Saturns moon Titan has plenty of evidence of organic (life) chemicals in its atmosphere. A day in Mercury lasts approximately as long as 59 days on earth. Twice during Mercury’s orbit, it gets so close to the Sun and speeds so much that the Sun seems to go backwards in the sky. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet smashed into Jupiter in July 1994, with the biggest crash ever witnessed. The red color of Mars is due to oxidized (rusted) iron in its soil. Mars’s volcano Olympus Mons is the biggest in the solar system. It covers the same area as Ireland and is three times higher than our Mount Everest. Planets have magnetic field around them because of the liquid iron in their cores. As the planets rotate, so the iron swirls, generating electric currents that create the magnetic field. Earth’s atmosphere was formed from gases pouring out from volcanoes. Jupiter has no surface for a spacecraft to land on because it is made mostly from helium gas and hydrogen. The massive pull of Jupiter’s gravity squeezes the hydrogen so hard that it is liquid. Pulsars probably result from a supernova explosion - that is why most are found in the flat disc of the Milky Way, where supernovae occur. Three moons have yet been found to have their own moons: Saturn’s moon Titan, Jupiter’s Lo, and Neptune’s Triton. The largest moon in the Solar System is the Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Saturn is not solid, but is made almost entirely of gas – mostly liquid hydrogen and helium. Only in the planet’s very small core is there any rock. Winds ten times stronger than a hurricane on Earth swirl around Saturn’s equator reaching up to 1100 km/h – and they never let up: even for a moment. Einstein’s theory of general relativity shows that gravity not only pulls on matter, but also space and even ‘Time’ itself. In summer in Uranus, the sun does not set for 20 years. In winter, darkness lasts for 20 years. In autumn, the sun rises and sets every 9 hours. Uranus’s moon Miranda is the weirdest moon of all. It seems to have been blasted apart, and then put together again. Neptune’s mood Triton is the coldest place in the Solar System, with surface temperatures of -236°C. Solar flares reach temperatures of 10 million °C and have the energy of a million atom bombs. When things are falling, their acceleration cancels out gravity, which is why astronauts in orbits are weightless. The moon’s gravity is 17% of the Earth’s so astronauts in space suits can jump 4 m high on the moon. Jupiter’s moon Europa may have oceans of water beneath its dry surface and it is a major target in the search for life in the Solar System. For a satellite or a spacecraft to stay in orbit 200 km above the earth, it has to fly over 8 km/sec.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 01:48:36 +0000
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