The Solar System

Planets are the original satelites; man-made satelites are named this because they are not planetary satelites. Satelites = "revolve around" A hospital may have satelite clinics around town; a large business or store or bank may have satelite offices or branches

A satellite is an object that orbits a larger object. The moon is a natural Satellite that orbits the earth. the ISS is an artificial satellite. Therefore the planets are Satellites orbiting the sun.

No, people cannot currently live on the Kuiper Belt. It is a region beyond Neptune in our solar system that is extremely cold, far from the Sun, and lacks resources necessary for human habitation, such as air, water, and a solid surface. Additionally, it is primarily composed of icy bodies like Pluto and Eris.

Firstly, the distances in the solar system are so great that nearly all the interactions are between the Sun and the other bodies. These include gravitational attraction, absorption of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun by other bodies, and interaction of those bodies with the solar wind.

Jupiter gives off some radiation, so that should interact with other bodies, and the Earth and Moon reflect light to each other, which should apply to other planets and moons.

Back in the 1990's, we began to be able to "see" planets about other stars. The nearest stars are so far away that the first evidence that a planet (or planets) orbited them were small observable "shifts" or a "wobble" in the movement of the star (called perturbations). We have now actually been able to see a planet silhouetted against a star! Well over 200 exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) have been catalogued so far, and more are on the way. But does every star have its own solar system? Probably not all of them. But planetary evolutionists believe that because of the way a "solar system" collects mass and "forms itself" to give itself shape under the hand of gravity, there are going to be many stars that do have their own solar systems (planetary bodies) orbiting about them. We'll still have to wait a bit for more data to get some idea of "what the odds are" for a given star having planets about it, but we're working on it! We live in exciting times, do we not?! Click on a link and warp on over for more information.

No, Mars is not the coldest planet in our solar system. That title belongs to Uranus and Neptune, which have much colder average temperatures due to their distance from the sun and their atmospheres. Mars can get very cold, with average temperatures around -80 degrees Fahrenheit (-62 degrees Celsius).

Space is not entirely empty and so is not a total or perfect vacuum, but it is as close to a vacuum as makes any difference. SOmething like the Voyager space probe, which has been hurtling through space for many years now and is, by some estimates, about to leave the Milky Way galaxy, will continue hurtling until it hits something big enough (and by big, I mean massive for you purists reading this) to stop it. It will not just slow down and come to a stop in the middle of nowhere. Although I suppose, now I have said that, it just might be possible that after a certain amount of time like a hundred billion years or so it might have hit enough space dust to have all it's energy absorbed, in which case it might just coast to a stop. But of course, that does not account for the effects of gravity acting on it. Phil

The next-to-farthest planet is Uranus.The farthest planet is Neptune.

They reflect sunlight - just like the moon. They are just too far away to see the detail (light and dark spots) with the naked eye so it all runs together. If you look through a telescope, you can tell the difference right away.

The Milky Way galaxy is a spiral shaped disk about 100,000 light year in diameter and between 650 and 1,300 light years thick. It contains around 200 -> 400 billion stars.

Our solar system is at the edge of one of the spiral arms. Estimated between 26,000 & 32,000 light years from the center of the galaxy.

Our Solar System is in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy.

See related link for a pictorial.

Saturn is the planet with a density less than water. Its average density is about 0.687 g/cm^3, whereas the density of water is 1 g/cm^3. This low density is due to Saturn being mostly composed of hydrogen and helium gases.

It is said that if you could find an ocean on Earth large enough to accommodate it, Saturn would float. That is, Saturn's average density is less than the density of water. Turns out it's the only planet with an average density less than 1.000, that is, less than the density of water.

The visibility of planets and stars in the sky is influenced by their positions in their orbits around the Sun, the Earth's rotation, and atmospheric conditions like clouds and light pollution. As the Earth rotates, different celestial objects become visible at different times. Additionally, some objects may be below the horizon or blocked from view by the brightness of the Sun.

The group of stars to which our solar system belongs is called the Milky Way Galaxy.

There are eight planets in our solar system (from closest to sun to furthest); Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. R U sure? we are in the Rigel Sector of the galaxy and we're so far away from the Star Wars galaxy... 'sigh'...

Extremely. None of the other planets is as dense as Earth (Mercury is close). Venus is just a little less than Mercury, Mars is about 2/3 as dense as Earth, and the outer planets are much less dense... 1/3 or less (Saturn is about 1/6).

The center of the solar system is the Sun, a star located at its heart. It contains the majority of the solar system's mass and gravitational influence, around which all the planets, including Earth, orbit.

After Neptune, there is the Kuiper belt. This is a bit like the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter, but is much further out. It contains some quite large objects, such as dwarf planets and dwarf planet candidates. Beyond the Kuiper belt and much, much further out is the hypothetical Oort cloud, many pieces of debris which are only just held in by the suns gravity.

MWp stands for megawatt peak, which is a unit used to measure the power output of a solar photovoltaic system under standard test conditions. It indicates the maximum potential power output that the system can generate when exposed to optimal sunlight conditions.

Mars is not as close to Earth as Venus is, but it probably is the only planet in our solar system that we can colonize. But living there won't be simple.Mars is poorly suited for human habitation. There's some ice at the poles and perhaps some water in underground repositories. Gravity is only 38 percent as strong as on Earth. The atmosphere is thin and consists mostly of carbon dioxide (95%). So colonists would have to either take air from Earth or make air on Mars. Plants efficiently separate the oxygen bound to carbon and therefore can make air we can breathe, so colonists should take plants along.

The Martian atmosphere is too thin to hold oxygen, which would just escape to space. So the plants would have to be cultivated in greenhouses and the oxygen they produce kept in flasks.

Mars has a very weak magnetic field, and its atmosphere offers little protection against radiation from space. So the Martian colonists would have to build radiation protection into their houses and wear thick suits. Unlike Earth, where most incoming meteorites burn up in the atmosphere, many meteorites crash dangerously onto the surface of Mars.

The Martian weather is awful. It's cold: the average temperature of the southern hemisphere is minus 60 degrees Celsius; even at the equator, it's seldom over zero. Winds are fierce and blow at speeds of several hundred kilometres an hour, and storms can last for months. The wind whirls up fine dust that penetrates everything and sticks to all surfaces, which literally would toss sand in the gears of vital mechanical and electronic equipment.

Dust grains, ice particles, and rocky fragments were present as solid flakes in the inner 0.3 AU of the solar system before planets formed. These materials gradually accreted and collided to form planetesimals, which later grew into protoplanets and finally, the inner terrestrial planets we see today.