Name :- W.A.Hasitha Srimal Dhananjaya
Registration Number :- EU/IS/2019/PHY/123
Index Number :- PS2873
Name :- W.A.Hasitha Srimal Dhananjaya
Registration Number :- EU/IS/2019/PHY/123
Index Number :- PS2873
The four smaller inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, called the gas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of substances with relatively high melting points (compared with hydrogen and helium), called ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as “ice giants”.
All planets have almost circular orbits that lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic
The sun formed around 4.5 billion years ago. At that time, the area of the Milky Way galaxy that would become the solar system consisted of a dense cloud of gas the remnants of an earlier generation of stars. The densest region of this cloud collapsed and gave rise to the protostar that would become the sun. As this young protostar grew, planets, moons and asteroids formed around it from what remained of this raw material, bound in orbit to their parent star by its immense gravity.
At the heart of the sun, this same force sparked nuclear fusion that powers the star. The heat and light from this nuclear reaction enabled life on Earth to evolve and prosper. However, this reaction will eventually lead to the sun’s demise, as the sun will eventually run out of nuclear fuel.
(opens in new tab). This blue gas giant is far larger than Earth(opens in new tab), at more than 17 times Earth's mass and nearly 58 times Earth's volume, according to NASA. Neptune's rocky core is surrounded by a slushy fluid mix of water, ammonia and methane ice.
Astronomer Galileo Galilei was one of the first people to identify Neptune as a space object, however he assumed it was a star based on its slow movement. Around two hundred years later, in 1846, French astronomer Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier calculated the approximate location of Neptune by studying gravity-induced disturbances in the motions of Uranus according to a synopsis written by researchers at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
At the same time Le Verrier was calculating the existence of Neptune, so was English astronomer John Couch Adams. The two scholars independently came up with nearly identical mathematical predictions about Neptune's existence. Le Verrier then informed his colleague, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, about his calculations, and Galle and his assistant Heinrich d'Arrest, confirmed Le Verrier's predictions by viewing and identifying Neptune through the telescope at his observatory in Berlin.
In accordance with all the other planets seen in the sky, and as suggested by Le Verrier, this new world was given a name from Greek and Roman mythology — Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.
The extreme axial tilt Uranus experiences can give rise to unusual weather. As sunlight reaches some areas for the first time in years, it heats up the atmosphere, triggering gigantic springtime storms, according to NASA.
However, when Voyager 2 first imaged Uranus in 1986 at the height of summer in its south, the spacecraft saw a bland-looking sphere with only about 10 or so visible clouds, leading to it to be dubbed "the most boring planet," wrote astronomer Heidi Hammel in "The Ice Giant Systems of Uranus and Neptune," a chapter in "Solar System Update" (Springer, 2007), a compilation of reviews in solar system science. It was decades later, when advanced telescopes such as Hubble came into play and Uranus' long seasons changed, before scientists witnessed the extreme weather on Uranus.
In 2014, astronomers got their first glimpse at summer storms raging on Uranus. Strangely, these massive storms took place seven years after the planet reached its closest approach to the sun, and it remains a mystery why the giant storms occurred after the sun’s heating on the planet was at a maximum.
Other unusual weather on Uranus includes diamond rain, which is thought to sink thousands of miles below the surface of icy giant planets such as Uranus and Neptune. Carbon and hydrogen are thought to compress under extreme heat and pressure deep in the atmospheres of these planets to form diamonds, which are then thought to sink downward, eventually settling around the cores of those worlds.
Saturn is a gas giant made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn's volume is greater
The yellow and gold bands seen in Saturn's atmosphere are the result of superfast winds in the upper atmosphere, which can reach up to 1,100 mph (1,800 km/h) around its equator, combined with heat rising from the planet's interior. Saturn rotates about once every 10.5 hours. The planet's high-speed spin causes Saturn to bulge at its equator and flatten at its poles. The planet is around 75,000 miles (120,000 kilometers) across at its equator, and 68,000 miles (109,000 km) from pole to pole.
Saturn has at least 62 moons. The largest, Titan, is slightly larger than Mercury, and is the second-largest moon in the solar system behind Jupiter's moon Ganymede (Earth's moon is the fifth largest).
Some of the moons have extreme features. Pan and Atlas are shaped like flying
Though scientists have identified many moons, Saturn has other small moons constantly being created and destroyed.
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Name :- W.A.Hasitha Srimal Dhananjaya Registration Number :- EU/IS/2019/PHY/123 Index Number :- PS2873