Our Solar System consists of a sun, 8 known planets, 5 known dwarf planets, hundreds of moons, and smaller objects like asteroids and comets. Our Solar System is located about 25,000 light-years from the center of the Milky way galaxy. There is a lot to know about our Solar System. Let's explore the 25 most interesting facts about the Solar System.
1. The sun is the largest celestial body in our Solar System and it, alone, comprises 99.8 percent of the mass of the Solar System.
2. Venus is the hottest planet of our Solar System even though Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.
3. Venus has the slowest rotation on its axis compared to other planets of the Solar System. Its rotation is so slow that its day is longer than its year.
4. Jupiter has the fastest rotation on its axis. It also means it has the shortest day compare to other planets of the Solar System.
5. Among all the planets of the Solar System, Mercury has the shortest year ( 88 Earth-Days ) and Neptune has the longest year ( 165 Earth-Years ).
6. Venus and Uranus rotate in the opposite direction on their axis compare to the other planets of the Solar System.
7. Scientists believe that there is a Planet-9 because of its gravitational influence on nearby objects like Neptune.
8. Gaseous planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have no solid surfaces, meaning you cannot stand on their surfaces.
9. Pluto is the largest dwarf planet but Eris is the most massive because Eris is denser than Pluto.
10. Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet of our Solar System and it, alone, is more than twice the mass of all the other planets of the Solar System combined.
11. Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter, is the largest moon of our Solar System and Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the second largest. Both Ganymede and Titan are bigger than the planet Mercury.
12. Titan is the only moon, other than Earth's moon, where a spacecraft has landed successfully to date.
13. Saturn has the lowest density among the planets of our Solar System. It has a mean density of 0.687 g/cm^3, which is even less than the density of water.
14. There are many water ocean worlds in our Solar System beyond Earth-like Europa, Ceres, Enceladus etc.. Some of them have even more water than Earth.
15. Pluto and its largest moon Charon are tidally locked meaning Charon always appears on the same spot in the sky from Pluto's surface and vice versa.
16. Saturn has the most number of known moons that is 82 moons. Jupiter is on second with 79 moons.
17. Venus has the highest number of volcanoes than any other planets of our Solar System.
18. Mars has the tallest volcano of our Solar System. It is about 22 km tall and its name is Olympus Mons.
19. Jupiter's moon Io is currently the most volcanically active celestial body in our Solar System.
20. Venus and Mercury are the only planets with no moons. Ceres is the only dwarf planet with no moons.
21. All the planets revolve around the sun in a counterclockwise direction. (when viewing from a point above the north pole of the Solar System.
22. We know that Neptune is closer to Sun than Pluto but for 20 years pluto enters inside Neptune orbit every 248 years. Last time this happen between 1979 and 1999 when Pluto was closer to the sun than Neptune.
23. There is a theoretical cloud of icy objects at the edge of our Solar System known as the Oort Cloud. It covers the entire Solar System in a sphere. It is spread from 2,000 AU to 100,000 AU from the sun.
24. Our Solar System is orbiting around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at an average velocity of 500,000 miles per hour. It takes about 230 million Earth years to complete one revolution around the milky way.
25. Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts have left the Solar system. They are currently traveling in interstellar space.
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