The Solar System The Solar System Listen to an audio version of this page. Solar System Activities The StarChild site is a service of the High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC), Dr. Alan Smale (Director), within the Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) at NASA/GSFC. StarChild Authors: The StarChild Team StarChild Graphics & Music: Acknowledgments StarChild Project Leader: Dr.
Your Age on Other Worlds Want to melt those years away? Travel to an outer planet! <div class="js-required"><hr> This Page requires a Javascript capable browser <hr></div> Fill in your birthdate below in the space indicated. (Note you must enter the year as a 4-digit number!) Click on the "Calculate" button. The Days (And Years) Of Our Lives Looking at the numbers above, you'll immediately notice that you are different ages on the different planets. The earth is in motion. The top-like rotation of the earth on its axis is how we define the day. The revolution of the earth around the sun is how we define the year. We all learn in grade school that the planets move at differing rates around the sun. Why the huge differences in periods? Johannes Kepler Tycho Brahe Kepler briefly worked with the great Danish observational astronomer, Tycho Brahe. Here you see a planet in a very elliptical orbit. Kepler's third law is the one that interests us the most. The Gravity Of The Situation Isaac Newton ©2000 Ron Hipschman
How did the solar system form? The solar system is a pretty busy place. It’s got all kinds of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets zipping around our Sun. But how did this busy stellar neighborhood come to be? Our story starts about 4.6 billion years ago, with a wispy cloud of stellar dust. This cloud was part of a bigger cloud called a nebula. At some point, the cloud collapsed—possibly because the shockwave of a nearby exploding star caused it to compress. When it collapsed, it fell in on itself, creating a disk of material surrounding it. Finally the pressure caused by the material was so great that hydrogen atoms began to fuse into helium, releasing a tremendous amount of energy. Even though the Sun gobbled up more than 99% of all the stuff in this disk, there was still some material left over. Bits of this material clumped together because of gravity. Rocky planets, like Earth, formed near the Sun, because icy and gaseous material couldn’t survive close to all that heat.
Interactive 3D model of Solar System Planets and Night Sky Planets For Kids - Solar System Facts and Astronomy The Solar System Our solar neighborhood is an exciting place. The Solar System is full of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, minor planets, and many other exciting objects. Learn about Io, the explosive moon that orbits the planet Jupiter, or explore the gigantic canyons and deserts on Mars. What Is The Solar System? The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun. How Did The Solar System form? This is an important question, and one that is difficult for scientists to understand. Scientists believe that the Solar System evolved from a giant cloud of dust and gas. At the center of this spinning cloud, a small star began to form. Further away from the center of this mass where the star was forming, there were smaller clumps of dust and gas that were also collapsing. A Great Storm Once ignited, the Sun's powerful solar winds began to blow. The Solar System Has Over 100 Worlds It is true that there are only eight planets.
Astronomy Picture of the Day