O Solar system is the set of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and other celestial bodies that orbit around the Sun. To find out about its specific characteristics, just access: Solar System Characteristics. let's go to curious facts about our cosmic address?
1. Solar System Numbers
The most recent data from Astronomy indicate that the age of the Solar System is about 4.6 billion years. All in all, they are eight planets,fiveplanetsdwarves,181moons,552.894asteroids and3.083comets, spread over 18,75trillionsinkilometers. In terms of mass, the Sun features 99,8 % of the entire mass of the Solar System.
2. gaseous planets and solid planets
Did you know that not all planets in the Solar System are solid? In fact, this type of (solid) planet, called a telluric planet, represents half of the planets in the Solar System. Only Mercury,Venus,Earth and Mars are rocky.
You gas giants, like Jupiter, Saturn,Uranus and Neptune, are mostly composed of gases from hydrogen,helium and methane and are generally very cold, with gigantic masses.
Jupiter, for example, it has a volume of 1.321 "Lands" and mass 317 times bigger than that of our planet. Also, its mass is about 2.5 times larger that the mass of all other planets in the Solar System together.
Jupiter is one of the gas giants. Due to the high pressure, its nucleus is formed by metallic hydrogen.
See too: Space junk
3. The hottest planet in the Solar System
It is natural to imagine that the hottest planet in the Solar System is the closest to the Sun, however, this is not true. The hottest planet in the Solar System is second in distance from the Sun: Venus. Even though it is much farther from the Sun than Mercury, Venus has a dense and turbulent atmosphere, rich in gases like the carbon dioxide, responsible for a constant greenhouse effect. In this way, temperatures on Venus easily reach the 470 °C.
Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System.
See too: Origin of the Moon
4. We live "in" the Sun
Despite being at an average distance from Earth of approximately 150 million kilometers, our planet lies within the solar atmosphere, in a region known for heliosphere. The heliosphere is very large: it extends beyond the orbit of Pluto, more than 100unitsastronomical, i.e, over 16 billion kilometers. Within this region, it is possible to feel the influenceFromwindssolar, responsible for interference in telecommunications systems and phenomena such as auroraspolar, also observed on other planets, as in Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.
Solar winds are made up of particles from the solar corona and are capable of affecting terrestrial telecommunications.
See too: What are solar winds?
5. Jupiter's large red spot
The biggest storm in the Solar System is in Jupiter and was first observed in the year of 1831. When discovered, the big spot extended for incredible 48.000km. In 1979, however, measurements taken by the Voyager probe indicated a new diameter of 23.000km. The data suggest that the storm is fading and abating about 900kmperyear, but still your area is twotimeslarger than the Earth's area.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.
6. far beyond the planets
In addition to the eight known planets in the Solar System, there are many other bodies that orbit our Sun. Among them, we can highlight several dwarf planets, such as Ceres and Pluto, hundreds of moons (alone, Jupiter is orbited by 79 moons), a large asteroid belt formed by billions of them and located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and, finally, the BeltinKuiper, located on the margin of the Solar System, after the orbit of Neptune, formed by trillions of icy rocks and comets. The largest object found in the Kuiper Belt is Pluto.
7. Rotating in the opposite direction
All planets in the Solar System have moons and rotate in the same direction, except for one: Venus. This is the only retrograde planet in the Solar System that does not have any moons, suggesting a violent past. Studies indicate that Venus collided with a large asteroid, which changed its direction of rotation in the Solar System.
8. The sun is no longer where it seems to be
The sun is about 150millions of kilometers from Earth. This large distance makes the journey of sunlight to us a little time-consuming: just over eight minutes, even with the light propagating to 300.000kilometerspersecond. The most dramatic case is that of Pluto: sunlight takes about 5 hours and a half to get to the dwarf planet!
By Me. Rafael Helerbrock
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/fisica/curiosidades-sobre-sistema-solar.htm