CHRISTIAN PAUL T.

CABRILLAS
Corinthians

The Solar System

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Sun has a
diameter of about 1,392,000 kilometers (865,000 mi) (about 109 Earths),
and by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass; the
remainder consists of the planets (including Earth), asteroids, meteoroids,
comets, and dust in orbit. About three-quarters of the Sun's mass consists of
hydrogen, while most of the rest is helium. Less than 2% consists of other
elements, including iron, oxygen, carbon, neon, and others.

The Sun's color is white, although from the surface of the Earth it may
appear yellow because of atmospheric scattering. Its stellar classification,
based on spectral class, is G2V, and is informally designated a yellow star,
because the majority of its radiation is in the yellow-green portion of the
visible spectrum. In this spectral class label, G2 indicates its surface
temperature of approximately 5,778 K (5,505 °C.), and V (Roman five)
indicates that the Sun, like most stars, is a main sequence star, and thus
generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium.
Astronomers once regarded the Sun as a small and relatively insignificant
star, it is now presumed to be brighter than 85% of the stars in the Milky
Way galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs. The apparent magnitude of the
Sun as seen from Earth is –26.74, which is of course the brightest object in
the sky. The Sun is what lights up the daytime sky. Although the absolute
magnitude of the Sun, which is the apparent magnitude as it is viewed from
10 parsecs away is +4.83. The Sun's hot corona continuously expands in
space creating the solar wind, a hypersonic stream of charged particles that
extends to the heliopause at roughly 100 AU. The bubble in the interstellar
medium formed by the solar wind, the heliosphere, is the largest continuous
structure in the Solar System.

The Sun is currently traveling through the Local Interstellar Cloud in

the Local Bubble zone, within the inner rim of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way
galaxy. Of the 50 nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years from Earth,
the Sun ranks 4th in mass. The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way at a
distance of approximately 24,000–26,000 light years from the galactic
center, completing one clockwise orbit, as viewed from the galactic north
pole, in about 225–250 million years.

The mean distance of the Sun from the Earth is approximately

149.6 million kilometers (1 AU), though this varies as the Earth moves from
perihelion in January to aphelion in July. At this average distance, light
travels from the Sun to Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds. The energy
of this sunlight supports almost all life on Earth via photosynthesis, and
drives Earth's climate and weather. The enormous impact of the Sun on the
Earth has been recognized since pre-historic times, and the Sun has been
regarded by some cultures as a deity. An accurate scientific understanding
of the Sun developed slowly, and as recently as the 19th century prominent
scientists had little knowledge of the Sun's physical composition and source
of energy. This understanding is still developing; there are a number of
present-day anomalies in the Sun's behavior that remain unexplained.

Moon
 The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite
in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to
the Moon is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 mi), about thirty times the
diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system (the
barycentre) is located at about 1,700 kilometres (1,100 mi)—a quarter the
Earth's radius—beneath the surface of the Earth. The Moon makes a
complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the
periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are
responsible for the phases of the Moon, which repeat every 29.5 days (the
synodic period).

The Moon's diameter is 3,474 kilometres (2,159 mi), a little more than
a quarter of that of the Earth. Thus, the Moon's surface area is less than a
tenth of the Earth (about a quarter of Earth's land area), and its volume is
about 2 percent that of Earth. The pull of gravity at its surface is about 17
percent of that at the Earth's surface.

The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have made
a manned landing. While the Soviet Union's Luna programme was the first to
reach the Moon with unmanned spacecraft, the NASA Apollo program
achieved the only manned missions to date, beginning with the first manned
lunar mission by Apollo 8 in 1968, and six manned lunar landings between
1969 and 1972–the first being Apollo 11 in 1969. Human exploration of the
Moon temporarily ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program,
although a few robotic landers and orbiters have been sent to the Moon since
that time. The U.S. has committed to return to the Moon by 2018. On
November 13, 2009, NASA announced the discovery of proof that water
exists on the Moon, based on data obtained from the LCROSS lunar impact
mission.

Mercury
 Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar System,
orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 days. The orbit of Mercury has the
highest eccentricity of all the Solar System planets, and it has the smallest
axial tilt. It completes three rotations about the axis for every two orbits. The
perihelion of Mercury's orbit precesses around the Sun at an excess of
43 arcseconds per century; a phenomenon that was explained in the 20th
century by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Mercury is bright
when viewed from Earth, ranging from −2.3 to 5.7 in apparent magnitude,
but is not easily seen as its greatest angular separation from the Sun is only
28.3°. Since Mercury is normally lost in the glare of the Sun, unless there is a
solar eclipse, Mercury can only be viewed in morning or evening twilight.

Comparatively little is known about Mercury; ground-based telescopes

reveal only an illuminated crescent with limited detail. The first of two
spacecraft to visit the planet was Mariner 10, which mapped only about 45%
of the planet’s surface from 1974 to 1975. The second is the MESSENGER
spacecraft, which mapped another 30% during its flyby of January 14, 2008.
A final flyby took place in September 2009. MESSENGER is scheduled to
attain orbital insertion around Mercury in 2011, and will then survey and map
the entire planet.

Mercury is similar in appearance to the Moon: it is heavily cratered

with regions of smooth plains, has no natural satellites and no substantial
atmosphere. However, unlike the moon, it has a large iron core, which
generates a magnetic field about 1% as strong as that of the Earth. It is an
exceptionally dense planet due to the large relative size of its core. Surface
temperatures range from about 90 to 700 K (−183 °C to 427 °C, −297 °F to
801 °F), with the subsolar point being the hottest and the bottoms of craters
near the poles being the coldest.
 Recorded observations of Mercury date back to at least the first
millennium BC. Before the 4th century BC, Greek astronomers believed the
planet to be two separate objects: one visible only at sunrise, which they
called Apollo; the other visible only at sunset, which they called Hermes. The
English name for the planet comes from the Romans, who named it after the
Roman god Mercury, which they equated with the Greek Hermes (Ἑρμῆς).
The astronomical symbol for Mercury is a stylized version of Hermes'
caduceus.

Venus

Venus is the second-closest planet to the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7

Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and
beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky,
reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6. Because Venus is an inferior planet
from Earth, it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its elongation
reaches a maximum of 47.8°. Venus reaches its maximum brightness shortly
before sunrise or shortly after sunset, for which reason it is often called the
Morning Star or the Evening Star.

Classified as a terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister

planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition.
Venus is covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric
acid, preventing its surface from being seen from space in visible light.
Venus has the densest atmosphere of all the terrestrial planets, consisting
mostly of carbon dioxide, as it has no carbon cycle to lock carbon back into
rocks and surface features, nor organic life to absorb it in biomass. A
younger Venus is believed to have possessed Earth-like oceans, but these
totally evaporated as the temperature rose, leaving a dusty dry desertscape
with many slab-like rocks. The water has most likely dissociated, and,
because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the hydrogen has been
swept into interplanetary space by the solar wind.[9] The atmospheric
pressure at the planet's surface is 92 times that of the Earth.

Venus's surface was a subject of speculation until some of its secrets

were revealed by planetary science in the twentieth century. It was finally
mapped in detail by Project Magellan in 1990–91. The ground shows
evidence of extensive volcanism, and the sulfur in the atmosphere may
indicate that there have been some recent eruptions. However, the absence
of evidence of lava flow accompanying any of the visible caldera remains an
enigma. The planet has few impact craters, demonstrating that the surface is
relatively young, approximately half a billion years old. [12] There is no
evidence for plate tectonics, possibly because its crust is too strong to
subduct without water to make it less viscous. Instead, Venus may lose its
internal heat in periodic massive resurfacing events.

Earth
 Earth (or the Earth) is the third planet from the Sun, and the fifth-
largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest, most
massive, and densest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is
sometimes referred to as the World, the Blue Planet, or Terra.

Home to millions of species, including humans, Earth is the only place

in the Universe where life is known to exist. The planet formed 4.54 billion
years ago, and life appeared on its surface within a billion years. Since then,
Earth's biosphere has significantly altered the atmosphere and other abiotic
conditions on the planet, enabling the proliferation of aerobic organisms as
well as the formation of the ozone layer which, together with Earth's
magnetic field, blocks harmful radiation, permitting life on land. [13] The
physical properties of the Earth, as well as its geological history and orbit,
allowed life to persist during this period. The world is expected to continue
supporting life for another 1.5 billion years, after which the rising luminosity
of the Sun will eliminate the biosphere.

Earth's outer surface is divided into several rigid segments, or tectonic

plates, that gradually migrate across the surface over periods of many
millions of years. About 71% of the surface is covered with salt-water
oceans, the remainder consisting of continents and islands; liquid water,
necessary for all known life, is not known to exist on any other planet's
surface. Earth's interior remains active, with a thick layer of relatively solid
mantle, a liquid outer core that generates a magnetic field, and a solid iron
inner core.

Earth interacts with other objects in outer space, including the Sun and
the Moon. At present, Earth orbits the Sun once for every roughly 366.26
times it rotates about its axis. This length of time is a sidereal year, which is
equal to 365.26 solar days. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted 23.4° away
from the perpendicular to its orbital plane, producing seasonal variations on
the planet's surface with a period of one tropical year (365.24 solar days).
Earth's only known natural satellite, the Moon, which began orbiting it about
4.53 billion years ago, provides ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt and
gradually slows the planet's rotation. Between approximately 4.1 and 3.8
billion years ago, asteroid impacts during the Late Heavy Bombardment
caused significant changes to the surface environment.

Both the mineral resources of the planet, as well as the products of the
biosphere, contribute resources that are used to support a global human
population. The inhabitants are grouped into about 200 independent
sovereign states, which interact through diplomacy, travel, trade and military
action. Human cultures have developed many views of the planet, including
personification as a deity, a belief in a flat Earth or in Earth being the center
of the universe, and a modern perspective of the world as an integrated
environment that requires stewardship.

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet
is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red
Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide[7] prevalent on
its surface. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having
surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the
volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. Unlike the Earth,
Mars is now a geologically inactive planet with no known tectonic activity. It
is the site of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in the Solar
System, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon. The smooth Borealis
basin in the northern hemisphere may be a giant impact feature covering
40% of the planet.[8][9] Mars’ rotational period and seasonal cycles are
likewise similar to those of Earth.

Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, many speculated that
there might be liquid water on the planet's surface. This was based on
observed periodic variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the
polar latitudes, which looked like seas and continents, while long, dark
striations were interpreted by some as irrigation channels for liquid water.
These straight line features were later explained as optical illusions. Still, of
all the planets in the Solar System other than Earth, Mars is the most likely
to harbor liquid water, and thus may contain life. Geological evidence
gathered by unmanned missions suggests that Mars once had large-scale
water coverage on its surface, while small geyser-like water flows may have
occurred during the past decade. In 2005, radar data revealed the presence
of large quantities of water ice at the poles and at mid-latitudes (November
2008). The Phoenix Mars Lander directly sampled water ice in shallow
martian soil on July 31, 2008.

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and
irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka,
a Martian Trojan asteroid. Mars can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
Its apparent magnitude reaches −2.91, a brightness surpassed only by
Venus, the Moon, and the Sun, although most of the time Jupiter will appear
brighter to the naked eye than Mars. Mars has an average opposition
distance of 78 million km but can come as close as 55.7 million km during a
close approach, such as occurred in 2003.

Mars is currently host to three functional orbiting spacecraft: Mars

Odyssey, Mars Express, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. On the
surface are the two Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) and
several inert landers and rovers, both successful and unsuccessful. The
Phoenix lander completed its mission on the surface in 2008. Observations
by NASA's now-defunct Mars Global Surveyor show evidence that parts of the
southern polar ice cap have been receding.

Jupiter
 Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within
the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-
thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all of the
other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas
giant along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Together, these four planets
are sometimes referred to as the Jovian planets.

The planet was known by astronomers of ancient times and was

associated with the mythology and religious beliefs of many cultures. The
Romans named the planet after the Roman god Jupiter. When viewed from
Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94, making it on
average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.
(Mars can briefly match Jupiter's brightness at certain points in its orbit.)

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass

being helium; it may also have a rocky core of heavier elements. Because of
its rapid rotation, Jupiter's shape is that of an oblate spheroid (it possesses a
slight but noticeable bulge around the equator). The outer atmosphere is
visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in
turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result
is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at
least the 17th century when it was first seen by telescope. Surrounding the
planet is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. There
are also at least 63 moons, including the four large moons called the Galilean
moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the
largest of these moons, has a diameter greater than that of the planet
Mercury.

Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft,

most notably during the early Pioneer and Voyager flyby missions and later
by the Galileo orbiter. The most recent probe to visit Jupiter was the Pluto-
bound New Horizons spacecraft in late February 2007. The probe used the
gravity from Jupiter to increase its speed. Future targets for exploration in
the Jovian system include the possible ice-covered liquid ocean on the moon
Europa.

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet
in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Saturn, along with Jupiter, Uranus and
Neptune, is classified as a gas giant. Together, these four planets are
sometimes referred to as the Jovian, meaning "Jupiter-like", planets.

Saturn is named after the Roman god Saturn, equated to the Greek
Kronos (the Titan father of Zeus) the Babylonian Ninurta and to the Hindu
Shani. Saturn's symbol represents the god's sickle (Unicode: ♄).

The planet Saturn is composed of hydrogen, with small proportions of

helium and trace elements. The interior consists of a small core of rock and
ice, surrounded by a thick layer of metallic hydrogen and a gaseous outer
layer. The outer atmosphere is generally bland in appearance, although long-
lived features can appear. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach 1,800 km/h,
significantly faster than those on Jupiter. Saturn has a planetary magnetic
field intermediate in strength between that of Earth and the more powerful
field around Jupiter.

Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting mostly of ice

particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. Sixty-one known
moons orbit the planet, not counting hundreds of "moonlets" within the
rings. Titan, Saturn's largest and the Solar System's second largest moon
(after Jupiter's Ganymede), is larger than the planet Mercury and is the only
moon in the Solar System to possess a significant atmosphere.
Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, and the third-largest and
fourth most massive planet in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient
Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Ancient Greek Οὐρανός) the father of Kronos
(Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). Though it is visible to the naked
eye like the five classical planets, it was never recognized as a planet by
ancient observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Sir William Herschel
announced its discovery on March 13, 1781, expanding the known
boundaries of the Solar System for the first time in modern history. Uranus
was also the first planet discovered with a telescope.

Uranus is similar in composition to Neptune, and both have different

compositions from those of the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. As such,
astronomers sometimes place them in a separate category, the "ice giants".
Uranus's atmosphere, while similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in being
composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, contains a higher proportion of
"ices" such as water, ammonia and methane, along with traces of
hydrocarbons. It is the coldest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System,
with a minimum temperature of 49 K (−224 °C). It has a complex, layered
cloud structure, with water thought to make up the lowest clouds, and
methane thought to make up the uppermost layer of clouds. In contrast the
interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock.

Like the other giant planets, Uranus has a ring system, a

magnetosphere, and numerous moons. The Uranian system has a unique
configuration among the planets because its axis of rotation is tilted
sideways, nearly into the plane of its revolution about the Sun. As such, its
north and south poles lie where most other planets have their equators. Seen
from Earth, Uranus's rings can sometimes appear to circle the planet like an
archery target and its moons revolve around it like the hands of a clock,
though in 2007 and 2008 the rings appeared edge-on. In 1986, images from
Voyager 2 showed Uranus as a virtually featureless planet in visible light
without the cloud bands or storms associated with the other giants.
However, terrestrial observers have seen signs of seasonal change and
increased weather activity in recent years as Uranus approached its equinox.
The wind speeds on Uranus can reach 250 meters per second (900 km/h,
560 mph).

Neptune

Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun in our Solar System.
Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by
diameter and the third-largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of
Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15
Earth masses and not as dense. On average, Neptune orbits the Sun at a
distance of 30.1 AU, approximately 30 times the Earth-Sun distance. Its
astronomical symbol is, a stylized version of the god Neptune's trident.

Discovered on September 23, 1846, Neptune was the first planet found
by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation.
Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led Alexis Bouvard to deduce that
its orbit was subject to gravitational perturbation by an unknown planet.
Neptune was subsequently observed by Johann Galle within a degree of the
position predicted by Urbain Le Verrier, and its largest moon, Triton, was
discovered shortly thereafter, though none of the planet's remaining 12
moons were located telescopically until the 20th century. Neptune has been
visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, which flew by the planet on
August 25, 1989.

Neptune is similar in composition to Uranus, and both have

compositions which differ from those of the larger gas giants Jupiter and
Saturn. Neptune's atmosphere, while similar to Jupiter's and Saturn's in that
it is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, along with traces of
hydrocarbons and possibly nitrogen, contains a higher proportion of "ices"
such as water, ammonia and methane. Astronomers sometimes categorize
Uranus and Neptune as "ice giants" in order to emphasize these distinctions.
The interior of Neptune, like that of Uranus, is primarily composed of ices
and rock. Traces of methane in the outermost regions in part account for the
planet's blue appearance.

In contrast to the relatively featureless atmosphere of Uranus,

Neptune's atmosphere is notable for its active and visible weather patterns.
At the time of the 1989 Voyager 2 flyby, for example, the planet's southern
hemisphere possessed a Great Dark Spot comparable to the Great Red Spot
on Jupiter. These weather patterns are driven by the strongest sustained
winds of any planet in the Solar System, with recorded wind speeds as high
as 2100 km/h. Because of its great distance from the Sun, Neptune's outer
atmosphere is one of the coldest places in the Solar System, with
temperatures at its cloud tops approaching −218 °C (55 K). Temperatures at
the planet's centre, however, are approximately 5,400 K (5,000 °C). Neptune
has a faint and fragmented ring system, which may have been detected
during the 1960s but was only indisputably confirmed in 1989 by Voyager 2.