Other members of the solar system

The Solar System:

The solar system is made up of the Sun and the celestial bodies that rotate around it. It consists of 8 planets, a host of asteroids, comets, and meteors. The sun and all other objects around it keep revolving due to gravitational attraction between each other.  Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the mass consists of the sun. The solar system also consists of smaller objects such as the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Likewise, it consists of dwarf planets like Pluto, Orcus, Quaoar, etc.  Comets and Dust clouds are also a part of the solar system. 

The objects which do not twinkle in the sky are planets. There are eight planets in the solar system. In their order of distance from the Sun, these are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. 

Different individuals from the planetary group:

Other bodies revolve around the Sun and are also members of the Solar system. These objects are made of precious minerals, rocks as well as ice and dust. Some of these  are mentioned below: 

Asteroids:

Asteroids are also characterised as mini planets. It is primarily composed of ice and rocks. There is a huge hole in the middle of the circles of Mars and Jupiter. This hole is involved by many little items that rotate around the Sun. These are called asteroids. Asteroids can only be seen through large telescopes. The first asteroid which was found in 1809 was named Ceres.         

Comets

Comets orbit the Sun in very elliptical orbits. Their time of revolution around the Sun, on the other hand, is usually exceedingly long

• A comet is distinguished by a brilliant head and a long tail
• The length of the tail grows as it approaches the Sun
• A comet’s tail is always pointed away from the Sun
• Many comets are known to appear periodically. For example, Halley’s comet appears every 76 years or so
• Some of the famous comets are  -Shoemaker Levy-9, Hale Bopp, Comet Encke, Comet Wild 2, Halley’s Comet

Meteors and Meteorites

Meteors and Meteorites are part of the solar system. At night, when the sky is clear and the moon is not there, bright streaks of light in the sky are visible. These are regularly known as meteorites, even though they are not stars. They are called meteors.

A meteor is generally a little article that sometimes enters the Earth’s environment. Around then, it had an exceptionally fast. The grating because of the air warms it up. It sparkles and vanishes rapidly. That is the reason the splendid steak goes on for an extremely brief time frame.

A few meteors are enormous, so they arrive at the Earth before they dissipate totally. The body that arrives on the Earth is known as a shooting star. Shooting stars help researchers in exploring the idea of the meteors from which the planetary group was formed. 

Meteor showers:

When the Earth crosses the tail of a comet, multitudes of meteors are seen. These are known as meteor showers. These are common phenomena that occur periodically and can be seen from the earth’s surface. It is also commonly known as shooting stars. 

Artificial Satellites

 Artificial satellites are man-made. They are dispatched from the Earth. They rotate around the Earth a lot nearer than Earth’s regular satellite, the moon.

• Aryabhata was the first Indian satellite

• Other Indian satellites include INSAT, IRS, Kalpana-1, EDUSAT, and others
• Artificial satellites are used for weather forecasting as well as transmission of television and radio transmissions. They are also employed in communications and remote sensing. Remote sensing means collecting information from a distance

INSAT

INSAT or the Indian National Satellite System is a series of satellites that are launched by the ISRO for telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology and more. It was launched in 1983. As ISRO is a member of the Cospas-Sarsat programme, the satellites also include transponder(s) for receiving distress alarm signals for search and rescue missions in the South Asian and Indian Ocean regions.

Kalpana-1

ISRO, Indian Space Research Organisation has launched India’s first dedicated meteorological satellite. It was launched in the year 2002 and was launched by the PSLV, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Originally known as the METSAT, Kalpana-1 also set the base for lunar orbiter mission Chandrayaan in the year 2008. 

Edusat

Edusat is India’s first educational satellite meant to connect schools and colleges with students such that they can access education through distance learning. It was launched in 2004 from Sriharikota. The main purpose of this satellite is to deliver educational materials to students through the mode of distance learning making education accessible. 

Conclusion

Our solar system is one of the many other solar systems existing in space. Understanding and learning different objects in the solar systems tells us a lot about the existence and origin of space. Space exploration is an important study to learn about earth’s past and extract valuable information from it. Hence, It is important to explore our space and learn about it