Solar System
The Planet Mercury
Mercury is the both the closest planet to the Sun (4,878km wide), and the smallest planet in the solar system, similar in size to our Moon (3475.6km wide) and 2/5 the size of Earth. Here …
Planets and Moons
Solar System
The Planet Jupiter
The planet Jupiter is named after the king of the Roman gods whose Greek counterpart was Zeus. It is the biggest planet in our solar system, which is where it derived its association with the …
Astronomy History
Who Discovered The Earth Moves Around The Sun?
Copernicus (1473-1543) was not the first person to claim that the Earth rotates around the Sun. In Western civilization, the ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos is generally credited with being the first person to …
Solar System
The Formation and Structure of Our Solar System
Our Solar System is 4.6 billion years old and was formed inside a diffuse cloud of interstellar gas and dust called a nebula. At its center is a giant ball of exploding hydrogen (75%) and …
Solar System
The Planets
The solar system contains the 4 inner, terrestrial planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, which are basically balls of rock and metal. By contrast, the 4 outer, gas giant planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, …
News
Scientist Speculate Titan May Harbour Life
Scientists at the US space agency NASA, have speculated that Saturn‘s moon Titan was a likely candidate to support life, after analyzing the latest data sent back from their space probe Cassini. Titan is the …