense for us. The density here is so low that there is no clear difference between the atmosphere, mantle and core. The surface boundary is determined by scientists by the magnitude of the pressure: it is where a level of one bar is set. In fact, a mixture of gases extends both in this area and below.
Lord of the Seas
Interesting facts about the planet Neptune explain why it was given such a name. The color of the cosmic body is saturated blue. A beautiful shade is formed due to the properties of methane clouds in the atmosphere of a giant: they absorb red-orange light. Before the final choice of the name, several more options were put forward, but through the efforts of one of the discoverers of the planet Urbene Laverrier and the director of the Pulkovo Laboratory N. Ya. Struve, the name of the Roman sea deity was assigned to her.
Neptune, like all gas giants, has satellites. The largest of them, Triton, is no less impressive than the gas giant, although it is inferior in size. The satellite rotates in the opposite direction to the motion of Neptune around its axis; it has an atmosphere. On the surface, there are presumably existing gas geysers. On Triton, a significant part of the landscape is formed by ice: methane, ammonia, and water. The latter, at a low temperature characteristic of the satellite, becomes hard as a stone and forms entire mountain ranges.
Frozen planet
Uranus along with Neptune is one of the ice giants, since they, like Triton, contain a large number of frozen inclusions. He makes a significant contribution to interesting facts about the planets. Uranus was the first major discovery after the invention of the telescope. As a result of its discovery, the concept of the structure of the solar system that has existed since antiquity was changed. So, interesting facts about the planet Uranus:
The gas giant rotates around its axis in a non-standard direction: from east to west. Apart from him, only Venus possesses such a feature in the Solar System.
The equatorial plane of the planet is strongly inclined relative to the axis of rotation. The angle between them exceeds 90º, so Uranus spins like a ball rolling on the floor. Other planets are more like a spinning top in this sense.
Like all gas giants, Uranus spins very fast. For one revolution he needs a little more than 17 hours.
The planet has 27 moons, all named after the characters of Shakespeare and Pope.
First among equals
Interesting facts about the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter are also known in considerable numbers, since they are best studied among space giants. Jupiter by mass exceeds the Earth by 318 times. Its most famous feature is a large red spot, observed since the middle of the 17th century. According to scientists, this is a huge hurricane-anticyclone. For all the time while he is being watched, the spot turns pale, then again gains brightness. This is due to the constant collisions of hurricanes in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Saturn is famous for its ring system. By the way, every giant has them, but it is Saturn that has the brightest. He has one more feature - a hexagon formed by clouds in the atmosphere. Presumably, this is a vortex that appears as a result of the difference in the speed of movement of the planet and its rings. To the end, however, the nature of education is incomprehensible.
Miracles in the Earth Group
Interesting facts about planets closer to ours are somewhat different from reports of gas giants due to their different characteristics. At the same time, there are similar points. For example, Venus, like Uranus, rotates counterclockwise. The sun here rises in the west. But on a rotation around the axis, a foggy planet spends more time: the duration of the day exceeds the duration of the year. But interesting facts about the planet Venus are not limited to this:
- it can be seen with the naked eye twice, morning and evening, after the moon and the sun it is the brightest point in the sky;
- the planet’s surface is hidden from observation by dense clouds that do not allow visible light to pass through, because data on Venus are mainly obtained using radar methods;
- the temperature on the planet reaches 480ºC and keeps almost unchanged throughout the year;
- the high carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect on Venus.
Red neighbor
Investigations of the nearest cosmos to the Earth are constantly supplemented by interesting facts about the planet Mars. In a sense, they began to study it even before the opportunity appeared to send the first spacecraft: several meteorites that arrived from Mars were discovered on Earth. The planet lives up to its name not only by coloring, but also by constant strong dust storms. They last several months and cover, like a world war, the entire planet.
Mars is also famous for the highest mountain in the solar system. She was called Olympus. It rises above the surface by more than 20 km.
Native home
It would be wrong, listing interesting facts about the planets, to miss the Earth. Its features include not only life and vast surface areas of water. This is the only planet whose name does not correspond to any Roman or Greek deity. Its satellite - the Moon - is the largest among all the companions of the planets of the earth group.
Many interesting facts about planet Earth are sometimes unknown even to its inhabitants. For example, a person’s weight depends on his location: he increases in the southern Pacific Ocean and decreases in southern India. This difference is one of the mysteries of the planet.
The atmosphere of the Earth protects life on it from the effects of ultraviolet radiation and the solar wind. The gas shell also saves us from the fall of most meteorites: they burn in the upper layers, without causing harm. At the same time, about 100 tons of cosmic dust formed as a result of collisions of asteroids and meteorites gets to the surface of the Blue Planet daily.
However, the most amazing phenomenon of the Earth is still life. Studying the many facts that scientists have managed to collect about the Universe helps to understand how incredible that we exist. The vast spaces of the cosmos explored are lifeless, the hope that somewhere far away, maybe outside the galaxy, there is another civilization, is very small. A passionate desire to find life on other planets and a deep sense of loneliness (humanity in the Universe) are some of the driving forces motivating astronomers to collect new facts, send spaceships, and construct alien conditions in the laboratory.