Perhaps everyone knows that the piece of the universe that has sheltered us is called the solar system. The hot star, along with the planets surrounding it, began its formation about 4.6 billion years ago. Then there was a gravitational collapse of part of the molecular interstellar cloud. The center of collapse, where most of the matter accumulated, later became the Sun, and the protoplanetary cloud surrounding it gave birth to all other objects.
Information about the solar system was initially collected only during observation of the night sky. As telescopes and other instruments improved, scientists learned more and more about outer space surrounding us. However, all the most interesting facts about the solar system were obtained only after the beginning of the space era - in the 60s of the last century.
Composition
The central object of our piece of the universe is the sun. Around him are eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Farther than the latter are the so-called Trans-Neptune objects, which include Pluto, which was deprived of planetary status in 2006. He and several other cosmic bodies were attributed to minor planets. The eight main objects after the Sun are divided into two categories: planets of the Earth group (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) and huge planets of the Solar system, interesting facts about which begin with the fact that they are almost entirely composed of gas. These include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid belt, where many asteroids and small planets of irregular shape are located. Beyond the orbit of Neptune lies the Kuiper belt and the associated scattered disk. The asteroid belt mainly contains objects consisting of rocks and metals, while the Kuiper Belt is filled with bodies of ice of various origins. The objects of the scattered disk also have mostly ice composition.
The sun
Interesting facts about the solar system should begin to tell from its center. A giant hot ball with an internal temperature of over 15 million degrees concentrated more than 99% of the mass of the entire system. The sun belongs to the stars of the third generation, it is located approximately in the middle of its life cycle. Its core is the site of continuous thermonuclear reactions, as a result of which hydrogen turns into helium. The same process leads to the formation of a huge amount of energy, which then falls, including on the Earth.
Future
After about 1.1 billion years, the Sun will use up most of the hydrogen fuel, its surface will heat up as much as possible. At this time, most likely, almost all life will disappear on Earth. Conditions will allow only organisms to survive in the depths of the ocean. When the age of the Sun is 12.2 billion years, it will turn into a red giant. The outer layers of the star will reach the Earth’s orbit. Our planet at this time will either go into a more distant orbit, or will be absorbed.
At the next stage of development, the Sun will lose its outer shell, which will turn into a planetary nebula with a white dwarf, which is the core of the Sun - the size of the Earth - in the center.
Mercury
As long as the sun is relatively stable, the study of the planets of the solar system will continue. The first cosmic body of a sufficiently large size, which can be found if you move away from our star to the outskirts of the system, is Mercury. The closest to the Sun and at the same time the smallest planet was examined by the Mariner-10 apparatus, which managed to photograph its surface. The study of Mercury is hampered by its proximity to the luminary; therefore, for many years it has remained poorly studied. After the Mariner 10, launched in 1973, a Messenger visited Mercury. The spacecraft began its mission in 2003. He flew several times to the planet, and in 2011 became its satellite. Thanks to these studies, information about the solar system has expanded significantly.
Today we know that although Mercury is closest to the Sun, it is not the hottest planet. Venus is far ahead of him in this regard. Mercury has no real atmosphere: the solar wind blows it. The planet is characterized by a gas shell with extremely low pressure. A day on Mercury is equal to almost two earth months, while the year lasts 88 days of our planet, that is, less than two Mercury days.
Venus
Thanks to the flight of Mariner-2, interesting facts about the solar system, on the one hand, have become impoverished, and on the other, enriched. Prior to receiving information from this spacecraft, Venus was considered the owner of a temperate climate and, possibly, the ocean, the probability of finding life on it was considered. Mariner 2 dispelled these dreams. Investigations of this apparatus, as well as several others, provided a rather unfriendly picture. Under a layer of the atmosphere, for the most part consisting of carbon dioxide, and clouds of sulfuric acid, a surface heated to almost 500 º is located. There is no water and there cannot be life forms known to us. On Venus, even spacecraft cannot stand it: they melt and burn.
Mars
4 planet of the solar system and the last of the earth-like is Mars. The red planet has always attracted the attention of scientists, it remains the center of research today. Mars has been studied by numerous Mariners, two Viking and Soviet Mars. For a long time, astronomers believed to find water on the surface of the Red Planet. Today it is known that once upon a time Mars looked completely different than it is now, it may have had water on it. There is an assumption that the collision of Mars with a huge asteroid, which left a mark in the form of five craters, contributed to a change in the nature of the surface. The disaster resulted in a shift of the poles of the planet by almost 90º, a significant increase in volcanic activity and movement of lithospheric plates. At the same time, climate change has occurred. Mars lost water, atmospheric pressure on the planet decreased significantly, the surface began to resemble a desert.
Jupiter
Large planets of the solar system, or gas giants, are separated from the earth-like Asteroid belt. The closest to the Sun is Jupiter. In its dimensions, it surpasses all other planets of our system. The gas giant was studied using Voyager 1 and 2, as well as Galileo. The latter recorded the fall on the surface of Jupiter of the fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Both the event itself and the opportunity to observe it were unique. As a result, scientists were able to obtain not only a number of interesting images, but also some data on the comet and the composition of the planet.
The fall itself on Jupiter differs from that on the cosmic bodies of the earth group. Shards of even huge size cannot leave a crater on the surface: Jupiter is almost entirely composed of gas. The comet was absorbed by the upper atmosphere, leaving dark traces on the surface that soon disappeared. Interestingly, Jupiter, due to its size and mass, serves as a kind of protector of the Earth, saving it from various space debris. It is believed that the gas giant played an important role in the emergence of life: any of the fragments that fell on Jupiter on Earth could lead to mass extinction. And if such falls often occurred in the early stages of the development of life, perhaps people would not exist until now.
Signal to the Brothers in Mind
The study of the planets of the solar system and the cosmos as a whole is not least carried out in order to search for conditions where life can originate or has already appeared. However, the scale of the universe is such that mankind may not be able to cope with the task for all the time allotted to it. Therefore, Voyager devices were equipped with a round aluminum box containing a video disc. It contains information, according to scientists, capable of explaining to representatives of other civilizations, possibly existing in space, where the Earth is and who inhabits it. The images depict landscapes, the anatomical structure of man, the structure of DNA, scenes from the lives of people and animals, recorded sounds: birds singing, crying baby, the sound of rain and many others. The disk is equipped with the coordinates of the solar system relative to 14 powerful pulsars. Explanations are in binary year.
Voyager 1 will leave the limits of the Solar System around 2020 and will plow through space for centuries to come. Scientists believe that the discovery by other civilizations of the message of earthlings can happen very soon, at a time when our planet will cease to exist. In this case, a disk with information about people and the Earth is all that remains of humanity in the universe.
New round
At the beginning of the XXI century, interest in space research has increased significantly. Interesting facts about the solar system continue to accumulate. Expeditions to Mars are being equipped , data on gas giants are being specified. The equipment is improved every year, in particular, new types of engines are being developed that will allow flights to more distant parts of space with less fuel. The movement of scientific progress allows us to hope that the most interesting things about the solar system will soon become part of our knowledge: we can find evidence of the existence of the Oort cloud, understand exactly what led to climate change on Mars and what it was before, study the Sun-scorched Mercury, finally, build a base on the moon. The wildest dreams of modern astronomers are even more ambitious than some science fiction films. It is interesting that the achievements of technology and physics indicate the real possibility of implementing ambitious plans in the future.