Writer: Mubashir Mushtaque
Heavenly Bodies
Introduction:
The solar system of the world is made up of a giant body called the sun along with other nine
planets. This whole system was formed almost 4.6 billion years ago, when a big cloud (Solar
Nebula) which was made up of dust and gas, got collapsed because of a strong wave that came
from the Supernova (a kind of explosion in a star). This all resulted in making up the Solar
System. Sun became the centre and nine planets started to revolve around because of Sun’s great
gravitational force. Moons were also formed which revolved around the planets. Many of the
things like asteroids (the rocky material) and comets (a ball consisted of ice and dust) came into
existence.
Planets:
As we discussed above our solar system is consisted of 9 planets but today the number of planets
is decreased to eight. The nine planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Later on, these nine became eight, the Pluto was excluded from the
list because the International Astronomical Union declared Pluto as a dwarf planet due to its
features which were not able to meet the qualification of a full-sized planet.
Mercury:
Mercury was firstly discovered by famous astronomer Galileo Galilei in the 17th century with
the help of a telescope. This planet is the closest planet to the sun, almost 57.61 million kms
away. Despite the closeness of distance between both mercury and sun this is still not considered
as the hottest planet because of its fast speed which keeps the mercury to avoid the heat waves.
Mercury completes the whole trip around the sun in only 88 days which shows the speed of it
also.
Venus:
Venus was also discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Venus is considered as the brightest body
in the solar system after the moon and sun because it reflects almost 70% of the light coming
from the sun. The distance of Venus from the sun is approximately 108.2 million kms. It is the
hottest planet. The duration of its complete round around the sun in 225 days (225 earth days).
Venus is explored by visiting almost 40 times by human beings.
Earth:
Earth is the most important planet of the solar system because it is the only planet where human
beings live. It was realized by many of the philosophers and mathematicians that earth is also a
planet in the 17th century. Planet earth is the third one planet in the sequence after Mercury and
Venus having a distance of almost 147 million kms from the sun. It is the fifth-largest planet by
size consisting of 71% of water and 29% of the land. It completes its total trip around the sun in
365 days.
Mars:
Mars is the closest planet to the earth. It is also visible from the earth many times and is possible
to see it with the naked eye because of its reddish appearance due to the presence of iron oxide in
it. The approximate distance between both earth and mars is 225 million kms. Mars completes its
round trip around the sun in 669 days because of having a longer orbit. It has 2 moons named
Phobos and Deimos. It is also believed that there are many similarities between the earth and
mars and one of them is the presence of water. It is believed that many oceans are present in
mars which ultimately make life possible there.
Jupiter:
Jupiter is the largest planet present in the universe. It is the fourth brightest body of the solar
system. The discovery of Jupiter was also done by Galileo Galilei in 1610. The average distance
between the sun and Jupiter is almost 5.2 AU. There are 67 moons present in Jupiter. Jupiter is a
unique planet because it is not made up of solid surface but on the other hand, it is comprised of
different gases and liquids including 90% Hydrogen and 10% helium making it similar to the
sun.
Saturn:
Saturn is considered as the second-largest planet in the solar system. Also, it is considered that
Saturn has the largest planetary ring around it which was discovered by Christiaan Huygens in
1659. Saturn is almost 9.6 AU away from the sun. It revolves around its axis within the rings at a
very fast speed but as far as the rotation around the sun is concerned its speed around the sun is
very slow and as a result, it completes its total trip in approximately 29.5 Earth years which is a
long period. The surface of Saturn is mostly comprised of iron and nickel which are surrounded
by rocky materials. There are 82 moons present on the planet. The biggest moon existing in
Saturn is known as Titan which is bigger than planet Mercury.
Uranus:
It was not recognized in ancient times but later on, it was discovered by Sir William Herschel in
1781. It is the seventh planet in sequence having a distance of 2.9 billion kms from the sun. The
volume of Uranus is much big that approximately 63 piles of earth can fit inside this whole
planet. The duration of the round trip around the sun is 84 earth years. Uranus is also similar to
Jupiter and Saturn according to their surfaces i.e. hydrogen and helium. There are 27 moons
present in the Uranus. It is also the least visited planet of the solar system.
Neptune:
Neptune was discovered by Johann Galle and Le Verrier in 1846. It is considered that methane is
present in the atmosphere of Neptune. Neptune has a distance of almost 4.5 billion kms from the
sun. As it is observed that the distance between the sun and Neptune is very large so the
completion of a trip around the sun also takes much time i.e. 185 earth years. It’s the 8th planet
in the sequence which shows that it is the farthest planet from the sun as a result it is the coldest
planet having a temperature of almost -214 degrees Celsius. There are 6 rings present around the
Neptune while Neptune has 14 known moons.
