Come let’s have a spacewalk and know facts about our Planets.
“Twinkle- Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are”. This famous poem is so deeply entrenched in our hearts since childhood that we can’t easily get away with it. Through this poem, we and many other children got more attracted towards the twinkling of stars at night. Even today talking about space, sky, stars, fascinates us, isn’t it? This fascination generates a lot of curiosity in our minds. In the above poem itself, there is a question, ” how I wonder what exactly the stars are?” While gazing at the sky at night, have you all ever thought what is there beyond that?
Many people when they are asked what exactly they see in the sky? They will say that they see the moon, stars, and sun. But trust me there are a lot more things in our space. With the advancement and help of science and technology, what we all did not know earlier, we now know it. It made possible for us that while sitting at one place we can see the whole space. Like watching moon or stars so closely with a telescope. Not only this, today even man can go into space and have a spacewalk. Men who travel to space are known as astronauts. These astronauts conduct experiments there and bring a lot of useful information to us.
The Universe which was an unmapped area, and not known to anyone was also made known today with the help of this technology. Now we know that there is a vast Universe in which several things exist. The Universe consists of millions of Galaxies and other forms of energy and matter. A galaxy is one in which billions of stars and clouds of gases and dust exist. Among those Galaxies, our solar system exists in Milky Way galaxy. It is also called as Akash Ganga.
What is Solar System?
Now another thing which comes to our mind is what is the solar system?
The solar system is that which consists of the Sun, the Planets, satellites like the moon, asteroids, and meteoroids. This is also called as a solar family in which the Sun is known as the head. To many of us, the question here arises that why the Sun is considered to be head? The Sun is considered head because earlier many scientists use to believe that the Sun is in the center of the solar system and all the Planets and other things revolve around it in a fixed path. Being the head that means the Sun must be very big. Yes! It is so big that we cannot imagine. It is so huge that about 1.3 billion Earth-like Planets could fit inside it. It sounds unbelievable but this is the fact. We never noticed many important things about the Sun. For us, the Sun is the source of light and heat. And we never thought or cared beyond that. But while looking at it, have you ever thought what exactly the Sun is?
The Sun is basically a star which is made up of hot gases mainly hydrogen and helium. Anything which comes near to it will meltdown due to the extreme heat it produces. But even being far, it sends its light and energy to the Planets. Do you know how much time its light takes to reach the earth? It takes around 8 mints and 20 seconds to reach the surface of the earth. Along with the Sun, there are eight Planets which are part of the Sun family. All the Planets have amazing facts which can astound anyone. Let’s have a closer picture or a selfie with all the Planets.
- Mercury- It is the closest planet near to the Sun. It is named after the messenger of Roman gods. It takes 88 days to complete one round around the Sun. Since it is closer to the Sun its temperature is very high. There is no air and water on the mercury. So life is not possible there at all. Also, it does not have a moon.
- Venus- It is the second closest planet to the Sun. Its name is derived from the Roman Goddess of Love. It is surrounded by clouds, i. e why it is also called as a veiled planet. As it is covered by clouds it reflects more sunlight. So it is the brightest planet of all. It is also different from all the Planets in the solar system because it rotates from east to west and all other Planets rotates from West to East. People on earth called Venus as morning as well as evening star as it can be seen during both the time. It also does not have a moon. Also, it is called as a twin sister of the earth because it’size and mass is similar to earth. It takes 255 days to complete one round of the Sun.
- Earth- It is the planet on which we all live. It is the third planet to the Sun. 71% of the earth’s surface is covered with water and 29% by land. Since it is more covered by water i.e.why it is called a blue planet. It takes 365.26 days to complete one round of the Sun. Unlike mercury and venus, it has a moon, which we daily see at night. Since our childhood, we are so much fascinated by the moon that we often called it or popularly known by children as ‘ chandamama’. Due to the advancement of technology men had landed on the surface of the moon. Do you know who was the first person who landed on the moon? His name was Neil Armstrong.
- Mars- It is the 4th planet to the Sun. It is also called as red planet because it is covered by rust like dust. Its name came from Roman god of wars. Do you know the month of March derives its name from Mars? It has also largest mountain in the solar system, named Olympus Mons. At present, our scientists conducting research by sending space missions to Mars in search of life on it. It takes 687 days to complete one round of the Sun.
- Jupiter- It is the biggest planet in the solar system. Its size is so big that all planets can be fit into it. It is named after the king of Roman god. It takes 12 years to complete one round around the Sun. People also called it as a vacuum cleaner of the solar system because it takes all the dust and comets from the space into it. There are rings also around the Jupiter.
- Saturn- It is the 6th It is named after the Roman god of agriculture. In our Hindu mythology, Saturn is associated with God Shani. It is the most beautiful planet due to its rings which are made up of ice crystals. It has more moons. It takes 29 years and 5 months to complete one round of the Sun.
- Uranus- It is the 7th It is more like of tilted planet. It is named after the Roman god of the sky. Since it is very far from the Sun it receives very less sunlight. So it is a very cold planet. Due to the presence of methane gas in its atmosphere, it looks blue and green color. It takes 84 years to complete one round of the Sun.
- Neptune- It is the 8th It is the coldest of all the Planets as it the farthest from the Sun. It takes 165 years to rotate around the Sun through a special telescope.
Apart from Neptune, there was another planet which was earlier considered to be the 9th planet of the solar system, namely Pluto. But since it was very small and far away that I’m 2006, it was declared as a dwarf planet and was excluded from the list of our Planets.
Our impressive technology is advancing so much that it is taking us, even more, closer to the knowledge of space and arousing more fascination towards it.