History UsefulNotes / TheSolarSystem

*** TheMoonsOfJupiter

*** TheMoonsOfSaturn

*** TheMoonsOfUranus (The Bard In Space): Fittingly for an English-discovered planet, Uranus' moons are all named after characters from {{Shakespeare}} and ''TheRapeOfTheLock''.

*** TheMoonsOfNeptune (The Little Mermaids)

*** TheMoonsOfUranus (The Bard In Space)

* Earth-type planets

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet due to their similar sizes. It has an extremely dense atmosphere (surface presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth) and can reach a surface temperature of 470 °C/870 °F (although the highest mountain, Maxwell Montes, is a chilly 380 °C/716 °F and a...less squishy 60 bars of pressure). The culprit for all this? The greenhouse effect - most of that atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth) and created [[BeyondTheImpossible a super greenhouse effect]] with temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees[[hottip:* :This plus the slow rotation also wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there is intermittent vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, leaving Venus high and dry. Interestingly, the zone between 50 and 65 kilometers above the surface has pressures and temperatures right around Earth normal. Add to that the fact that an 80/20 nitrogen/oxygen mix would act like a lifting gas and [[TheEmpireStrikesBack Cloud City]] would be right at home.

The reason behind the introduction of this category of celestial bodies was a discovery of several Kuiper Belt Objects that rivaled or exceeded Pluto in size and thus strained the definition of planet. It was decided that it'd be simpler to demote Pluto than to make all of them planets - [[OlderThanTheyThink a similar course of events took place after the discovery of the first asteroid belt in the 19th century]]. It, rather expectedly, ended in a massive FlameWar among not just enthusiasts of astronomy, but astronomers themselves.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto_(dwarf_planet) Pluto]]-[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charon_(moon) Charon]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuiper_belt The Kuiper Belt]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud The Oort Cloud]]

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet) Jupiter]] - the biggest gas giant, massing over 300 times more than Earth. It's mostly hydrogen and helium, although various other compounds provide its colorful bands and storms, and scientists believe a rocky core sits at its center. It's notable for having a powerful magnetic field that bends solar wind into strong radiation belts - if it were visible, its magnetosphere would appear several times larger than our moon in the sky even at a distance of at least 600 million kilometers. Its gravity probably stunted Mars and kept another planet from forming where the [[InsistentTerminology Piazzi asteroid belt]] is now, but it's also well placed to deflect those nasty comets and asteroids away from us in the inner solar system - it definitely took one for the team with Shoemaker-Levy 9.

The reason behind the introduction of this category of celestial bodies was a discovery of several Kuiper Belt Objects that rivaled or exceeded Pluto in size and thus strained the definition of planet. It was decided that it'd be simpler to demote Pluto than to make all of them planets -[[OlderThanTheyThink a similar course of events took place after the discovery of the "Piazzi" belt in the 19th century]. It, rather expectedly, ended in a massive FlameWar among not just enthusiasts of astronomy, but astronomers themselves.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet) Jupiter]] - the biggest gas giant, massing over 300 times more than Earth. It's mostly hydrogen and helium, although various other compounds provide its colorful bands and storms, and scientists believe a rocky core sits at its center. It's notable for having a powerful magnetic field that bends solar wind into strong radiation belts - if it were visible, its magnetosphere would appear several times larger than our moon in the sky. Fortunately it's also well placed to deflect those nasty comets and asteroids away from us in the inner solar system - it definitely took one for the team with Shoemaker-Levy 9.

The reason behind the introduction of this category of celestial bodies was a discovery of several Kuiper Belt objects, rivaling Pluto in size and thus straining the definition of planet. It was decided that it'd be simpler to demote Pluto, than to make all of them planets. It, rather expectedly, ended in a massive FlameWar among not just enthusiasts of astronomy, but astronomers themselves.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_belt The Asteroid Belt]] -- it can be found between Mars and Jupiter. The belt's combined mass is only 4% of the Moon's, so unmanned spacecraft generally pass through it without incident.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet) Jupiter]] - the biggest gas giant. It's notable for having a powerful magnetic field that bends solar wind into strong radiation belts - if it was visible, its magnetosphere would appear several times larger than our moon in the sky. Fortunately it's also well placed to deflect those nasty comets and asteroids away from us in the inner solar system - it definitely took one for the team with Shoemaker-Levy 9.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles on the equator, and [[AlienSky the Sun doing a slow loop-the-loop in the sky twice a year]]). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it was originally similar in size and composition to Venus and Earth, but [[EarthShatteringKaboom a massive impact with a leftover planetesimal]] tore away the atmosphere and most of the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles on the equator, and [[AlienSky the Sun doing a slow loop-the-loop in the sky]]). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it was originally similar in size and composition to Venus and Earth, but [[EarthShatteringKaboom a massive impact with a leftover planetesimal]] tore away the atmosphere and most of the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_(planet) Uranus]] - [[ItsPronouncedTroPAY the Greeks pronounced it OOH-RAHN-US]], but whatever. The first planet discovered via telescope[[hottip:* :[[OlderThanTheyThink Galileo actually observed Neptune twice in the winter of 1612/13]], but merely noted it appeared to move and never followed up]] by Sir William Herschell in 1789. Minty green in color; it's denser than Jupiter and Saturn with a higher proportion of methane, ammonia and water. Voyager 2 passed by it in 1986 and found it to have few distinct clouds, but later observations from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed more. It has a set of coal-black rings (discovered in 1977) and is tilted 98 degrees on its axis - each pole spends 42 years in light and 42 in darkness.

*** TheBardInSpace (the moons of Uranus)

*** TheMoonsOfNeptune
Uranus and Neptune are similar: small gas giants containing less hydrogen and more heavier gases than Jupiter or Saturn. They and their moons are very cold.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_(planet) Uranus]] - [[ItsPronouncedTroPAY the Greeks pronounced it OOH-RAHN-US]], but whatever. The first planet discovered via telescope[[hottip:* :[[OlderThanTheyThink Galileo actually observed Neptune twice in the winter of 1612/13]], but merely noted it appeared to move and never followed up]] by Sir William Herschell in 1789. Has a set of coal-black rings and is tilted 98 degrees on its axis - the seasons there are twenty-one years long.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_(planet) Neptune]]

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet due to their similar sizes. It has an extremely dense atmosphere (surface presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth) and can reach a surface temperature of 470 °C/870 °F (although the highest mountain, Maxwell Montes, is a chilly 380 °C/716 °F and a...less squishy 60 bars of pressure). The culprit for all this? The greenhouse effect - most of that atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth and created [[BeyondTheImpossible a super greenhouse effect]] wiht temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees[[hottip:* :This plus the slow rotation also wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LethalLavaLand there is intermittent vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, leaving Venus high and dry.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet due to their similar sizes. It has an extremely dense atmosphere (surface presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth) and can reach a surface temperature of 470 °C/870 °F (although the highest mountain, Maxwell Montes, is a chilly 380 °C/716 °F and a...less squishy 60 bars of pressure). The culprit for all this? The greenhouse effect - most of that atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth and created [[BeyondTheImpossible a super greenhouse effect]] wiht temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees[[hottip:* :This plus the slow rotation also wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LavaWorld there is intermittent vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, leaving Venus high and dry.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles on the equator, and the Sun doing a slow loop-the-loop in the sky). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it was originally similar in size and composition to Venus and Earth, but [[EarthShatteringKaboom a massive impact with a leftover planetesimal]] tore away the atmosphere and most of the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_(planet) Uranus]] - [[ItsPronouncedTroPAY the Greeks pronounced it OOH-RAHN-US]], but whatever. The first planet discovered via telescope[[hottip:* :Galileo actually observed Neptune in the 1600s, but he mistook it for a comset or star and never followed up]] in 1789. Has a set of coal-black rings and is tilted 98 degrees on its axis - the seasons there are twenty-one years long.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus_(planet) Uranus]]

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet due to their similar sizes. It has an extremely dense atmosphere (surface presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth) and can reach a surface temperature of 470 °C/870 °F (although the highest mountain, Maxwell Montes, is a chilly 380 °C/716 °F and a...less squishy 60 bars of pressure). The culprit for all this? The greenhouse effect - most of that atmosphere is carbon dioxide. Earth started with the same amount, [[SealedEvilInACan but it ended up trapped in carbonate rock]]. Venus also started with the same amount of water as the earth had, but it remained in vapor form (300 atmospheres worth and created [[BeyondTheImpossible a super greenhouse effect]] wiht temperatures in the ''thousands'' of degrees[[hottip:* :This plus the slow rotation also wrecked any chance at plate tectonics; instead of plates constantly sliding against each other, [[LavaLand there is intermittent vulcanism puncutated by the entire surface melting every 500 million years or so]]]]. Eventually the water molecules dissociated into hydrogen and oxygen and escaped into space, leaving Venus high and dry.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(planet) Jupiter]] - the biggest gas giant. It's notable for having a powerful magnetic field that bends solar wind into strong radiation belts. So it's very radioactive near Jupiter.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_(planet) Saturn]] - well known for its spectacular ring system.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet due to their similar sizes. It has an extremely dense atmosphere (surface presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth) and can reach a surface temperature of 470 °C/870 °F (even at the poles). The culprit? The greenhouse effect - that, plus there's

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles on the equator, and the Sun doing a slow loop-the-loop in the sky). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it was originally similar in size and composition to Venus and Earth, but a massive impact with a planetesimal tore away the atmosphere and most of the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet, due to similar sizes, has an extremely dense atmosphere (atmospheric presure is [[strike:200]] 90 times that of Earth). and can reach a surface temperature of 461.85 °C/900 F. The culprit? The greenhouse effect!

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles, and the Sun moving backwards in the sky). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it was originally similar in size and composition to Venus and Earth, but a massive impact with a planetesimal tore away the atmosphere and most of the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it circles the sun (which, when combined with an elliptical orbit causes weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles, and the Sun moving backwards in the sky). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it had differentiated into a core and mantle and crust like Venus and Earth had, but a massive impact with a planetesimal knocked off the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but it turns out it rotates 3 times for every 2 times it cicles the sun (which combined with an elliptical orbit can cause weird effects like "hot" and "cold" poles and the Sun moving backwards in the sky). When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it had differentiated into a core and mantle and crust like Venus and Earth had, but a massive impact with a planetesimal knocked off the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with [[strike:no]] the merest whisper of an atmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but now it is proven to be false. When ''Mariner 10'' flew by in 1974, it found the planet to be unexpectedly dense; scientists now believe it had differentiated into a core and mantle and crust like Venus and Earth had, but a massive impact with a planetesimal knocked off the relatively light mantle, leaving the metal-heavy core behind.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(planet) Mercury]]: smallest of the planets, closest to the Sun. It is small and very hot, with no athmosphere. Early scientists believed it to be tide-locked (one side permanently faces the sun), but now it is proven to be false.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_(planet) Venus]]: sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet, due to similar sizes, has an extremely dense atmosphere (athmospheric presure is 200 times that of Earth). and can reach a surface temperature of 461.85 °C. The culprit? Greenhouse effect!