Facts about the Universe - Page 2

Zirwaan Khan · #11 Friday, October 12, 2007

NEPTUNE

For 20 years Neptune comes farther from the Sun than Pluto becase Pluto's orbit is elliptical.

Neptune's moons, Triton orbits the planet backwards!
It goes around Neptune the opposite way that moons usually do.

The blue-green colour of Nuptune is due to the methane in the planet's atmosphere.

Neptune was named after Neptune(the Roman God for sea.)

The length of year on Neptune is 164 Earth years.
So if you were living on Neptune you would celebrate your birthday once in 164 years.

The average temperature on Neptune is -330 degrees Fahrenheit. COLD!!!

Neptune has 11 moons out of which 3 were announced quite late in January 2003.

Jupiter's moon Triton islarger than Pluto.

Some Astronomers are of the view that Neptune may have captured Triton in recent past.

Neptune's atmosphere is composed chiefly of hydrocarbon compounds.

Zirwaan Khan · #12 Saturday, October 13, 2007

PLUTO

Pluto is so small that it is only about half the width of the United States.
This is the reason why some scientists call it " The Dwarf Planet "

Pluto and its moon, Charon are locked so that they always face each other with the same side.

A radio signal from Pluto will take more than five hours to rach Earth.

Pluto is smaller than seven sattelites of the Solar System, including the Moon.

If you lived on Pluto, you had have to live 248 Earth years to celebrate your first birthday in Pluto-years.

If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh only 7 pounds on the planet Pluto!

A Pluto's moon Charon is about half the size of Pluto. Charon is the largest moon compared to its planet of any moon in the solar system.

Zirwaan Khan · #13 Tuesday, October 16, 2007

URANUS

The Planet Uranus was discovered on March 13, 1781, by Sir William Herschel.
He noticed that it was moving slowly through the constellation Gemini.

Seasons of Uranus are extreme: when the Sun rises at its north pole, it stays up for 42 Earth years; then it sets and the north pole is in darkness for 42 Earth years.

Uranus has 15 moons.

A year on Uranus would last 84 years.

Since it was the first new planet found, Herschel had the honor of naming it so Herschel's Planet became Georgium Sidus (George's Star) after King George III of England. After the astronomer's death the planet was changed to Uranus as suggested by German astronomer Johann Bode. He thought that since Saturn was Jupiter's father then the next outward planet should be called Saturn's father, Uranus. Uranus is the only planet called by a Greek name rather than a Roman name, however, most of the moons of the various planets are named from Greek mythology.

A bizarre feature is how far over Uranus is tipped. Its north pole -- representing the planet's axis of rotation -- lies 98 degrees from being directly up and down to its orbit plane, which means the planet is essentially on its side in relation to the Sun. Thus, its seasons are extreme: when the Sun rises at its north pole, it stays up for 42 Earth years; then it sets and the north pole is in darkness for 42 Earth years.

Zirwaan Khan · #14 Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Moon

The time moon takes to spin once around on its own axis—takes the same amount of time as the moon takes to complete one orbit of the Earth, about 27.3 days. This means the moon's rotation is synchronized in a way that causes the moon to show the same face to the Earth at all times. One hemisphere always faces us, while the other always faces away. The lunar far side or the dark side has been photographed only from spacecraft.

As you read this, the Moon is moving away from us. Each year, the Moon steals some of Earth's rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed, the Moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It's now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.

High tides on Earth are caused by the moon's gravity.

Our moon is bigger than Pluto.

Although the moon is one-fourth the width of the Earth, it would take 81 moons to make up the same mass as our planet.

By measuring the ages of lunar rocks, we know that the moon is about 4.6 billion years old, or about the same age as Earth

Zirwaan Khan · #15 Saturday, October 20, 2007

Stars

A supernova is an exploding star.
Supernovas contain at least thirty times more mass than the sun does.

One kind of star is a pulsar. A pulsar is a fast spinning and
espcially dense star that sends out radio pulse creating black holes.

One of the stars in the Big Dipper, named Mizar, has another star revolving around it. Each of those two stars have another star revolving around it, and Mizar and it's companion star each have another star revolving around them. So, what looks like a single star is actually 6 stars.

Stars vary alot in sizes. Supergiant stars range from 100 to 1000 times the diameter of the sun and giants range from 10 to 100 times the diameter of the sun. Dwarf stars can be 1000 times smaller than the sun.

The color of a star is due to its temperature.

Blue-White stars have temperature of atleast 36,000° F.

Zirwaan Khan · #16 Sunday, October 21, 2007

Galaxies

By definition galaxies are a large aggregation of stars, gas, and dust, typically containing billions of stars.

Recognition that galaxies are independent star systems outside the Milky Way came from a study of the Andromeda Galaxy (1926—29) by Edwin P. Hubble that indicated the great distances at which this and other galaxies are located. Previously, the galaxies had been classified with the luminous gas clouds, or bright nebulae, within the Milky Way.

The sun and its solar system, as well as the visible stars, are all in our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy.

Billions of galaxies are within the optical range of the largest telescopes; in 1996 analysis of photographs taken from the Hubble Space Telescope increased the estimated number of galaxies from 10 billion to 50 billion.

A galaxy is held together by the gravitational attraction between its constituent parts, while its rotational motion prevents it from collapsing on itself.

Many large galaxies have smaller galaxies, called satellite galaxies, in close proximity.

A typical spiral galaxy is shaped like a flat disk, about 100,000 light-years in diameter, with a central bulge, or nucleus, containing old stars; winding through the disk are the characteristic spiral arms of dust, gas, and young stars. This type of galaxy is further classified as being either a normal or a barred spiral.

The elliptical galaxies, lacking spiral arms entirely and containing little or no gas and dust, resemble the nuclei of spiral galaxies. Their shapes vary from nearly spherical to highly flattened ellipsoids.

Spiral galaxies contain a larger number of bluer, younger stars, while elliptical galaxies contain a larger number of redder, older stars.

Many galaxies radiate a large fraction of their energy in forms other than visible light.

The Milky Way's nearest large galactic neighbor is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is wider and possibly brighter than our Milky Way.

A galaxy might contain a million solar systems like ours.

The milky way got its name from the way it makes a white path through the night sky (billions of distant stars packed close together make it look uniformly white).

Zirwaan Khan · #17 Sunday, October 21, 2007

1.Smallest Planet....................................Pluto
2.Coldest Planet.....................................Pluto
3.Lightest Planet....................................Pluto
4.Farthest Planet...................................Pluto
5.Faintest Planet...................................Pluto
6.Slowest Revolving Planet......................Pluto
7.Planet with eccentric orbit..................Pluto
8.Biggest Planet....................................Jupiter
9.Heaviest Planet...................................Jupiter
10.Planet with shortest day time...............Jupiter
11.Hottest Planet...................................Venus
12.Brightest Planet..................................Venus
13.Planet with longest day time.................Venus
14.Slowest Rotating Planet.......................Venus
15.Planet known as Morning star...............Venus
16.Wonderful Planet................................Earth
17.Colorful Planet...................................Earth
18.Planet with Life.................................Earth
19.Closest planet ..................................Mercury
20.Fastest Revolving Planet....................Mercury
21.Planets with no moon........................Mercury and Venus
22.Planets with brightest rings................Saturn
23.Planet with high no. of moons.............Saturn
24.Blue Planet......................................Neptun e
25.Red Planet.......................................Mars

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