Only Planet In Our Solar System example essay topic

Science is and has become a necessity to know just to keep up with the tremendous advancements of today and tomorrow. Basic things, such as how the universe was suspected to be started or who Ptolemy and Galileo were and what they did are just things that need to be known to fully understand what is happening in the world around you. These things are what you need to know, if you " re a scientists, to a grocery shop bagger. Ptolemy was a Greek man who became the man to set the future for astronomy.

He was the third of the Alexandrian men, this group of scientists and mathematicians taught Alexander and his generals themselves. Living around 150 A.D., and being one of the Alexandrian men, he had access to knowledge no one at the time had. From the information that he had access to, and the framework that Aristotle provided, Ptolemy was able to make a mathematical model of the universe. Certain faults and glitches in the current model grew Ptolemy confused and angry. Using his own current knowledge and applying Euclid's geometry to the universe's model he created the Ptolemaic system. In the Ptolemaic system, the model had the planets rotating around the Earth which is known as a different.

Technically, in the model, the planets weren't revolving around an Earth than was centered, but more of an Earth that was off-centered, which is known as eccentric. To solve the current problem of why the planets speed up and slow down, Ptolemy insisted that the planets do not travel at a set rate, but more of a rate that changes at will. He then brought up the point that the planets do travel at an set rate, but only at the e quant. The e quant was a center point at which at that point, planets would seem to be traveling at an equal and uniform rate.

There was still a small problem, retrograde motion. Retrograde motion is when a celestial object moves opposite to most other celestial objects around it. To explain this, he proposed that the planets move along a sub-orbit, in this case, along the deferent. His model allowed it to be agreeable to Plato's and Aristotle's models, but go into more detail of eccentric observations. Nicolaus Copernicus was born in February 19, 1473 in To run and was the founder of the heliocentric planetary theory. He insisted that there was a rotating Earth that revolved, along with other planets, around a central sun.

He was encouraged to do so, but reluctant for possibilities that he might be known as crazy as many others before him have for knew theories. He published them anyway and were handed to him the day he died. He died in Fraurenburg on May 24, 1543. Johannes Kepler was born in 1571 and was one of the first strong believers of the heliocentric planetary theory. He discovered the three laws of planetary motion. This German astronomer believed in the Harmonices Mundi, or the Harmonies of the World.

In his Harmonices Mundi he spoke of his third law, which was about the relationship between the orbital periods and the distances of the planets from the sun. He believed the sun regulates the velocity of the planets. This fact was a marking point in Astronomy history. This left a path for Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Galileo Galilei was a student at the University of Pisa. He studied medicine, though his real interests were natural philosophy and mathematics.

What he is mostly remembered for is his work on free fall, his use of telescopes, and his employment of experimentation. In 1592, he became a professor of the University of Padua. His job was to teach Euclid geometry and standard astronomy to medical students. Instead he taught and lectured a more unconventional form of astronomy and natural philosophy to his medical students. In a personal letter to Kepler sent in 1598, Galileo stated that he was a Copernican, meaning he believed the teachings of Copernicus.

In 1609, he heard of a Dutchman who made a spyglass shown in Venice. After reading reviews and reports and never meeting the man, he used his technical skills in mathematics and his skills as a workman and crafted a telescope with more optical performance. This new telescope made amazing discoveries in the worlds above, and were told in the book that he published in 1610 called the Message from the Stars. There are nine planets in our solar system, there are four solid rock planets and 5 gas giants. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

It is slightly smaller in diameter than the moons Ganymede and Titan but twice the mass. It has a small magnetic field which is about 1% of Earth's gravitational force and it has no satellites. The second planet from the sun is Venus. It has been known and named prehistorically.

Venus is the brightest object in the sky besides the stars and the moon. Earth is known as the third "rock" from the sun and is the fifth largest planet. Earth is the only planet in our solar system that isn't named after Greek or Roman mythology. It is known to be the prettiest planet. Mars is the last inner rock planet and is the fourth planet from the sun. The name Mars comes from the word "Ares" which is the god of war.

Due to its red color it is known as the Red Planet. Gas Giants are planets farther out in the solar system that are supposedly completely gas. The first and largest gas giant is Jupiter. It is the fifth planet from the sun and is twice as massive as all the planets in our solar system combined. Jupiter had 4 known moons in 1610 which were discovered by Galileo Galilei and thusly named the Galilean moons. Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest.

Galileo first discovered Saturn in 1610, he noted the odd appearance but was confused by its look. It was not until 1659 when Christian Huygens correctly translated the geometry of the rings. After Saturn, Uranus is the seventh planet and the third largest. It is larger than Neptune in diameter but smaller in mass. Uranus was discovered by a William Herschel, while doing a routine check of the sky on March 13, 1781. It was originally named "the Georgian Planet" after King George.

It was later changed to match other planets being named after Greek or Roman mythology. Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun and the fourth largest by diameter. Neptune was first observed by Gaulle and d'Arrest on September 23 of 1846. There were looking in spots calculated independently by Adams and La Vernier. Since the spot was calculated by both an Englishman and a Frenchman, the English and French started to fight over who would get the naming rights to the planet. After vigorous arguments, they both settled on the name Neptune.

Pluto is the farthest planet out in the solar system most of the time. Due to Pluto's awkward orbit, it sometimes becomes the eighth planet in front of Neptune. Pluto is smaller than 7 of the moons in our solar system. Pluto was discovered in 1930 by an accident.

There was an error in the calculations and said that was a large gravitational force coming beyond Neptune. Clyde Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory did a careful sky survey and found Pluto. Pluto isn't nearly strong enough to meet the requirements of the error to have such a large noticeable gravitational force, but it was found anyway. The big bang theory is the current excepted theory and is the most logical. The theory states that in the beginning of time the universe was extremely hot, compact and dense. Then, an explosion occurred 13.7 billion years ago and since then, the universe has been expanding and cooling down.

The theory is based on the mathematical equations, field equations from the theory of relativity. In 19922 a Russian physicist Alexandre Friedman provided a set of solutions to the field equations. The solutions have served as framework for much and most of the theoretical work on the big bang. Edwin Hubble provided some of the greatest supporting evidence for the theory in 1929. Light of distant galaxies were universally shifted towards the red spectrum meaning galaxies are moving farther and farther apart. The universe's initial state is unknown for the time.

The overall framework of the theory came from Einsteins field equations, but small details have changed. Originally, Einstein thought the universe was static. His field equations implied otherwise, it showed a change in either expansion or detraction. To solve this and make the universe static again he put in a cosmological constant but later said his constant was an error. The nebula theory states that our solar system formed out of a nebula that collapsed under its own weight and gravity. The theory cannot be demonstrated by observation or established by mathematical calculation.

The solar nebular was initially somewhat spherical and a few light years in diameter. Then it get's a "push" in some manner. When the nebula shrank, the gravity increased casing a collapse. As the nebula falls inward, gravitational potential energy is converted to heat. The French Mathematician Pierre Simon Marquis de Laplace was born in 1749 and died in 1872. He developed the ideas of Kant further.

Kant's idea was that a huge cloud of meteorites stood at the beginning of our solar system. This cloud started turning around itself. Laplace's theory was known as the Kant-Laplace theory stating that there was a huge cloud of hot gas which rotated slowly. It started to cool off and condense. This made the gravitation of the particles get big enough and form a discus shaped "pre-sun". The Milky Way galaxy is a spiral galaxy.

It looks just like any other spiral galaxy. When viewed from above, there are spiral arms and a bright central part. The sun is far from the center, it is half way through the orion spiral arm. The sun is revolving around the center of the galaxy at a speed of half a million miles per hour.

Yet, it will take 200 million years for one rotation. Like other spiral galaxies, the Milky Way has a bulge, a disk, and a halo. Although all are parts of the galaxy, they contain different objects. The halo and bulge contain old stars and the disk contains gas, dust and new young stars. Our sun is pretty young at 5 billion years old. The galaxy itself is at least 10 billion.

The name Milky Way comes from the Greeks and Roman for the white line of stars that went through the sky and were known as a path for the gods. Every planet has a different orbit and speed for both rotation and revolution around the sun. Mercury takes 58 days to revolve once and takes only 88 days to revolve once with days being a 24 hour period. Venus rotates in 17 hours and 50 minutes but takes 165 years to revolve. Earth takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds to rotate and 365.265 days to revolve.

Mars has the closest rotation period to an Earth day at 24.66 hours. It takes 687 years for Mars to revolve. Jupiter rotates very quick for its size at 9 hours and 55 minutes and revolves every 11.86 years. Saturn rotates every 10 hours and 39 minutes.

Uranus rotates every 17 hours and revolves every 84 years. Neptune rotates every 17 hours and 50 minutes and revolves every 165 years. Pluto rotates every 6 days, 9 hours and 18 minutes and revolves every 249 years. Gravity is what keeps you from floating up into space. Gravity keeps the planets bound to one another in orbit.

It is proportional to the amount of mass an object has. Inertia is explained in the first Law of Motion. An object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest. Since there is no friction in Space, there is no force to slow down the motion so it stays in motion. Gravity keeps planets in orbit and inertia keeps them moving. Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun in the solar system.

It is 2.8 Billion miles from the sun. It takes 165 Earth years to equal one Neptune year. One of Neptune's days is 16 Earth's hours. Neptune is smaller than Uranus, but Neptune is more than 30,800. It cannot be seen with the naked eye. Neptune is a gas giant.

It is very far away and can only be seen with a high power telescope and can only see a few details. We learned what we know from the Voyager 2 space probe. Neptune has a very thick atmosphere. It is similar to Uranus's atmosphere, and is mainly hydrogen and helium with a small amount of methane which gives the planet it's blue color since both hydrogen and helium are clear gases. It has a solid or molten rock core, a layer of metallic liquid hydrogen, an outer layer of liquid hydrogen, and the hydrogen gas mix atmosphere. Neptune releases twice as much heat and magnetic fields than what it gets from the sun.

This is probably from the metallic hydrogen that spins in its inside. The temperatures are 210 degrees Celsius, which is very similar to Uranus which is one billion miles closer to the sun. The heat from within the planet gives high winds and clouds. They whip around the planet opposite of the planets rotation and reach speeds of 1500 miles per hour. Neptune has the fastest winds in the solar system. Bands of white clouds rotate around Neptune.

Clouds made of methane ice are like Earth's clouds because they are made of water ice. When Voyager 2 came to Neptune, Scientists were surprised by the amount of activity that had been occurring on its surface. One cloud patch is named Scooter and flies around the planet every 16 hours. It changes shape and size but hasn't disappeared.

Furious storms break out in Neptune's windy atmosphere. The storms look like dark oval spots. In 1989, one of the biggest storms was discovered and named Great Dark Spot after Jupiter's Great Red Spot. It is Bigger than the Earth.

The winds in the storm raced at an average of 745 miles per hour. Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been going on for years, but Great Dark Spot only went on for a short period of time. Pictures from the Hubble showed it disappeared in 1994. In 1980, Saturn Jupiter and Uranus were the only planets that had rings. Because of this, the wondered if Neptune had a ring.

Scientists did tests with light of other stars that Neptune passed in its orbit to find if it had rings. They found out that Neptune actually did have rings. Neptune has 8 known moons, 7 of them are small. Six of these moons were discovered one the Voyager 2 mission in 1989. Their names are Naiad, Tha lassa, De spina, Galatea, Larissa, and Proteus.

Triton was discovered by Las sell in 1846 and is the biggest moon of Neptune. Nereid was discovered by Kuiper in 1949. The necessity that is science is what keeps people up to date about nearly everything. Even when one doesn't think of science directly, everything new that happens is in someway related to science. Science and astronomy are two driving forces in the updates of daily life.