Solar System Essay in English
Have you ever wondered, what are those tiny and sparkling little dots in the dark sky that we always gaze in a summer night? Many of them are stars, like our Sun, but some of them are planets, like our Earth. Do you know, that there is not just the Earth, our Sun, or Moon, but a whole family of planets and host of other extraterrestrial objects surrounding us? The answers to all such questions are hidden in our Solar system.
The Solar system consists of our Sun and the eight planets, that revolves around it: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It also consists of other objects like asteroids, meteors, comets, etc. that makes up the whole Solar system. But the journey towards finding all these members wasn’t as easy as it seems, but it took around centuries of hard work and the human mind’s habit of continuously asking questions, that has led us to today.
Discovery of the Solar System
It would be surprising to many that for thousands of years, people believed that the Earth was the centre of this whole Universe, and all these planets, including the Sun, were revolving around it! This model of Universe, where Earth was at the centre, was named as the “Geocentric” model.
But then came the Polish Astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, who challenged this false model, and put forward a new model, where instead of the Earth, the Sun is considered to be at the centre and all the planets, including our Earth, were considered to be revolving around it.
It was called the “Heliocentric” model. This model met with a lot of resistance, but finally, it was accepted when in 1543, an Italian Astronomer, Galileo Galilei proved the Heliocentric model. Later on, when physicists like Sir Issac Newton and Johannes Kepler supported it through their various laws, the Heliocentric model grew so much that it knew no bounds!
But, centuries had passed since the Heliocentric model was announced, and in between many mind-boggling scientific developments had led us to even an evolutionary theory of the Solar System, which explains us of how it all started!
Evolution of the Solar System
It all began at about 4.5 billion years ago. Space was surrounded by gigantic clouds of gas and space dust, and then all of a sudden, there’s an explosion! Scientists believe this blast was caused by a supernova, i.e. when a star explodes. Due to this explosion, all the matter present got crushed in a plate, like a crushed plastic bottle. The centre of this plate got extremely hot, forming what is currently our Sun.
Now, due to Sun’s enormous gravity, all the other remaining dust particles started to revolve around this centre. They collided with each other and started bumping into each other, forming round objects; which gives us our planets.
Planets in our Solar System
Our Sun is the reason for the name Solar System, Sol is the Roman name for Sun. It covers around 99.5% of the Solar System’s mass. It is due to Sun’s enormous energy, that life is possible on planets like Earth. All the planets revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits.
1. Mercury
It is the closest planet to the Sun, which makes it the first planet of the Solar system. It was named after the Roman messenger god, who was known for its speed; and the name fits because Mercury is the fastest planet to cover one revolution around the Sun, due to short distance coverage. But despite being the quickest planet to complete one round trip around the Sun, it is still very slow; for example, one day on earth is equalled to 59 days on Mercury! Also, it has no satellites.
2. Venus
Named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love, it is almost of the same size as that of the Earth. Also, it has a very thick atmosphere, making it the hottest planet in the entire Solar system. The peculiar thing about Venus is that it rotates clockwise when viewed from the top of the North Pole, which is opposite than all the other planets. Also, it completes one revolution around the Sun in 224.7 Earth days.
3. Earth
Now comes the only planet with life in the whole of the Solar system. It is the only planet that is not named after any God. It is 70% made up of water, and its thin atmosphere protects us from any sort of harmful rays, coming from the outer space.
4. Mars
The fourth planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman God of War. Also known as the “Red Planet”, it has almost similar temperatures when compared to the Earth. It is also believed that this planet also had water once on its surface. The famous “Mangalyaan Mission” of India was regarding this planet. It has two moons.
5. Jupiter
The largest planet of the Solar system, is named after the King of the Roman Gods. It is so big that it can fit more than 1000 Earth! It also has the highest number of satellites, i.e. 63. It is famous for its “Great Red Spot”, which group of hurricanes, that have been storming for more than hundreds of years. What is more shocking is that the size of this spot alone is more than that of the Earth!
6. Saturn
Named after the Roman God of Agriculture, this planet is famous for its visible rings. It is the second-largest planet and is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. Its rings are mostly made up of ice. It has around 60 satellites.
7. Uranus
The only planet named after a Greek God. It is a unique planet, in regards that it rotates horizontally. It is believed that Uranus’s surface can be a huge ocean. It takes 84 years to complete one revolution around the Earth. It has 27 satellites, and also its clouds are amongst the brightest ones in the sky.
8. Neptune
The farthest planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman God of Sea. It is so far that it is impossible to see it with a naked eye. Neptune completes its one orbit around the Earth in 165 Earth years. Neptune has 13 moons.
Despite years of exploration, we come to know that as we know more about the Universe, we learnt that there’s more left unknown. These planets, which are unique and very different from each other, just showcases none other than humans, which are too different, but still same! Just as Carl Sagan once said:
“The COSMOS is within us. WE are made of star-stuff. WE are a way for the Universe TO KNOW ITSELF.”
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