Wonders Of 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.

The crust of Mars is made up of oxidized iron dust mixed in with rocks and a thick layer of volcanic basalt, making the crust about thirty miles thick. Unlike Earth, the tectonic plates of Mars don’t run parallel with the core, they run perpendicular and push molten rock towards the surface. The mantle of Mars, thought to be susceptible to many volcanic eruptions, shows no signs of eruptions in millions of years. The mantle is made up of silicon, oxygen, iron, magnesium and is about 1200 miles thick. The core of Mars consists mostly of iron, nickel, and sulfur. The core doesn’t move so Mars has no magnetic field. The core is estimated to be about 1200 to 2400 miles thick. The internal structure of Mars tells scientists that if any life were to ever live on Mars they would have had to endure massive amounts of radiation. As mentioned, the internal layers of Mars vary greatly from Earth and still have yet to be seen by

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

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.

The quote above gives a quick biography on Mars. Mars is a dry, desert like planet that is between Earth and the Asteroid belt and Jupiter. It is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second closest to Earth (first being Venus). Mars is just over one half the size of Earth and has just over one third of Earth 's gravity, and the surface area on Mars is nearly the same as land area on Earth. It has a very weak magnetic field, so a lot of the Suns radiation gets to the surface. Its atmosphere is less than 1% as dense as Earth’s and 95% of it is carbon dioxide. 1 year on Mars is 687 days and has an average surface temperature of -62 degrees Celsius. But Mars does have its similarities, It travels only 4 miles per second slower around the sun, its tilt is 25 degrees, compared to Earth 's 23.5. 1 day on Mars is just 41 minutes longer than Earths, and Mars’ surface temperature range is the closest in the Solar System to Earth’s. http://www.universetoday.com/22603/mars-compared-to-earth/. But

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.

These planets evolved so differently, because of their space from the sun. Making Venus hotter than earth and causing changes to the

20. Although it is much colder on Mars than on Earth, the similar tilt of Earth’s and Mars’ axes means they have similar seasons. Like Earth's, Mars’ north and south polar caps shrink in the summer and grow in the winter. In addition, a day on Mars is 24 hours 37 minutes—nearly the same as Earth’s. No other planet shares such similar characteristics with Earth.e 21. Mars’ seasons are twice as long as those on Earth because it takes Mars 687 days to orbit the sun, twice as long as Earth’s 365-day journey.a 22. With no large moon like Earth’s to stabilize it, Mars periodically tilts much more toward the sun, creating warmer summers on Mars than it otherwise would have.d 23. The Earth’s moon is 240,000 miles away. Earth’s next closest neighbor is Venus, which comes as near as 24 million miles. After the moon and Venus, Mars is our next closest neighbor at 34 million miles away—though when Mars and Earth are at the opposite sides of their orbits around the sun, they are separated by 249 million miles.e 24. Mars is home to Hellas, a vast and featureless plain that covers 1300 miles (the size of the Caribbean Sea). It was created by asteroids crashing into the planet’s surface of Mars

To compare, all three planets have secondary atmospheres that were produced by volcanoes. To contrast, Venus is too close to the Sun, and was too warm for liquid water to form and without liquid water; the CO2 could not settle out of the atmosphere and dissolve into the oceans. This caused Venus to suffer from runaway greenhouse effect and became hot with an extremely dense and vastly insulated atmosphere. Along with this, UV sunlight destroyed the H2O in the atmosphere. On the other hand, Earth had enough distance from the Sun for liquid water to form and precipitate out into the ocean while the CO2 in the atmosphere dissolved into the oceans and was removed from the atmosphere. The trace amounts of H2O and CO2 in the atmosphere create an insulating layer which is enough to keep the Earth at a mild temperature. Out of the three planets, Mars is the farthest from the Sun. It is possible that Mars had liquid water earlier in its history. The CO2 dissolved into water; however, Mars has less mass than Venus or the Earth. Because of Mars’ smaller mass, it has less tectonic activity and Volcanism stopped early in its formation. This did not allow the atmosphere to be renewed from CO2 or H2O

In inspiring people to have the passion in understanding the universal laws that govern us all, Professor Stephen Hawking reminds us on his speech for his 70th birthday to “remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet” (enoch, 2012). Many scientists have been “looking up” and have discovered answers to the many questions that we have of the universe for ages. They have constructed theories, launched satellites, observed stellar phenomena, and even sent living beings in space to gain more understanding of the existence of everything. After centuries of research and observation, there are still some aspects of Astronomy that are still to be explored. One of them is the evolution of the Solar System, which is composed of the Sun and everything that travels around it. This includes eight planets and their natural satellites such as the Earth’s moon; dwarf planets such as Pluto and Ceres; asteroids; comets and meteoroids (Solar System Exploration, 2014). The Solar System is located in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is a part of a galactic group under the Virgo Supercluster. Figure 1 shows the location of our Solar System in the Universe. Many theories have been proposed on how the Solar System existed, but none has been completely successful. This spans from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the present 21st Century. As of now, the widely accepted theory is the Nebular Theory, which describes how the Solar System started as a large cloud of gas that contracted under

Did you watch The Martian in the movie theaters? It’s hard to make the distinction between science fiction and reality. This paper is dedicated to describing the geology of Mars in reference to our own planet. How do the two planets relate? On a fun note, is there any point in going to Mars? In conclusion, with the power of research, this paper will unlock the mystery surrounded with the geology of Mars.

Mars inhabits Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and second-highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar

Its thin atmosphere and most likely a completely waterless surface shows that any life that was to land on the Red Planet would have a hard time trying to survive. At that time, when life was found on Earth, Mars had an ocean, volcanoes and deltas, the difference between Mars and Earth is Mars rapidly lost its hold on habitability. According to scientist Mars lacks the ability to have a protective magnetic field, most of the water left the surface and escaped into space, this was caused by the exposure of the surface to the cosmic rays and ultraviolet light. There were only a few packs of water left on the surface, some remained at the poles whereas others may have remained under the

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.