Hello people! Now, welcome to my new science blog! Though I used to have one last year, it was on Windows Live Spaces and got deleted since Windows Live wanted to upgrade them to Wordpress. Oh well, I will just start another one. Now, for this post, I will be talking about Astronomy. I know, that sounds lame, but at least it is not as lame as your Primary Five Astronomy. That one is even lamer. So, who wants to hear something?
A Tour Of the Solar System:
The Earth may seem very big to you, but it is just a puny little bit of rock compared to the sun. And the sun is just a tiny little speck of dust compared to the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is just one of a few thirty galaxies that make up the Local Group. And the Local Group is just one of the hundreds galaxies groups in a place called the Virgo Supercluster. To make you feel even more humiliated than before, the Virgo Supercluster is only tiny part of the Universe which still consists of many more other Superclusters. But let's just stick with the Solar System first. We shall go through all the stuff in it, starting with the Sun...
Name: Sun
Size: 1392000 km across
Size compared to Earth: One million times larger
Gravity compared to Earth: 28 times stronger
Length of day: 28 Earth days
Temperatures: Atmosphere known as the Corona is 2 million`C. Surface is 6000`C. Core is 15 million`C!
Wow, the Sun seems blazing from where we are! Better steer clear of it! Let's travel another 58 million km...
Name: Mercury
Size: 4900km across
Size compared to Earth: Three times smaller across
Gravity compared to Earth: About one third
Moons: None
Length of day: 58 Earth days and 12 hours
Length of year: 88 Earth days
Temperatures: During day time is 427`C. At night is -183`C.
Mercury sounds like a place of hell with such a wide range of temperatures. I can't be sure if my luggage would not be full of jackets and if I went there for a vacation night stay. Now, let's move on 50 million km more...
Name: Venus
Size: 12100km across
Size compared to Earth: A bit smaller
Gravity compared to Earth: A little weaker
Moons: None
Length of day: 243 Earth days
Length of year: 225 Earth years
Temperatures: Extreme temperature of 500`C!
I will rather be in hell than to even look at Venus! Okay, it is safe to look at it, but you would not want to think about getting there! All the radiation will kill you right then and there and the acid rain will dissolve what's left of you. Now, I will rather stay on where I am. Hey what do you know? That's where we are going right now...
Name: Earth
Size: 12700km across
Moons: 1, The Moon
Length of day: 24 hours
Length of year: 365.25 Earth days
Temperatures: Hottest recorded is 70.7`C. Coldest recorded is -89.2`C.
The Earth, ahh...the most comfortable planet in the Solar System. No wonder it can sustain life, because of its properties of having the right temperature!
Name: Mars
Size: 6800km across
Size compared to Earth: Half of Earth's diameter
Gravity compared to Earth: A little over one third
Moons: 2, Demois and Phobos
Length of day: 24 Earth hours and 37 Earth minutes
Length of year: 687 Earth years
Temperatures: 30`C
Cool! Mars has been discussed for long of having life and stuff. Hmm...I shall save the best for later. Let's just move down to the next planet...
Name: Jupiter
Size: 140000km across
Size compared to Earth: 1321 times bigger
Gravity compared to Earth: 2.5 times stronger
Moons: 60+, Ganymede, Callisto, Europa, Io etc.
Length of day: 9 Earth hours and 51 Earth minutes
Length of year: 11.8 Earth years
Temperatures: -150`C
Oh man, Jupiter sounds like a wreck! It totally 'outbig' our puny little Earth. Guess what? All of the outer planets 'outbig' our Earth! Let's see how the next one 'outbig' Earth too...
Name: Saturn
Size: 120500km across
Size compared to Earth: 764 times larger
Gravity compared to Earth: About the same. Or 1.16 if you want to know.
Moons: 60+, Titan, Enceladus, Trojan, Hyperion, Mimas etc.
Length of day: 10 Earth hours and 38 Earth minutes
Length of year: 29.5 Earth years
Temperatures: -170`C
Ha! Saturn is smaller than Jupiter! But it is still incredibly big! Aargh! Let's move on to the next one and pray that it won't be as humongous...
Name: Uranus
Size: 52000km across
Size compared to Earth: 63 times bigger
Gravity compared to Earth: A bit weaker
Moons: 27, Titania, Oberon, Miranda etc.
Length of day: 17 Earth hours and 12 Earth minutes
Length of year: 84 Earth years
Temperatures: -200`C
Now that's more like it, Uranus is not as big. Guess what? The next one is even smaller! Let's go see it now...
Name: Neptune
Size: 48000km across
Size compared to Earth: 58 times larger
Gravity compared to Earth: A bit stronger
Moons: 13, Triton etc.
Length of day: 16 Earth hours and 6 Earth minutes
Length of year: 165 Earth years
Temperatures: -210`C
Hohoho! The next one is extremely small! Puny! That's the word! In fact, it is so small astronomers had a hard time looking for it. It was only discovered in 1930 while Neptune was actually discovered in 1846! Let's go see who is shy little thing who likes to hide itself...
Name: Pluto
Size: 2300km across
Size compared to Earth: 160 times smaller
Gravity compared to Earth: Very weak
Moons: 3, Charon Nix, Hydra.
Length of day: Six Earth days and ten Earth hours
Length of year: 248 Earth years
Temperatures: -229`C
Brrr!!!!! It is chilly here! Mind you, boiling water will turn to ice in just seconds. The good news, you won't get scalded by hot water. The bad news, you freeze to death. But I heard there's another one that is even more nasty. It was discovered in 2005! Wow! That's rather current. Sadly, we don't have as much information about it yet. But at least we got some of it...
Name: Eris
Size: 2500km across
Size compared to Earth:
Gravity compared to Earth:
Moons: 1, Dysnomia.
Length of day: Still Unknown
Length of year: Still Unknown
Temperatures: -250`C
Okay......so I have provided you with a list of the planets and their details. Now, for the features and stuff. First up, we have the Sun. Let's 'heat' you with the sizzling facts...
The Sun makes up 99.86 percent of all matter in the Solar System. It is a yellow dwarf but that's got nothing to do with short yellow people. That means the sun is a middle-class star that is one of the most common in the Universe. It is currently 5 to 6 billion years old, half way through its life time. What's more, the sun 'sings'! Yes, it 'sings', but sadly its voice is too low for our ears to hear. In fact, when a group of scientists tried to make the pitch higher, all they got was a low grumbling sounds like the ones you get from a hungry person's stomach.
On Mercury, there are cliffs that are 3km high.The famous Caloris Basin, a crater 1300km across, is the largest crater on Mercury. It is about 3.8 billion years old. There are also ice in them. As for Venus, it rotates anti-clockwise compared to the other planets. Its atmosphere is full of carbon dioxide gas that trapped heat horribly and the pressure is incredibly great. It will crush a human in seconds. Volcanoes exist on Venus just like that do on Earth. Whether they are active is currently unknown. Acids too, are common on Venus.
Mars, the best place for superb sight-seeing and hiking. The Mariner Valley(a valley on Mars), is the vastest valley in the Solar System. Being 6.4km deep and 241km wide, it is four times deeper and six times wider than the little 'crack' on Earth known as the Grand Canyon. River valleys existed on Mars where water flowed on Mars billions of years ago. Whether there is life it is still unknown. Mons Olympus is the tallest mountain on Mars and in the whole of the Solar System. It is 483km wide and 25km high. That is twice as high as Earth's puny 'mole-hill' known as Mount Everest.
Jupiter, the oldie giant gas planet, rotates so fast that it bulges a little at the middle. The Great Red Spot, a hurricane raging in Jupiter's atmosphere. To be exact, it is anticyclonic storm that has lasted for about 346 years and is twice the size of Earth. One of its moons, Europa, is covered in ice and scientists thought that there could be an ocean under it which could contain life.
Moving towards Saturn, you would feel the extreme wind speeds of it which reached 1800km per hour. Saturn has such a low mass that if there is a large enough sea to contain it, it will float! Saturn easy-to-spot rings are made up of bits and piece of rock and ice held together by Saturn's moons. The ice can be as big as your house or as small as a fly.
So, guess you guys have learnt more out of your ordinary Primary Five Science textbooks? Good! Be sure to stay tuned as I will have another 'Spacefic' post coming right up! Stay alert and don't forget about this blog!
