Our solar system consists of an average star we call the Sun, the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. It includes: the satellites of the planets; numerous comets, asteroids, and meteoroids; and the interplanetary medium. The Sun is the richest source of electromagnetic energy (mostly in the form of heat and light) in the solar system. The Sun's nearest known stellar neighbor is a red dwarf star called Proximal Centauri, at a distance of 4.3 light years away. The whole solar system, together with the local stars visible on a clear night, orbits the center of our home galaxy, a spiral disk of 200 billion stars we call the Milky Way. The Milky Way has two small galaxies orbiting it nearby, which are visible from the southern hemisphere. They are called the Large Magellan Cloud and the Small Magellan Cloud. The nearest large galaxy is the Androgen Galaxy. It is a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way but is 4 times as massive and is 2 million light years away. Our galaxy, one of billions of galaxies known, is traveling through intergalactic space.
A star is a ball of gas held together by its own gravity. The force of gravity is continually trying to cause the star to collapse. The pressure of hot gas and/or radiation in the stars interior counteracts this. This is called hydrostatic support. During most of the lifetime of a star, the interior heat and radiation is provided by nuclear reactions near the center; this is phase of the star's life is called the main sequence.The stars appear to move from east to west. This is so, because the earth rotates from west to east about an imaginary axis that passes through its center. However, there is one star, which appears stationary to us. This star is situated in the north direction and is known as POLARIS or POLE STAR or Druv Tara. The pole star had been one of the most familiar stars to travelers in earlier times to find direction at night. The star now requires a series of less efficient nuclear reactions for internal heat, before finally collapsing when these no longer generate sufficient heat to support the star against its own gravity
The constellations are totally imaginary things that poets, farmers and astronomers have made up over the past 6,000 years (and probably even more!). The real purpose for the constellations is to help us tell which stars are which, nothing more. On a really dark night, you can see about 1000 to 1500 stars. Trying to tell which is which is hard. The constellations help by breaking up the sky into more manageable bits. They are used as mnemonics, or memory aids. For example, if you spot three bright stars in a row in the winter evening, you might realize, "Oh! That's part of Orion!" Suddenly, the rest of the constellation falls into place and you can declare: "There's Betelgeuse in Orion's left shoulder and Rigel is his foot." And once you recognize Orion, you can remember that Orion's Hunting Dogs are always nearby. Then you might recognize the two bright stars in the upper and lower left of the photograph as Procyon in Canis Minor and Sirius in Canis Major, respectively.
The Moon was first visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 in 1959. The gravitational forces between the Earth and the Moon cause some interesting effects. The most obvious is the tides. The Moon's gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side. Since the Earth, and particularly the oceans, is not perfectly rigid it is stretched out along the line toward the Moon. From our perspective on the Earth's surface we see two small bulges, one in the direction of the Moon and one directly opposite. The effect is much stronger in the ocean water than in the solid crust so the water bulges are higher. And because the Earth rotates much faster than the Moon moves in its orbit, the bulges move around the Earth about once a day giving two high tides per day. (This is a greatly simplified model; actual tides, especially near the coasts, are much more complicated.)
The planet Mercury is very difficult to study from the Earth because it is always so close to the Sun. Even at elongation, it is never more than 28 degrees from the Sun in our sky. It is the second smallest planet (it was believed to be the smallest until the discovery that Pluto is actually much smaller than originally thought), and also the fastest in its orbit since it is the innermost planet. In fact, the name Mercury derives from its speed in moving around its orbit. We began to learn more about Mercury with radar imaging from the Earth in the 1960s, and obtained most of what we know about the planet from the Mariner 10 space probe was placed into a complicated orbit involving Venus and Mercury and which passed close to Mercury and sent back information three times in the period 1974-1976 (image source).
In the last 30 years we have learned a great deal about our "sister" planet, and we now know that almost nothing on Venus is like that on the Earth. Much of the previous misconception can be traced to the difficulty of observing Venus because it is always covered with a thick cloud layer. In the past 3 decades astronomers have learned how to peer through that cloud layer and unlock many of the secrets of this nearby but previously not well known planet. Venus is the brightist planet in the galaxy in cluding all planet . This is because of its cloudy atmosphere that reflects most of the light that falls on it.
Earth, our home planet, is a beautiful blue and white ball when seen from space. The third planet from the Sun, it is the large of the inner planets. Earth is the only planet known to support life and to have liquid water at the surface. Earth takes 27.3 days to complete one rotation and 365 day to complete one revolution. Our planet's rapid spin and molten nickel-iron core give rise to an extensive magnetic field, which, along with the atmosphere, shields us from nearly all of the harmful radiation coming from the Sun and other stars. Earth's atmosphere protects us from meteors, most of which burn up before they can strike the surface.
The southern hemisphere of Mars is predominantly ancient cratered highlands somewhat similar to the Moon. In contrast, most of the northern hemisphere consists of plains which are much younger, lower in elevation and have a much more complex history. An abrupt elevation change of several kilometers seems to occur at the boundary. The reasons for this global dichotomy and abrupt boundary are unknown (some speculate that they are due to a very large impact shortly after Mars' accretion). Mars Global Surveyor has produced a nice 3D map of Mars that clearly shows these features.
Its the largest planet in solar system. It consists of hydrogen & helium. It has 28 moons or satellites. It has got faint ring around it. The mass of Jupiter is more than the sum of masses of the other planet in the solar system. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and is the largest one in the solar system. If Jupiter were hollow, more than one thousand Earths could fit inside The atmosphere appears as alternating bands of light regions, called zones, and dark regions called belts, that run parallel to the equator. The zones are higher in altitude than the belts, and are correspondingly lower in temperature. It is believed that the belts represent descending areas of low pressure. Jupiter radiates heat energy out to space by way of convection. The zones carry energy to the surface and then cool, and sink again.
The distance of Saturn is two times of that of Jupiter. In shape and size it is almost comparable to Jupiter. It has got 30 moons. It has got distinct rings around it which can be seen by telescope. . Saturn has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo was the first to observe it with a telescope in 1610; he noted its odd appearance but was confused by it. Early observations of Saturn were complicated by the fact that the Earth passes through the plane of Saturn's rings every few years as Saturn moves in its orbit. A low resolution image of Saturn therefore changes drastically. It was not until 1659 that Christiaan Huygens correctly inferred the geometry of the rings. Saturn's rings remained unique in the known solar system until 1977 when very faint rings were discovered around Uranus (and shortly thereafter around Jupiter and Neptune).
It was the first planet to be discovered by telescope. William Herschel discovered it. Its size is four times that of the earth. Its main constituents are hydrogen and methane. It has got 21 natural satellites or moon. The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium, 2% methane and small amounts of acetylene and other hydrocarbons. Methane in the upper atmosphere absorbs red light, giving Uranus its blue-green color. The atmosphere is arranged into clouds running at constant latitudes, similar to the orientation of the more vivid latitudinal bands seen on Jupiter and Saturn. Winds at mid-latitudes on Uranus blow in the direction of the planet's rotation
It was the first planet whose presence was predicted before it was actually discovered. It has got 8 natural satellites. Its mass is about 17 times of that of the earth. Its size is about four times of that of the earth. Neptune's composition is probably similar to Uranus': various "ices" and rock with about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. Like Uranus, but unlike Jupiter and Saturn, it may not have a distinct internal layering but rather to be more or less uniform in composition. But there is most likely a small core (about the mass of the Earth) of rocky material. Its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with a small amount of methane.
Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun but are too small to be considered planets. They are known as minor planets. Asteroids range in size from Ceres, which has a diameter of about 1000 km, down to the size of pebbles. Sixteen asteroids have a diameter of 240 km or greater. They have been found inside Earth's orbit to beyond Saturn's orbit. Most, however, are contained within a main belt that exists between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some have orbits that cross Earth's path and some have even hit the Earth in times past. One of the best preserved examples is Bar ringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona. Asteroids are material left over from the formation of the solar system. One theory suggests that they are the remains of a planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago.
Comets are small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies composed of a mixture of non-volatile grains and frozen gases. They have highly elliptical orbits that bring them very close to the Sun and swing them deeply into space, often beyond the orbit of Pluto. Comet structures are diverse and very dynamic, but they all develop a surrounding cloud of diffuse material, called a coma, that usually grows in size and brightness as the comet approaches the Sun. Usually a small, bright nucleus (less than 10 km in diameter) is visible in the middle of the coma. The coma and the nucleus together constitute the head of the comet. As comets approach the Sun they develop enormous tails of luminous material that extend for millions of kilometers from the head, away from the Sun.
Meteoroids are so small that they are no bigger than a grain of sand. Scientist have decided that meteoroids once were produced by comets that orbited the sun. Some of the satellites we have recovered from space over many years have had little indentions that were caused by little meteoroid collisions. When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere they become visible to the naked eye and are classified as meteors. They are visible because they fly so fast and when they hit the surface of the atmosphere, they glow blue or even white. Meteors almost always burn up in the atmosphere, and are only seen for a few seconds. Sometimes a meteor will hit earth and then are termed meteorites.
A meteor, sometimes called a "shooting star," can be the brightest object in the night sky, yet meteoroids are the smallest bodies in the solar system that can be observed by eye. Wandering through space, perhaps as debris left behind by a comet, meteoroids enter the earth's atmosphere, are heated by friction, and for a few seconds streak across the sky as a meteor with a glowing trail. A brilliant meteor, called a fireball, may weigh many kilograms, but even a meteor weighing less than a gram can produce a beautiful trail. Some of these visitors from space are large enough to survive (at least partially) their trip through the atmosphere and impact the ground as meteorites. Fireballs are sometimes followed by trails of light that persist for up to 30 minutes; some, called bolides, explode with a loud thunderous sound.
ISRO's Launch Vehicle programme started with development of SLV-3, first successfully launched on July 18, 1980 followed by two more flights. The second launch vehicle was Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle which had two successful flights. The development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has been completed with two successful flights and is now available for operational use. Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is under development.
An artificial satellite is a manufactured object that continuously orbits Earth or some other body in space. Most artificial satellites orbit Earth. People use them to study the universe, help forecast the weather, transfer telephone calls over the oceans, assist in the navigation of ships and aircraft, monitor crops and other resources, and support military activities.