Basic understanding of the solar system

There are so many planetary structures like ours withinside the universe, with planets orbiting a bunch of stars. Our planetary structure is known as the “solar system” because our Sun is known as Sol.  In Roman mythology, Sol is the Sun God, hence the name “solar system”. What is the solar system? The solar system encompasses the Sun, stars, planets Earth, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, Mars, Saturn, and Neptune; dwarf planets that are no longer are a part of the solar system like Pluto; many moons; and hundreds of thousands of meteoroids, comets, and asteroids.

What is the solar system?

The Solar system consists of the Sun and everything around it, including planets, moons, cosmic rocks, comets and meteoroids. This is the basic definition of the solar system. According to sources, the sun is about 26,000 light-years from the centre of our galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy with curved star arms emanating from the centre. The solar system is located in one of the tiniest arms, known as the Orion-Cygnus Arm.

How did the solar system form?

The solar system is made out of a huge rotating cloud of dust and gas are known as the solar nebula. The formation of the sun took place when the nebula flattened into a disk due to its collapse due to gravity. This allowed all the material to be pulled towards the centre to form the sun. The other solar system elements, such as the planets, asteroids, comets, moons, etc., were formed out of planetesimals. Planetesimals are asteroid-sized objects formed out of other disk particles sticking together. Some of these planetesimals combined to form the other solar system elements. 

Planets of the Solar system:

• Mercury:

The very first and the smallest planet in the solar system is Mercury. The size of mercury is a little bigger than the Earth’s moon. Mercury has very thin oxygen, sodium, potassium, helium, and hydrogen atmosphere. Its surface has craters like the Moon. 

• Venus: 

Venus is the great twin of the Earth. Radar images under the atmosphere show that the surface consists of various mountains and volcanoes. But more than that, the two planets could not do otherwise due to the dense, toxic atmosphere created by sulfuric acid clouds.

• Earth:

The atmosphere of Earth is rich in nitrogen and oxygen. It is also known as the blue planet because more than 70% of the composition of Earth is water. Either it may be in the form of freshwater, flowing lakes, seas, etc. or in the form of frozen glaciers.

The earth’s surface rotates around its axis at 1,532 feet per second (467 meters per second) – just over 1,600 km / h – at the equator.

• Mars:

The second smallest planet in the solar system is mercury. Mars is the fourth planet of our solar system. It is a cold and desert-like place. The Colour of Mars is dusty red. The colour signifies that the planet is very hot. But this is not the actual case scenario. The reason behind this is its place in the solar system. Mars does not receive enough sunlight to keep its surface warm. 

• Jupiter: 

Jupiter is the 5th  planet from the Sun; Jupiter is a gaseous giant planet that is the largest in our solar system – according to research centres, it is more than twice as large as all the planets combined.

• Saturn: 

Saturn is the sixth planet. It consists of rings around itself. The rings are made up of ice and rock, and researchers are not yet certain how they are framed. The vaporous planet is generally hydrogen and helium and has various moons.

• Uranus: 

Uranus is the seventh planet. It has clouds of hydrogen sulfide, a chemical that smells like rotten eggs. It rotates from east to west like Venus. The name of Uranus is kept on the name of the Greek God of the sky, Uranus. Uranus is fourth-largest in terms of mass and third-largest in terms of radius in the solar system. 

• Neptune:

Neptune is the eighth planet. It is far out and cold. It is considered the densest and the third-most-massive planet in the solar system. The mass of Earth is 17 times less than that of Neptune. 

• Pluto:

Pluto was once the ninth planet, but now as per recent records, it is not a part of our planet system. It is considered a dwarf planet. Rock and ice are the major components of its structure, and it is relatively small in size. The average time it takes for sunlight to reach pluto is 5.5 hours. 

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we would like to mention that now we know almost everything about the solar system.  Our solar system includes our star, the Sun, and the entirety bound to it through gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune; dwarf planets including Pluto; dozens of moons; and hundreds of thousands of meteoroids comets, and asteroids.

If you are fascinated by the solar system, there are many books and recent research about the solar system by famous scientists.