There are many solar systems in existence, perhaps even more that have yet to be discovered. A solar system is a group of celestial bodies orbiting a central star. The most commonly discussed solar system is the one we inhabit. "Our" solar system consists of eight official planets, at least three dwarf planets, many satellites, comets, asteroids, and the interplanetary medium; all of which revolve around the Sun. The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars comprise the inner solar system. The outer solar system includes Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto was included in this region, but is now considered a dwarf planet.
The solar system is mostly comprised of empty space. The space between the planets is massive in comparison to the size of the planets. The planets orbit in ellipses. Mercury is the only planet with an elliptical path that is not nearly circular, but the rest are considered nearly circular. The "elliptical" is the plane in which all of the planets' orbits lie. the main asteroid belt of the solar system lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Solar systems are one of the main components in a galaxy, which explains why solar systems are so much smaller.
Galaxies are vast collections of solar systems, dust, gas, and countless stars. Galaxies rotate about a cluster of stars rather than a central star. There are more than 100 billion galaxies in the "observable universe" alone. The galaxy that is considered to be "our" galaxy is known as the Milky Way galaxy. "Small galaxies" are galaxies with less than a billion stars. There are three main galaxy classification, which are spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies. Spiral galaxies consist of "a flat disc with a bulging center and surrounding spiral arms". The galaxy's disc rotates around the "galactic center" in a regular pattern. One example of the spiral galaxy is the Milky Way. Elliptical galaxies are shaped as ellipses. Most stars in elliptical galaxies contain older star. Irregular galaxies are all the left-over galaxy variations that cannot be classified as an elliptical galaxies or spiral galaxies. It is theoretically stated that galaxies formed shortly after a cosmic "big bang".
While researching, I found it interesting that solar systems are mostly left without a name, but quite a few galaxies are given a name. I also found it intriguing that there are so many galaxies in existence that we do not even have a number large enough to say how many there are. It is also interesting that some scientists believe that galaxies start as globular clusters and transform into galaxies later. Solar systems and galaxies are a topic with a vast amount of information discovered, yet there may still be something left to find out.
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8 comments:
Lindsey,
I agree. It is amazing the masses of galaxies that are in our universe. There are so many things in the universe that we will never be able to completely see them all. There are so many things that we don't know, and who knows what they will lead to. There are limitless options in the universe.
Billy
your information was very organized and easy to understand. great job lindsey!
:) SarahAnn
Good Job! you have some very good points about galaxies and solar systems. i agree with what you said about galaxies. there is so many things in our universe that we will never be able to see or experience or touch. its scary to think that we're not the only ones our there!!!
Lindsey`
Your post was wonderful!! So many facts to learn, but I especially liked the facts you presented on galaxies..so interesting!! Great job.
Rachel
I agree totally. A lot of useful information and it was a good post. There are a lot of things in the universe that are still undiscovered and probably will never be discovered. Great job
the one and only
Nick
Beautifully presented information! Always a joy to read, I do agree that is is kind of crazy that some things in space are not named, and many scientists have different theories on how the solar systems were created. I wish they would name them too, maybe after me... ;)
Fabulously yours,
Megan
Be very careful where you are getting information from on the internet. Always check several sources for accuracy. Earth's path around the Sun is oval, or elliptical, NOT circular or nearly circular. Your descriptions of galaxies is very good. I liked the idea that you described the different types of galaxies.
Here is an excerpt from: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast30jun_1m.htm. "Earth has one of the most circular orbits in the solar system. Only Neptune and Venus follow more perfectly circular paths around the Sun."
Here are a few excerpts from: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/1995/Jun95/chr062895a. "Earth's distance from the sun constantly varies as our planet cruises a year-long ellipse-shaped orbit around it. Exactly one place on the ellipse is closest to the sun and exactly one other place lies farthest away. "Earth's orbit around the sun isn't strikingly oval, though. If someone handed you a diagram of the orbit, it would be hard to distinguish from a circle without measuring carefully," Teske explained. "Our distance from the sun changes from a maximum of 94,500,000 miles, reached during the first week of July, to a minimum of 91,400,000 miles during the first week of January. Because the amount of sunlight warming our planet receives depends on the separation of Earth and sun, we receive a little more solar heat energy during winter in the Northern Hemisphere than during summer.""
"Humanity has a great stake in the near-circularity of Earth's orbit, which promotes a stable, dependable climate on the planet," Teske said. "If the orbit were more elliptical, we'd swing even closer to the sun and then farther from it again, during a single year. This could make for extremes of weather affecting agricultural productivity and perhaps causing significant changes in living conditions. A few scientists have suggested that Earth's ice ages may have come about when its orbit was temporarily more elongated than it presently is."
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