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Monday 11th Rita+Kay, Single (Inspector)

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The Earth: one of the planets of the solar system...
https://link-springer-com.proxy.lib.ul.ie/article/10.1007/s12210-013-0275-8
Article on moons of the solar system...
https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.ul.ie/stable/pdf/1738368.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:afe2b7ed5a69813dbf5db3b66d87082a
Insite into planetary research...
http://tiny.cc/1jwg6y

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Something to get you creative...
https://www.canva.com/learn/25-ways-to-design-an-awesome-poster-and-create-a-buzz-for-your-next-event/
Look at the example underneath, try to reduce the text you have to a minimum. The poster on the right has too much writing which makes it look uninteresting!
Some more tips...
https://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/10-tips-for-perfect-poster-design/https://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/10-tips-for-perfect-poster-design/

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Hypothetical Planet in our solar system
""The announcement does not mean there is a new planet in our solar system. The existence of this distant world is only theoretical at this point and no direct observation of the object nicknamed "Planet X" have been made.""
Caltech Evidence, Research...
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-researchers-find-evidence-real-ninth-planet-49523

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Caltech researchers have found mathematical evidence suggesting there may be a "Planet X" deep in the solar system. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our Sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed "Planet Nine," could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune. It may take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the Sun.

The announcement does not mean there is a new planet in our solar system. The existence of this distant world is only theoretical at this point and no direct observation of the object nicknamed "Planet 9" have been made. The mathematical prediction of a planet could explain the unique orbits of some smaller objects in the Kuiper Belt, a distant region of icy debris that extends far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Astronomers are now searching for the predicted planet.

In Depth

In January 2015, Caltech astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown announced new research that provides evidence of a giant planet tracing an unusual, elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The prediction is based on detailed mathematical modeling and computer simulations, not direct observation.

This large object could explain the unique orbits of at least five smaller objects discovered in the distant Kuiper Belt.

"The possibility of a new planet is certainly an exciting one for me as a planetary scientist and for all of us," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "This is not, however, the detection or discovery of a new planet. It's too early to say with certainty there's a so-called Planet X. What we're seeing is an early prediction based on modeling from limited observations. It's the start of a process that could lead to an exciting result."

The Caltech scientists believe Planet X may have has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and be similar in size to Uranus or Neptune. The predicted orbit is about 20 times farther from our Sun on average than Neptune (which orbits the Sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). It would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the Sun (where Neptune completes an orbit roughly every 165 years).

When was it Discovered?

Planet X has not yet been discovered, and there is debate in the scientific community about whether it exists. The prediction in the Jan. 20 issue of the Astronomical Journal is based on mathematical modeling.

What is its Name?

Batygin and Brown nicknamed their predicted object "Planet Nine," but the actual naming rights of an object go to the person who actually discovers it. The name used during previous hunts for the long suspected giant, undiscovered object beyond Neptune is "Planet X."

If the predicted world is found, the name must be approved by the International Astronomical Union. Planets are traditionally named for mythological Roman gods.

Why Do They Think It's There?

Astronomers studying the Kuiper Belt have noticed some of the dwarf planets and other small, icy objects tend to follow orbits that cluster together. By analyzing these orbits, the Caltech team predicted the possibility that a large, previously undiscovered planet may be hiding far beyond Pluto.

They estimate the gravity of this potential planet might explain the unusual orbits of those Kuiper objects.

What's Next?

Astronomers, including Batygin and Brown, will begin using the world's most powerful telescopes to search for the object in its predicted orbit. Any object that far away from the Sun will be very faint and hard to detect, but astronomers calculate that it should be possible to see it using existing telescopes.

"I would love to find it," says Brown. "But I'd also be perfectly happy if someone else found it. That is why we're publishing this paper. We hope that other people are going to get inspired and start searching."

"Anytime we have an interesting idea like this, we always apply Carl Sagan's rules for critical thinking, which include independent confirmation of the facts, looking for alternate explanations, and encouraging scientific debate," said Green. "If Planet X is out there, we'll find it together. Or we'll determine an alternate explanation for the data that we've received so far.

"Now let's go explore."

Sources

Fesenmaier, Kimm, "Caltech Researchers Find Evidence of a Real Ninth Planet," press release, last modified January 20, 2015

Konstantin Batygin and Michael E. Brown, "Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System," The Astronomical Journal

Green, James, "A New Planet in our Solar System? NASA Takes a Look," video statement, last modified January 20, 2015

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Caltech researchers have found mathematical evidence suggesting there may be a "Planet X" deep in the solar system. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our Sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed "Planet Nine," could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune.

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more research looking at the amount of moons in our solar system...
https://www.universetoday.com/15516/how-many-moons-are-in-the-solar-system/
Article on moons of the solar system...
https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.ul.ie/stable/pdf/1738368.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Aafe2b7ed5a69813dbf5db3b66d87082a
Further information on moons and their distribution...
https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/distribution-of-moons-in-the-solar-system-2329-6542-1000120.php?aid=65162

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There are currently 174 named moons in our Solar System, orbiting the six outermost planets, with more being discovered and debated every day. Some are more fascinating than others, whether it's their landscapes, features, orbits or environments - so we ranked our top 20 most interesting moons, because, well, why not...

1

Dactyl - The Alternative Moon

Orbits: Asteroid 243 Ida

Discovered in 1995 by the Galileo probe, this moon is less than a mile in diameter and is the natural satellite to the asteroid Ida, a Koronis asteroid located in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Before this, scientists had no evidence that asteroids could have moons, but since its discovery a further 24 have been found to orbit them.

The origin of the unorthodox moon is debated, and could either be from the asteroid itself, or a captured object.

2

Charon - Pluto's Other Half

Orbits: Pluto

A perhaps controversial decision to select a moon of an ex-planet, but an interesting moon all the same!

At half the size of Pluto, the pair are often referred to as a double dwarf planet system, particularly as they orbit around a central point in space as opposed to Pluto being the centre of orbit.

The moon was discovered when the Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Pluto looking more elongated than its usual spherical shape.

Its name comes from the mythological ferryman who used to carry souls across to the realm of the dead, requiring a coin to allow the dead to proceed to the underworld. The New Horizons spacecraft symbolically carried a Florida state quarter to pay the ferryman, as it passed by Charon and Pluto in 2015.

Orbits: Saturn

Similar to Pan, Saturn's other innermost moon, Atlas has an equatorial ridge giving the moon its distinctive flying saucer shape. With an average radius of 15 km, the small moon Atlas was discovered in 1980 using images from the Voyager 1 probe during its flyby of Saturn.

Its close proximity to Saturn means it completes one orbit of its mother planet in just 14.4 hours.

4

Hyperion - The Space Sponge

Orbits: Saturn

Hyperion is an irregular shaped moon, in that it is not spherical, and is likely a fragment of a much larger, ancient moon destroyed from an impact in the early Solar System.

The moon has a very low density, nearly half that of water, and alongside its deeply cratered surface, gives Hyperion its porous, spongy appearance. The craters remain as it is one of Saturn's outermost moons, experiencing almost no tidal forces, which would slowly fill these deeply excavated impact craters.

5

Mimas - That's No Moon...

Orbits: Saturn

The resemblance of Saturn's moon Mimas to an iconic moon-shaped fictional space station is largely the fault of a giant impact crater that covers a third of its diameter.

The crater measures 130 km across with a 5 km surrounding walls is known as the Herschel Crater, after William Herschel who spotted the moon in 1789. The body that struck the moon almost ripped it apart, as evidenced by the fractures on the opposite face of Mimas. The moon is littered with craters, showing a lack of surface replenishment despite its close proximity to Saturn and elliptical orbit, which should provide enough heat through gravitational tidal activity.

Mimas is also tidally locked, with the same face towards Saturn throughout its 22.5 hour orbit of the planet. Mimas also disrupts the orbits of much smaller moons, and speeds up when passing the large moons Enceladus and Dione.

Oh, and if you haven't worked it out by now, the moon looks like the Death Star from Star Wars.

6

Iapetus - A Tale of Two Faces

Orbits: Saturn

Iapetus is tidally locked to Saturn (the same side is always facing the planet), despite the distance from its mother planet. This made Iapetus difficult to spot, as it mysteriously became brighter and fainter as it completed its orbit of Saturn. In 1671, Cassini observed this difference and correctly predicted that the moon had two faces, one bright, and one impossibly dark.

There are few explanations for the dark side of the moon, involving volcanic eruptions of hydrocarbons darkened by chemical reactions initiated by solar radiation, or that the moon is collecting particles from a nearby dark moon, Phoebe.

The most likely responsible process was postulated after a Cassini probe flyby in 2007, thermal segregation, where the darker particles absorb more heat from the Sun, so any brighter volatiles within this region sublime out, and move to the cooler, brighter side, while the dark side becomes even darker.

The yin and yang moon also features an equatorial ridge, rising 13 km above the surface, like a walnut.

7

Pan - The Ring Sculptor

Orbits: Saturn

This small moon was first discovered by the Voyager 2 probe in 1990 after capturing an image of the innermost rings, featuring the tiny speck of Pan (14 km in diameter) in the 325 km wide Encke Gap.

The saucer shape moon influences the particles in the ring system, by producing kinks known as wakes. When the fast moving particles pass Pan, the moon gives them a gravitational 'kick', and they bunch up to produce the waves that can extend many hundreds of miles into the rings.

Orbits: Neptune

Neptune's Nereid possesses the most eccentric orbit of any moon in our Solar System, taking 360 Earth-days to orbit the planet. As one of the outermost moons, Nereid can be as close as 841,100 km away and as far out as 5,980,200 km away during its extreme elongated elliptical orbit.

This strange orbit has lead astronomers to believe that the moon is a captured object from the Kuiper Belt, a region of icy bodies beyond Neptune ranging from a trillion comet sized objects to those larger than 100 km in diameter (including Pluto).

9

Callisto - The Solar System's Pin Cushion

Orbits: Jupiter

After being one of four moons discovered orbiting a different planet to Earth in 1610 by Galileo, Callisto provided understanding into the workings of the Solar System, and how the Sun is at its centre, rather than the Earth.

It is the outermost Jovian moon, and has been constantly battered by asteroid impacts making it the most cratered body in our Solar System.

Due to a lack of geologic activity, the moon is unable to replenish its surface, displaying craters as old as 4 billion years - making Callisto the oldest landscape in the Solar System.

10

Phobos - On Course for Trouble

Orbits: Mars

Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons, and is irregular, non-spherical in shape measuring 27x22x18 km. The moon orbits so close to its parent planet that it completes three orbits in one day!

Its most noticeable feature is the Stickney crater, 9.7 km across, left behind from an impact that nearly shattered the moon. Constant bombardment of meteors has left the surface covered in a fine dust.

At first glance, Phobos seems like an uninteresting object in the sky over Mars, but has a catastrophic future ahead, and it's this eventual demise that gets Phobos onto our top 20 list of interesting moons.

The moon is gradually getting closer to the Red Planet at a rate of 1.8 m every hundred years, and the two will ultimately collide in 50 million years. Alternatively, the moon will be broken down by impacts, forming a fine dusty ring around its parent planet.

11

Ganymede - The King of the Moons

Orbits: Jupiter

The Jovian moon is the largest in the Solar System, and even larger than the first planet in our system, Mercury - it would definitely be given planetary status if it orbited the Sun directly. The icy-rock surface has both craters and grooves, and a molten core, which allows it to possess its own magnetosphere within that of Jupiter.

In 1996, the Hubble Telescope detected a thin atmosphere surrounding the moon, containing oxygen. However, its far too thin to support life - at least that we know of.

12

Miranda - Frankenstein's Moon

Orbits: Uranus

At 500 km in diameter, the small moon was unlikely to exhibit any tectonic activity, yet Miranda's surface is littered with canyons, 12 times as deep as Earth's Grand Canyon. Miranda's surface can be divided into separate regions with differing levels of features, from smooth to cratered, and was first imaged during the Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986 - the closest object in the probe's trajectory.

The possibility for the moon's mismatched surface is that the moon had been previously destroyed in an impact event in the early Uranian system, and then reaggregated due to the gravitational attraction of the large fragments.

13

Epimetheus and Janus - The Twins

Orbits: Saturn

This may appear as cheating to choose two moons, but these irregular rocky bodies were originally combined as one moon in an earlier Saturn system, and when discovered, were thought to be the same object.

The interesting feature of this pair is their co-orbital condition, as they follow the same path around Saturn, but one is 50 km further from the planet. This means the inner moon travels slightly faster around the planet, and catches up to the outer moon every four years. At this point, the gravitational influence on one another causes the moons to essentially swap places, so the outer becomes the inner and vice versa.

They are located in a faint dusty ring of Saturn, which was likely produced by the material ejected after meteor impacts on both Janus and Epimetheus.

14

Triton - A Volcanic Space Melon

Orbits: Neptune

Triton is likely a captured Kuiper Belt object, held in orbit by the strong gravitational pull of Neptune. The moon possesses a thin atmosphere, with abundances of nitrogen and methane, produced through volcanic activity at its surface.

When Voyager 2 passed by Triton in 1989, erupting geysers were an unexpected feature on the cold, scaly 'cantaloupe' moon. The surprising trait was revealed through images taken of the southern pink cap, showing dark streaks left behind on the surface from the carbonaceous plumes. It is one of the few volcanically active bodies in our Solar System, despite its 4.5 billion km distance from the Sun.

It still remains one of the coldest places, with most of the nitrogen existing as a frost, which gives the moon its highly reflective surface.

15

Titan - A Terrain fit for Tolkien

Orbits: Saturn

At only two per cent smaller than Ganymede, Titan is the second largest moon in our Solar System. It is the only moon known to exhibit a thick atmosphere, dense enough that the solid core of the planet is completely obscured by the nitrogen and methane clouds. UV radiation from the Sun also initiates reactions to occur between these gases, producing many different organic molecules, existing as trace abundances in Titan's atmosphere.

The Cassini probe revealed lakes and rivers of ethane and methane, which are filled by the rains from the orange clouds, as well as dark sand-like dunes comprised of hydrocarbon grains. Any volcanic activity is likely to produce water instead of the molten rock as we know here on Earth. Mountains on the surface of Titan are named after those found in JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth.

16

Io - The Moon with a Fiery Attitude

Orbits: Jupiter

As the most volcanic body in our Solar System, Io is Jupiter's third largest moon. The supply of heat is caused by its elliptical orbit, forced to follow this path by the larger moons Ganymede and Europa, and that the same side of the moon is always facing the planet. This produces incredible tidal forces due to the changing gravitational pull on Io, causing its solid surface to bulge out by as much as 100m.

As a result, the subsurface of the moon is almost entirely molten, with its volcanoes erupting matter as high as 190 miles into the atmosphere, filling any impact craters to form lava lakes and liquid rock floodplains. Io is continuously replenishing its surface, the composition of which is currently debated between the heat withstanding silicon, and the colour varying sulphur.

17

Rhea - Put a Ring on it

Orbits: Saturn

A desolate landscape, with temperatures plummeting to -220 degrees Celsius in the shade, cratered and grey. Rhea was expected to be just another moon comprised of rock and ice - but that was until the Voyager and Cassini space probes arrived.

In 1980, The Voyager probe's images depicted Rhea's craters and brighter canyons of exposed ice. Then Cassini arrived in 2008, finding evidence of ring structures orbiting Rhea, the first time this property was observed for a moon. The discoveries continued in 2010, when Cassini detected a thin atmosphere containing oxygen and carbon dioxide surrounding the moon - the first time oxygen had been directly collected by a space probe. The oxygen arises from energetic particles in the surface ice reacting and decomposing to release the gas into the atmosphere, a process that occurs when Rhea passes through Saturn's magnetosphere. In the distant future of Rhea, the increased levels of oxygen in the atmosphere could drive more complex chemistry to occur on the surface on the moon.

18

Europa - The Solar System's Cue Ball

Orbits: Jupiter

Only fractionally smaller than our Moon ( Updated: not planet Earth as we originally stated), the icy Jovian moon has many curious features of interest, which are stimulating plans for future space probe missions. Almost entirely free of craters, the moon is possibly the smoothest object in the Solar System, smoother than a snooker ball.

The 62 mile thick surface is fractured with intersecting red-brown deposits of an unknown material, which obscures the possible presence of an ocean below. The existence of water, combined with the warmth and tides caused by Jupiter's gravitational pull, has inspired thoughts that these oceans could harbour early life. In 2013, NASA announced that Europa could be erupting water into space after viewing images from the Hubble Telescope. This indicates that the core could be geologically active, and produce vents underwater also, which would provide vital nutrients to the organisms that may thrive here.

19

The Moon - The One and Only

Orbits: Earth

No list of interesting moons would be complete without the original wonder of the night sky, our Moon. It is often said that we know more about its surface than our planet's oceans.

Our moon is the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System and remains the only place outside of Earth where humans have set foot. Observed by all life on our planet for millennia, the Moon was a mysterious cratered object, inspiring many myths and legends, and is of great importance to many cultures, with Solar and Lunar eclipses being symbolic to their beliefs.

The Moon is also vital for our planet to maintain life. It moderates our planet's axis wobble, causing a more stable climate and creates the Earth's natural rhythm, the tides of our oceans.

Our Moon surface shows both light and dark areas (known as highlands and maria respectively), with different compositions and ages, suggesting that the early moon had a molten crust that crystallised to form the lunar landscape we observe today. The craters, as well as the footprints of astronauts, will be preserved for billions of years, as the Moon doesn't replenish its surface as others do throughout the Solar System. The Moon does have a very thin atmosphere, known as an exosphere, but is not enough to defend it from the Sun's radiation or meteor impacts, unlike our own protective atmosphere. The accepted theory of the Moon's formation is that a Mars-sized body (named Theia) collided with our planet, approximately 4.5 billion years ago. Without this catastrophic event, often called the Giant-Impact Hypothesis or the Theia Impact, our planet would otherwise likely be uninhabitable.

Since being visited by ourselves and robots, the Moon has revealed no evidence to suggest life could exist there, yet is always fantasised as the site for future human colonisation and as a launch pad to beyond the stars.

20

Enceladus - The Exciting Possibility

Orbits: Saturn

Enceladus is one of the brightest objects in our Solar System, as its water ice surface reflects almost 100 per cent of the Sun's light - but this physical characteristic isn't what makes it one of the most thrilling places in our Solar System.

The icy moon is often described as the most scientifically compelling place in our Solar System, and rightly so, as it has the most promising conditions for harbouring life outside of our planet.

In 2005, the Cassini probe discovered an incredibly exciting feature of the moon - ice geysers. The plumes from the geysers include ice particles, as well as gaseous water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and nitrogen. These eruptions replenish the surface with new ice, as well as provide the icy material to Saturn's E-ring. Water vapour is heavily located above a geothermal feature on its surface known as the 'Tiger Stripes', deep crevasses in the otherwise smooth moon. The source of heat is likely provided through tidal forces, warming the core of the planet and causing the geological activity.

The moon is also hiding an important secret - a global-sized ocean of water, as evidenced by the wobble in its orbit, which can only be caused by a liquid interior. The factors of internal heat, chemistry and oceanic presence lead Enceladus to its great potential of the existence of life.

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20 of the most amazing moons in the Solar System

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There are currently 174 named moons in our Solar System, orbiting the six outermost planets, with more being discovered and debated every day. Some are more fascinating than others, whether it's their landscapes, features, orbits or environments - so we ranked our top 20 most interesting moons, because, well, why not...

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/pluto/in-depth/
The numbers! comparing Pluto to Earth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/dwarf-planets/pluto/by-the-numbers/
Why is Pluto NOT a planet?
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33462184
According to the latest definition of a planet and therefore its classification, Pluto meets the first to requirements but not the 3rd and last one (Clearing its orbit of other celestial bodies.

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Overview Pluto is a complex and mysterious world with mountains, valleys, plains, craters, and apparently even glaciers. Discovered in 1930, Pluto was long considered our solar system's ninth planet. But after the discovery that many similar, intriguing worlds inhabit the distant region beyond Neptune known as the Kuiper Belt, icy Pluto was reclassified as a [...]

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/in-depth/
The numbers! Comparing Earth and Neptune...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/by-the-numbers/

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Planet Neptune Overview Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant major planet orbiting our Sun. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is not visible to the naked eye. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery.

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Go further, in depth,,,
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/uranus/in-depth/
The numbers! comparing Earth and Uranus...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/uranus/by-the-numbers/

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Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, and has the third-largest diameter in our solar system. It was the first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star.

It was two years later that the object was universally accepted as a new planet, in part because of observations by astronomer Johann Elert Bode. Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead, the scientific community accepted Bode's suggestion to name it Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, as suggested by Bode.​

Go Farther

Everything you need to know about Uranus.

Uranus In Depth

Ten Things to Know About Uranus
Pop Culture

Uranus is the source of more than a few jokes and witty (and not so witty) puns, but the ice giant and its moons has been a serious destination various fictional stories, and on TV shows such as "Doctor Who." The radioactive element uranium was named after Uranus when it was discovered in 1789, just eight years after the planet was discovered.

Read More

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The seventh planet from the sun with the third largest diameter in our solar system, Uranus is very cold and windy.

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/in-depth/
The numbers! Comparing Earth and Saturn...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/by-the-numbers/

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Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Adorned with a dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn is unique among the planets.

It is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn's. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium.

The farthest planet from Earth discovered by the unaided human eye, Saturn has been known since ancient times. The planet is named for the Roman god of agriculture and wealth, who was also the father of Jupiter.

Perhaps the most iconic of all the planets in our solar system, Saturn is heavily present in pop culture.

It provides a backdrop for numerous science fiction stories, movies, and TV shows, comics, and video games, including the "Cthulhu Mythos," "WALL-E," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Star Trek." In Tim Burton's film "Beetlejuice," a dusty, fictional Saturn is populated by giant sandworms. And in the 2014 movie "Interstellar," the wormhole that enables the astronauts to travel to another galaxy appears near Saturn.

Saturn is also the namesake of Saturday, arguably the best day of the week.​

Discover More Topics From NASA

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Planet Saturn Overview Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Adorned with a dazzling system of icy rings, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings, but none are as spectacular or as complex as Saturn's.

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/in-depth/
The numbers! Comparing Earth and Jupiter...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/by-the-numbers/

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Jupiter is the fifth planet from our Sun and is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system - more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined.

Jupiter's stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.

Jupiter is named for the king of the ancient Roman gods.​

The biggest planet in our solar system has a large presence in pop culture, including many movies, TV shows, video games, and comics. Jupiter and its moons were notable destinations in "The Expanse" series, while various Jovian moons provide settings for "Cloud Atlas," "Futurama," "Power Rangers," and "Halo," among many others. In the movie "Men in Black" when Agent J - played by Will Smith - mentions he thought one of his childhood teachers was from Venus, Agent K - played by Tommy Lee Jones - replies that she is actually from one of Jupiter's moons.

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Jupiter is the fifth planet from our Sun and is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system - more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Its iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth, and has raged for hundreds of years.

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/in-depth/
The Numbers! Comparing Earth and Mars...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/by-the-numbers/

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Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere.

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Go further, in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/in-depth/
The numbers! Comparing Earth and Venus...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/by-the-numbers/

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Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is Earth's closest planetary neighbor. It's one of the four inner, terrestrial (or rocky) planets, and it's often called Earth's twin because it's similar in size and density. These are not identical twins, however - there are radical differences between the two worlds.

Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide and it's perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of sulfuric acid that trap heat, causing a runaway greenhouse effect. It's the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. Surface temperatures on Venus are about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius) - hot enough to melt lead. The surface is a rusty color and it's peppered with intensely crunched mountains and thousands of large volcanoes. Scientists think it's possible some volcanoes are still active.

Venus has crushing air pressure at its surface - more than 90 times that of Earth - similar to the pressure you'd encounter a mile below the ocean on Earth.

Another big difference from Earth - Venus rotates on its axis backward, compared to most of the other planets in the solar system. This means that, on Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east, opposite to what we experience on Earth. (It's not the only planet in our solar system with such an oddball rotation - Uranus spins on its side.)

Venus was the first planet to be explored by a spacecraft - NASA's Mariner 2 successfully flew by and scanned the cloud-covered world on Dec. 14, 1962. Since then, numerous spacecraft from the U.S. and other space agencies have explored Venus, including NASA's Magellan, which mapped the planet's surface with radar. Soviet spacecraft made the most successful landings on the surface of Venus to date, but they didn't survive long due to the extreme heat and crushing pressure. An American probe, one of NASA's Pioneer Venus Multiprobes, survived for about an hour after impacting the surface in 1978.

More recent Venus missions include ESA's Venus Express (which orbited from 2006 until 2016) and Japan's Akatsuki Venus Climate Orbiter (orbiting since 2016).

NASA's Parker Solar Probe has made multiple flybys of Venus. On Feb. 9, 2022, NASA announced the spacecraft had captured its f irst visible light images of the surface of Venus from space during its February 2021 flyby.

As Parker Solar Probe flew by Venus in February 2021, its WISPR instrument captured these images, strung into a video, showing the nightside surface of the planet. Credit: NASA/APL/NRL

In June 2021, three new missions to Venus were announced. NASA announced two new missions, and ESA announced one:

VERITAS: NASA's VERITAS, or Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy, will be the first NASA spacecraft to explore Venus since the 1990s. The spacecraft will launch no earlier than December 2027. It will orbit Venus, gathering data to reveal how the paths of Venus and Earth diverged, and how Venus lost its potential to be a habitable world.

DAVINCI: NASA's DAVINCI mission will launch in the late 2020s. After exploring the top of Venus's atmosphere, DAVINCI will drop a probe to the surface. On its hour-long descent, the probe will take thousands of measurements and snap up-close images of the surface. The probe may not survive the landing, but if it does, it could provide several minutes of bonus science.

EnVision: ESA has selected EnVision to make detailed observations of Venus. As a key partner in the mission, NASA is providing the Synthetic Aperture Radar, called VenSAR, to make high-resolution measurements of the planet's surface features.

Go Farther

Everything you need to know about Venus.

Venus In Depth

Ten Things to Know About Venus
Pop Culture

Because it's so bright and easy to see in the sky, Venus has played a role in popular culture since ancient times, inspiring writing and song:

It was called the most beautiful star in the sky by Homer, author of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" - two of the oldest and most important works in Greek literature.

More recently, Venus became a popular venue for 20th-century science fiction writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs ("Pirates of Venus," 1934); Arthur C. Clarke ("Before Eden," 1961); and C.S. Lewis ("Perelandra," 1943).

Australian author Shirley Hazzard won the 1980 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction with her book, "The Transit of Venus," about two orphaned sisters. American author John Gray used the planet and its masculine counterpart to explain relationships in his 1992 book "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus."

A song called "Venus" was teen idol Frankie Avalon's first No. 1 hit when it topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1959. A decade later, a different song called "Venus" by the Dutch rock band Shocking Blue topped the charts in several countries. In 1986, British pop group Bananarama had a No. 1 hit in the U.S. with their cover of the song.

More recently, Venus has been a backdrop for video games such as Transhuman Space, Battlezone, and Destiny. And in the Disney animated film "The Princess and the Frog," Ray the firefly falls in love with Venus, "the evening star," as he has mistaken it for another firefly.

Kid-Friendly Venus

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Venus is the second planet from the sun and our closest planetary neighbor.

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E&S: 1, 2, 8
NOS: 1, 3, 4, 7, 10
PW: 2, 3

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Interpret data to compare the Earth with other planets and moons in the solar system, with respect to properties including mass, gravity, size, and composition

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National Geographic
Photograph courtesy NASA
Additional resources...
1.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/
2.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/in-depth/
3.https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/exploration/

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Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only place in the known universe confirmed to host life.

With a radius of 3,959 miles, Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, and it's the only one known for sure to have liquid water on its surface. Earth is also unique in terms of monikers. Every other solar system planet was named for a Greek or Roman deity, but for at least a thousand years, some cultures have described our world using the Germanic word "earth," which means simply "the ground."

Our dance around the sun

Earth orbits the sun once every 365.25 days. Since our calendar years have only 365 days, we add an extra leap day every four years to account for the difference.

Though we can't feel it, Earth zooms through its orbit at an average velocity of 18.5 miles a second. During this circuit, our planet is an average of 93 million miles away from the sun, a distance that takes light about eight minutes to traverse. Astronomers define this distance as one astronomical unit (AU), a measure that serves as a handy cosmic yardstick.

Earth rotates on its axis every 23.9 hours, defining day and night for surface dwellers. This axis of rotation is tilted 23.4 degrees away from the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun, giving us seasons. Whichever hemisphere is tilted closer to the sun experiences summer, while the hemisphere tilted away gets winter. In the spring and fall, each hemisphere receives similar amounts of light. On two specific dates each year-called the equinoxes-both hemispheres get illuminated equally.

Many layers, many features

About 4.5 billion years ago, gravity coaxed Earth to form from the gaseous, dusty disk that surrounded our young sun. Over time, Earth's interior-which is made mostly of silicate rocks and metals-differentiated into four layers.

At the planet's heart lies the inner core, a solid sphere of iron and nickel that's 759 miles wide and as hot as 9,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The inner core is surrounded by the outer core, a 1,400-mile-thick band of iron and nickel fluids. Beyond the outer core lies the mantle, a 1,800-mile-thick layer of viscous molten rock on which Earth's outermost layer, the crust, rests. On land, the continental crust is an average of 19 miles thick, but the oceanic crust that forms the seafloor is thinner-about three miles thick-and denser.

Like Venus and Mars, Earth has mountains, valleys, and volcanoes. But unlike its rocky siblings, almost 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered in oceans of liquid water that average 2.5 miles deep. These bodies of water contain 97 percent of Earth's volcanoes and the mid-ocean ridge, a massive mountain range more than 40,000 miles long.

Earth's crust and upper mantle are divided into massive plates that grind against each other in slow motion. As these plates collide, tear apart, or slide past each other, they give rise to our very active geology. Earthquakes rumble as these plates snag and slip past each other. Many volcanoes form as seafloor crust smashes into and slides beneath continental crust. When plates of continental crust collide, mountain ranges such as the Himalaya are pushed toward the skies.

Protective fields and gases

Earth's atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and one percent other gases such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, and argon. Much like a greenhouse, this blanket of gases absorbs and retains heat. On average, Earth's surface temperature is about 57 degrees Fahrenheit; without our atmosphere, it'd be zero degrees. In the last two centuries, humans have added enough greenhouse gases to the atmosphere to raise Earth's average temperature by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. This extra heat has altered Earth's weather patterns in many ways.

The atmosphere not only nourishes life on Earth, but it also protects it: It's thick enough that many meteorites burn up before impact from friction, and its gases-such as ozone-block DNA-damaging ultraviolet light from reaching the surface. But for all that our atmosphere does, it's surprisingly thin. Ninety percent of Earth's atmosphere lies within just 10 miles of the planet's surface.

We also enjoy protection from Earth's magnetic field, generated by our planet's rotation and its iron-nickel core. This teardrop-shaped field shields Earth from high-energy particles launched at us from the sun and elsewhere in the cosmos. But due to the field's structure, some particles get funneled to Earth's Poles and collide with our atmosphere, yielding aurorae, the natural fireworks show known by some as the northern lights.

Spaceship Earth

Earth is the planet we have the best opportunity to understand in detail-helping us see how other rocky planets behave, even those orbiting distant stars. As a result, scientists are increasingly monitoring Earth from space. NASA alone has dozens of missions dedicated to solving our planet's mysteries.

At the same time, telescopes are gazing outward to find other Earths. Thanks to instruments such as NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have found more than 3,800 planets orbiting other stars, some of which are about the size of Earth, and a handful of which orbit in the zones around their stars that are just the right temperature to be potentially habitable. Other missions, such as the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, are poised to find even more.

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Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third planet from the sun, Earth is the only place in the known universe confirmed to host life. With a radius of 3,959 miles, Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system, and it's the only one known for sure to have liquid water on its surface.

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This can be used to unpack the learning outcome

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Go further, Explore Mercury in depth...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/in-depth/
The Numbers! Comparing Earth to Venus...
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/by-the-numbers/

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Planet Mercury Overview Mercury-the smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun-is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon. Its surface is covered in tens of thousands of impact craters. From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth, and [...]

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Spin, Gravity and Composition
NASA

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A Closer Look at Mercury’s Spin and Gravity Reveals the Planet’s Inner Solid Core - NASA

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NASA Scientists found evidence that Mercury’s inner core is indeed solid and that it is very nearly the same size as Earth’s inner core.

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Link to the origin of the picture...
https://www.solarsystemquick.com/earth.htm

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Link to origin of the picture...
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/geophysical/chapter/the-composition-and-structure-of-earth/