The Solar System

There are many differences among our planets and moons in our Solar System. The geologic activity, composition, interior structure, magnetic field, and atmosphere are all factors that help give these planets and moons there identity. We have sent probes over the years to help examine these properties.

Ancient Greek astronomers made some amazing mathematical and philosophical discovers about our universe. From the Hellenistic Greek observations in approximately 300 B.C.E., to the invention of the first telescope in the seventeenth century, to the launching of today’s space probes, one thing is evident: astrological observations are imperative to creating a calendar.

Gravity: Gravity is a force of nature that keeps things on Earth instead of floating out of the atmosphere.

During the first millennium B.C. scientists realized that astronomy had to become more scientific. Middle Eastern and Chinese cultures started studying the Sun, stars and the planets more closely in an attempt to learn more about our position in the universe.. Star positions also became important tools in understanding directions, and helping with navigation. One philosopher stated in 434 B.C. that the Sun was a ball of fire 60 kilometres in diameter, hovering 6500 kilometres above Earth’s surface. Around 130 B.C., Ptolemy wrote Almagest, which was a huge collection of astronomical data which included mathematical models, information about eclipses, and planetary and stellar positions and movements. It remained a major go to book for astronomy for hundreds of years, and was not seriously challenged until Copernicus disputed the geocentric model of the solar system in the 1500’s

The solar system was created 4.6 billion years ago by a gravitational collapse. A solar system is a star that has planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteoroids travel around it. The solar system contains eight known planets which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. There is around several hundred dwarf plants but only five are currently recognized. The solar system has about 181 moons which orbit around the planets in the solar system. There is also about 150 million asteroids and 3,406 comets also in the solar system.

The history of our solar system is one topic that scientists were able to gain information on due to the Philae mission. “A Success in Space”, an article that reveals the story of the Philae one mission, states, “Researchers consider comets the remains of the ancient solar system.” (Keady 5) This quote shows that comets can be a key to finding more about the remains of the solar system from long ago. Ashley Yeager, the author of the article “Comet probe may shed light on Earth’s past” wrote, “By studying these hunks of rock, dust and ice, scientists hope to better understand the early history of the solar system—including Earth’s early years.” (8) This example proves that scientists hope that comets can help them assimilate more information on the history of our

the heliocentric solar system. Johannes Kepler further modified the heliocentric system, by mathematically showing that the planets’ orbits are elliptical. With his invention of the telescope, Galileo made new observations about the solar system and found mathematical laws that described the movement of the planets. Later, Isaac Newton established a universal law of gravity. With the new scientific discoveries, the gap between religion and science increased. Science revolutionized the human though and its understanding of the universe.

Astronomy is probably the most ancient natural science in the history of the world. It is the study of celestial objects, such as planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets; in terms of mathematics, psychics, and chemistry. Earlier civilization studied astronomy by observations, whereas, now the focus is more on the physics and chemistry of the celestial bodies.

13) When we say a star “moves” on a H-R diagram we are not saying that it is physically moving from one place to another, we are saying that it is transitioning from one stage of its evolutionary life to another. For example we might say it is moving from pre-main sequence to main sequence. This means that the star has moves from an early stage in its life to the middle stage of its life. It has physically stayed in the same place in space.

I studied the topic from Astrology “Discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781”. This was a very interesting topic to me. Astrology has always astonished me and I have been interested in space, stars and the Universe. So too was William Herschel. At his time people were familiar with a few planets, the ones up to Uranus, but nothing more. William Herschel was interested in astronomy and read a lot of books about the subject. He used to star gaze but he only had weak telescopes, so in an interest to see more, he worked towards building a more powerful telescope. William Herschel spent time at night after his musical career building telescopes, and after a while, along with his father and brother, was making the most powerful telescopes around, and seeing further and further into the unknown. One of his first projects was mapping the different planets and their positions and movements.

"A planet is a celestial body that revolves around a central star and does not shine by its own light " (Grolier, 1992). The only planetary system that is known to man is our

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.

In 1609, Galileo Galilei, using “spyglass” which allowed one to see things closer than they appeared, made an early version of the telescope. With it, he observed the skies in a way no one had before. He discovered the moon isn’t perfectly globular, it has craters, the Sun has sunspots, Venus orbits the Sun (contrary to widespread belief in his time), and then he observed four “stars” around Jupiter (“Our Solar System”). Within

Since the first Egyptian farmers discovered the annual reappearance of Sirius just before dawn a few days before the yearly rising of the Nile, ancient civilizations around the Mediterranean have sought to explain the movements of the heavens as a sort of calendar to help guide them conduct earthly activities. Counting phases of the moon or observing the annual variations of day length could, after many years' collection of observations, serve as vital indicators for planting and harvesting times, safe or stormy season for sailing, or time to bring the flocks from winter to summer pastures. With our millennia of such observation behind us, we sometimes forget that seeing and recording anything less obvious than

Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World . In some cultures astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication.