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the planets
-The Sun's mass represents 99.8% of the mass of our entire solar system -The Sun revolves around the Milky Way galaxy every 225 250 million years -The Sun actually emits white light -Earth's atmosphere makes the Sun seem yellow -Sun is about 4.5 billion years old -Portions of the Sun's atmosphere and outer layers are actually much hotter than its surface -believed to be in the top 10% of mass compared to all of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy -Sun actually has its own name -name is sol
-Mercury's disk varies when viewed with a telescope -Mercury has been known since at least the time of the Sumerians -Mercury has been now been visited by two spacecrafts -Mercury's orbit is highly eccentric -Mercury is in many ways similar to the Moon -Mercury is much denser than the Moon -Mercury's interior is dominated by a large iron core -Temperature variations on Mercury are the most extreme in the solar system ranging from 90K to 700K -Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere -The surface of Mercury exhibits enormous escarpments
-Venus has been known since prehistoric times -It is the brightest object in the sky except for the Sun and the Moon -Venus is an inferior planet -shows phases when viewed with a telescope from the perspective of Earth -Venus is sometimes regarded as Earth's sister planet -Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth (95% of Earth's diameter, 80% of Earth's mass). - Venus in visible light from Galileo The pressure of Venus' atmosphere at the surface is 90 atmospheres -Venus probably once had large amounts of water like Earth but it all boiled away -Venus is now dry -There are no small craters on Venus -Venus has no magnetic field
-Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology -can be studied without the aid of spacecraft -The Earth is divided into several layers which have distinct chemical and seismic properties -Most of the mass of the Earth is in the mantle -The Earth is the densest major body in the solar system - Earth's crust is divided into several separate solid plates -The Earth's surface is very young -71 Percent of the Earth's surface is covered with water
-Mars has been known since prehistoric times -Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War -The planet probably got this name due to its red color -The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965 -Mars' orbit is significantly elliptical -Mars is much smaller than Earth -Mars has some of the most highly varied and interesting terrain of any of the terrestrial planets -The southern hemisphere of Mars is predominantly ancient cratered highlands somewhat similar to the Moon -Mars appears to lack active plate tectonics
-Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky -Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973 -jupiter is a gas planet -Jupiter probably has a core of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses -Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium -Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic hydrogen -Jupiter and the other gas planets have high velocity winds -Jupiter radiates more energy into space than it receives from the Sun -Jupiter is just about as large in diameter as a gas planet can be -Jupiter has a huge magnetic field, much stronger than Earth's
-Saturn was first visited by NASA's Pioneer 11 in 1979 -Saturn is visibly flattened (oblate) when viewed through a small telescope -Saturn is the least dense of the planets -Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium -Saturn's interior is similar to Jupiter's consisting of a rocky core -Saturn's interior is hot -Saturn's rings are extraordinarily thin -they're 250,000 km or more
-the first planet discovered in modern times -Uranus has been visited by only one spacecraft -Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, -Uranus' atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen -Uranus' blue color is the result of absorption of red light by methane in the upper atmosphere. -Uranus' magnetic field is odd in that it is not centered -Uranus has 21 named moons and six unnamed ones -Uranus' polar regions receive more energy input from the Sun than do its equatorial regions
-Neptune has been visited by only one spacecraft -Neptune's blue color is largely the result of absorption of red light by methane -Neptune has an internal heat source -Neptune's rings have been given names -Neptune can be seen with binoculars -Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the fourth largest (by diameter). -Neptune was first observed by Galle and d'Arrest on 1846 Sept 23 -In Roman mythology Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) was the god of the Sea
