20 Interesting Facts About Solar System And Space

We enjoy reading stories and comics, watching movies about aliens travelling in huge spacecraft, the spacecraft lands on earth surface and aliens meet humans; more like such. Many of us find it interesting enough to get just a single chance to travel in space. But let me remind you, it requires lots of knowledge and special learning and training, for we humans to travel in space. So, let me fill you with some interesting facts about the solar system. We will talk about it a minute later, before this take a short look on what is the solar system.

The Solar System

Solar System

Our Solar System

Our solar system consist of sun and celestial bodies bounded gravitationally to the sun. The celestial bodies can be planets, natural satellites, comets, asteroids and meteoroids. Roughly, astronomers have found 500 solar systems, however, each year more and more new ones are found [1]. Presently, our solar system consist of sun, planets, dwarf planets, some planets have their natural satellites. Our solar solar system consist of planets namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. In addition to this, we also have some dwarf planets, they are Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea [2].

Anything that orbit around the larger body in space is called satellite[3]. Moons are well known in terms of natural satellites. Natural satellite of the Earth, however, other planets too have natural satellites. Furthermore, if we talk about planets with a large number of natural satellites then Jupiter has the highest score. Moving towards, comets; Comets are icy and dusty small celestial bodies, surrounded by gases and dust. Comets are composed of coma and tails.[5][6][7] Furthermore, an asteroid is a small rocky body orbiting around the sun, when these rocky bodies clash with each other, they break into smaller pieces. These pieces are called meteoroids. These are also formed from comets[5]. Let’s now know, some interesting facts about the solar system

20 Interesting Facts About Solar System

  1. Formation of solar system – It is believed that our solar system is formed 4.6 billion years ago[14]
  2. Do you know the sun is a star? – Yes !! Sun is the largest star in our solar system. Moreover, it constitutes 99.8% of our solar system and is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium[15].
  3. Pluto is a dwarf planet– Till many years Pluto was known to be a larger planet say for more than 40 years. Pluto was considered to be larger than planet Mercury. In 1978 Pluto’s moon Charon was discovered, with which it was possible to measure the size of the planet Pluto. The estimations of scientist say that Pluto is roughly 1/20 th mass of Mercury, thereby, making it a dwarf planet[2].
  4. I have more moons than you !! – Yeah!! Says Jupiter. By the middle of 2018 Jupiter had 79 moons. Scientist estimate that number could go up, while orbiting Jupiter[4][6].
  5. Are we the only one solar system in our galaxy?– So far, 500 solar system have been discovered, while astronomers are discovering new ones each year. However, they estimate a 10 billion solar system in our galaxy, or even can be 100 billion[1]. So, we are not the only one solar system in our galaxy, there are many more !!!
  6. Do each planet has only one moon? – Well if you think so, then let me tell you, in our solar system, there are planets which have more than one moons or even no moon. Check the list below[7]
    Planet Number of moons
    Mercury 0
    Venus 0
    Earth 1
    Mars 2
    Jupiter 79 (Present)
    Saturn 53 (Present)
    Uranus 27
    Neptune 14
  7. Why do we have a leap year? – On Earth one year is not 365 days, instead it is 365.2564 days. That means 0.2564 days are extra in each year. Therefore, we need to add a day in February every four year. [8]
  8. Where are asteroids found? – Many of the asteroids are present in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
  9. Saturn can have more moons – 29 more moons are suspected for Saturn. In near future Saturn could have 82 moons.[7]
  10. What if Earth didn’t have an atmosphere? – Earth’s atmosphere plays an important role in the nourishment of life. If Earth do not have atmosphere ultraviolet rays or UV rays from the sun will reach the earth and life will suffer from various diseases. UV rays can damage DNA. Moreover lack of atmosphere can lead to disturbance of many process, cycles, etc. [9]
  11. Even asteroids have moon – It was discovered that small bodies revolve around asteroids, this was first observed in 1993. It was Dactyl, who was orbiting around a big asteroid Ida.[10]
  12. Facts about meteor [11]
    • Meteors that reach the Earth’s ground surface are called meteorites.
    • When Earth passes from debris left by comet, meteor shower occurs.
    • Red, green or yellow trails are sometimes observed in meteors, due to ionisation of molecules.
    • Meteor, which is a fireball, is brighter than planet Venus.
  13. Asteroid may have ring(s) – This was first observed in 2013, when asteroid was passing in front of the star. This made the star blink. Thereby, leading to the discovery that two ring were surrounding this asteroid[10].
  14. Mystery of Blackhole – Black holes are always the center of attraction for normal people as well as scientist. Find what the scientist from NASA say about it[12]
    • Scientist believed that blackhole where formed during the formation of universe
    • It is a place in the space where gravity pull is so strong that even light cannot escape it.
    • Black holes are difficult to be found, because gravity pulls the light into the hole. The strong gravity around the black hole affect stars around it, however, when these are closer a high energy light is generated. Even though black holes are black, with the help of satellites and telescopes high energy light can be seen, which helps in the detection of black hole.
  15. Galaxies are of different types– Yes!! It definitely sounds new, galaxies are of different types, these are elliptical, spiral and irregular. Do you know our solar system lies in the galaxy called milky way which is spiral.[13]
    Interesting facts about solar system | Galaxy Milkyway

    Milkyway

  16. Does life exist anywhere else? – Till date as much research and scientists say only our solar system has life, in addition to it, till now life is only detected on the Earth. However, research and experiment by scientists are on the way to detect life anywhere else other than Earth[13].
  17. The first spacecraft to leave our solar system is Voyager 1 by NASA
  18. Sun has dark spots – The dark sunspots are nothing but areas of high magnetic activity, which can also lead to solar explosion[15].
  19. I am the hottest planet – Hottest planet in our solar system is Venus, with temperature 463 °C[16].
  20. Do you know Mount Everest is not the highest mountain? – Yes!! Highest mountain is Olympus Mons, located on Mars. It is 3 times higher than Mount Everest[16]. However, it is true that Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth.

Reference links
[1] How many solar systems are in our galaxy?: Source nasa.gov
[2] Dwarf planet: Source wikipedia.org
[3] Natural Satellites: Source sciencelearn.org.nz
[4] Which Planet Has the Most Moons? : Source universetoday.com
[5] What is a comet?: Source coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu
[6] Comet: Source wikipedia.org
[7] How many moons?:Source nasa.gov
[8] 10 Interesting Facts About Earth: Source universetoday.com
[9] Planet Earth, explained: Source nationalgeographic.com
[10] Asteroids: 10 Interesting Facts About These Space Rocks: Source universetoday.com
[11] Ten facts about meteors: Source nasa.gov
[12] What is a black hole?: Source nasa.gov
[13] Our Solar System: Source nasa.gov
[14] Solar system: Source wikipedia.org
[15] Sun our star: Source nasa.gov
[16] 100 Interesting Space Facts That’ll Blow Your Mind: Source thefactsite.com

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