A Little Info about Our Planets
By Oceana O’Boyle
In my class we were learning about planets. So I thought I would tell you about them.
As you should know, we have nine planets in our solar system and the categories are gas, giants, dwarf, outer and inner planets. Our planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto—which was demoted to dwarf planet status. Don’t worry; Pluto is not alone in that category. There are three very large asteroids (Eris, Vespa and Ceres) that are thought to have gravity and are considered dwarf planets.
The universe is made up of 100 billion galaxies each with 200 billion stars. Stars are glowing balls of gasses. Our galaxy is the Milky Way. Did you know the stars that are hot are blue or white and cool stars are red or orange?
The solar system includes an average star, commonly called the sun, right orbiting planets, many moons, and smaller bodies such as asteroids and comets.
One way you can remember the order of the planets from the sun is by using something called a mnemonic device—“My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos” (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune). Pluto is not included because of its demotion to dwarf planet.
Here’s a little more about each planet that I learned from UniverseToday.com.
Mercury
You would expect the planet closest to the Sun to be the hottest, but it is not. Daytime temperatures can reach a blistering 450°C and then drop to a frigid -170°C at night. Kind of hard to know how to dress for that climate!
Venus
Talk about Dante’s inferno. Clouds of toxic gas and temperatures over 460°C make this the hottest planet in our solar system. So far, we cannot design probes that can survive the planet’s atmosphere for more than a few minutes.
Earth
We’re on it!
Mars
The possibility of microbial life in the distant past as well as bound water and carbon dioxide in the soil make this a very interesting focus of study.
Jupiter
Talk about confused. This planet has the most mass, but very low density. This gas giant is separated from Mars by the main asteroid belt, which contains many other interesting objects.
Saturn
At one time it was thought that Saturn was the only planet with rings. Several space probes have confirmed that not only do other planets have rings, but some have more than Saturn.
Uranus
This planet has two related descriptions. It has a very low density and is made up of a large proportion of gas. That makes it a gas giant (Please don’t LOL). A decent percentage of those gasses are trapped in ice form, so it is sometimes referred to as an ice giant as well.
Neptune
The other ice giant, Neptune has many of the same frozen gases as Uranus. Methane gives both planets a bluish color.