The inner planets orbit relatively close to the Sun and have solid surfaces. The outer solar system is where the gas giants reside. The solar system is always evolving as celestial bodies interact with each other through gravitational forces. Understanding the solar system helps us better ...
None of the terrestrial planets in our solar system have ring systems. Planetary scientists suspect that they may once have had rings that have since disappeared. There is one dwarf planet considered to be terrestrial-type world: Ceres. It has a rocky core and an outer mantle, with surface ...
If there were any lakes or oceans of water on its surface when it was young, they must have evaporated quickly. Even if life began there, no traces would be left now. The inner solar system seems too hot, and the outer solar system seems too cold. The Jovian planets have deep ...
The Outer Planets: The outer planets (sometimes called Jovian planets or gas giants) are huge planets swaddled in gas. They all have rings and all of plenty of moons each. Despite their size, only two of them are visible without telescopes: Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus and Neptune were the ...
Hydrogen and helium, which it is not possible to detect by spectroscopic means, probably figure largely in both atmospheres, because they are abundant in the outer layers of the sun; both planets have ample gravitational power to retain them with ease, even at very high temperatures. The only...
The terrestrial planets all have rocky surfaces that feature mountains, plains, valleys and other formations. The temperatures of the inner planets are low enough that rock exists mostly as a solid at the surface. To different degrees, they also have meteor impact craters, although the dense atmo...
Understand the scale and longevity of storms on the giant planets Theatmospheresof the jovian planets are the parts we can observe or measure directly. Since these planets have no solid surfaces, their atmospheres are more representative of their general compositions than is the case with the terre...
As the white star material crystalizes, its material becomes ordered on a quantum level, nuclei aligning themselves as a 3D lattice creating a metallic oxygen core and an outer layer enriched with carbon. So, there we have it, after stars like our sun die, their stories aren't over. All ...
The study of the plant response to strong MFs could also guide future research designed to explore the possibility of life on moons of planets with high MFs, such as the solar system gas giants. Plants show both light-dependent and light-independent magnetoperception and recent data have ...
Planetary nebulae are the remains of sunlike stars that have reached the end of their red giant stage. Photo courtesy of NASA Sun-Earth Day 2010 The sun has been shining for about 4.5 billion years [source: NASA]. The size of the sun is a balance between the outward pressure ...