Planets of our solar system. Planets of the solar system The composition of the solar system includes how many planets
On January 20, 2016, a 99.993% probability of the existence of a new Ninth Planet of the Solar System was theoretically calculated, the orbit of which is located much further than its 8 currently known counterparts.
Who discovered the new 9th planet
Using mathematics, it was predicted by 2 scientists: American Michael Brown and Russian Konstantin Batygin. They figured out how they should move cosmic bodies in the Solar System, and it turned out that there are multiple inconsistencies between the actual trajectories of bodies and the theoretically predicted ones.
In particular, there are 6 objects distant from the Sun, whose movement raised questions. Therefore, astrophysicists have suggested the existence of a large, cold Planet X, whose gravity affects everything around it. This is evidenced by computer modeling data.
It turned out that the new Ninth Planet is moving in an elongated orbit, the closest distance to the star of which is equal to 200 distances from the Sun to the Earth. The size of the space object is estimated to be slightly smaller than Neptune.
Prospects for discovering Planet X
The authors of the discovery themselves call the probability of error in their calculations 0.007%. Considering that M. Brown is known as the initiator of the impeachment of Pluto from the 9th planet to a dwarf planet in 2006, his opinion can be considered authoritative.
The only telescope at the moment that can detect Nibiru is the 8.2-meter diameter Japanese Subaru telescope. However, due to problems accurately predicting the current location of Planet X, Subaru will have to explore a vast area in search, slowing discovery until perhaps 2018-2020.
By this time, by the way, the LSST survey telescope, specially adapted for this type of observation, will be built in Chile. His field of vision is estimated to be 7 times that of the Japanese.
Secrets of the 9th planet of the solar system
It is not yet clear how the 9th Planet X came into being. The most promising hypothesis is the opinion that even at the stage of formation of the Solar system, the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, with their gravity, “threw” the fifth “Nibiru” to the outskirts of our cosmic home.
Most likely, Protoplanet X is similar in composition to former neighbors and is an ice giant with a solid core inside. Calculations suggest that the mass of Planet Nine is 16 times that of Earth.
All this suggests that people are still far from fully understanding the origins of the solar system, and many secrets await the discovery of them. In particular, the future visit by the spacecraft to the most promising place for the existence of extraterrestrial life - Saturn's moon Enceladus - is very interesting. This will allow you to put a point in .
We wrote about this in about possible contact with alien intelligence. Another interesting place is Jupiter's moon Europa with its subsurface ocean.
People need not only spectacles and solutions to pressing problems. It is interesting, for example, to know: how many planets are there in the solar system? Of course, the answer to this question is unlikely to be practical significance, but a broad outlook won’t hurt in any case. The desire to understand the surrounding reality, how everything works, and increasing one’s own authority among colleagues and friends encourages one to learn new information and strive to understand a wide variety of topics. So, let's count how many planets are in our solar system.
Mercury
This is the celestial body closest to the Sun and the smallest in its system. Interestingly, Mercury has a core made of iron and a very thin surface crust.
Venus
It is the second planet from the Sun. It is almost the same size as the Earth, but the temperature on Venus is about four hundred degrees Celsius! If we were looking for an answer to the question not at all about how many planets are in the solar system, but about how many planets there are in it celestial bodies, suitable for existence, then Venus, with its concentration of greenhouse gases, would leave no chance for life in any form known to us.
Earth
Only here, on planet Earth, there is a hydrosphere - the source of all life! Imagine - there is no other planet in the solar system with such a treasure!
Mars
The soil of this planet contains a huge amount of iron oxide. Hence the red color of Mars. This fourth celestial object from the Sun is the last of the so-called inner group of planets. By the way, along the way we found out how many planets in the solar system are in this group: there are four of them. But we will go further.
Jupiter
It is a giant outer group celestial body with an impressive escort of 65 satellites. Ganymede is one of them, the largest: its dimensions exceed Mercury! Hydrogen and helium are the main components of Jupiter.
Saturn
Another giant gas planet. Saturn is easily recognized by its beautiful belt of asteroid rings revolving around the celestial body. The density of Saturn is similar to the density of Earth's water, and this planet has slightly fewer satellites than Jupiter - 62. The most interesting of them is Titan, which has an atmosphere.
Uranus
Of the outer tier of the solar system, Uranus is the lightest celestial object. It is interesting that the angle of rotation of the axis of this planet is different from all the others. Uranus is like a huge, cold bowling ball rolling in orbit. By the way, of all the planets, it emits the least heat.
Neptune
The most distant planet of the solar system is Neptune. It is interesting because the rotation of its satellite Triton is directed in the opposite direction from the planet.
How many planets are there in the solar system
Answering this question, it is easy to calculate: four planets of the inner group and the same number of outer ones add up to eight. If you are wondering why Pluto is not on this list, know that thanks to scientists, since 2006 this celestial object has “lost” its status as a planet.
If you are an inquisitive person, then you will probably be interested in knowing the answer to the question. Fierce debates have been going on between astronomers on this topic for many years. Not so long ago, a person who was interested in the planets in the solar system could say without the slightest hesitation that there are 9 of them. At the moment this is not the case, because Pluto has been removed from the list. For just over seventy years he managed to retain this proud title. Let's see how many planets are in our solar system now.
There are currently 8 of them in total; they, of course, revolve around one of the brightest stars in the galaxy - the Sun.
They are divided into two groups - four so-called internal ones, located close to the star, and the same number external ones - which are quite distant from it, but are large in size and are considered gas giants.
First we will talk about the first ones.
The smallest planet in the system is Mercury. It is closest to the Sun than all the others, and has no satellites at all. The surface is dotted with a huge number of craters of different diameters. There is no atmosphere.
The next one that will attract people who are wondering how many planets there are in the solar system is Venus. Slightly smaller than our native Earth, there are absolutely no satellites.
Then our planet is the only one on which the existence of life is known for certain. It is so unique that it enables the very existence of living beings.
Next on the list is, of course, Mars, the red planet on which another American rover recently landed. A favorite place for science fiction writers, and scientists in general.
Next comes the largest object in our system after the Sun. It is many times larger than any planet in our system. It has a huge number of satellites - as many as sixty-three. The largest of them is Ganymede, it is even more massive than Mercury. Jupiter is also notable for its large red spot - according to scientists, a huge storm that has been known for more than three centuries.
Then comes Saturn - the second largest in the system. Famous for its rings consisting of assorted particles. It also has a lot of satellites - 62 pieces.
Next on the list is Uranus, which is also the coldest of all the planets located in the system. Firstly, it is known for the fact that it rotates around the sun not like normal planets, but located as if on its side. The minimum temperature on this planet is -224 degrees.
After Uranus was discovered, scientists thought they knew for sure how many planets there were in the solar system. However, after all the distortions in its orbit were taken into account, it became clear that others of similar size existed.
Therefore, although somewhat later, in 1846, after much research, Neptune was discovered. At the moment, it is the farthest planet from the Sun in our system. It was discovered by a curious method - scientists determined the location before they saw it through a telescope. This was done using ordinary mathematical calculations. It is known that he has a total of thirteen satellites. He of blue color- but this is not explained by the presence of water, as is the case with our planet, but by large accumulations of methane in the atmosphere.
Let's hope that we have given a sufficiently detailed answer to the question of how many planets there are in the solar system. Of course, I would also like to include Pluto in this list - but, as was already mentioned at the beginning of this article, unfortunately, it dropped out of the official lists.
Although there is absolutely no point in paying attention to changes in scientific views - all the planets are still in their places, no matter what the concepts changed by scientists say.
On March 13, 1781, English astronomer William Herschel discovered the seventh planet of the solar system - Uranus. And on March 13, 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet of the solar system - Pluto. By the beginning of the 21st century, it was believed that the solar system included nine planets. However, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided to strip Pluto of this status.
There are already 60 natural satellites of Saturn known, most of which were discovered using spacecraft. Most of the satellites consist of rocks and ice. The largest satellite, Titan, discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, is larger than the planet Mercury. The diameter of Titan is about 5200 km. Titan orbits Saturn every 16 days. Titan is the only moon to have a very dense atmosphere, 1.5 times larger than Earth's, consisting primarily of 90% nitrogen, with moderate methane content.
The International Astronomical Union officially recognized Pluto as a planet in May 1930. At that moment, it was assumed that its mass was comparable to the mass of the Earth, but later it was found that Pluto’s mass is almost 500 times less than the Earth’s, even less than the mass of the Moon. Pluto's mass is 1.2 x 10.22 kg (0.22 Earth's mass). Pluto's average distance from the Sun is 39.44 AU. (5.9 to 10 to 12 degrees km), radius is about 1.65 thousand km. The period of revolution around the Sun is 248.6 years, the period of rotation around its axis is 6.4 days. Pluto's composition is believed to include rock and ice; the planet has a thin atmosphere consisting of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. Pluto has three moons: Charon, Hydra and Nix.
At the end of XX and beginning of XXI centuries, many objects have been discovered in the outer solar system. It has become obvious that Pluto is only one of the largest Kuiper Belt objects known to date. Moreover, at least one of the belt objects - Eris - is a larger body than Pluto and is 27% heavier. In this regard, the idea arose to no longer consider Pluto as a planet. On August 24, 2006, at the XXVI General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), it was decided to henceforth call Pluto not a “planet”, but a “dwarf planet”.
At the conference, a new definition of a planet was developed, according to which planets are considered bodies that revolve around a star (and are not themselves a star), have a hydrostatically equilibrium shape and have “cleared” the area in the area of their orbit from other, smaller objects. Dwarf planets will be considered objects that orbit a star, have a hydrostatically equilibrium shape, but have not “cleared” the nearby space and are not satellites. Planets and dwarf planets are two different classes of objects in the Solar System. All other objects orbiting the Sun that are not satellites will be called small bodies of the Solar System.
Thus, since 2006, there have been eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The International Astronomical Union officially recognizes five dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
On June 11, 2008, the IAU announced the introduction of the concept of "plutoid". It was decided to call celestial bodies revolving around the Sun in an orbit whose radius is greater than the radius of Neptune’s orbit, whose mass is sufficient for gravitational forces to give them an almost spherical shape, and which do not clear the space around their orbit (that is, many small objects revolve around them) ).
Since it is still difficult to determine the shape and thus the relationship to the class of dwarf planets for such distant objects as plutoids, scientists recommended temporarily classifying all objects whose absolute asteroid magnitude (brilliance from a distance of one astronomical unit) is brighter than +1 as plutoids. If it later turns out that an object classified as a plutoid is not a dwarf planet, it will be deprived of this status, although the assigned name will be retained. The dwarf planets Pluto and Eris were classified as plutoids. In July 2008, Makemake was included in this category. On September 17, 2008, Haumea was added to the list.
The material was prepared based on information from open sources
At the beginning of the 21st century, the answer to this question sounded extremely simple - nine. Today, not everyone can answer how many planets there are: since 2006, Pluto has ceased to meet the standards of a planet in the solar system.
Recently, any body in the Cosmos that rotates around a star, reflects its light and is larger in size than an asteroid could be considered a planet. At this time, it is customary to distinguish the following groups in the solar system: the inner one - the terrestrial planets, the outer one - the gas giants.
How many planets are there in the solar system
Earth group
Mercury is 18 times smaller than Earth. The helium atmosphere is rarefied. The temperature ranges from -180 to +440°C.
Venus is a “hot planet” (up to + 460), 0.8136 Earth masses. The atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen. The air pressure is thirty-five times higher than on Earth.
Mars - the planet's mass is 11% of Earth's. The temperature per day is, on average, minus 60°C. It has two satellites in orbit: Deimos and Phobos.
Gas giants
Jupiter is the largest planet. The mass exceeds the Earth's by 318 times, and that of all planets in the system by 2.5 times. Contains helium and hydrogen. It is surrounded by 63 satellites, among which one - Ganymede - is larger than Mercury.
Saturn is famous for its rings made of dust and ice. 95 times heavier than Earth. Has sixty-two satellites. Wind speeds on the surface can reach 1800 km/h.
Uranus is the coldest planet (-224°C). Has 27 satellites. It is 14.5 times heavier than the Earth, and 62.2 times larger in volume.
Neptune is the most distant planet. It has 13 satellites and the fastest winds - 2200 km/h. It is 17.2 times heavier than the Earth.
Plutoids
Pluto is significantly smaller not only than these eight planets, but also seven (out of 170) of their satellites (including the Moon). Yes and chemical composition Pluto did not come out, and it did not fit into the orbital plane.
It is almost impossible to figure out how many planets are in our system. Near the main planets, scientists have identified many so-called “minor planets” - asteroids. In 2003, the number of numbered asteroids was more than 50 thousand, and the total was twice that. Moreover, large and small planets have a fairly conventional boundary. Since 1992, many icy bodies, no smaller in size than Pluto, have been discovered beyond the orbit of Neptune. This cluster was called the "Kuiper belt". Of the more than 1,000 objects known today (the total number may exceed seventy thousand), several are comparable to Pluto. They are called dwarf planets: Makemake, Eris, Haumea. Pluto itself, together with its satellite Charon, is recognized as a double dwarf. Together they form a group of “plutoids”. Now try to analyze for yourself the number of celestial bodies around the Sun. How many planets are there from total number could space objects be called “planets” without the risk of being misunderstood by other audiences?
Exoplanets
Since 1992, scientists began to discover planets of other star systems - exoplanets. More than 800 such planets are already known, the distance to which is measured in tens of light years. Humanity will not be able to answer the question of how many planets there are in the universe any time soon.
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