The largest planets in the universe. Seoul Metropolitan, South Korea

Today, scientists know only one large solar system in which our planet is located. It was formed 4.6 billion years ago. Stellar clouds of matter began to thicken in the Galaxy. Because of this, a large amount of thermal energy gradually began to be generated. With the formation of high temperature and density, nuclear reactions began to form, which provoked the formation of various gases and helium. These flows triggered the formation of the star we now call the Sun. The process of its creation took about several tens of millions of years.

Due to the high temperature, star dust accumulated in dense compounds, forming individual planets with its structure. Since the formation of all the planets and satellites of the solar system, no significant changes have been observed.

Heliocentric theory of world construction

In the second century AD, a scientist from Alexandria put forward a hypothesis about the location of our planet. It was from this that all scientists started, until the end of the fifteenth century. According to his theory, our planet was at the very center of the universe, and all other planets, including the Sun, could only rotate around its axis. But only thanks to the painstaking work of Nicolaus Copernicus, this hypothesis suffered a crushing failure. His observations were published only after his death, so the astronomer never received world recognition. His observations were able to prove the fact that the Sun is the center of the system, and all other planets can revolve around it along a given trajectory.

Number of planets in the solar system

Everyone knows that at the moment there are eight planets in the solar system. But until recently, it was believed that Pluto, which was discovered in early 1930, was also part of the solar system. But after much observation and research, it turned out that the planet farthest from the Sun does not rotate along a given trajectory at all. She is constantly in one position and does not move at all. Only with the onset of 2006, at the International Assembly in Prague, was it possible to prove that the dwarf planet is not part of the solar system at all.

The principle of the largest solar system

It is worth noting that the solar system is part of the milky way, which is located in our Galaxy. It is located on its outskirts, and is located at a distance of thirty thousand light years from its central point. The solar system includes the Sun itself, as well as numerous planets, satellites and asteroids that constantly move along a given trajectory.

Planet placement

All planets are divided into two different types. These are the inner and outer planets. The first type includes the four planets that are closest to the surface of the Sun. This:

Mercury;

Their sizes in relation to other planets are not so large, and the surface is covered with a rocky hard crust.

The second type includes giant planets:

These are those planets that mainly consist of a collection of various gases. They are located almost in the same plane. From the North Pole, you can clearly see that the planets move around the Sun in a direction that is opposite to the clockwise movement.

But be that as it may, there are always unexplored areas of space in the universe that can hide huge secrets. Perhaps in a few decades, scientists will be able to reach the most hidden corners.

Our Solar System is one of the components of the Galaxy. Here the Milky Way extends for hundreds of thousands of light years.

The central element of the Solar System is the Sun. Eight planets revolve around it (the ninth planet Pluto was excluded from this list, since its mass and gravitational forces do not allow it to be on the same level as other planets). However, each planet is different from the next. Among them there are small and truly huge, icy and hot, consisting of gas and dense.

The largest planet in the Universe is TrES-4. It was discovered in 2006 and is located in the constellation Hercules. The planet, called TrES-4, orbits a star that is about 1,400 light-years away from planet Earth.

According to scientists, there is no solid surface on the planet. Therefore, you can only immerse yourself in it. It is a mystery how the density of the substance that makes up this celestial body is so low.

Jupiter

The largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter, is located at a distance of 778 million kilometers from the Sun. This planet, the fifth in a row, is a gas giant. The composition is very similar to that of the sun. At least its atmosphere is predominantly hydrogen.

Earth's Big Brother

Jupiter and its moons through a telescope

It is worth noting that Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 11% helium and 89% hydrogen. This ratio makes it similar to the chemical composition of the Sun. The orange color is obtained due to compounds of sulfur and phosphorus. They are destructive for people, as they contain acetylene and poisonous ammonia.

Saturn

It is the next largest planet in the solar system. Through the telescope it is clearly visible that Saturn is more flattened than Jupiter. There are stripes on the surface parallel to the equator, but they are less distinct than those of the previous planet. The stripes show numerous and subtle details. And it was from them that the scientist William Herschel was able to determine the period of rotation of the planet. It's only 10 hours and 16 minutes. The equator diameter of Saturn is slightly smaller than Jupiter. However, it is three times less massive than the largest planet. In addition, Saturn has a low average density - 0.7 grams per square centimeter. This is because giant planets are made of helium and hydrogen. In the depths of Saturn, the pressure is not the same as on Jupiter. In this case, the surface temperature is close to the temperature at which methane melts.

Saturn through a telescope

Film about Saturn

Uranus

The seventh planet from the Sun in the solar system, therefore it is poorly lit. It is four times the diameter of the Earth. Some details on Uranus are difficult to discern due to their small angular dimensions. Uranus rotates around an axis, lying on its side. Uranus orbits the Sun every 84 years.

Journey to the planets: Uranus and Neptune

To determine how big a planet is, you need to take into account criteria such as its mass and diameter. The largest planet in the solar system is 300 times larger than Earth, and its diameter is eleven times greater than that of the earth. For a list of the largest planets in the Solar System, their names, sizes, photos and what they are known for, read our rating.

Diameter, mass, length of day and orbital radius are given relative to the Earth.

9. Pluto, diameter ~2370 km

Pluto is the second largest dwarf planet in the solar system after Ceres. Even when it was one of the full-fledged planets, it was far from the largest of them, since its mass is equal to 1/6 of the mass of the Moon. Pluto has a diameter of 2,370 km and is composed of rock and ice. It is not surprising that it is quite cold on its surface - minus 230 ° C

8. Mercury ∼ 4,879 km

A tiny world with a mass almost twenty times less than the mass of Earth, and a diameter 2 ½ less than Earth's. In fact, Mercury is closer in size to the Moon than to the Earth and is currently considered the smallest planet in the solar system. Mercury has a rocky surface dotted with craters. The Messenger spacecraft recently confirmed that deep craters on the shadowy side of Mercury contain icy water.

7. Mars ∼ 6,792 km

Mars is about half the size of Earth and has a diameter of 6.792 km. However, its mass is only a tenth of the earth's. This not very large planet in the solar system, the fourth closest to the Sun, has an inclination of its rotation axis of 25.1 degrees. Thanks to this, the seasons change on it, just like on Earth. A day (sol) on Mars is equal to 24 hours and 40 minutes. In the southern hemisphere, summers are hot and winters are cold, but in the northern hemisphere there are no such sharp contrasts, where both summer and winter are mild. We can say that these are ideal conditions for building a greenhouse and growing potatoes.

6. Venus ∼ 12,100 km

In sixth place in the ranking of the largest and smallest planets is a celestial body named after the goddess of beauty. It is so close to the Sun that it is the first to appear in the evening and the last to disappear in the morning. Therefore, Venus has long been known as the “evening star” and “morning star”. It has a diameter of 12,100 km, almost comparable to the size of the Earth (1000 km less), and 80% of the Earth's mass.

The surface of Venus mainly consists of large plains of volcanic origin, the rest is made up of giant mountains. The atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide, with thick clouds of sulfur dioxide. This atmosphere has the strongest greenhouse effect known in the solar system, and the temperature on Venus hovers around 460 degrees.

5. Earth ~ 12,742 km

The third planet closest to the Sun. Earth is the only planet in the solar system that has life. It has an axis tilt of 23.4 degrees, its diameter is 12,742 km, and its mass is 5.972 septillion kg.

The age of our planet is very respectable - 4.54 billion years. And most of this time it is accompanied by its natural satellite - the Moon. It is believed that the Moon was formed when a large celestial body, namely Mars, impacted the Earth, causing the ejection of enough material so that the Moon could form. The Moon has a stabilizing effect on the tilt of the Earth's axis and is the source of the tides of the oceans.

“It is rather inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is obvious that it is an Ocean” - Arthur C. Clarke.

4. Neptune ∼ 49,000 km

The gas giant planet of the Solar System is the eighth celestial body closest to the Sun. Neptune's diameter is 49,000 km, and its mass is 17 times that of Earth. It has powerful cloud bands (which, along with storms and cyclones, were photographed by Voyager 2). Wind speeds on Neptune reach 600 m/s. Due to its great distance from the Sun, the planet is one of the coldest, with temperatures in the upper atmosphere reaching minus 220 degrees Celsius.

3. Uranium ∼ 50,000 km

On the third line of the list of the largest planets in the solar system is the seventh closest to the Sun, the third largest and fourth heaviest of the worlds. The diameter of Uranus (50,000 km) is four times that of Earth, and its mass is 14 times that of our planet.

Uranus has 27 known moons, with sizes ranging from more than 1,500 km to less than 20 km in diameter. The planet's satellites consist of ice, rocks and other trace elements. Uranus itself has a rocky core surrounded by a blanket of water, ammonia and methane. The atmosphere consists of hydrogen, helium and methane with a top layer of clouds.

2. Saturn ∼ 116,400 km

The second largest planet in the solar system is known for its ring system. It was first noticed by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Galileo believed that Saturn was accompanied by two other planets that were on either side of it. In 1655, Christian Huygens, using an improved telescope, was able to see Saturn in sufficient detail to suggest that there were rings around it. They extend from 7,000 km to 120,000 km above the surface of Saturn, which itself has a radius 9 times that of Earth (57,000 km) and a mass 95 times that of Earth.

1. Jupiter ∼ 142,974 km

The first number is the winner of the planetary heavy hit parade, Jupiter, the largest planet, bearing the name of the Roman king of the gods. One of the five planets visible to the naked eye. It is so massive that it would contain the rest of the worlds of the solar system, minus the sun. The total diameter of Jupiter is 142.984 km. Given its size, Jupiter rotates very quickly, making one rotation every 10 hours. At its equator there is a fairly large centrifugal force, due to which the planet has a pronounced hump. That is, the diameter of Jupiter's equator is 9000 km larger than the diameter measured at the poles. As befits a king, Jupiter has many satellites (more than 60), but most of them are quite small (less than 10 km in diameter). The four largest moons, discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, are named after the favorites of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Jupiter.

What is known about Jupiter

Before the invention of the telescope, the planets were viewed as objects wandering across the sky. Therefore, the word “planet” is translated from Greek as “wanderer.” Our solar system has 8 known planets, although 9 celestial objects were originally recognized as planets. In the 1990s, Pluto was demoted from true planet status to dwarf planet status. A The largest planet in the solar system is called Jupiter.

The radius of the planet is 69,911 km. That is, all the largest planets in the solar system could fit inside Jupiter (see photo). And if we take only our Earth, then 1300 such planets will fit inside Jupiter’s body.

It is the fifth planet from the Sun. It is named after the Roman god.

Jupiter's atmosphere is made up of gases, mainly helium and hydrogen, which is why it is also called the gas giant of the solar system. The surface of Jupiter consists of an ocean of liquid hydrogen.

Jupiter has the strongest magnetosphere of all the other planets, 20 thousand times stronger than Earth's magnetosphere.

The largest planet in the solar system rotates around its axis faster than all its “neighbors”. One full revolution takes just under 10 hours (the Earth takes 24 hours). Because of this rapid rotation, Jupiter is convex at the equator and “flattened” at the poles. The planet is 7 percent wider at the equator than at the poles.

The largest celestial body in the solar system revolves around the Sun once every 11.86 Earth years.

Jupiter broadcasts radio waves so strong that they can be detected from Earth. They come in two forms:

1. strong bursts that occur when Io, the closest of Jupiter's large moons, passes through certain regions of the planet's magnetic field;
2. continuous radiation from the surface and high-energy particles of Jupiter in its radiation belts. These radio waves could help scientists explore the oceans on the space giant's satellites.

The most unusual feature of Jupiter

Undoubtedly, the main feature of Jupiter is the Great Red Spot - a giant hurricane that has raged for more than 300 years.

• The diameter of the Great Red Spot is three times the diameter of the Earth, and its edge rotates around the center and counterclockwise at a tremendous speed (360 km per hour).
• The color of the storm, which typically ranges from brick red to light brown, may be due to the presence of small amounts of sulfur and phosphorus.
• The spot either increases or decreases over time. A hundred years ago, education was twice as large as it is now and significantly brighter.

There are many other spots on Jupiter, but for some reason they exist only in the Southern Hemisphere for a long time.

Rings of Jupiter

Unlike Saturn's rings, which are clearly visible from Earth even through small telescopes, Jupiter's rings are very difficult to see. Their existence became known thanks to data from Voyager 1 (a NASA spacecraft) in 1979, but their origin was a mystery. Data from the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, later confirmed that these rings were created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons of the huge planet itself.

Jupiter's ring system includes:

1. halo - inner layer of small particles;
2. the main ring is brighter than the other two;
3. outer “web” ring.

The main ring is flattened, its thickness is about 30 km, and its width is 6400 km. The halo extends halfway from the main ring down to the tops of Jovian clouds and expands as it interacts with the planet's magnetic field. The third ring is known as the gossamer ring because of its transparency.

Meteorites striking the surface of Jupiter's small inner moons kick up dust, which then enters orbit around Jupiter, forming rings.

Jupiter has 53 confirmed moons orbiting it and another 14 unconfirmed moons.

Jupiter's four largest moons - called the Galilean moons - are Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. The honor of their discovery belongs to Galileo Galilei, and this was in 1610. They are named in honor of those close to Zeus (whose Roman counterpart is Jupiter).

Volcanoes rage on Io; there is a subglacial ocean on Europa and perhaps there is life in it; Ganymede is the largest of the moons in the solar system, and has its own magnetosphere; and Callisto has the lowest reflectivity of the four Galilean moons. There is a version that the surface of this moon consists of dark, colorless rock.

Video: Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system

We hope that we have given a complete answer to the question of which planet in the solar system is the largest!