The Astronomy Gazette
News From Infinity and Beyond
11 Planets Discovered
Acording to National Geographic, there are 11 planets in the Milky Way. Now everybody knows at least 9 of these planets, but there are more, recently discovered. Here's the list, in order from the sun:
NAME............ TYPE.................. ROMAN GOD/GODDESS
Mercury........ Rocky.................Messenger god
Venus............ Rocky ................Goddess of love and beauty
Earth.............. Rocky.................Unknown, but Greek Goddess Gaea/Mother Earth
Mars................Rocky............... God of war
Ceres.............. Dwarf............... Goddess of agriculture and the harvest
Jupiter............ Gas Giant......... King of the gods
Saturn............ Gas Giant..........God of Agriculture, again, and father of Jupiter
Uranus........... Gas Giant......... God of the sky, and father of Saturn
Neptune......... Gas Giant......... God of the sea
Pluto................ Dwarf................God of the underworld
Eris................... Dwarf............... Greek goddess of discord or confusion
To help you remember the planets, you can say My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants.
Space Sights
Comets
Made of sand, water ice, and carbon dioxide, it takes millions of years to make a trip around the sun. As comets come inward at the sun, they defrost, and the solar energy vaporizes the ices, making a round halo, or coma. It grows a long tail blown by solar winds.
Meteoroids
There are no such things as shooting stars. What you really see is stuff from space, anything, burning up in our atmosphere. When they do this, they are so hot, making a meteor, but when they hit the ground, it is a meteorite. They can be made with different stuff, for instance if it's yellow, it's most likely iron, and if it's blue or green, it's most likely copper. Many meteroids falling at a time is called a Meteor Shower.
Asteroids
Located right by the planet Ceres is the asteroid belt. Asteroids are are leftovers from the early solar system, and come in many shapes and sizes. Occasionally, Jupiter's gravity knocks an asteroid out of it's belt and sends it onward to the sun. Very rarely do they hit earth, but if they do, it can be very harmful. In fact, on upcoming May 31st, according to The Los Angeles Times, a 1.7 mile asteroid will pass earth at about 2:00 PM (1:59 as in article).
Moon Mania
The Moons of Our Solar System
Earth's Moon
Earth's moon is made of rock, just like Earth, but they didn't turn out looking the same. The moon's gravitation pulls on Earth's oceans, creating tides. The moon, however, is too small to need much gravity making life on the moon impossible.
Jupiter's Moons:
Jupiter consists of four moons, including Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. They were discovered by Galileo around 1610, so they are known as the Galilean moons. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. Europa and Callisto might have oceans under it's icy surface.
Saturn's Moons
Saturn also consists of four moons. Titan, Enceladus, Iapetus, and Mimas. Titan may hold the key to life on Earth with it's thick atmosphere, liquid lakes bigger than Lake Superior or the Caspian Sea, cryovolcanoes sticking out of the ice, wind-blown sand dunes, and seasonal changes. Titan is bigger than Mercury and any of the dwarf planets. According to National Geographic, within the next twenty years, scientists can discover the question of extraterrestrial life on this moon.
Sun Fun
The Sun
The Planets
Mercury
Like our moon, Mercury is covered in craters. Mercury has an unusually large core. One Mercury day takes 59 Earth days, because it spins so slowly on the axis.
Venus
Covered in deadly clouds of carbon dioxide 40 miles thick, Venus has the densest atmosphere in the whole Milky Way. The thick clouds traps incoming sunlight keeping Venus around 864 degrees day and night.
Earth
With 71% of its surface being water, our planet is the only one that is possible for life. Did you know you're spinning 1,000 miles per hour right now? Earth is just the right distance from the sun. It's not too hot, nor too cold. Besides water, Earth's outer crust is covered in solid rock, the most diverse terrain than any other planet in the solar system.
Mars
Mars is known to have some spectacular scenery. However, Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere is poisionous, and has dust storms/tornadoes that are so destructive, huge, and massive. Mars has pink skies in the daytime, unlike us only at sunrise and sunset.
Ceres
Discovered by accident in 1801, Ceres is located inside the asteroid belt, which is in between Jupiter and Mars. As of 2006, scientists said it, along with others, for example Pluto, belong to a new type of planet called a dwarf planet. It takes Ceres 4.6 Earth years to fully orbit the sun.
Jupiter
The largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter could easily fit every other planet inside of it. Some scientists say, "It's almost even a mini solar system itself." On Jupiter is what's known as the Giant Red Spot- a hurricane that has gone on for hundreds of years. Its skies are filled with enormous and massive strikes of lightning. Jupiter spins rapidly, making one rotation last only a few hours. Its brownish red stripes are made of ammonia hydrosulfide, which supposedly smells like rotten eggs.
Saturn
The most distant planet seen by the naked eye, Saturn, like Jupiter, has no surface to walk on. Saturn is known for it's thousands of rings, or, individually called ringlets. In fact, the rings are brighter than Saturn itself! There is no prettier planet, besides Earth in the Milky Way.
Uranus
Unlike any other planet in the solar system, Uranus is tilted on a 98 degree angle. Scientists believe something big in early times had to hit Uranus to turn it on its side. It's pretty interesting that its rings turned on the side, too. Because of this, Uranus' north pole faces at the sun, and the south pole facing downwards into space, so the north has 42 years of light and the south has 42 years of darkness until they switch.
Neptune
The craziest weather you will find in space happens here, with winds that have speeds of 1,200 miles per hour and more. Like Saturn and Jupiter, Neptune also doesn't have a solid surface to walk on. The temperature at the top of the cloud layer can drop down to a frigid -353 degrees farenheit. As surprising as it is, Neptune's core is hotter than the surface of the sun! Since its discovery over 160 years ago, it still hasn't made one full trip around the sun.
Pluto
An astronomer, Percival Lowell, tried to search for a planet beyond Neptune called, "Planet X." As hard as he had tried, he never found it. After his death, Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto. For 76 years, up until 2006, Pluto was the ninth planet away from the sun. However, as of 2006 it became a dwarf planet. Having an egg-shaped orbit, Pluto sometimes crosses paths with Neptune's orbit. Pluto's moon is named Charon, and because of how big it is, Pluto and Charon are considered a double-planet system.
Eris
Because of its distance from the sun- being the farthest planet- makes Eris the coldest planet in the entire Milky Way. Eris is bigger than Pluto and is made of rock and ice. Eris is located inside the Kuiper belt, which covers from Neptune all the way billions of miles into space.