Thursday, September 19, 2019
Solar System Essay -- essays research papers
The Solar System By â€Å"Delete this text and type your name here.†Introduction As far as we know, there are nine planets locked in orbit around the Sun. Only one, our own Earth, supports life. But there are countless other suns throughout countless galaxies scattered across the expanse of the universe. We still don’t know if life exists on another planet in some other galaxy. Mercury Named for the wing-footed messenger of the Roman gods, Mercury races around its orbit at a dizzying speed of 30 miles (48 kilometers) per second, making the Mercurial year only 88 Earth days long. In contrast, one rotation around its axisâ€â€or a single dayâ€â€takes almost 59 Earth days. Geology Mariner 10 gave us a wealth of information about Mercury when it approached the planet in 1974 and 1975. Because Mercury has no water and barely any atmosphere, no erosion has taken place on its surface. We see Mercury much the way it was soon after it formed. Core We learned that Mercury has an extremely weak magnetic field, which could indicate a hot metallic core, such as molten iron. Geologists think Mercury may be the most iron-rich planet in the solar system. Crust Mercury’s crust seems to be silicate, like that of Earth. Craters The planet’s surface, viewed for the first time via Mariner’s cameras, is covered by craters. The battering occurred during the early period of the solar system when clumps of material were ramming into each other to form the planets. Atmosphere Mercury doesn’t have what we think of as an atmosphereâ€â€that is, a gaseous envelope that produces clouds and weather or protects the surface of the planet from some of the harmful solar radiation. The weak magnetic field on Mercury captures only the barest perceptible trace of charged particles from the Sun. Venus Shrouded in the cloak of mystery, Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor, takes the name of the Roman goddess of love. For some unknown reason, Venus rotates on its axis in retrogradeâ€â€that is, in the reverse direction of its revolution around the Sun. Geology Geologically, Venus appears to have some similarities to Earth. Its crust is probably granitic, overlying a basaltic mantle and a iron-nickel core. The geologic activity that we are familiar with on Earth seems not to exist on Venus, except for the presence two volcanoes along a fault line. ... ...p; 17 Uranus          19.18     84 years     16 hours     14.54     4.10     15 Neptune     god of the deep blue sea     30.06     165 years     18 hours     17.23     3.88     8 Pluto     god of the underworld     39.44     248 years     6.4 days     .002?     0.12-0.30     1 * AU = Astronomical Unit (Earth = 1) Conclusion We know more and more all the time about our own solar system. During the past 15 years, space probes such as the Mariner and Voyager missions have given us tremendous detail about all the planets in this system. Tiny by comparison to the Milky Way, our solar system is awesome, nevertheless, when considered in human scale.
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