Hello everyone, today we are ready to explain to you and make you understand the whole concept of the solar system for kids. But not only for kids, but it also helps the adult ones as we are going deep into the concept and with utmost clarity. So we will move to the concept.
Solar System For Kids
We will start with the meaning of the solar system and the basic idea of it. Then we move into them clearly one by one. So let’s move.
Meaning Of Solar System
The solar system is a system that is bound by gravitational collapse and which contains all the stars, including the sun, all the planets – Mercury, Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter, and Neptune along with other dwarf planets such as Pluto. This also contains moons, many asteroids, meteoroids, and also comets. So this is the basic thing you need to remember about the solar system. Our Solar System formed about 4.568 billion years ago from now. It was formed from the gravitational collapse of a big molecular cloud.
Most of the mass contains the sun’s mass, and the remaining biggest part goes to Jupiter’s mass. Small Inner planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, which are terrestrial planets. The four planets giant planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter and Saturn are the two most giant planets called gas giants. These contain mainly hydrogen and helium gases. The two outermost planets are Uranus and Neptune. These are called ice giants as it contains mostly substances which have high melting points when compared to hydrogen and helium. These are volatile gases. All the planets around the sun are in orbits that are elliptical in shape.
Solar System contains not only large objects but also smaller objects. The asteroid belt, which is present in between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, contains mostly terrestrial substances like metal and rock. Along with all these, some other smaller objects exist, which are comets, centaurs, interplanetary dust clouds. These travel freely between regions along with others. A solar wind, i.e., the stream of charged particles ejected from the sun in the interstellar medium, is called Heliosphere.
Discovery Of Solar System
This is the observation and understanding of Earth’s “cosmic neighborhood” so that we can discover the particles and substances present in the solar system. Hundreds of years ago, our ancients did not discover the solar system and maintained a geocentric worldview. Many believed Earth was stationary and did not move or revolve around something. Later Greek philosopher Aristarchus of Samos had speculated on a heliocentric cosmos.
The first observation or discovery is through the telescope. Galileo, who invented the telescope is the first person to discover the physical details of the solar system. He then discovered that our Moon was cratered. Also, he discovered that the Sun was marked with so-called sunspots. He also discovered that Jupiter has four satellites in orbit. Later many followed Galileo and Christian Huygens followed hims discoveries by discovering Saturn’s moon Titan and the shape of Saturn rings. Later many scientists followed the theories given by them and discovered many things.
Structure Of Solar System
The main component of the solar system is the sun, which occupies 99.86% of the whole mass of the solar system. The four large giant bodies of the sun are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus; Neptune occupies 90% of the whole mass. Jupiter and Saturn comprising around 90% of the mass. And the remaining mass is of the terrestrial planets included. Most large bodies are in their orbits which are elliptic in shape.
Sun
The Sun is the star of the solar system. It is the bigger component of the solar system. It has a large mass, which is equal to 332,900 masses of the Earth. It comprises 99.86% of the whole solar system. So it’s that big we can’t even imagine how it looks like. It produces high temperatures to sustain nuclear fusion. The stars which are brighter and hotter than stars are rare, called red dwarfs; usually, stars are in low temperature.
Inner Solar System
The Inner solar system consists of terrestrial planets and the asteroid belt. These consist of metals and silicates. These are very closer to the sun relatively. The radius of this whole region is less than that of orbits between Jupiter and Saturn. They have very few or no moons, or we can say natural satellites. These planets have no rings around them as the outer planets have around them. These vastly consist of refractory minerals – silicates and metals. Silicates were formed in the crust and mantle of the planets, and metals – iron, nickel are formed in the core part of these planets.
Venus, Earth, and Mars have an atmosphere around them so that they can generate weather in those planets. These planets also have tectonic plates under them so that they have the possibility of natural hazards like volcano and earthquake.
Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet among all planets to the sun. The distance between the mercury and the sun is 0.4 AU. Mercury do not have any satellites. Its orbit around the sun takes just 87.97 days. The revolution of mercury is unique among all the planets. Its revolution around the sun is locked tidally in a 3:2 ratio of spin-orbit resonance. Its temperature varies from 100 K at night to 700 K during the days. The tilt of the mercury is also the smallest among all planets, which has a very little angle. Its orbital eccentricity is large among all the other planets.
Venus
Venus is the second most closer planet to the Sun. Venus’s orbit takes 224.7 days to complete one cycle around the sun. It is also called Earth’s sister planet. It has the densest atmosphere among the other three terrestrial planets. It consists of more than 96% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It is considered sacred to gods in many cultures. And it is used by writers and poets in many ways in a good sign. Venus, too has no satellites. It is the hottest planet. Its temperatures over 400 °C. This is due to the greenhouse gases that the atmosphere has.
Earth
Earth is the third closest planet from the sun. It’s the only astronomical object which gives life. Earth’s surface is filled with mostly land and water. The land is about 29%, and water is about 71% of the land of Earth. It has good layers of the atmosphere. The revolution cycle of Earth over the Sun takes 365.25 days to complete. It has a gravitational force that interacts with the objects in space. It has only one natural satellite, the moon, which is the largest of all satellites of all terrestrial planets of the solar system. It is 1 AU from the sun.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet of the solar system. This is also called the red planet. It has the name of romance god in roman. It is the terrestrial planet that has a thin layer of atmosphere. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. It has very similar days and seasons because of its rotational period. Many spacecraft explored mars’ planet. Mars can be seen easily by our naked eye in special occasions. It is 1.5 AU from the sun.
Asteroid Belt
Asteroids are the minor planets that are very less in size relative to the size of inner and outer planets. These, except larger asteroids, are classified as small solar system bodies. These consist of mainly rocky and metallic particles. These range from few meters to few hundreds of kilometers in size. Asteroids that are smaller than one meter are called meteoroids and micrometeoroids, depending on the size they are.
Ceres are the largest asteroid among all. It is also a dwarf planet as it has a big size. When it was discovered in 1801, it was considered a planet. It has a diameter of about 1000 km or some less. Asteroids in the asteroid belt are classified into asteroid groups and families. This is based on the asteroid orbital characteristics. Asteroid moons are the asteroids which orbit around other asteroid as they are natural satellites to them.
Outer Solar System
There are four outer planets in the outer solar system. These are sometimes called Jovian planets. These together make 99% of the mass of the solar system. If Jupiter and Saturn combined together, it will be 400 times the mass of the Earth. These contain gases like helium and hydrogen; hence they are said giant gases. But Uranus and Neptune have far less mass. They are only 20 times the mass of Earth when combined together. All these outer planets have rings around them.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the first in the outer planets. It is 5.2 AU from the sun. Its mass is equal to 2.5 times the mass of all planets together. It’s mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. It has 79 known satellites so far. The four largest include Ganymede, Callisto, Lo, and Europa. Pioneer 10 is the spacecraft that explored Jupiter. Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system, which is even larger than the planet mercury.
Saturn
Saturn is the second outer planet of the solar system. It is 9.5 AU from the sun. It is the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. The radius of Saturn is 9 times the radius of the Earth. It is named after the Roman god of wealth and agriculture. It also has a ring around it, but the special thing about it is it is made of ice particles. This has at least 82 moons, of which 53 are named officially. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and its the second-largest moon of the solar system, which is larger than the mercury planet.
Uranus
Uranus is the third outer planet of the solar system. It is a 19.2 AU distance from the sun. It is the lightest planet among outer planets. It’s named after the Greek god of the sky. Its core is much colder than that of the other giant planets. It also has a ring system. It has numerous satellites, 27 known satellites. Some of the large satellites of this planet are Titania, Oberon, and Miranda.
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun, which is farthest among all others. It is 30.1 AU distant from the sun. It is slightly smaller than the planet Uranus but more massive and denser. It has mass of 17 times the mass of the Earth. This planet takes around 164.8 years in Earth to complete one revolution around the sun. This is also composed of gases like helium and hydrogen though it also has a large amount of ices like water, ammonia, and methane. Neptune has 14 known satellites, and Triton is the largest among all.
These are the details of the solar system in detail and the planets present in it. I hope you understand everything correctly. If you feel anything confusing you can always invite to use the comment section so we can clear all of your doubts directly. For more interesting topics on science, movies, and many others just follow our site regularly – niabi. in.