Planetology

15 years ago
ImageBy Daniel Haley
Grade 9
Limestone Community School

    Planetology is the study of the planets in the solar system and beyond. They use spacecrafts to get to get images of the solar system to learn about the planet’s physical structure. Most of astronomy is based on planetology, but it is barely known to the average person. In other words not many people know what this study is even called.  The main reason that the study of the planets is important is that looking at other planets help us understand the past and future of our planet. For example, the moon, Mars and Mercury have craters that prove the existence of lava flow. On the other hand Venus’ atmosphere shows what might happen to earth if the greenhouse effect continues to take effect to the earth. Even the giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus) contribute to our research. It helps the research on the formation of the solar system and its history. In this report read to find out what planetologists use to research this subject and the facts on the seven other planets in our solar system.
    Planetologists usually use satellites, telescopes, and shuttles to research other planets. Two good examples are the Voyager I and Voyager II. The Voyager I has made contributions by getting photographs of Jupiter and Saturn. It is now the furthest human made object from earth. The Voyager II was launched into space 16 days before Voyager I, but it will never pass it. The Voyager II has photographed Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It has been said that Voyager I is going to be the first man-made object to leave this solar system. A different satellite that was launched is the New Horizons spacecraft. It was sent into space to take photos of Jupiter, Pluto and Charon, Pluto’s moon. It will pass Pluto and Charon in 2015. Since 1990 the Hubble Space telescope has been photographing the earth and moon to discover the formation of the moon. There are many other spacecrafts in space but these are the most known ones. On earth planetologists are using mostly reflecting telescopes to do their research. Since refracting telescopes the picture, it makes it harder to determine the exact location of an object. With a reflecting telescope all they have to do is flip the picture and they can determine the shape of the object and its location.
    This next part of this report I will talk about some of the other planets. The first planet I will talk about is Mercury. Since Pluto is no longer considered a planet, Mercury is now the smallest planet in the solar system (not including the dwarf planets). It is only 3,032 miles in diameter, which is approximately 2/3 smaller than earth. Because of Mercury’s rotation and revolution one side always faces the sun and one side is always facing away from the sun. This makes the temperatures vary. On one side it is -275 degrees Fahrenheit and one side is 800 degrees Fahrenheit. One rotation on Mercury is 176 earth days to make a sunrise and sunset and the revolution is 59 earth days. The surface on Mercury is similar to the surface of our moon. It has a number of craters and valleys. The biggest crater on Mercury is a crater called Caloris Basin, which has a diameter of 800 miles. It consists of many metallic dust particles called regolith and it reflects light like the moon. There is water on Mercury but because of the slow rotation it is always frozen solid and is unable to thaw.
    The next planet to cover is Venus. It is the second closest planet to the sun and is the closest planet to earth. It is named Venus after the Greek goddess Venus, the god of love and beauty. Its diameter of Venus is 7,518 miles and the temperature ranges from 900 degrees Fahrenheit to -50 degrees Fahrenheit. The rotation of Venus is 243 earth days and the revolution is 225 earth days. The surface of this planet is a rocky, dusty, waterless planet filled with mountains, plains and canyons. There is a 200-mile river of hardened lava on the surface as well. The greenhouse effect is a result of the motionless space making it impossible to inhabit land.
    Next I will talk about Mars. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. The diameter of Mars is 4,223 miles long. It takes 24 hours and 30 minutes earth time to make a rotation and approximately 2 earth years to make a year in Marsh. Its temperature ranges to -220 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature determines when it is positioned where the sun’s rays hit Mars. It was named after the Greek god of war, Mars, because of its reddish color. It is the only planet that can be observed from on earth and is the fourth planet closest to the sun. There is a split in the solar system called the asteroid belt. It separates the solid planets from the gas giants.
    The next group of planets I’m going to talk about is the Gas Giants. This group of planets contains Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. I’ll start by explaining Jupiter. Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. Its diameter is eleven earths long and has over 60 moons that we know of. It takes 9 hours 50 minutes to rotate once around completely and takes over 12 years to make one revolution. It is a planet made of a cloudy layer of dust and a liquid of metallic hydrogen. We do not know exactly but people think that there is a small iron core. It is a stormy planet that is unlivable by humans because of its strong gravity pull. The pull is 2.54 times more than earth’s pull and we wouldn’t be able to move. The next planet that is closer away from the sun is Saturn. Saturn is the second gas giant in our solar system. It is very far away from the sun so the temperature is -176 degrees Celsius and has 47 known moons. It is mainly made up of liquid hydrogen with an icy core. The rings of Saturn are made of gas and ice particles mixed with dust. The rings’ diameter is twice the length of the planet itself. It takes 10 hours 30 minutes to rotate a full rotation. The next planet is Uranus. It is the third largest planet in the solar system. It has one ring of ice chunks that is horizontal to the orbit. It has an estimated amount of 24 moons. The rotation of Uranus is 17 hours and the revolution is undetermined because of the long distance from earth. The planet is mostly made up of an icy core and mantle liquid. The planet is blue because the atmosphere is made of mostly methane. The last official planet in our solar system is Neptune. Neptune is very similar to Uranus by its atmosphere and appearance. Unlike Uranus’ complete shade of one color, Neptune has spots in its surface. Most planetologists believe that these spots appear and disappear. They think that they are storms that disrupt the surface but many disagree with that theory.
    The last part of my report will talk about dwarf planets. There are currently five dwarves and they are continuing to find more. They are called Pluto, Erin, Haumea, Makemake and Ceres. The closest planet to the sun is the dwarf Ceres. It is located in the asteroid belt, thus being the biggest object in the asteroid belt. It looks like a small version of Mercury and is nearly perfectly rounded. Scientists still believe that it is only an asteroid but it is an ongoing dispute. Pluto is the only dwarf planet that was once an ordinary planet. It is more or less a round block of ice with a core and it is right outside of the Kuiper belt. The Kuiper belt is an orbiting part of the solar system past Pluto that are small bodies of ice. Three of the five dwarf planets are in the Kuiper belt. Haumea is the closest planet to the sun from in the Kuiper belt. Not much is known about Haumea besides his two moons Hi’iaka and Namaka. The other two dwarf planets Makemake and Erin are similar from looking at the telescopes on earth. They appear red and have one moon each. They are not sure what they are made of but they are researching.
    There are a number of galaxies and planets out there and we don’t know if there is life on other planets yet. That is why we need planetologists. They are the people that will study and take time to research to improve our planet. I hope you understand the planets other than ours better and I hope if you listened to anything I said these past few minutes, you enjoyed hearing my report.