mind-blowing facts about the universe

Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld. This was proposed by Venetia Burney an eleven year old schoolgirl from Oxford, England. Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. This is when the IAU formalized the definition of a planet as “A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydro static equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory. For the 76 years between Pluto being discovered and the time it was reclassified as a dwarf planet it completed under a third of its orbit around the Sun. Pluto has five known moons. The  moons  are Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx originally P5 (discovered 2012) official designations S/2011 (134

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun, making it the most distant in the solar system. This gas giant may have formed much closer to the Sun in the early solar system history before migrating out to its current position. Facts about Neptune Neptune is the most distant planet from the Sun. Neptune is the smallest gas giant. A year on Neptune lasts 165 Earth years. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea. Neptune has 6 faint rings. Neptune was not known to the ancients. It is not visible to the naked eye and was first observed in 1846. Its position was determined using mathematical predictions. It was named after the Roman god of the sea. Neptune spins on its axis very rapidly. Its equatorial clouds take 16 hours to make one rotation. This is because Neptune is not solid body. Neptune is the smallest of the ice giants. Despite being smaller than Uranus, Neptune has a greater mass. Below its heavy atmosphere, Uranus is made of layers of hydrogen, helium, and methane gases. The

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun, Mercury completes three rotations about its axis and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun. Thirteen times a century Mercury can be observed from the Earth passing across the face of the Sun in an event called a transit, the next will occur on the 9th May 2016. Facts about Mercury Mercury does not have any moons or rings. Mercury is the smallest planet. Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. Your weight on Mercury would be 38% of your weight on Earth. A day on the surface of Mercury lasts 176 Earth days. A year on Mercury takes 88 Earth days. It’s not known who discovered Mercury. A year on Mercury is just 88 days long. One solar day (the time from noon to noon on the planet’s surface) on Mercury lasts the equivalent of 176 Earth days while the sidereal day (the time for 1 rotation in relation t

Moons Mars has two small moons,  Phobos  and  Deimos . They were discovered in 1877 by astronomer Asaph Hall, who named them for the Latin terms “fear” and “panic”. These moons are thought to be captured asteroids and are among the smallest natural satellites in the solar system. Olympus Mons Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system – Olympus Mons. It measures some 600 kilometres across and rises nearly 27 kilometres above the surrounding terrain. It is a shield volcano built by the continuous action of flowing lava over millions and millions of years that began some 3 billion years ago. Olympus Mons is part of a complex of volcanoes that lie along a volcanic plateau called the Tharsis Bulge. This entire region lies over a hotspot, a place in the planet’s crust that allows magma from deep inside to flow out to the surface. Valles Marineris The Valles Marineris is an extensive canyon system on the Mars equator. It is 4,200 kilometres long and, in places, is 7 kilometres deep. On

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is the second smallest planet in the solar system. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars is also often described as the “Red Planet” due to its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide. Facts about Mars Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass. Even though Mars has only 15% of the Earth’s volume and just over 10% of the Earth’s mass, around two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s (meaning you could leap nearly three times higher on Mars). Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600km in diameter. Despite having formed over billions of years, evidence from volcanic lava flows is so recent many scientists believe it could still be active. Only 18 missions to Mars have been successful. As of September 2014 there have been 40 missions to

It's vast and mysterious, cold and dark. It's a place we've only just begun to explore, but it holds important clues to the origins of our solar system. In advance of NASA's New Horizons encounter with a denizen of this vast region of our solar system, here are 10 things to know about the Kuiper Belt. The main part of the Kuiper Belt begins at Neptune's orbit. Credit: NASA 1. It's a HUGE region of space beyond Neptune. The Kuiper Belt is one of the largest structures in our solar system — others being the Oort Cloud, the heliosphere and the magnetosphere of Jupiter. Its overall shape is like a puffed-up disk, or donut. Its inner edge begins at the orbit of Neptune, at about 30 AU from the Sun. (1 AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance from Earth to the Sun.) The inner, main region of the Kuiper belt ends to around 50 AU from the Sun. Overlapping the outer edge of the main part of the Kuiper Belt is a second region called the scattered disk, which continues ou

Pluto is named after the Roman god of the underworld. This was proposed by Venetia Burney an eleven year old schoolgirl from Oxford, England. Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. This is when the IAU formalized the definition of a planet as “A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydro static equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.” Pluto was discovered on February 18th, 1930 by the Lowell Observatory. For the 76 years between Pluto being discovered and the time it was reclassified as a dwarf planet it completed under a third of its orbit around the Sun. Pluto has five known moons. The moons are Charon (discovered in 1978,), Hydra and Nix (both discovered in 2005), Kerberos originally P4 (discovered 2011) and Styx originally P5 (discovered 2012) official designations S/2011 (134340) 1 and  

Jupiter was appropriately named after the king of the gods. It’s massive, has a powerful magnetic field, and more moons that any planet in the Solar System. Though it has been known to astronomers since ancient times, the invention of the telescope and the advent of modern astronomy has taught us so much about this gas giant. In short, there are countless interesting facts about this gas giant that many people just don’t know about. And we here at Universe Today have taken the liberty of compiling a list of ten particularly interesting ones that we think will fascinate and surprise you. Think you know everything about Jupiter? Think again! 1. Jupiter Is Massive: It’s no secret that Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. But this description really doesn’t do it justice. For one, the mass of Jupiter is 318 times as massive as the Earth. In fact, Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all of the other planets in the Solar System combined. But here’s the really interesting thi