Solar System

massive solar flares. The first eruption, classified as an X2.2 flare, the strongest since 2008, occurred at 5:10 a.m. ET. Shortly after, at 8:02 a.m ET, the star spewed out a bigger, and more dramatic, X9.3 flare — the strongest on record since December 2006. Solar flares, or storms, beginning with an explosion usually above a sunspot, the area where strong magnetic fields poke through the sun's surface. When these spots become unstable, they erupt, releasing significant amounts of energy.…

eight planets within our solar system; Nine, if you consider Pluto to be a planet. When we, as an average audience, look at the Saturn we automatically think that it’s that one planet with the the ring around it. Some people even assume that it’s the one and only planet with a ring about it. Those people would be wrong. Saturn is one of four planets that have rings in their orbit. The other three would include Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune. The sixth planet in our solar system definitely has the…

On February 18th, 1930 the dwarf planet known as Pluto was discovered! It was discovered by an astronomer named Clyde Tombaugh and named by an 11-year-old girl. It was the farthest planet and the smallest. However when it was discovered it was named a planet because they did not have much information about it. They assumed it was a planet. It looked like a planet so they thought it was a planet. 76 years after Pluto was discovered on August 24th, 2006 astronomers demoted Pluto from planet status…

There are many legends/stories surrounding the discovery of Saturn. According to mythology, the Assyrians were the first people to record sightings of Saturn. They spotted Saturn as a bright light and named it the Star of Ninib, in honor of the Assyrian sun god of springtime. Later the Greeks and Romans had their own ideas of this strange wandering planet. The Greeks named it Cronus, ruler of the Titans. The Romans later changed the planet’s name to Saturn. Both cultures identified Saturn as the…

Neptune is one of the four large planets in our Solar System known as Gas Giants. It is the eighth planet in order from the Sun, and was seen through a telescope for the first time on the 23rd of September 1846. Keeping to the traditional naming system used for all the previous planets, Neptune was given its name based on the Roman god of the sea, in reference to Greek and Roman mythology. General Information: Neptune has a vivid blue colouration to its layer of cloud cover. Higher…

scientific significance of New Horizons was great. Up to this point, we had uncovered several mysteries about the planets in the solar system. However, the dwarf planets and smaller objects in our solar system’s outer reaches had great potential for scientific discovery as well. Pluto was chief among these. Specifically, the mission of New Horizons was to explore the Pluto – Charon system, as well as some of their Kuiper Belt cousins (New Frontiers Program, 2015). More specifically, the mission…

The Sun is a massive, white ball of gas that fuels the solar system. Without it, life wouldn’t be able to survive on earth. It has lived for billions of years, providing energy and light. Nothing can live without it. The Sun, which is also called Sol, is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old with up to five billion years left in its life. It is currently in its yellow dwarf phase of life. It is located in the Milky Way galaxy in a spiral arm known as the Orion Arm. The Sun orbits the center of…

There is Another Jupiter and We Have a Photo of It! In a solar system far away, there is a planet which is quite similar to Jupiter and some believe that they are something like siblings. Scientists have taken a photograph of a big planet which is supposed to reveal clues about Jupiter-y planets and their creation and planetary siblings. At a distance of 96 light years from Earth, the planet which is known as 51 Eribani b, was photographed by the Gemini Planet Imager, which, according to the…

Planet in the solar system and the ninth Planet from the sun, little after Pluto was recategorized From a planet to a Dwarf Planet, but still smaller than other Dwarf Planets meaning that It can not clear any objects out of its path. Dwarf Planet Pluto was discovered to have five moons Hydra, Kerberos, Nix, Styx, and Charon the largest moon.…

The sun may rise from the west. This argument is deductive but is quite weak to hold true. This may be due to the fact that the laws of motion and the solar system does not permit the sun to rise from the west and sets in the east. This argument may be tested on the basis of different…