RESEARCH

My research starts with the different characteristics of the planets, moons and asteroids in our solar system, such as size, color, texture, location and others that are of interest for our project.

Starting with the centre of our solar system: the sun

SUN

Description: Star. Ball of glowing gases at the heart of our solar system. There would be no life on Earth without its heat and energy.
Composition: 92.1% Hydrogen, 7.8% Helium
Location: It is the center of our solar system
Color: incandescent orange
Texture: sunspots, solar flares, corona (outermost region)
Mean radius: 695.508 km
Volume: 1,409,272,569,059,860,000 km³  (99.8% of the mass of the entire solar system)
Temperature: 15 million°C (core), 5.500°C (photosphere: sun's surface), 2 million°C (corona) 
Surface gravity: 274.0 m/s²




MERCURY

Description: Terrestrial planet with a solid, cratered surface (very similar to Earth's moon). It is the smallest planet in our solar system.
Location: Closest planet to the sun at 58 million km (0.39 AU)
Color: grey
Texture: cratered surface
Orbit size around the sun: 57,909,227 km
Orbit circumference: 359,976,856 km
Average orbit velocity: 170.503 km/h
Mean radius: 2,439.7 km
Volume: 60,827,208,742 km³
Temperature: 430°C (daytime), -180°C (night)
Atmosphere constituents: Thin atmosphere mostly composed of oxigen, sodium, hydrogen, helium and potassium.
Surface gravity: 3.7 m/s²



VENUS

Description: Similar in structure and size to Earth, with an intense volcanic activity
Location: Second closest planet to the sun (108 million km or 0.72 AU)
Color: Completely covered by sulfuric acid clouds (yellowish)
Texture: Cratered and volcanic
Mean radius: 6,051.8 km
Orbit size around the sun: 108,209.475 km
Orbit circumference: 679,892,378 km
Average orbit velocity: 126.074 km/h
Volume: 928,415,345,893 km³
Temperature: 462°C
Atmosphere constituents: Thick and toxic made up of carbon dioxide and nitrogen with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets 
Surface gravity: 8.87 m/s2
Curious fact: Venus spins backwards (sun rises in the west and sets in the east)

 
EARTH

Description: Terrestrial and ocean planet (70% of surface is covered by oceans)
Location: Third planet from the Sun (at a distance of 149.60 million km (equal to 1 AU - astronomical units)
Color: Blue, green, brown
Texture: continents, oceans, clouds
Mean radius: 6.371 km
Orbit size around the sun: 149,598,262 km
Orbit circumference: 939,887.974 km 
Average orbit velocity: 107.218 km/h
Volume: 1,083,206,916,846 km³

^{Minimum/Maximum surface temperature: -88/58°C} 

^{Atmosphere constituents: Nitrogen (78%), Oxigen (21%), others (1%)}

^{Surface gravity: 9.80665 m/s2}

EARTH'S MOON

Description: Earth satellite with a solid-surface. Likely formed with debris after a Mars-sized body collided with Earth.
Location: orbiting Earth at a distance of 384.000 km or 0.00257 AU
Color: grey

Texture: Cratered and pitted from impacts
Mean radius: 1737.5 km
Orbit size around Earth: 384.400 km
Orbit circumference: 2,413,402.16 km
Average orbit velocity: 3,680.5 km/h
Volume: 21,971,669,064 km³
Temperature: -233/123 °C
Atmosphere constituents: very week
Surface gravity: 1.624 m/s²


MARS

 Description: Cold desert world with seasons, weather, polar ice caps, volcanoes and canyons.
Location: Fourth planet from the sun, at a distance of 228 million km or 1.52 AU
Color: Reddish
Texture: Terrestrial planet which solid surface has been altered by volcanoes, impacts, crustal movement, and atmospheric effects such as dust storms.
Mean radius: 3,389.5 km
Orbit size around the sun: 227,943,824 km
Orbit circumference: 1,429,085,052 km
Average orbit velocity: 86,677 km/h
Volume: 163,115,609,799 km³
Temperature: -153 to +20 °C
Atmosphere constituents: Thin atmosphere made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon
Surface gravity: 3.71 m/s²
Curious fact: Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos


ASTEROIDS

Description: Too small to be called planets, asteroids are rocky, irregular, airless bodies that orbit our sun. 
Location: Tens of thousands are gathered in the main asteroid belt, a vast doughnut-shaped ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Color: dark grey 
Texture: Cratered
Mean radius: Diverse 
Orbit size around the sun: Diverse 
Orbit circumference: Diverse
Average orbit velocity: Diverse
Volume: Diverse 
Temperature: Diverse
Atmosphere constituents: None
Surface gravity: Diverse


METEORS AND METEORITS

Description: Little chunks of rock and debris in space are called meteoroids. They become meteors - or shooting stars - when they fall through a planet's atmosphere; leaving a bright trail as they are heated to incandescence by the friction of the atmosphere. Pieces that survive the journey and hit the ground are called meteorites. 
Color: dark 
Texture: Meteorites may look very much like Earth rocks, or they may have a burned appearance. Some may have depressioned, roughened or smooth exteriors.
Mean radius: Diverse
Volume: Diverse 
Temperature: Diverse
Atmosphere constituents: None
Surface gravity: None



JUPITER

Description: The most massive planet in our solar system - with dozens of moons and an enormous magnetic field.
Jupiter is a gas-giant planet and therefore does not have a solid surface.
Location: It is the fifth planet from the sun at a distance of about 778 million km or 5.2 AU 
Color: brown, blue, orange
Texture: swirling cloud stripes
Mean radius: 69,911 km 
Orbit size around the sun: 778,340,821 km 
Orbit circumference: 4,887,595,931 km
Average orbit velocity: 47,002 km/h
Volume: 1,431,281,810,739,360 km³
Temperature: -148 °C 
Atmosphere constituents: Hydrogen, Helium
Surface gravity: 24.79 m/s²
Curious fact 1: Jupiter has 50 known moons, with an additional 17 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery - that is a total of 67 moons.
Curious fact 2: Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm (bigger than Earth) that has been raging for hundreds of years.


SATURN

Description: Saturn is mostly a massive ball of hydrogen and helium adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets (all four gas giant planets have rings - made of chunks of ice and rock - but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's)
Location: Sixth planet from the sun at a distance of about 1.4 billion km or 9.5 AU
Color: yellowish
Texture: yellow and blue stripes
Mean radius: 58,232 km
Orbit size around the sun: 1,426,666,422 km
Orbit circumference: 8,957,504,604 km
Average orbit velocity: 34,701 km/h
Volume: 827,129,915,150,897 km³
Temperature: -178 °C 
Atmosphere constituents: Hydrogen, Helium
Surface gravity: 10.4 m/s² 
Curious fact: Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional 9 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery.


URANUS

Description: The seventh planet from the Sun is so distant that it takes 84 years to complete one orbit. Ice giant made up mostly of a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane and ammonia – (these make 80% of the mass of the planet) above a small rocky core.
Location: 2,876,679,082 km or 19.2 AU from the sun
Color: blue (due to methane)
Texture: light/dark blue stripes
Mean radius: 25,362 km
Orbit size around the sun: 2,870,658,186 km
Orbit circumference: 18,026,802,831 km
Average orbit velocity: 24,477 km/h 
Volume: 68,334,355,695,584 km³
Temperature: -216 °C
Atmosphere constituents: hydrogen, helium and methane
Surface gravity: 8.87 m/s²
Curious fact 1: Uranus has 27 moons which are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
Curious fact 2: Like Venus, Uranus has a retrograde rotation (east to west). Unlike any of the other planets, Uranus rotates on its side, which means it spins horizontally (this unique tilt is probably due to a collision with an Earth-sized object).



NEPTUNE

Description: Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, Neptune is the last of the hydrogen and helium gas giants in our solar system. 
Location: More than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth,
Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun at a distance of about 4.5 billion km or 30.07 AU.
Color: bright blue (due methane + unknown component)
Texture: soft blue stripes with some bright clouds
Mean radius: 24,622 km
Orbit size around the sun: 4,498,396,441 km
Orbit circumference: 28,263,736,967 km
Average orbit velocity: 19,566 km/h
Volume: 62,525,703,987,421 km³
Temperature:  -214 °C
Atmosphere constituents: made up mostly of hydrogen, helium and methane, Neptune's atmosphere extends to great depths, gradually merging into water and other melted ices over a heavier, approximately Earth-size solid core.
Surface gravity: 11.15 m/s²
Curious fact 1: Neptune has 13 confirmed moons (and 1 more awaiting official confirmation) which are named after various sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology.
Curious fact 2: Neptune has six rings.
Curious fact 3: The magnetic field of Neptune is about 27 times more powerful than that of Earth.
Curious fact 4: Neptune's winds can be nine times stronger than Earth's. 
Curious fact 5: Triton, Neptune's largest moon, is extremely cold - temperatures on its surface are about -235°C. Despite this deep freeze at Triton, Voyager 2 discovered geysers spewing icy material upward more than 8 kilometers (5 miles). Triton's thin atmosphere is growing warmer - although scientists do not yet know why.



DWARF PLANETS

Description:
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COMETS

KUIPER BELT & OORT CLOUD
BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM