Dimensions of planets and other objects of the solar system

Around the Sun eight largest celestial bodies - planets move. In addition to the Earth in the solar system, there are such planets as Mercury - the nearest to the luminary, Venus - the second planet from the Sun, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus. This is the order of the planets. Earlier, Pluto was also referred to the planets, but since 2006 this space object has lost its status, and today it is classified as planetoids, small planets. Almost all space objects can be seen in the sky with the naked eye, only Uranus and Neptune can be viewed through a telescope.

Dimensions of the planets and the Sun  

People have known about the planets since ancient times. The nearest neighbors of the Earth are Mars and Venus, whose radius is 6052 kilometers, the farthest are Uranus and Neptune.

All the celestial bodies of the solar system are divided into two categories. The first include objects of the terrestrial group, or the so-called inner planets nearest to the Sun - this is Earth, Mars, Mercury and Venus. All these celestial bodies have a solid surface, they have a high density, despite the internal liquid core. The largest in this group is the Earth.

The second category includes all other objects, called "giant planets." They are located farthest from the Sun, and the dimensions of the planets of this group are much larger than the terrestrial ones. They are also called outer planets. For example, the weight of Jupiter is three hundred times greater than the weight of the Earth. In addition, the giant planets differ in their structure from the objects of the terrestrial group: they basically consist of gases (hydrogen and helium), and they are similar to other stars. They are also called "gas giants".

The dimensions of the planets affect their speed of rotation around their own axis, the duration of the day and night.

In addition to the celestial bodies described, our system includes satellites of the planets. Altogether, 54 satellites rotate around the planets. The moon is the companion of the Earth, Mars and Neptune have two satellites each. Most satellites in Saturn are seventeen, and some of them are larger than the Moon. Many satellites from Uranus and Jupiter, and only Mercury and Venus remained alone.

Thousands of different small bodies also glide along and across the Solar System: comets, asteroids, millions of meteorites, particles of gas dust matter, scattered atoms of different chemical elements, fluxes of atomic particles.

The asteroid belt is located between Jupiter and Mars. The asteroid is a small cosmic body. The dimensions of the asteroids vary from several tens of meters to thousands of kilometers. The largest of these are Juno, Pallas, Ceres.

In general, all the cosmic bodies of the solar system are in balance due to the attraction of the sun. They all revolve around the luminary in one plane (according to the ecliptic), and in one direction. An exception are only some comets. Almost all celestial bodies rotate around their axis.

The mass of the Sun accounts for almost 99.80% of the mass of the entire solar system. The remaining mass is 99% taken up by the gas giants (Saturn and Jupiter). According to astronomers, the size of our system is not less than 60.0 billion kilometers - it is very difficult to imagine such a distance. Between stars the distance is measured in astronomical units. One and. Ie it equals the distance between the Sun and the Earth (about 150.0 million km).

To imagine the scale of the solar system and the size of the planets, you can use the following model, the parameters of which will be reduced by a billion times. Thus, the diameter of the Earth will be 1.3 cm, the moon will be located 30 cm from it, Jupiter will be the size of grapefruit, and a person can be compared to an atom. The diameter of the Sun will be one and a half meters, and it will be located 150 meters from the Earth. The nearest star in this model will be located at a distance of forty thousand kilometers.