This blog is the start of the Outer Space series! So, before we get into the galaxies outside of our very own Milkyway galaxy, let's discuss a few amazing things about our solar system.
The hottest planet isn't the closest to the sun!!
We would assume that the hottest planet is the one closest to the heat source, in this case, the sun. But surprisingly, the hottest planet is Venus.
Now, why is Venus the hottest planet? This is all because of Venus's thick atmosphere (at least 100 times thicker than that on earth!), so when the sunlight passes through it, the planet heats up! This atmosphere acts as a warming blanket to help planets maintain their temperature.
On the other hand, Mercury doesn't have an atmosphere that would raise the temperature of the planet and keep its temperature maintained.
Jupiter has a storm going on !!
On Jupiter, there is an area known as the Great Red Spot, where a giant hurricane has been raging non-stop for the last 300 years and it hasn't stopped yet! This Great Red Spot is twice the size of Earth and the speed of the winds blowing through this hurricane is estimated to be 435 kilometers per hour or 270 miles per hour.
Sun is actually a star!!
Many of us would have not known this but it's true. Our sun is just a hot and bright ball of helium (at least as of what scientists have found till now). Without the intense heat, energy, and light given off by our sun there would be no life on Earth. The mass of the sun takes up most of the solar system. The sun is about 3,30,000 times heavier than the earth and accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system.
The sun is trying to pull all the planets to itself constantly!
Gravity on the sun is so strong that it is trying to pull the other planets towards it. The planets pull themselves in the opposite direction. As a result, the planets sort of end up floating in the middle around the sun. The gravity of the sun is responsible for keeping the planets in orbit which is theorized to be elliptical in shape.
Pluto is smaller in diameter than the United States of America!
The greatest distance across the US - from California to Maine is nearly 4700 kilometers or 2900 miles. In 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft helped us find out that the diameter of Pluto is about 2371 kilometers or 1473 miles. Its size is the reason why in 2006, the International Astronomical Union changed Pluto's status from a major planet to a dwarf planet.
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