SPACE AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM

DISCOVER THE EXPANSES OF SPACE AND OUR NEIGHBOURS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM. YOU WILL FIND OUT ABOUT THE DIFFERENT PLANETS, THEIR UNIQUE FEATURES AND THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF OBJECTS ORBITING THE SUN.

Our Solar System

Using your mouse or track pad you can click and drag the model around to look at it in 3D, can you spot the Earth?

Slow the video down by clicking on the ‘Take001’ button and selecting x0.1.

Using your mouse or track pad you can also zoom in, but looking at the objects up close can you locate the star at the centre of the Solar System?

The scale of the planets can be quite deceiving and many people think that the Earth and Mars are similar in size, but Mars is actually much smaller and Jupiter is much MUCH larger!

Check out the diagram below to find out more about the scale of the planets. Do any of them surprise you?

Image credit: Mercury: NASA // Venus: NASA/ JPL Caltech // Earth: NASA Goddard // Moon: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University // Mars: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems // Jupiter: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester) // Saturn: NASA/JPL // Uranus: NASA/JPL // Neptune: NASA.

The Terrestrial Planets

Terrestial - text@2x.png

Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

This mosaic of NAC images shows the impact crater Hokusai, located on Mercury at a latitude of 58°N.

Mercury

Mercury’s surface is heavily cratered. The bright spots and pits that you can see litter the planet’s surface making it look similar to the Earth’s moon in many ways.

Craters are formed when an asteroid or comet collides with the planet’s surface.

Mercury’s craters vary in size with some very large impact basins. Caloris basin is 1550 km in diameter!

 

As well as being the hottest planet, Venus has over 1600 major volcanic features.

Source: NASA/JPL

Maat Mons is displayed in this computer generated three-dimensional perspective of the surface of Venus. The viewpoint is located 634 kilometers (393 miles) north of Maat Mons at an elevation of 3 kilometers (2 miles) above the terrain.
Lava flows extend for hundreds of kilometers across the fractured plains shown in the foreground, to the base of Maat Mons.

VENUS

Venus is similar in size to the Earth, but the conditions of it’s surface are worlds apart.

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. It’s thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, creating a surface so hot it could melt lead!

What is the greenhouse effect?

This is when gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide trap the Sun’s heat causing an increase in global temperatures.

 

Earth

The Earth is sometimes referred to as the blue planet, which isn’t surprising considering that oceans cover over 71% of the Earth’s surface.

This meteorite is roughly 4cm wide and entirely made of metals called iron and nickel. It is very dense and heavy. Iron meteorites are thought to be fragments of a core (the centre) of a big asteroid, similar to the Earth’s metallic core. It is shiny because it has been polished through handling, and is a favourite for its distinctly metallic smell!

Features such as the craters that can be seen on the surface of the Moon and Mercury can also be found on Earth. Compared to the Moon significantly less craters can be found on Earth, but why? Most craters on Earth have been destroyed over time through erosion by wind, rain, ice, and because the crust of the Earth is slowly destroyed by plate tectonics. One of the best preserved craters is Barringer Crater in Arizona, America which is nearly a mile wide! You can take an aerial view of Barringer Crater here.

Meteorites are solid rock-like fragments that have landed on Earth. They can come from asteroids, comets, meteoroids, the Moon or even Mars. Meteorites are extremely interesting to study because they can help scientists understand more about the origins of our Solar System and how the Earth formed.

 

Mars

Mars, commonly referred to as the red planet, has all kinds of fascinating features from volcanoes to polar ice caps, weather and even large canyons.

Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, can be found on the surface of Mars. Olympus Mons stretches 25 km into the Martian sky (over 2.5x the height of Mount Everest) and spans 624 km in diameter.

The Gas Giants

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and can boast over 79 moons in orbit around it, including Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system. Jupiter also has the shortest day lasting only 10 hours, but one year on Jupiter would last a lengthy 11.86 Earth years.

A famous feature of Jupiter is the great red spot. This spot is actually a large storm (larger than the Earth) that has been raging for hundreds of years! Follow the instructions below to ‘create your own storm in a bottle’. In this activity you will use household items to create a storm in a bottle. Get creative and add glitter or food colouring to make yours unique.

Saturn

Saturn is another gas giant in the Solar System, primarily made of hydrogen and helium, this planet is not very dense and would even float in water! One of the most famous features of Saturn are its extraordinary rings! The rings of Saturn stretch 282,000 km from end to end but are only 1 km thick!

Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Saturn's rings were named alphabetically in the order they were discovered. The narrow F ring marks the outer boundary of the main ring system.

The Ice Giants

Uranus and Neptune

Uranus and Neptune are collectively known as the ice giants and with temperatures reaching as low as -224.2 degrees Celsius on Uranus its not hard to see why! But, did you know that scientists suspect there may not be very much solid ice on these planets and that liquid oceans could be lurking beneath their clouds?

You have now been introduced to all the planets in our solar system, from the rocky inner planets, the massive gas giants and the cold ice giants. Each planet has a variety of unique features but there are also features you’ll find throughout such as craters, moons and even rings!