Features of the planets of the solar system for children. An easy way for a child to remember the planets of the solar system
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Astronomy today is of interest not only to schoolchildren. Discoveries that expand our knowledge of space are also attracting the attention of adults. Interesting facts about the planets are featured in popular magazines. And this is not surprising, since the availability of study results increases the number of curious people who want to learn a little more about the vast space of the Universe. Below are examples of amazing facts related to the solar system.
Classification
All planets orbiting our star are divided into two types: those belonging to the terrestrial group and gas giants. They differ in composition, size and some other characteristics. The terrestrial group includes our house, as well as Mercury, Venus and Mars. For the most part, these planets are composed of silicates and metals. The size of these is significantly inferior to the dimensions of the gas giants, which is evident from the name. The latter include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The main substances in their composition are hydrogen and helium. Pluto is now deprived of the status of a planet and is classified as a Kuiper belt object - ice witnesses of the formation of the solar system located in space beyond Neptune.
Conditional surface
When studying information about gas giants, interesting facts await at every step. A lot is known about the giant planets, and every detail is amazing primarily because it always emphasizes their huge difference from the Earth.
To begin with, there is no surface on these planets in our usual sense. The density here is so low that there is no clear distinction between the atmosphere, mantle, and core. The boundary of the surface is determined by scientists by the magnitude of the pressure: it is where the level of one bar is set. In fact, a mixture of gases extends both in this area and below.
Lord of the seas
Interesting facts about explain why she was given such a name. The color of the cosmic body is deep blue. The beautiful hue is due to the properties of methane clouds in the giant's atmosphere: they absorb red-orange light. Before the final choice of the name, several more options were put forward, but through the efforts of one of the discoverers of the planet Urbain Laverrier and the director of the Pulkovo laboratory N. Ya. Struve, the name of the Roman sea deity was assigned to her.
Neptune, like all gas giants, has satellites. The largest of them, Triton, is no less impressive than the gas giant itself, although it is inferior in size to it. The satellite rotates in the opposite direction to the movement of Neptune around its axis, has an atmosphere. There are supposedly active gas geysers on the surface. On Triton, a significant part of the landscape is formed by ice: methane, ammonia and water. The latter, at the low temperature characteristic of the satellite, becomes hard like a stone and forms whole mountain ranges.
Frozen planet
Uranus, together with Neptune, are among the ice giants, since they, like Triton, contain a large number of frozen inclusions. He contributes significantly to interesting facts about the planets. Uranus was the first major discovery after the invention of the telescope. As a result of its discovery, the idea of what had existed since antiquity was changed. So, interesting facts about the planet Uranus:
First among equals
Interesting facts about the giant planets Saturn and Jupiter are also known in considerable numbers, since they are the best studied among the space giants. Jupiter is 318 times the mass of Earth. Its most famous feature is the large red spot, which has been observed since the middle of the 17th century. According to scientists, this is a huge hurricane-anticyclone. For all the time, while it is being observed, the spot turns pale, then gains brightness again. This is due to the constant collisions of hurricanes in Jupiter's atmosphere.
Saturn is famous for its ring system. By the way, every giant has them, but it is Saturn that has the brightest. It also has one more feature - a hexagon formed by clouds in the atmosphere. Presumably, this is a vortex that appears as a result of the difference in the speed of movement of the planet and its rings. Until the end, however, the nature of education is not clear.
Miracles in the earth group
Interesting facts about planets closer to ours are somewhat different from reports about gas giants due to their different characteristics. At the same time, there are similar moments. For example, Venus, like Uranus, rotates counterclockwise. The sun rises here in the west. But the foggy planet spends more time on rotation around its axis: the length of the day exceeds the length of the year. But interesting facts about this are not limited to:
Red neighbor
Exploration of the space closest to Earth is constantly adding interesting facts about the planet Mars. In a sense, they began to study it even before it became possible to send the first spacecraft: several meteorites that arrived from Mars were discovered on Earth. The planet justifies its name not only by its color, but also by constant strong. They last for several months and cover, like a world war, the entire planet.
Mars is famous and She was named Olympus. It rises above the surface for more than 20 km.
Native home
It would be wrong to skip Earth when listing interesting facts about the planets. Its features include not only life and vast water surfaces. It is the only planet whose name does not correspond to any Roman or Greek deity. Its satellite, the Moon, is the largest among all the companions of the terrestrial planets.
Many interesting facts about planet Earth are sometimes unknown even to its inhabitants. For example, a person's weight depends on their location: it increases in the South Pacific and decreases in the south of India. This difference is one of the mysteries of the planet.
Protects life on it from the effects of ultraviolet radiation and solar wind. The gas shell also saves us from the fall of most meteorites: they burn up in the upper layers without causing harm. At the same time, about 100 tons of cosmic dust, formed as a result of collisions of asteroids and meteorites, falls on the surface of the Blue Planet every day.
However, the most amazing phenomenon of the Earth is still life. The study of the many facts that scientists managed to collect about the Universe helps to understand how incredible it is that we exist. The vast expanses of the explored space are lifeless, the hope that somewhere far away, perhaps outside the galaxy, there is another civilization, is very small. A passionate desire to find life on other planets and a deep sense of loneliness (of humanity in the Universe) are some of the driving forces that motivate astronomers to gather new facts, send spaceships, construct alien conditions in the laboratory.
Thanks to space research, new interesting facts about the planets and the solar system are constantly being discovered. We offer a selection of interesting information about neighbors in space.
- The planet closest to the Sun is Mercury. But the most distant planet turned out to be more difficult to determine. Before the discovery of Pluto, the most distant of them was considered. Subsequently, it turned out that Pluto, due to the large elongation of the orbit at perihelion, comes closer to the Sun than Neptune. And then he was completely deprived of the title of the planet. From the moment of discovery and until the demotion from the planets, he did not manage to make even one revolution around the Sun.
- In 2006 Pluto was struck off the list of planets.... This happened after the discovery of the Kuiper belt beyond the orbit of Neptune, consisting of space objects comparable to Pluto in size. The largest of them are called dwarf planets - Eris, Pluto, Makemake, Haumea.
- Astronomers have proposed to consider Pluto with Charon as a double planet... After all, Charon is only 9 times inferior in weight. And they do not revolve around one another, but around a common center of gravity (baric center). Some scientists believe that the Sun and the giant planet Jupiter make up a double star.
- The relative position of the planets is shown by the largest model of the solar system, created in Sweden at a scale of 1: 20,000,000 and occupying the entire territory of the country. The sun is depicted in the world's largest hemispherical building Ericsson Globe in Stockholm (diameter 110 m). Mercury is located 2900 m from it in the City Museum. Venus at the Royal Polytechnic Institute, Earth at the Natural History Museum, Mars at a shopping center outside the Swedish capital. The outer planets are already far from Stockholm: Jupiter - at the crossroads near Sky City at Arland airport, Saturn - at Celsius Square in Uppsala, the patron saint of fishing Neptune - in the port of Söderhamn. Uranus will be rebuilt after an act of vandalism. Pluto with Charon - near Lake Dellen. Also on this map of the solar system, asteroids, dwarf planets, comets are shown. The latter object is planned to be located in the polar city of Kiruna.
- Jupiter, composed of hydrogen and helium, like the sun, holds the record for mass... It is 2.5 times heavier than all other planets. No wonder the science fiction writer A. Azimov said a joking phrase that the solar system is Jupiter plus some debris.
- Jupiter has tremendous gravity... Therefore, it captures space objects passing by. The most famous case is the fall of fragments of the Shoemaker-Levy comet in 1994, which was observed by scientists around the world. The picture of this cataclysm inspired filmmakers to create disaster films about the collision of the Earth with a large space object - a comet or an asteroid. But it is thanks to Jupiter that most of the space "debris" does not reach the Earth, ending the path near this giant.
- Jupiter has over 60 satellites... Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede were discovered by Galileo. Scientists believe that large satellites of Jupiter may become the first objects of space colonization of mankind. In addition, there is liquid water under the ice on Europa, which means that life can exist. Ganymede and Callisto are also supposed to have water.
- Saturn is famous for its rings... They were discovered by Galileo Galilei, the creator of the first telescope. But later it turned out that the other giant planets also have rings: Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. It is believed that these are fragments of cosmic bodies captured by the gravitational field of planets and destroyed. But the brightest and most noticeable rings are still at Saturn.
- The most rarefied planet - Saturn... The density of its substance is 0.687 g / cm³, that is, it is lighter than water.
- Neptune - a planet "open at the tip of a feather"... Mathematicians Adams and Le Verrier, studying the motion of celestial bodies, each by themselves came to the conclusion that there must be another planet in the solar system. Only its influence could explain deviations in the motion of other planets. And in 1846, astronomer J.G. Halle discovered an unknown object at the predicted location. Since its discovery, the planet has flown around the Sun only once, because this takes about 164 years.
- Neptune has the highest density among the giant planets... But the force of gravity on it is only 17% greater than that of the earth. However, it is impossible to land on its surface, since it consists mainly of gases: hydrogen, helium, methane, etc. Neptune owes its blue color to methane.
- The Voyager spacecraft discovered on the planet Saturn an amazing hexagonal vortex that has existed for several decades. Another vortex - the Great Dark Spot - existed until 1994, and the wind speed there reached an incredible value of 2,400 km per hour! Prior to that, only the permanent vortex "Red Spot" on Jupiter was known.
- Venus has the densest atmosphere, it is composed of carbon dioxide... The clouds on it contain compounds of chlorine, sulfur, sulfuric acid. The temperature on the planet's surface is over 460 ° C.
- Venus does not rotate around the axis like other planets, but from east to west... Moreover, it turns around its axis in 243 days, and around the Sun - much faster, in 225 days. Uranus, spinning on its side, also "breaks the rules."
- The highest mountain in the solar system - Olympus on Mars... The height of this extinct volcano is over 21 km.
There is one easy way for kids to memorize the planets of the Solar System. However, for adults too. It is very similar to how we memorize the colors of the rainbow. All children love various counting rhymes, thanks to which information stays in their memory for a long time.
D To memorize the planets of the solar system, we suggest that you learn a poem with the guys that you can compose yourself, or use the work of A. Hayt:
All planets in order
Any of us will call:
One is Mercury,
Two is Venus,
Three is the Earth,
Four - Mars.
Five is Jupiter
Six - Saturn,
Seven - Uranus,
Behind him is Neptune.
Think again how as a child you memorized the colors of the rainbow. The same principle can be applied with the names of the planets. Build a phrase, each word of which will begin with the same letter as the planet of the solar system in order of its location from the sun. For example:
We
Mercury
Meet you
Venus
Tomorrow
Earth
My
Mars
Young
Jupiter
Companion
Saturn
Gonna fly Now
Uranus
For a little while
Neptune
This is just an example, in fact, you can think of anything, as long as the baby is close in spirit, and he easily memorized the entire sentence. Now that we have figured out exactly how to present any information to children, we can move on to the direct knowledge that you will teach your young astronomers.
Finally, an interesting and simple story for children about what the solar system is.
The solar system is all cosmic bodies that revolve around the sun according to their well-defined trajectories. These include 8 planets and their satellites (their composition is constantly changing, as some objects open, others lose their status), many comets, asteroids and meteorites.
The history of the origin of the planets
There is no definite opinion on this matter, there are only theories and guesses. According to the most widespread opinion, about 5 billion years ago, one of the clouds of the Galaxy began to compress towards the center and formed our Sun. The formed body had a tremendous gravitational force, and all the particles of gas and dust around it began to combine and stick together into balls (these are the present planets).
The sun is not a planet, but a star. The source of energy, life on Earth.
The sun as a star and the center of the solar system
The planets in their orbits revolve around a huge star called the Sun. The planets themselves do not emit any heat, and if it were not for the light of the Sun, which they reflect, then life on Earth would never have arisen. There is a certain classification of stars according to which the Sun is a yellow dwarf, about 5 billion years old.
Satellites of the planets
The solar system does not consist only of one planets, it also includes natural satellites, including the well-known moon to us. In addition to Venus and Mercury, each planet has a certain number of satellites, today there are more than 63. New celestial bodies are constantly being discovered thanks to photographs taken by automatic spacecraft. They are able to detect even the smallest satellite with a diameter of only 10 km (Leda, Jupiter).
Characteristics of each planet in the solar system
Mercury orbiting procession
1. Mercury. This planet is closest to the Sun, in the entire system it is considered the smallest. The surface of Mercury is solid, like all four inner planets (closest to the center). It has the highest rotational speed. During the day, the planet practically burns under the sun's rays (+ 350˚), and at night it freezes over (-170˚).
2. Venus. This planet is more similar to Earth than others in its size, composition and brightness. But the conditions are very different. The atmosphere of Venus is composed of carbon dioxide. There are always a lot of clouds around it, which makes it difficult to observe. The entire surface of Venus is a hot rocky desert.
3. Land- the only planet on which there is oxygen, water, and therefore life. It has an ideal location in relation to the Sun: close enough to receive light and heat in the right amount, and far enough not to burn from the rays. It has an ozone layer that protects all life from radiation. The planet is home to millions of species of living things. including the person.
Comparison of the Earth with other planets of the solar system
The Earth has one satellite - the Moon.
4. Mars. Some scientists have suggested that life also exists on this planet, because it has a number of similarities to Earth. But numerous studies have found no signs of life there. At the moment, two natural satellites of Mars are known: Phobos and Deimos.
5. Jupiter- the largest planet in the solar system, 10 times the diameter of the Earth and 300 times in mass. Jupiter consists of hydrogen, helium and other gases, has 16 satellites.
6. Saturn- the most interesting planet for children, as it has rings that are formed from dust, stones and ice. There are three main rings around Saturn, which are about 30 meters thick.
7. Uranus. This planet also has rings, but it is much more difficult to see them, they appear only at certain times. The main feature of Uranus is its manner of rotation, performed in the "lying on its side" mode.
8. Neptune. Astronomy today calls this planet the last in the solar system. Neptune was discovered only in 1989, since it is located very far from the Sun. Its surface from space looks blue, which cannot but amaze us.
Until 2006, there were 9 planets, including Pluto. But according to the latest scientific data, this space object has ceased to be called a planet. It's a pity ... Although, it became easier for children to memorize.
tyts astronomy for schoolchildren
RECOGNITION MATERIAL
ABOUT SPACE
FOR SENIOR CHILDREN
PRESCHOOL AGE
Planets
Cosmodrome. I stand on the ladder, adjusting my helmet.
"Goodbye!" - I'll shout to my dad, "Goodbye!" - to everyone.
The sky rose above us, leaving a trail
The flame was beating in red light towards the planets.
(Y. Lutskevich)
Nine large planets move around the sun: mercury, Venus, Earth. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
Each of the planets moves around the sun along its own path. This path is called an orbit.
There are also small planets - invisible. Most of them are between Mars and Jupiter.
The sun, together with major and minor planets, constitutes the solar system.
In the solar system, people live only on Earth. There are no living beings on other planets.
Even in ancient times, people noticed several luminaries wandering among the stars. These luminaries began to be called planets. The planets do not shine with their own light, like the stars. The planets are visible in the sky because the sun illuminates them. At first glance, they look like bright stars, but the planets do not twinkle. They glow with an even light. They are brighter than the stars. Through binoculars, you can see that the planets are not visible as dots, but as small disks, circles.
For many centuries, people have studied the planets with the naked eye, then with the help of a telescope - a telescope with magnifying glasses. Now the planets are being studied using automatic interplanetary stations. They fly up to planets and photograph the planet's surface from close range.
Astronauts did not fly to other planets. They flew around the Earth and to the Earth's satellite - the Moon.
The teacher's story about Mercury
This planet is closest to the Sun. Mercury looks huge. Three times more than the Earth.
Mercury is a small planet. It is 20 times smaller than the Earth. It is a lifeless stone ball with mountains, deep ravines and bare, dull stones.
A day on Mercury lasts 90 days - three months. During such a long day, the sun heats up the surface of Mercury very much up to 400 degrees. The heat is unbearable. Then, for 90 days, a black, impenetrable night sets in. Terrible cold. Frost - 150 degrees.
Mercury is easier to see in southern latitudes: it appears in the sky in the evening. Either in the morning (in the first two hours after sunset), then in the early morning (two hours before dawn). It was not for nothing that our distant ancestors found it difficult to guess that the morning and evening stars are one and the same luminary, and they called Set and Horus (Egyptians), Buddha and Roginea (Indians), Apollo and Hermes (Greeks).
Mercury, like the moon, shines with reflected sunlight. Mercury has no atmosphere, which means that life there is impossible not only because of the unbearable temperature for living beings, but also because they have nothing to breathe on Mercury.
The surface of Mercury is covered with craters - people learned about this, having received an image of its surface, made in 1974 by the American spacecraft "Mariner - 10".
The teacher's story about Venus
Venus is not a star, but a planet, just like our Earth. All the planets of the solar system revolve around the sun, each in its own circle. Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is closer to the Sun than the Earth. The hot rays of the sun make the surface of Venus very hot. The temperature on Venus is +500 degrees. Not a single living creature can live in such hell.
There are no forests or seas on Venus. The air on this planet is terribly poisonous and heavy. It presses with its weight with such force as a one kilometer thick layer of water would press on us.
On Venus, hurricanes whistle and howl, clouds of dust raised by the wind rush, stony deserts and rocks stretch. Hot sand.
There are so many clouds over Venus. That she seems to be wrapped in white cotton wool. Sunlight does not penetrate through dense clouds, therefore there is eternal night on the planet.
Venus is about the same size as our Earth. It is closer to the Sun than the Earth. And it manages to fly around the sun in just seven months. Therefore, a year on Venus lasts seven months.
From Earth, Venus seems to be an unusually beautiful planet.
She appears in the sky only in the morning or only in the evening, and people call her the Morning Star, who is the Evening Star. She shines with a soft white light. No star can match the beautiful brilliance of Venus.
People named this planet by the name of the goddess of beauty and laid down beautiful fairy tales about it. It seemed to them that this beautiful girl was riding across the sky in a silver chariot drawn by snow-white horses.
The teacher's story about the Earth
There is one garden planet in this cold space
Only here the forests are rustling birds, clicks of migratory birds,
Only on her one lilies of the valley bloom in the green grass,
And the dragonflies just look at the river in surprise ...
Take care of your planet - there is no other similar one!
Earth is the third planet in the solar system. Like all planets, it moves around the sun. The Earth is a satellite of the Sun.
Our planet not only moves, but rushes in outer space faster than any rocket. And although it flies very quickly. It manages to fly around the sun only once per year. It's a very long way!
The earth not only revolves around the sun. It also rotates around its axis, spins like a top. The Earth substitutes the Sun on one side, then the other. Until it turns once around its axis, 24 hours will pass, that is, a day - day and night.
When astronauts look from space at our planet, it seems to them a luminous ball of beautiful blue color.
The fact that the Earth is round, people guessed even in the old days. At first, they thought that the Earth is a round pancake and you can reach its edge, but not a single daredevil has ever reached the edge of the Earth.
And so the sailor - the traveler Maggelan on five ships decided to go round the Earth.
For three years the ships sailed forward and forward, without changing directions and checking their way in the stars. Four ships were killed in the stormy waters of the ocean. And only one ship called "Victoria" circled the Earth and returned to the port on the other, opposite side.
Educator's story about Mars
Mars is the fourth planet of the solar system, it is a close neighbor of the Earth.
Even in ancient times, people noticed a bright orange fiery star in the sky. And they named it in honor of the god of war - Mars. It is curious that many science fiction writers inhabited the red planet with living creatures - or militant monsters, either similar to people, or hostile to them. Nowadays, journalists call Mars the Bermuda Triangle? Almost all space missions to Mars end in failure.
As on Earth, on Mars there are days and nights, as well as winter, spring, summer, autumn. Each of these seasons is twice as long as on Earth. This is because on Mars, a year is almost two Earth years, because Mars is farther from the Sun, and it takes more time to fly around the sun. Well, if Mars is farther from the Sun, then the sun warms worse there. Therefore, the winter is harsher there, and the summer is colder. The highest temperature on Mars during the day is + 15 degrees, and at night - 100 degrees below zero.
During the day, the sky of Mars seems soft - pink. This color is given to it by the Martian dust illuminated by the Sun.
At the end of the 20th century, the Vikings spacecraft transmitted to Earth the image of the planet Mars - absolutely lifeless landscapes, similar to terrestrial deserts. Uncomfortable and unfriendly on Mars. Strong winds raise clouds of red Martian dust; huge deserts are strewn with stones. Mountains with sharp peaks rise upward.
The air on Mars is made of gas that humans cannot breathe. There is no oxygen and water on Mars. There is no life.
The teacher's story about Jupiter
Jupiter has played an important role in astronomer history twice. He became the first planet to have satellites discovered. It happened almost four hundred years ago. The discovery was made by the world famous scientist Galileo. The fast and clearly visible movement of Jupiter's satellites makes it a very convenient heavenly clock, and sailors used to use it to determine the position of a ship on the high seas.
And further. Jupiter and its satellite helped to solve one of the most ancient mysteries: does light travel at lightning speed or is it not so fast? Through complex calculations based on observations, O. Romer determined that light moves quickly at a speed of 3000 km / sec.
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. This is a giant planet. It is ten times the size of the Earth.
Slowly and majestically, bright Jupiter moves around the Sun. Twenty years will pass on Earth, and Jupiter will fly around our sun only once. Very far from the star, he has to go a very long way.
Jupiter is so far from the Sun that the sun's rays do not warm it at all. This is a very cold planet.
Jupiter does not have a solid surface like Earth, Venus, Maar and Mercury. It is a huge ball of dense clouds of dust and gas.
Terrible storms and thunderstorms rage on Jupiter, which do not happen on Earth. This is the most restless and formidable planet.
The air on Jupiter is poisonous and unbreathable.
Around its axis, Jupiter spins very quickly, like a top. Only ten hours last a day on Jupiter: five hours a day and five hours a night.
Jupiter has 16 satellites that revolve around it, each of them with its own history and with its own mysteries, which mankind managed to solve only in the space age. You will find out about this. When you get older and read books on astronomy.
The teacher's story about Saturn
There is one star in the sky
What - I will not say
But every night from the window
I look at her.
She shimmers so brightly!
And somewhere in the sea
Probably a sailor now
She checks the path
(G. Kruzhkov)
This is the sixth planet in the solar system. Saturn, like all planets. It makes its flight around the Sun. The further the planet is from the sun, the longer its path. It takes Saturn 30 Earth years to complete one circle.
Light yellow Saturn looks much more modest than orange Jupiter. It does not have, like its neighbor, a colorful cloud cover. But there are rings that other planets do not have. They have excited the imagination of many scientists with their unique shape. Only three rings are distinguishable from Earth. These rings are thin, but very wide - many thousands of kilometers wide. They consist of stones and ice, which, like satellites, move around Saturn. There are so many of these small stones and pieces of ice that they merge into solid rings.
Saturn does not have a solid surface like Earth, Venus or Mars. Saturn. Like Jupiter, it is a giant ball of gas 9 times the size of Earth.
This planet is very far from the Sun, so the solar heat does not reach Saturn. Eternal cold reigns there, frost up to - 180 degrees.
Like all planets, Saturn rotates around itself. Saturn makes one revolution around its axis in 10 hours
moon
If you try very hard,
If you really want to,
You can go up to heaven
And fly to the sun.
And seriously, not pretend
Get to know the moon
Take a walk on it a little
And come back home again. (S. Baruzdin.)
The moon is not a star or a planet. She is a satellite of the Earth, a large stone ball, which is several times smaller than the earth.
The moon is the closest celestial body to the Earth, the distance to it is 384 thousand kilometers.
If you look at the moon with binoculars, you can see dark and light spots on it. The bright spots are the lunar seas. In fact, there is not a drop of water in these seas. Previously, people did not know this, which is why they called them seas.
There is no water on the moon. No air. There is no rain or snow. You can't live on the moon.
The entire surface of the Moon is covered with a thick layer of dust. Astronauts who have been to the moon say. That she looks as if she hasn't been dust-wiped for years.
On the surface of the Moon during the day there is a heat up to 130 degrees, and at night - frost - 170 degrees.
The moon shines because. That the sun illuminates it. From the Earth, the Moon can be seen now round, now like a sickle, sometimes it is not visible at all. This is because. That it is illuminated in different ways by the Sun, and we see only the illuminated part of the Moon. Therefore, it constantly changes its appearance. The moon moves around the Earth and goes around it once a month.
The first to fly to the moon in a spaceship were American astronauts.
Stars
Who looked at the starry dome
Frosty in late autumn,
He saw how the Star Swan
Rises to the zenith
He heard, as in the blue sky
The starry lyre is ringing.
In the old days, people thought that stars were shining lanterns. Suspended from the crystal vault of the sky. After all, then they did not yet know that each star is a distant Sun, which is billions of times larger than the Earth.
The stars are huge red-hot balls, similar to our Sun. They are very far from the Earth and therefore do not warm and seem very small.
There are a lot of stars in the sky, and to understand them. People have combined groups of stars into constellations. People gave names to constellations and the brightest stars.
In the night sky, the stars twinkle with different light: blue, white, yellow, red.
White and blue stars are very, very hot. They are hotter than the sun. Yellow stars are colder than white ones. They are about the same as our Sun. Reddish stars are colder than the Sun.
The stars differ in size from each other: there are red giants, normal stars and white dwarfs.
Our Sun is a star. Perhaps other stars similar to the Sun have planets and their satellites. Perhaps there is life on those planets. But we do not know about this yet.
The sun
Shine on us, sun, shine!
It's easy to live with you.
And even a song on the way
It is sung by itself.
From us behind the clouds - clouds
Don't go, don't -
And the forest, and the field, and the river are happy with the warmth and the sun.
Listen to my song: shine from morning till night
And I'll sing to you again, sing when you want. (Ya Akim)
The sun is a huge ball of fire. The temperature on the surface of the Sun is 20 million degrees.
It seems to us that the Sun is a small circle. This is because. That it is located at a very great distance from the Earth. In fact, the sun is huge. It is 109 times larger than the Earth, the sun - the ball - the giant. If you could put the Sun next to the ground, it would look like a big soccer ball next to a pea.
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is 150 million kilometers. Therefore, the sun's rays do not burn, but only warm and illuminate our planet.
Without the Sun there would be no life on earth. Plants, animals and people live only because the Sun gives them life. Even the ancient people understood this and worshiped the Sun as a god. They thanked him for his warmth and welcomed him to sunrise in the morning.
The Sun is the closest star to the Earth, it is the center of the solar system. Our planet Earth is one of the nine planets in the solar system.
Comets
Throwing out its fiery tail, the comet rushes between the stars Rushing at wild speeds, was at the sun in the guests And I saw the Earth in the distance and new satellites of the Earth and was carried away from the Earth, ships flew after it! (G. Saprir)
Comets are heavenly travelers. These are huge blocks of stone and ice. Sometimes they are called "dirty snowballs" for this.
But there are comets. Which return to the Sun from time to time. For example, Halley's comet does this every 76 years. Halley is the scientist who first noticed this comet. Comets are always named after the people who discovered them.
More recently, the Americans Hale and Bopp discovered a new bright comet that first flew into the solar system. Now they call it that - comet - Hale - Bopp.
In March and April 1997, she appeared in the sky in the morning and in the evening. And anyone could admire its silvery sheen. This comet is a very rare visitor. Scientists believe that the next time it will approach in about two and a half thousand years.
When a comet approaches the Sun, it can be seen in the sky even without binoculars and a telescope, because it has a glowing tail. This is a cometary tail - a plume formed from dust and gas. The comet flies away from the Sun, its body cools down, the tail disappears, and a cold block travels in space again. Comet tails are not terrible for the Earth, although they frightened people in ancient times. More dangerous is the solid body of a comet. But, fortunately, outer space is so huge that we can not be afraid of these meetings.
Cosmonauts
The chief designer told me: - The takeoff will not be very smooth ...
The heart will, perhaps, often go to the heels ...
Raise your heels higher - that will be all right
And then the heart will not go away for the entire flight ... (A. Shalygin)
This profession has appeared quite recently. An astronaut is a person who tests space technology and works on it in space.
Now there are astronauts in almost all countries of the world. But only two countries in the world build spaceships and send them into space - Russia and America. Cosmonauts from all over the world worked on Russian spacecraft: from France, from America. From Japan, China and many other countries.
The first cosmonaut on Earth was Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin. On April 12, 1961, on the 2Vostok spacecraft, it orbited the Earth once every 1 hour and 48 minutes. He returned to Earth safe and sound. And scientists decided that man can live and work in space.
Now astronauts spend many months, and some more than a year, at space scientific stations.
The Mir space station was built in Russia. She has flown and operated in low-earth orbit since 1986. One cosmonaut crew is replaced by another. Not a single hour stops work on the space station. Astronauts observe the stars, the planet and the Sun, photograph and study the Earth. They take care of plants and animals that live at the station, renovate their space house, and carry out many scientific experiments.
The space flight is monitored from Earth from the control center.
Many astronauts have flown into space several times.
Astronauts are courageous people. They live and work in unusual conditions - in zero gravity, in a silent and dangerous space.
Astronauts
American astronauts are called astronauts. American astronauts were the first humans to fly to the moon.
In July 1969, the American Apollo spacecraft rushed the inhabitants of the Earth to our space neighbor. When the spacecraft approached the Moon, a special lunar cabin separated from it. And her astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin descended to the surface of the moon.
For several hours, earthlings walked on the surface of the moon, examining the surroundings, collecting stones and photographing lunar landscapes.
Astronauts walked on the moon in special spacesuits, and talked to each other by radiotelephone, because there is no air on the moon and no voice can be heard. No sounds. The astronauts moved on the moon as if bouncing. Pushing off with one or the other leg, because objects on the Moon are many times lighter than on Earth.
They left on the moon medals with portraits of the first cosmonauts and a plaque with the words "We arrived in peace on behalf of all mankind." Who knows, maybe some alien will read this letter from planet Earth someday.
The astronauts then returned to the spacecraft, which was waiting for them in circumlunar orbit. And three days later, Apollo splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
Thus ended the first flight to the moon. After that, several more times American astronauts flew to the moon.
The inhabitants of the Earth have not yet been to other planets and their satellites, but sent automatic space stations there.
Astronomers
How tempting it is to become an astronomer, familiar with the universe!
It would not be at all bad: to observe the work of Saturn,
Admire the constellation Lyra, discover black holes
And compose a treatise without fail - "Explore the depths of the Universe!"
Astronomers are scientists who observe and study stars.
In those distant times, when people still did not know how to read and write, they watched with amazement what was happening in the sky. It seemed to them that the sky is a crystal cap that covers the Earth, and the stars are attached to the firmament for decoration.
Ancient people thought that the Earth was stationary, and the Sun, Moon and stars revolved around the Earth.
Many years later, the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus proved that the earth revolves around the sun.
Another scientist, Newton, got it. Why the planets don't fall: they are mutually attracted to each other and do not allow each other to move away from themselves or come closer to themselves. Therefore, they all fly around the Sun, each in its own way.
So gradually scientists discovered the secrets of space.
Ancient astronomers studied stars without special instruments, observing the sky from Earth. In the Middle Ages, scientists invented the telescope and telescope to view distant stars. Now artificial satellites and space stations fly in space, which explore planets and stars.
The universe still has many mysteries, and astronomers have enough work to do for a long time.
Satellite
What kind of a relative of the moon is there,
nephew or granddaughter
Flickering between the clouds? -
Yes, it's a satellite! These are the times!
He is a satellite of each of us and the whole Earth in general
The satellite was created by hands, and then on the rocket
Delivered to the distance (Y. Yakovlev).
This is the name of the heavenly body. Which all the time circles around the other. Many planets have natural satellites. The Earth also has a natural satellite - the Moon - and a lot of artificial satellites made by human hands.
Maybe you saw a twinkling star rolling across the night sky? This star is a satellite illuminated by the rays of the Sun.
The first Earth satellite was launched in Russia on October 4, 1957. Then the same satellites were launched in the USA and other countries. Now thousands of artificial satellites fly around the Earth.
Satellites help to watch TV programs, conduct telephone conversations, send and receive telegrams, connect people with each other. Therefore, they are called connected.
With the help of satellites, the captain leads the ship across the boundless waters of the ocean. Flying around the Earth, satellites continuously send radio signals. From these signals, the captain determines where to sail for the ship.
Circling around the Earth, the satellite uses television cameras to observe our planet. Clouds, hurricanes, storms are clearly visible from the flight altitude. You can see where with what speed they are moving. The satellite transmits its observations to the Earth, and from them meteorologists make up a weather forecast. People created artificial satellites to help them study the Earth, the Sun, planets, stars, and unravel the mysteries of nature.
Universe
The entire immense world outside the Earth is called space. Space is also called by another word - the Universe.
The cosmos, or the universe, has no end or limit. The universe is filled with countless stars, planets, comets and other celestial bodies. In space, clouds of cosmic dust and gas rush. In this interstellar desert, cosmic cold and darkness reigns. There is no air in space.
There is not a single celestial body in the universe that would stand still. They all move. It seems to us that the stars are motionless. But in fact, the stars are so far away that we do not notice that they are rushing in space with great speed.
In this endless and eternal Universe, our Earth is a small planet, and our Sun is an ordinary star closest to the Earth.
Our Earth flies in space together with other celestial bodies.
Each star, planet, comet or some other celestial body moves in the Universe along its own path. There is a strict order in the universe, none of the planets or stars will go out of their way, from their orbit and not collide with one another.
The word "space" means the word "order, order".
The planets of the solar system
According to the official position of the International Astronomical Union (IAS), the organization that assigns names to astronomical objects, there are only 8 planets.
Pluto was excluded from the category of planets in 2006. since in the Kuiper belt there are objects that are larger / or equal in size to Pluto. Therefore, even if it is taken for a full-fledged celestial body, then it is necessary to add Eris to this category, which has almost the same size with Pluto.
As defined by MAC, there are 8 known planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
All planets are divided into two categories depending on their physical characteristics: the terrestrial group and the gas giants.
Schematic representation of the location of the planets
Terrestrial planets
Mercury
The smallest planet in the solar system has a radius of only 2,440 km. The period of revolution around the Sun, for ease of understanding, equated to the Earth's year, is 88 days, while Mercury manages to complete a revolution around its own axis only one and a half times. Thus, its day lasts approximately 59 Earth days. For a long time it was believed that this planet was all the time turned to the Sun by the same side, since the periods of its visibility from the Earth were repeated with a frequency approximately equal to four Mercury days. This misconception was dispelled with the advent of the possibility of using radar research and conducting constant observations using space stations. The orbit of Mercury is one of the most unstable, changing not only the speed of movement and its distance from the Sun, but also the position itself. Anyone interested can observe this effect.
Mercury in color, image from the MESSENGER spacecraft
The proximity to the Sun has caused Mercury to experience the largest temperature fluctuations among the planets of our system. The average daytime temperature is around 350 degrees Celsius and the nighttime temperature is -170 ° C. Sodium, oxygen, helium, potassium, hydrogen and argon were found in the atmosphere. There is a theory that he was previously a satellite of Venus, but so far this remains unproven. He has no satellites of his own.
Venus
The second planet from the Sun, the atmosphere of which is almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide. It is often called the Morning Star and the Evening Star, because it is the first of the stars that becomes visible after sunset, just as before dawn it continues to be visible even when all other stars have disappeared from sight. The percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 96%, nitrogen in it is relatively small - almost 4%, and water vapor and oxygen are present in very small quantities.
Venus in the UV spectrum
This atmosphere creates a greenhouse effect, the surface temperature is therefore even higher than that of Mercury and reaches 475 ° C. It is considered the most leisurely, the Venusian day lasts 243 Earth days, which is almost equal to a year on Venus - 225 Earth days. Many call it the sister of the Earth because of its mass and radius, the values of which are very close to those of the Earth. The radius of Venus is 6052 km (0.85% of the Earth). There are no satellites, like Mercury.
The third planet from the Sun and the only one in our system where there is liquid water on the surface, without which life on the planet could not develop. At least life as we know it. The radius of the Earth is 6371 km and, unlike the rest of the celestial bodies of our system, more than 70% of its surface is covered with water. The rest of the space is occupied by continents. Another feature of the Earth is the tectonic plates hidden under the planet's mantle. At the same time, they are able to move, albeit at a very low speed, which over time causes a change in the landscape. The speed of the planet moving along it is 29-30 km / sec.
Our planet from space
One revolution on its axis takes almost 24 hours, and the full orbital passage lasts 365 days, which is much longer in comparison with the nearest neighboring planets. The Earth's day and year are also taken as a standard, but this was done only for the convenience of perception of time intervals on the other planets. The Earth has one natural satellite - the Moon.
Mars
The fourth planet from the Sun, known for its tenuous atmosphere. Since 1960, Mars has been actively explored by scientists from several countries, including the USSR and the United States. Not all exploration programs have been successful, but water found in some areas suggests that primitive life on Mars exists, or has existed in the past.
The brightness of this planet allows you to see it from Earth without any instruments. Moreover, once every 15-17 years, during the Opposition, it becomes the brightest object in the sky, eclipsing even Jupiter and Venus.
The radius is almost half that of the Earth and is 3390 km, but the year is much longer - 687 days. He has 2 satellites - Phobos and Deimos .
An illustrative model of the solar system
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The sun
The sun is a star, which is a hot ball of incandescent gases at the center of our solar system. Its influence extends far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto. Without the Sun and its intense energy and heat, there would be no life on Earth. There are billions of stars, like our Sun, scattered across the Milky Way galaxy.
Mercury
Scorched by the Sun, Mercury is only slightly larger than Earth's satellite Moon. Like the Moon, Mercury is practically devoid of an atmosphere and cannot smooth out the traces of impact from falling meteorites, therefore, like the Moon, it is covered with craters. The daytime side of Mercury gets very hot on the Sun, while on the night side the temperature drops hundreds of degrees below zero. There is ice in the craters of Mercury, which are located at the poles. Mercury makes one revolution around the Sun every 88 days.
Venus
Venus is a world of monstrous heat (even more than on Mercury) and volcanic activity. Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus is covered in a thick and toxic atmosphere that creates a strong greenhouse effect. This scorched world is hot enough to melt lead. Radar images through the mighty atmosphere have revealed volcanoes and warped mountains. Venus rotates in the opposite direction from the rotation of most planets.
Earth is an ocean planet. Our home, with its abundance of water and life, makes it unique in our solar system. Other planets, including several moons, also have ice deposits, atmosphere, seasons and even weather, but only on Earth did all these components come together in such a way that life became possible.
Mars
Although details of Mars' surface are difficult to see from Earth, telescope observations show that Mars has seasons and white spots at the poles. For decades, people believed that the bright and dark areas on Mars were patches of vegetation and that Mars might be a suitable place for life, and that water exists in the polar caps. When the spacecraft Mariner 4 flew off Mars in 1965, many of the scientists were shocked to see photographs of the gloomy planet covered in craters. Mars turned out to be a dead planet. Later missions, however, revealed that Mars holds many secrets that still remain to be solved.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system, with four large moons and many small moons. Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. To turn into a full-fledged star, Jupiter had to become 80 times more massive.
Saturn
Saturn is the farthest of the five planets that were known before the invention of the telescope. Like Jupiter, Saturn is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Its volume is 755 times that of the Earth. Winds in its atmosphere reach speeds of 500 meters per second. These fast winds, combined with the heat rising from the planet's interior, are causing the yellow and golden streaks we see in the atmosphere.
Uranus
The first planet found with a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel. The seventh planet is so far from the Sun that one revolution around the Sun takes 84 years.
Neptune
Nearly 4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, distant Neptune orbits. It takes 165 years for one revolution around the Sun. It is invisible to the naked eye due to its great distance from Earth. It is interesting that its unusual elliptical orbit intersects with the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto, which is why Pluto is inside the orbit of Neptune for about 20 years out of 248 during which it makes one revolution around the Sun.
Pluto
Tiny, cold and incredibly distant, Pluto was discovered in 1930 and has long been considered the ninth planet. But after the discoveries of Pluto-like worlds that were even further away, Pluto was transferred to the category of dwarf planets in 2006.
Planets are giants
There are four gas giants located beyond the orbit of Mars: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. They are found in the outer solar system. They are distinguished by their massiveness and gas composition.
Planets of the solar system, not to scale
Jupiter
The fifth in a row from the Sun and the largest planet in our system. Its radius is 69912 km, it is 19 times larger than the Earth and only 10 times smaller than the Sun. The year on Jupiter is not the longest in the solar system, it lasts 4333 Earth days (less than 12 years). His own day has a duration of about 10 Earth hours. The exact composition of the planet's surface has not yet been determined, but it is known that krypton, argon and xenon are present on Jupiter in much larger quantities than on the Sun.
It is believed that one of the four gas giants is actually a failed star. This theory is supported by the largest number of satellites, of which Jupiter has many - as many as 67. To imagine their behavior in the planet's orbit, a sufficiently accurate and precise model of the solar system is needed. The largest of them are Callisto, Ganymede, Io and Europa. At the same time, Ganymede is the largest satellite of the planets in the entire solar system, its radius is 2634 km, which is 8% larger than the size of Mercury, the smallest planet in our system. Io differs in that it is one of three satellites with an atmosphere.
Saturn
The second largest planet and the sixth in the solar system. Compared to other planets, the composition of chemical elements is most similar to the Sun. The radius of the surface is 57350 km, the year is 10 759 days (almost 30 Earth years). The day here lasts a little longer than on Jupiter - 10.5 Earth hours. By the number of satellites, it is not much behind its neighbor - 62 against 67. The largest satellite of Saturn is Titan, just like Io, which has an atmosphere. Slightly smaller in size, but no less famous from this - Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Iapetus and Mimas. It is these satellites that are the objects for the most frequent observation, and therefore we can say that they are the most studied in comparison with the rest.
For a long time, the rings on Saturn were considered a unique phenomenon inherent only to him. It has only recently been established that rings are present in all gas giants, but in others they are not so clearly visible. Their origin has not yet been established, although there are several hypotheses about how they came about. In addition, quite recently it was discovered that Rhea, one of the satellites of the sixth planet, also possesses a kind of rings.