So, here it is. I'm actually going to start at one specific point and go from there: Some folks don't know the hierarchy of space objects, so let me just get that out of the way first - from smallest to largest (as far as Science knows) it goes: A moon orbits a planet. A Planet orbits a star (Our planet orbits the Sun, which is just an ordinary star) Stars are contained in galaxies (ours is called The Milky Way). All stars revolve around the center of the galaxy where there is usually a gigantic black hole. Galaxies form clusters and super-clusters from there. And that's all we know. We don't know what lies beyond. Yet. It's actually more complicated than that, but that's just the jist of it. But I mean, it's not really that hard to grasp what's in this link (a more full explanation): The Hierarchy of Structures in the Universe So, now that we got that out of the way, here's an image of the planets in OUR solar system. The sizes of the planets are correct, as well as which planet is closest and farthest from the sun, but it is not to scale in distance - Mercury being the closest and Eris being the farthest: And thanks to 420neverforget for these. I thought they would do great in the OP. "Your mom". Heheh. So we're going to cover all of these planets. I think I may go one planet per post to keep this nice and tidy. Feel free to post and contribute whatever - but that's just how *I* am going to operate. And PLEASE watch this video (hopefully in HD and fullscreen). You won't be sorry: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U[/ame] If you liked that, then watch this one. It's older but it zooms back in all the way down to the atom! [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0[/ame] Now that your mind is blown, let's do this! The Sun: The Sun is OUR star. It is 864,327 miles in diameter - compared to about 8,000 miles for Earth. The thing is enormous compared to us, and the Sun is a rather small star. There are about 200 billion other stars in our galaxy, and there about 200-400 KNOWN galaxies in the Universe. And the Universe may even be infinite. Even if it's not infinite, do the math and you will see the we can't be the only planet with life. It's just not mathematically possible! But back to the Sun. It's a giant ball consisting mostly of Hydrogen and Helium. All other trace gasses (which are in the fractions of a percent) are still considered a large amount (to us), considering the size of the Sun. Other trace gasses are Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Magnesium, Silicon, and Neon - most of those being organic compounds. The Sun works by nuclear fusion, and has been doing so for the past 4.5 billion years that it has been alive. The Sun is a typical Type G Yellow Dwarf star. The surface temperature runs about 10,000 degrees F and the core is about 18,000,000 degrees F. A number hard to comprehend in this case. It's just nuts. The Sun, as it starts dying, will turn into a Red Giant. As it starts to lose fuel, it will lose density but will blow up in size - A LOT. It will dim to red and swell to about where Earth or Mars is (yup, they will literally be swallowed by the Sun). After a while, it will collapse unto itself and become extremely small (maybe a few hundred miles wide), but it will be extremely dense. From there it may go Supernova or turn into a black hole. This won't happen for at least 5 or more billion years. Different stars of different sizes and compositions will have different fates - as the Universe is complicated. Here are more images of the Sun - the giver and taker of life: Blue filter: Sunspots: Close-up of a Sun Spot. Sun Spots are actually cooler regions. The whole "circle" - including the outer "circle" is roughly the size of Earth:
Mercury - First rock from the Sun: 1,516 miles in diameter (as opposed to about 8,000 miles for Earth). It is the smallest planet in our solar system. Mercury has an elliptical orbit, which means its orbit is like an oval - NOT a perfect circle. At its farthest, the planet is 43,000,000 miles. The closest the planet gets to the sun is 28,500,000 miles. (See the ellipse?) Earth, for reference, is 93,000,000 miles away from the Sun. The surface of Mercury runs about 750 degrees F on the side that faces the Sun. The planet is tidally locked to the sun, meaning one side always faces it - just like how one side of our moon always faces us. The far side of Mercury dips below 200 degrees F and they just found water ice in the craters on the far side. Very strange and interesting. So we're talking a 1,000 degree differential on the same planet! But there are planets in other solar systems that are way closer to their sun/star than Mercury is - making the hot-side of Mercury literally look like Antarctica. On one exoplanet (planets outside of our solar system), it rains molten iron!!!! So that's how crazy shit can get. Well, not quite - we're talking about the cosmos for fuck's sake. Mercury has no moons. I have always thought that Mercury was a moon of Venus at one point. Who knows. But it might not make sense because Mercury is EXTREMELY dense - they say about 70% of Mercury is it's core. When we get to Venus, I will explain why I think Mercury could have or may have been its moon. More images of Mercury - [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLstq-vuppQ[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3dnVR_Xtpg[/ame] It is rather boring to look at because it looks just like our moon, which we see every day. But as we go through each planet, it's going to get strange.
Venus - Second rock from the Sun: Venus has a rather circular orbit - Keeping almost 68,000,000 miles away from the Sun at all times. The planet is almost the same size as Earth - just a little smaller. They call it "The Sister Planet": The planet is also HOT. Hotter than Mercury. This is because Venus is obscured by a permanent cloud cover. Because of that, there is a greenhouse effect going on (they call it a "runaway greenhouse effect"). The temperature is stable on all of the planet due to the cloud cover. The surface bakes at about 850 - 900 degrees F - hot enough to melt lead. A few probes/landers have made it to the surface, but they all died before they hit the surface. All but two, that is. These two were sent by the Soviets in the early 1980's. These two probes (Venera 14 and 15) were able to snap only a few images until the cameras melted. A few tests were able to be executed for only over an hour. The probes then totally were rendered non-functionable due to the extreme heat. This is all we have of the surface of Venus (Had to dig for these!) - both from the Venera probes: The planet is EXTREMELY volatile. There is a very dense atmosphere mainly of CO2 and a tad of Nitrogen. The surface pressure is 93 times what it is on Earth's sea level - the equivalent of being 1 km under water. In the higher atmosphere where it starts to cool off, it rains sulfuric acid. Since the clouds are so thick and you can't see the surface from space, they used radar to penetrate those clouds. So if Venus had no clouds, this is what it would look like: So yeah, Venus is a hell-hole. Literally. It is a perpetual volcano-fest on that planet - 167 large volcanoes over 100 km across, and thousands of more smaller ones (which would be like our normal sized ones). But it is said there were once oceans on Venus and that the planet was indeed just like Earth - just a little warmer. Then something cataclysmic happened - creating a runaway greenhouse effect. And here is where it gets strange. Venus' rotation is BACKWARDS, or retrograde. It revolves in reverse and one day on Venus (one full revolution/spin) takes 243 Earth days. And - a day on Venus is longer than its year! It takes longer for the planet to spin 360 degrees than it does to completely orbit the sun! So that's why I think Mercury could have been a moon of Venus. Perhaps something knocked "The moon named Mercury" out of Venus's gravitational pull, and the Sun just pulled it in from there. Whatever could have knocked Mercury out of orbit probably scritched the surface of Venus and reversed the spin, while punching a hole in the atmosphere and letting everything out until it became what it is today. But that's just a theory. More of this crazy planet - 2012 Transit of Venus: Venus from a telescope on Earth (as opposed to a telescope in space like the Hubble): And these images are from spacecraft: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehgs3qazcvw[/ame]
I value the time you've already put into this thread impreprex. (how the fuck do I say your name by the way?? I always go imp re prex???) Planets and space in general fascinates me. Look forward to updates.
Word, dude. You got it. And you're right - it's pronounced Ihm-pruh-precks. Sounds stupid as shit when you say it, but it's just a conjugation of 3 words, as it says in my signature.
Man ive been readin ur shit since u started the rover thread n had the professor avi...good shit as usssshhh
(My feelings of this planet - or rather what goes on here... ) Earth - Third rock from the Sun: Earth's got these things. They're called humans: Earth has a moon which is 240,000 miles away. Side facing us: And the far side: Distance from Earth to The Moon - to size and scale, also showing how fast a pulse of light takes to reach The Moon from Earth: Earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter. It takes 365 days to rotate around the Sun and 24 hours to make a full revolution/spin. But we already know that... I think the planet is so absolutely beautiful looking, and geologically it kicks ass and there is life. But I will stop there... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otm4RusESNU]That's All I Have To Say About That- Forrest Gump Quote - YouTube[/ame]
Bump - everyone! iMPREPREX is awake and ready to do this! I know I said Mars was next, but I'm, going for Earth's moon next.