Sizes of the planets of the solar system in ascending order. Comparison of the sizes of planets and stars

We are returning from the stars, so our flight begins from the farthest regions of the Solar System, from its outer part. And Pluto will appear first to our eyes.

Pluto- a tiny, cold planet located 40 times farther from the Sun than Earth. This planet was discovered only in 1930 and named Pluto in honor of the god of the underworld in ancient mythology. The average temperature on the planet is -223°C.

The Hubble Space Telescope photographed the entire surface of the planet, after which a map of Pluto was compiled. Pluto's north pole is covered with a cap of snow.

From the day of its discovery in 1930 until 2006, Pluto was considered the ninth planet of the solar system. However, at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries, many objects were discovered in the outer solar system, for example, Eris, which is 27% more massive than Pluto. Since then, Pluto has been classified as a dwarf planet along with Eris and Ceres.

Pluto has a satellite - Charon. The pair of celestial bodies form a system that scientists call a double dwarf planet. The center of mass of such a formation is in outer space.

And now we are approaching the farthest planet of the solar system, the eighth in a row - to Neptune.

Neptune's mass is 17.2 times, and the diameter of its equator is 3.9 times greater than that of Earth. The planet was named after the Roman god of the seas.

Discovered on September 23, 1846, Neptune became the first planet discovered through mathematical calculations rather than through regular observations.

The Voyager 2 space probe was able to reveal some of the secrets of this distant planet in 1989. The weather on Neptune is characterized by an extremely dynamic storm system, with winds sometimes reaching supersonic speeds (about 600 m/s)

The mass of Neptune's mantle is 10-15 times greater than Earth's, according to various estimates, and is rich in water, ammonia, methane and other compounds. According to the generally accepted terminology in planetary science, this matter is called icy, even though it is a hot, very dense liquid. However, the surface temperature of Neptune averages −200 °C

The next planet on our way is Uranus.

The seventh most distant planet from the Sun, the third in diameter and the fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It was discovered in 1781 and named after the Greek god of the sky, Uranus.

It is possible to judge the internal structure of Uranus only by indirect signs.

Uranium is 60 times larger than our Earth, but its mass is only 14.5 times that of Earth. This is because the average density of Uranus is slightly higher than that of water. Such low densities are typical for all four giant planets, consisting predominantly of light chemical elements. It is believed that in the very center of Uranus there is a rocky core composed mainly of silicon oxides. The diameter of the core is 1.5 times larger than our entire Earth. Around it is a shell made of a mixture of water ice and rocks. Even higher is a global ocean of liquid hydrogen, and then a very powerful atmosphere. Another model suggests that Uranus does not have a rocky core at all. In this case, Uranus should look like a huge ball of snow “porridge”, consisting of a mixture of liquid and ice, shrouded in a gaseous shell.

We are approaching a very beautiful planet, which is sometimes called the Lord of the Rings, to Saturn.

The fabulous rings of Saturn cannot be confused with any other objects in the solar system.

The width of the rings is 400 thousand km, but their thickness is only a few tens of meters. All rings consist of individual pieces of ice of different sizes: from specks of dust to several meters in diameter. These particles move at almost identical speeds (about 10 km/s, their speeds are so well balanced that neighboring particles appear motionless in relation to each other), sometimes colliding with each other.

For a long time it was believed that a careless satellite approached Saturn and was torn to shreds by its tidal forces, the remains of which turned into rings. But Voyager data refuted this popular belief. It has now been established that the rings of Saturn (and other planets too) are the remains of a huge circumplanetary cloud many millions of kilometers long.

If you put Saturn in water, it will float on the surface. The average density of Saturn's substance is almost 2 times less than the density of water. If you can find a corresponding glass (with a diameter of at least 60 thousand km), then you can check it yourself.

And finally, the last giant planet in the outer part of the system - Jupiter.

Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is a huge ball of gas.

Jupiter is 318 times larger than Earth in mass and 11.2 times in diameter.

There are 62 satellites moving around the giant. The most famous of them are: Adrastea, Metis, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Karme, Pasiphae, Sinope, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda and Himalia. 47 "moons" of Jupiter were discovered after 1997, when powerful telescopes became available. Jupiter also has a system of rings, which are a collection of small rock particles.

Let's fly closer to it to see one of Jupiter's most recognizable landmarks - the Great Red Spot.

The Great Red Spot is an anticyclone vortex raging in the planet's atmosphere. An ordinary hurricane, similar to ours on earth, but its magnitude is enormous.

Three planets like ours could fit inside the Great Red Spot. And it has been raging for 350 years before the eyes of humanity. And how long it raged before Giovanni Cassini was able to see it for the first time through a telescope in 1665, no one knows.

It is assumed that such a long existence of the vortex is due to the fact that it never has to collide with the “terrestrial firmament”, which extinguishes vortices on Earth - there is simply no firmament on Jupiter.

And now we are approaching the inner solar system. Passed a dwarf planet Ceres and approaching the mysterious Mars.

Mars- the fourth most distant planet from the Sun and the seventh largest planet in the solar system. This planet is named after Mars, the ancient Roman god of war. Mars is sometimes called the “Red Planet” because of the reddish tint of its surface given by iron oxide.

Temperatures on the planet range from −153 at the poles in winter to more than +20 °C at the equator at midday. Numerous studies and data transmitted from Mars rovers help us learn more about this neighbor. There is evidence that in the past the atmosphere may have been denser, the climate warmer and wetter, and there was liquid water and rainfall on the surface of Mars.

On July 25, 1976, the American Viking 1 spacecraft photographed Mars - experts chose landing sites for future expeditions. Among others, a photograph of the Kydonia region, located on the Acidalia Plain, also came to Earth. From the photograph, the “Sphinx,” as this mysterious pyramid, mountain or hill was called, was clearly looking at us from space.

Is there still controversy surrounding this image? What is this, a bizarre play of light and shadow or traces of previous civilizations? Maybe in time you will solve this mystery?

Which planet, the third from the Sun, are we passing now? Of course Earth.

We will wave to her, but we will continue without stopping for now.

Ahead of us lies a hot and sky-high Venus.

The most beautiful and closest of the planets - Venus - has been captivating people's gaze for millennia. How many brilliant poems Venus gave birth to! No wonder she bears the name of the goddess of love. But no matter how much scientists study our closest neighbor in the solar system, the number of questions that are just waiting for answers does not decrease. The planet is full of mysteries and wonders.

Venus is not a planet for the weak. Not only is it hot, but thunderstorms are also raging on it and lightning is striking directly from clouds consisting of sulfuric acid.

The reason for the planet's heating is its dense clouds. They do not release heat outside, creating a greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect also occurs in the atmospheres of other planets. But if in the atmosphere of Mars it raises the average temperature at the surface by 9°, in the atmosphere of the Earth - by 35°, then in the atmosphere of Venus this effect reaches 400 degrees! The recorded maximum surface temperature is +480°C.

And finally, the last planet on the way to the Sun - Mercury.

This relatively small cosmic body has its own characteristics and secrets.

Mercury receives 7 times more solar energy than Earth. Surface temperatures on the sunny side can rise to 400 degrees Celsius! At the same time, severe frost reigns on the shady side (–200 degrees Celsius).

And now we are already at the goal of our journey, approaching the center of our system, to a star named Sun.

• 99% of the mass of the solar system is concentrated in the Sun. In one minute, the Sun produces more energy than the entire Earth uses in a year. The light of the Sun that you see is 30 thousand years old - this is exactly how long it takes for photons (particles of light) to “break through” from the center of the star to its surface. After that, they reach Earth in just 8 minutes. The temperature of the solar core is more than 13 million degrees.
• The sun revolves around the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, making a full revolution every 225 to 250 million years.
• We all see that the Sun is yellow or orange, but in fact, it is white. The yellow tones of the Sun are given by a phenomenon called “atmospheric scattering.”
• Every second, 700 billion tons of hydrogen burns on the Sun. Despite such a huge rate of loss, the Sun’s energy will be enough for another 5 billion years of such life (about the same age for the Sun from birth).
• The corona is the last outer shell of the Sun. Despite its very high temperature, ranging from 600,000 to 5,000,000 degrees, it is only visible to the naked eye during a total solar eclipse.
• The average density of the Sun is equal to the density of water in the Dead Sea.
• Every second, the Sun produces 100,000 times more energy than humanity has produced in its entire history.

Sometimes the Sun shows increased activity. We can observe it as flares and prominences.

Consists of eight planets, which are divided into two main groups: (Venus, Mercury, Earth and Mars) and (Uranus, Saturn, Neptune and Jupiter). All of these planets revolve around the Sun, and six of them have natural satellites. Mercury's surface resembles the Moon, with extensive plains and craters, meaning there has been no volcanic activity for thousands of years. While Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system, the title belongs to. The best way to determine the size of a planet is to measure its volume and how much matter it contains.

Mass and size of Mercury

The average radius of Mercury is 2439.7±1 km, which is equivalent to 38% of the radius of the Earth. Since the planet does not have oblate poles, it is a perfect sphere, and the radius at both the poles is the same. The diameter of Mercury is 2.5 times smaller than that of Earth. Although Mercury is smaller than some natural bodies in the solar system, such as Titan and Ganymede, it is more expansive. Mercury's mass is 3.3011×10²³ kg, and its size is closer to the size of the Moon than the Earth, which is almost 20 times larger in mass and volume.

Density and volume of Mercury

Mercury is denser than some planets larger than its size. With a density of 5.427 g/cm³, it is the second densest planet in the solar system after Earth, which has a density of 5.5153 g/cm³. Mercury's gravitational force is about 0.38 of Earth's. This means that if you were standing on Mercury, you would weigh 62% less than on your home planet. Mercury's volume is approximately 0.056 that of Earth's.

Structure and composition of Mercury

Mercury is a terrestrial planet and is composed of metals and silicate minerals. Metals are distinguished from the crust, silicate mantle, and metallic core. Compared to other planets, Mercury has a large core with a radius of 1800 km, which occupies about 55% of the planet's volume (for comparison, the share of Earth's core is approximately 17%). Mercury's core has a high iron content compared to all planets in the solar system, and there are many theories to explain this feature.

One of the most common hypotheses is that the planet was once very large, but was exposed to a planetesimal, which greatly reduced the bulk of the original mantle and crust, leaving only the main components of the core. Another theory states that Mercury may have formed from the solar nebula before the Sun's energy output stabilized. The planet was originally twice its current size, but as the proto-sun shrunk in size, Mercury was vaporized by heat, thereby forming an atmosphere of steam and rock that was blown away by the wind. It is also believed that the nebula caused resistance to the particles from which the planet was formed, and Mercury did not collect light particles.

The solar system - our home - consists of 8 planets and many other cosmic bodies that revolve around a star. Large, medium, small in size, solid and consisting of gases, closest and farthest from the Sun, they live within the system according to a clearly established order.

Until 2006, it was believed that there were 9 planets in the solar system. However, then at the next International Astronomical Congress, the most distant object, Pluto, was crossed off the list. Scientists revised the criteria and left planets that fit the following parameters:

• orbital rotation around a star (Sun);
• gravity and spherical shape;
• the absence of other large cosmic bodies nearby, except for their own satellites.

These planets are in order from the Sun:

1. Mercury. Diameter – 4.9 thousand km.
2. Venus. Diameter – 12.1 thousand km.
3. Earth. Diameter – 12.7 thousand km.
4. Mars. Diameter – 6.8 thousand km.
5. Jupiter. Diameter – 139.8 thousand km.
6. Saturn. Diameter – 116.5 thousand km.
7. Uranus. Diameter – 50.7 thousand km.
8. Neptune. Diameter – 49.2 thousand km.

Attention! Scientists were prompted to revise the parameters by the discovery of another planet-like body - Eris, which turned out to be heavier than Pluto. Both objects were classified as dwarf planets.

Terrestrial planets: Mercury and Venus

The planets in the Solar System are divided into two groups: terrestrial (inner) and gas (outer). They are separated from each other by an asteroid belt. According to one hypothesis, it is a planet that could not form under the strong influence of Jupiter. The terrestrial group includes planets with a solid surface.

There are 8 planets

Mercury– the first object of the system from the sun. Its orbit is the smallest, and it revolves around the star faster than the others. A year here is equal to 88 Earth days. But Mercury rotates very slowly around its axis. The local day here is longer than the local year and amounts to 4224 Earth hours.

Attention! The movement of the sun in the black sky of Mercury is very different from that on Earth. Due to the peculiarities of rotation and orbit at different points, it may look as if the star is freezing, “backing away,” rising and setting several times a day.

Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. It is even smaller than some of the satellites of the gas group of planets. Its surface is covered with many craters with a diameter ranging from several meters to hundreds of kilometers. There is almost no atmosphere on Mercury, so the surface can be very hot during the day (+440°C) and cold at night (-180°C). But already at a depth of 1 m the temperature is stable and is approximately +75°C at any time.

Venus- the second planet from the Sun. Its powerful atmosphere of carbon dioxide (more than 96%) hid the surface from human eyes for a long time. Venus is very hot (+460°C), but unlike Mercury, the main reason for this is the greenhouse effect due to the density of the atmosphere. The pressure on the surface of Venus is 92 times greater than that on Earth. Under the clouds of sulfuric acid lie hurricanes and thunderstorms that never subside here.

Terrestrial planets: Earth and Mars

Earth- the largest of the inner group and the only planet in the system suitable for life. The Earth's atmosphere contains nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, and water vapor. The surface is protected by an ozone layer and a magnetic field just enough for life to be born on it in the form in which it exists now. Earth's satellite is the Moon.

Mars closes the four terrestrial planets. The planet has a very thin atmosphere, a surface with craters, a topography with valleys, deserts, extinct volcanoes and polar glaciers. Including the huge Olympus volcano, which is the largest peak on the planets of the solar system - 21.2 km. It has been proven that the surface of the planet was once . But today there is only ice and dust devils.

The location of the planets in the solar system

Gas group planets

Jupiter- the largest planet in the solar system. It is more than 300 times heavier than the Earth, although it consists of gases: hydrogen and helium. Jupiter has quite powerful radiation to influence nearby objects. It has the most satellites - 67. Some of them are quite large bodies, different in structure.

Jupiter itself is covered in liquid. On its surface there are noticeable many stripes of light and dark colors moving parallel to the equator. These are clouds. Winds of up to 600 km/h rage beneath them. For several centuries, astronomers have been observing a red spot on the surface of Jupiter larger than the Earth, which is a giant storm.

Attention! Jupiter rotates around its axis faster than all the planets in the solar system. A day here is less than 10 hours.

Saturn popularly known as the ringed planet. They consist of ice and dust particles. The planet's atmosphere is dense, almost entirely consisting of hydrogen (more than 96%) and helium. Saturn has more than 60 open moons. The surface density is the smallest among the planets of the system, less than the density of water.

Uranus and Neptune They are classified as ice giants because they have a lot of ice on their surface. And the atmosphere consists of hydrogen and helium. Neptune is very stormy, Uranus is much calmer. As the most distant planet in the system, Neptune has the longest year - almost 165 Earth years. Behind Neptune is the little-studied Kuiper Belt, a cluster of small bodies of various structures and sizes. It is considered the outskirts of the solar system.

Space: video

This is a system of planets, in the center of which there is a bright star, a source of energy, heat and light - the Sun.
According to one theory, the Sun was formed along with the Solar System about 4.5 billion years ago as a result of the explosion of one or more supernovae. Initially, the Solar System was a cloud of gas and dust particles, which, in motion and under the influence of their mass, formed a disk in which a new star, the Sun, and our entire Solar System arose.

At the center of the solar system is the Sun, around which nine large planets revolve in orbit. Since the Sun is displaced from the center of planetary orbits, during the cycle of revolution around the Sun the planets either approach or move away in their orbits.

There are two groups of planets:

Terrestrial planets: And . These planets are small in size with a rocky surface and are closest to the Sun.

Giant planets: And . These are large planets, consisting mainly of gas and characterized by the presence of rings consisting of icy dust and many rocky chunks.

But does not fall into any group because, despite its location in the solar system, it is located too far from the Sun and has a very small diameter, only 2320 km, which is half the diameter of Mercury.

Planets of the Solar System

Let's begin a fascinating acquaintance with the planets of the Solar System in order of their location from the Sun, and also consider their main satellites and some other space objects (comets, asteroids, meteorites) in the gigantic expanses of our planetary system.

Rings and moons of Jupiter: Europa, Io, Ganymede, Callisto and others...
The planet Jupiter is surrounded by a whole family of 16 satellites, and each of them has its own unique features...

Rings and moons of Saturn: Titan, Enceladus and others...
Not only the planet Saturn has characteristic rings, but also other giant planets. Around Saturn, the rings are especially clearly visible, because they consist of billions of small particles that revolve around the planet, in addition to several rings, Saturn has 18 satellites, one of which is Titan, its diameter is 5000 km, which makes it the largest satellite in the solar system...

Rings and moons of Uranus: Titania, Oberon and others...
The planet Uranus has 17 satellites and, like other giant planets, there are thin rings surrounding the planet that have practically no ability to reflect light, so they were discovered not so long ago in 1977, completely by accident...

Rings and moons of Neptune: Triton, Nereid and others...
Initially, before the exploration of Neptune by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, two satellites of the planet were known - Triton and Nerida. An interesting fact is that the Triton satellite has a reverse direction of orbital motion; strange volcanoes were also discovered on the satellite that erupted nitrogen gas like geysers, spreading a dark-colored mass (from liquid to vapor) many kilometers into the atmosphere. During its mission, Voyager 2 discovered six more moons of the planet Neptune...

The fall of the asteroid Apophis. What are the consequences? Where will it fall? When? So, the inhabitants of planet Earth begin to slowly freeze in anticipation of the next approach of the asteroid Apophis to our planet. It is likely that Friday April 13, 2029 may be the last day of modern civilization. Liked this:Like Loading...

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The White House presented the Asteroid Hazard Strategy At the end of 2016, the White House released an official document called Detecting and Mitigating the Impact of Earth-bound Near-Earth Objects (DAMIEN), which is translated from English. stands for “Detection and Mitigation of Space Objects Coming Dangerously Close to Our Planet,” developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an interagency […]

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