Showing posts with label solar system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar system. Show all posts

November 3, 2016

Comet

Hale-Bob (Comet) captured with SpaceEngine.
A Comet is an object that it revolves around the Sun like planets and asteroids, but it has a very eccentric orbit (It can be elliptical, parabolic or hyperbolic), it consists of ice, dust and rock.

Comets are object with irregular shaped objects such as satellites, but when they approach the Sun, they heat up and the ice sublimes creating an atmosphere termed "The Coma" and a Tail.
The Coma surround the nucleus and the Tail is a linear sections consisting of dusty or gas dragged out of the nucleus by the solar wind and radiation.

Some comets are "periodic comets" they have an elliptical orbits, as approaches to the Sun, they sublimate their mass (Forming a Coma and Tail), but these disappear when consumed all their mass.
Other comets approach the Sun only once, they have a parabolic or hyperbolic orbit, therefore, after to approach the sun they head into interstellar space.

November 2, 2016

Ceres

Ceres, catch taken with realist brightness
since SpaceEngine
Ceres is the fifth nearest planet to the Sun (the nearest dwarf planet), and it is the smallest planet in the solar system, it is also the only dwarf planet that isn't a TNO (Trans-Neptunian object) Its name comes from the roman deity Ceres.

Ceres is a Dwarf Planet (Cool Selena), located between Mars and Jupiter, in the main Asteroid Belt, it has a mass of 9.43 x 10^20 Kg and a diameter of 952.4 Km, therefore, its density is 2.07 g/cm³ (Approximately).

Although it is less massive planet, Ceres is the largest and most massive object in the Asteroid Belt (its mass represents a third of the total mass of the Asteroid Belt), this planet in the past was considered a asteroid, but it has a lot of mass to be an asteroid and it has very little mass to be a planet, so since 2006 the International Astronomical Union considers that Ceres is a Dwarf  Planet.

Its rotation period is 9.07 hours and its orbital period is 1682 days.  This planet doesn't have natural satellites, because it has little gravity (0,28 m/s² or 0,029 g on its surface).

October 31, 2016

Uranus

Uranus and Uranus V (Natural satellite), catch without
realist brightness taken since SpaceEngine.
Uranus is the seventh nearest planet to the Sun (Disregarding Dwarf planets) and the third largest planet in the Solar system. Its name comes from the Greek deity Uranus (Caelus in the Roman mythology).

This planet has a mass of 8.681 × 10^25 kg (14,54 M⊕) and a diameter of 51118 km (4.0073 D⊕) (its diameter is 4 times higher than the Earth), therefore, it has a density of 1,27 g/cm³.

 Uranus is a Frozen Ice Giant, located between Saturn and Neptune, its semimajor axis is 19.19 AU (19 times farther from the Sun than Earth), its orbital period is 84.01 years and its rotation period is 17 hours with 14 minutes. It is the planet in the solar system with highest axial tilt (98°) so than its rotation is very strange


Neptune

Neptune and four dwarf moons, catch without realist
brightness taken since SpaceEngine.
Neptune is the 8th nearest planet to the Sun, and is the farthest planet (Disregarding Dwarf planets), also it is the fourth largest planet in the solar system (The smallest planet Giant gas). Its name comes from the roman deity Neptune, this planet is known for its blue color.

Neptune is a Frozen ice Giant, located between Uranus and Pluto (Dwarf Planet), however as the orbit of Pluto is very eccentric, Pluto is closer the Sun than Neptune during 20 years (of the 248 years that Pluto uses for complete its orbital period).

This planet has a orbital period of 164.79 years and the solar day is 16 hours with 6 minutes. Its mass is 17.15 M⊕ (1.024 × 10^26 kg) and it has a diameter of 49244 km, therefore, it has a density of 1,64 g/cm³.

It has a atmosphere pressure of 9.93 × 10^4 atm and it's composed by Hydrogen, helium and Methane.

Neptune has 14 natural satellites, the most largest is Triton and it is the only large satellite in the Solar System with a retrograde orbit.

Mars

Mars and Phobos (Dwarf moon), catch taken
since SpaceEngine.
Mars is the fourth nearest planet to the Sun, and is the Second smallest (Disregarding Dwarf planets). Its name comes from the roman deity Mars.

Mars is a terrestrial planet (Cool Desert), located between Earth and Ceres (Dwarf planet), it has a mass of 0,107 M⊕ (6.39 × 10^23 kg) and it has a diameter of 6779 km approximately (It has half the diameter of Earth), therefore its density is 3.93 g/cm³.

It has a semimajor axis of 1.52 AU (1.52 times farther than the Earth to the Sun, so it has a lower temperature (-48.232 °C) with a Greenhouse effect of 5°C.

This planet has 2 dwarf moons, these are: Phobos and Deimos, in its surface Mars has a gravity of  0.37902 g (3.711 m/s²), its gravity is 3 times less than the Earth (Approximately).

October 30, 2016

Pluto

Pluto and Charon, catch without realist
brightness taken since SpaceEngine.
Pluto is a dwarf planet discovered in 1930 by american astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh, it is a TNO (Trans-Neptunian object), that is, it is beyond the orbit of Neptun, also is the object biggest of the Kuiper Belt.

Pluto has a mass of 0,002185 M⊕ (1.25×10²² kg) and a diameter of  0.18579 D⊕ (23995 Km), therefore, its density is 1.88 g/cm³.

Its orbital period is 248 years, however as it has a very eccentric orbit, Pluto is closer the Sun than Neptune for 20 years (at perihelion), during the rest of the time Pluton is farther from the sun than Neptune.

Pluto has 5 Satellites, these are: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. The largest satellite pluto is Charon and both form a binary system. 

(if you want to know more about the binary system of Pluto and Charon press here).


Mercury

Mercury, catch taken since SpaceEngine.
Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun, and is the smallest planet in the Solar System (Disregarding Dwarf planets), it's smaller than Titan and Ganymede (The largest natural satellites). Its name comes from the roman deity Mercury.

Mercury is a terrestrial planet (Hot selena), its mass is 0,055 M⊕ (3,285×10^23 kg) and it has a diameter of 4879 km, therefore its density is 5.43 g/cm³ so that it is the second planet with highest density in the Solar System.

It doesn't  has  atmosphere, so the heat from the Sun isn't retained, Mercury's surface temperature at the night is -173 °C and at the day is 427 °C Approximately, in the day it's the second  hottest planet in the Solar System.

This planet doesn't has natural Satellite, revolves around the Sun in 87.95 days and its rotation period is 58.646 days (2:3), therefore it has a solar day of 176.015 days.





Venus

Venus, catch taken since SpaceEngine
Venus is the second nearest planet to the Sun, and is the second largest terrestrial planet (The seventh largest planet in the Solar System).

Venus is a terrestrial Planet (Hot desert), located between Mercury and Earth , it has a mass of 0,815 M⊕ (4,867 × 10^24 kg) and has a diameter of 12104 km, therefore, its density is 5,24 g/cm³ approximately.

Venus is the terrestrial planet with highest atmospheric pressure, (93 atm or 93 times the atmosphere pressure of the Earth. Its atmosphere is very dense, so it retains heat from the Sun.

The atmosphere of Venus is composed mainly Carbon Dioxide (96 %), this is a Greenhouse Gas which makes Venus the hottest planet in the Solar System,  with a average temperature of 463.85 °C.

This is the only planet in the solar system that rotates clockwise in retrograde rotation once every 243 Earth days, it's also the planet with less eccentric orbit (it has the most similar orbit to a circle).

Earth

Earth, catch taken from space simulator spaceengine 
Earth is the third nearest planet to the Sun and is the largest terrestrial planet (The largest of the planets composed primarily of silicate rocks or metal), its name comes from Terra, the ancient Roman goddess. This is the planet we inhabit.

Earth has a mass of 1 M⊕ (5.97×10^24 kg) and a diameter of 1 D⊕ (12742 Km), therefore, it has a density of 5.51 g/cm³ approximately,

Earth is a terrestrial planet, located between Venus and Mars in its surface it has a gravity of 1 g (9.8 m/s²) and has 1 natural Satellite its name is Moon.

The surface temperature is of 15 °C approximately (The maximum temperature is 56.7 °C and the minimum is -89.2 °C), in the International System this amount to 184 K (Minimum), 288 K (Mean) and 330 K (Maximum).

the earth is made up of water in 2/3 of its surface in the rest is rock, ice and metal.
The atmosphere is composed primarily of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon and Carbon Dioxide, and with the sunlight, the atmosphere has a bluish color.


Jupiter

Jupiter, catch taken without realist brightness
since SpaceEngine.
Jupiter is the fifth nearest planet to the Sun (Disregarding dwarf planets), and the largest planet of the Solar System. its names comes from the Greek deity Zeus (Jupiter in Roman mythology) this planet like Saturn has rings, but it has very few rings so that almost cannot be seen.

Jupiter is a Cold Gas Giant, located between Ceres (Dwarf Planet) and Saturn, its mass is 317,8 M⊕ (317 times the mass of the Earth), and it has a diameter of 139822 km, therefore, its density is 1.33 g/cm³ so it's one of the planets with lower density.

Jupiter is formed mainly from hydrogen and Helium, it doesn't have a solid surface defined, and its atmospheric pressure is 1x10 (exponent 6) atm, that is to say, 1 million times the atmospheric pressure on earth.

Jupiter has 63 natural satellites, but the largest are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, Ganymede is the largest Satellite of Jupiter and the largest satellite in the Solar Sistem, its diameter is 5262 Km, and it is larger than Mercury.

October 20, 2016

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth nearest planet in the solar system (Disregarding dwarf planets).And the second largest, surpassed only by Jupiter. Its name comes from the Greek deity Chronos (Saturn in Roman mythology) and because of its huge layer of rings is the most striking planet in the Solar System.

Saturn's Capture take without realist brightness from Space Simulator SpaceEngine.
Saturn is a Gas Giant Planet, located Between Jupiter and Neptune, it has a mass of  95,16 M⊕ (95 times the mass of the Earth), and a diameter of 116464 km,  however it is a planet with very low density (687 kg/m³ or 0,687 g/cm³), Saturn is less dense than water.

Saturn has 31 natural satellites, but the largest are Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan and Lapetus. Titan is the largest satellite of Saturn, and the second largest satellite in the solar Sistem, its diameter is about half the diameter of the earth.
Saturn rings rotate at a speed of 48000 km/h and are made up of rocks and particles are trapped by the planet's gravity.