Terrestrial and Jovian Planets
Our solar system contains nine planets, which are broken down into 2 classifications known as terrestrial planets and jovian planets. The terrestrial planets are composed primarily of rock and metal. They also generally have high densities, slow rotation, solid surfaces, no rings, and few satellites. These planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. On the other hand, the jovian planets are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. They generally have low densities, rapid rotation, deep atmospheres, rings, and numerous satellites. These planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
The closest terrestrial planet to the sun is Mercury. Mercury is relatively small, and technically the
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Venus is usually visible to the naked eye. Being the brightest star in the sky makes Venus easily seen on starry nights.
The next terrestrial planet, and third planet from the Sun, is our Earth. Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek or Roman mythology. Earth is the densest major body in the solar system. Unlike the other terrestrial planets, Earth is divided into solid plates that float around independently on top of the hot mantle. There are eight major plates and twenty or so smaller plates. Seventy-one percent of the Earth is made of water. Earth happens to be the only planet on which water can exist as a liquid form on the surface. The Earth’s atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and has traces of argon, carbon dioxide, and water. Earth is the only planet with human life, and as a result, this is planet is our home.
The last terrestrial planet, and fourth planet from the Sun, is Mars. Mars is a fairly small planet, and as a result is the seventh largest of all the planets. Mars is commonly referred to as the Red Planet, due to its red color. The first spacecraft to visit Mars was the Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others closely followed including the Mariner 2, Viking, and Mars Pathfinder. Mars has a very thin atmosphere composed of 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, and 1.6% argon. Mars thin atmosphere also produces a greenhouse effect, however it only raises the temperature slightly. When it is nighttime, Mars is
Mars is a rocky body about half the size of Earth. Like Earth, Mars experiences seasons because of the tilt of its rotational axis, so its distance to the sun changes, according to NASA (n.d.). Telescope observations show water-iced clouds, polar ice, and volcanoes. Mars has the largest Volcanic Mountain in the solar system, named the Olympus Mons and has two moons in its orbit.
Jupiter Research Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. This gas giant has a thick atmosphere, 17 moons, and a dark, barely-visible ring. Its most prominent features are bands across its latitudes and a great red spot, (which is a storm). Jupiter is composed mostly of gas.
Which two planets are closest to Earth? The two planets that are closest to Earth are Venus and Mars.
Then red dwarf star that was discovered by Michal Gillion and his team with the spencer telescope. Once they discovered this star that is a lot small and colder than our sun, it allowed them to get a vision of the seven planets. The star is about 40 light years away. There are not 3 or four planets but there are 7 earth like planets.
One of these terrestrial planets, Mercury is the topic of the next section. Mercury, one of the smallest planets, has a surface similar to that of a moon because it is cratered with some smoother areas. However, it is distinct from the moon in that the plains are the same color as the cratered areas. Mercury
This video looks at 6 other Planets that may or may not be possibilities of sustaining life. The first planet was Mercury. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and one day on mercury lasts up to 58 days on Earth due to its slow rotation. There is one positive aspect of Mercury,
Years and years ago, there were only eight known planets that orbit our sun; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Eight planets until that fateful day when Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered our ninth planet. Although, a little credit should be given to Percival Lowell,
Jupiter, being the fifth and largest planet from the sun, is huge. In fact, it is approximately a thousand times the size of our home planet. Alongside Neptune, Saturn and Uranus, it is a gas giant. hydrogen and helium are the main components. Jupiter's surface appears striped due to the color swirls. wind on the planet gets up twice as strong as a hurricane on earth.
Mercury: Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, and one year on Mercury is equal to 88
Mars is an interesting and mysterious planet. It is often referred to as the Red Planet. The Romans named Mars after the god of war. The rocks, soil, and sky all have a red hue on account of rust. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun at about 141 million miles (228 million kilometers) and the last terrestrial planet from the Sun. Mars follows closely behind Earth but is comparatively smaller, with about half the diameter of Earth (6,794-km) and about one-tenth of Earth s mass (6.419 x 1023 kg). Thus the force of gravity on Mars is about one-third of that on Earth. Mars is probably the planet we know the most about since it is so close to Earth, though what we know now is not even close to everything about the planet. Over
Mercury, named after the Roman God of Thievery, Commerce, and Travel, is the first planet from the Sun. It is unique because it shows at both morning rise and evening set of the sun. It is rocky, heavily cratered, covered in boulders, and also pulverized dust. The majority of it's surface bears a strong resemblance to that of Earth's moon. It's lack of atmosphere causes wild temperature fluctuations. Temperatures can range from 90 kelvin to 700 kelvin thus creating a planet, from all observations, that cannot sustain life--it is geologically dead. Mercury also has a magnetic field generated by the planet's core that can deflect solar wind and which has a magnetosphere that changes. This was surprising for such a slow rotating planet--one that rotates completely every 88 Earth days.
Humans have longed to believe in extrasolar planets, as surely there have to be planets elsewhere in the universe. Claims of supposedly discovered extrasolar planets can be dated back to 1855 when Captain S. W. Jacobs from the Madras observatory, claimed that he had discovered a planet orbiting a binary system (Jacobs 1855), all the way up until 1991 when a team of astronomers announced then retracted the alleged discovery of an extrasolar planet around a pulsar star (Lyne and Bailes 1992). Planets are extremely hard to detect as they are a very faint light source and the light from its parent star is much brighter and essentially blocks out light from a planet (Winters 1996). It was not until 1992 when the first exoplanets were confirmed
Mercury which is the planet that is closest to the sun is the first planet I will discuss. Mercury is the smallest of the inner
Humans live on a small planet in a tiny part of a vast universe. This part of the universe is called the solar system, and is dominated by a single brilliant star-the sun. The solar system is the earth’s neighbourhood and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the Earth’s neighbours. They all have the same stars in the sky and orbit the same sun.
The terrestrial planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These four planets are the planets that are closest to the sun. Terrestrial means earthlike; therefore, these planets are all earthlike because they have a solid ground. The terrestrial planets are the middle school years. The knowledge learned here orbits the sun. If the knowledge learned at the sun is not retained, a student may have a