Some Superb Pictures of the Super Moon

Super moon rising from behind the trees.

On a super moon distance between Earth and its sattelite moon is reduced only to 221,567 miles.

Super moon rising on a lake.

Super moon as seen on the New York City skyline.

Super moon on the Eastern River in London.

Super Moon pictured on Washington D.C.

People gathered near a high tower to view the super moon.

A picture of Super moon taken from behind a radio and T.V tower.

Super moon from behind a barren area.

Asteroids or Minor Planets

On January 1st in 1801, a man named Giuseppe Piazzi found a new object in the sky. It was circling the Sun out beyond the planet Mars. Piazzi thought it might be a comet. Some people thought that it was a new planet. Over the next few years many more objects were seen. All of these were much smaller than a planet. Astronomers new call these objects 'asteroids' or 'minor planets'.

There are thousands of known asteroids in our solar system. They tend to vary in shape and size, ranging from large spheres to smaller slabs and strangely-shaped objects. Some asteroids are big. Most are the size of a boulder. Smaller asteroids form when two big asteroids smash into each other and break up. Astronomers think that there are millions of tiny asteroids scattered in our solar system.

Just like all the planets planets, all asteroids in our solar system also circulate around the Sun in their orbits. Orbit is the path a planet or an asteroid follows to circulate around the Sun. Most asteroids are found farther from the Sun than Earth, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Some, though, come quite close to the Sun.

Scientists are of the view that millions of years ago an asteroid hit Earth and led to the dinosaurs' extinction.

Planets.... The Wanderers in the Sky

Billions of years ago, there was an enormously great and huge swirling cloud of gas and dust. This clout packed together to such an extent that eventually it became extremely hot. With the passing time the center of the cloud formed our Sun. The rest of the cloud helped to form the planets of our solar system.

The eight planets in our solar system revolve around our Sun or their specific paths named as orbits. Beginning with the one closest to the Sun, the names of these planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Until a few years ago astronomers and scientists considered another heavenly body named Pluto too a planet but in 2006 it was declared as a dwarf planet. This was because firstly Pluto is too small to be considered as a planet and secondly it has a strange composition.
The planets have been divided into two basic groups according to their composition. Firstly there are Earth-like planets and secondly there are Jupiter-like planets. Earth-like planets are close to the Sun and are made up of rock and metal. These planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The other type of planets are larger and at a greater distance from the Sun. Names of these planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These four planets do not have a solid surface, rather they are made up of gases and liquids.

Each planet rotates on its axis along with its circulation around the sun. An axis is like an imaginary pole going through a planet's centre from one end to the other. The planet spins as if a giant hand had given this pole a great twist.

Most planets rotate from west to east. Only Venus and Uranus rotate from east to west. This is why on these planets the Sun seems to rise in the west and set in the east.

Scientists have found three planets orbiting the star Upsilon Andromedae, a star much like our Sun. Some are of the view that it means there could be life on one of the planets.
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Rocketing Masses with Fuzzy Tails

The word 'comet' comes from a Greek word that means 'hairy one'. A comet sometimes looks like a star with a hairy tail. But a comet is not a star. Like the Moon, a comet has no light of its own. A comet shines by reflecting the light of sun. Like the Earth, a comet revolves around the Sun, so it may appear again and again.

Some scientists claim that comets are composed largely of ice. The rest of their bodies contain of  bits of iron and dust and perhaps few huge pieces of rock. When sunshine melts the ice in a comet, great clouds of gas go streaming behind them which eventually look like their huge fuzzy tails.

Long ago when there were no streetlights and the air was very clean, eveyone could see comets in the sky without using any kind of telescopes.
Unlike the stars that shine every night on the night sky, comets appear quite suddenly. In the past People used to think that they would bring bad luck such as floods, hungry times, or sickness for human beings on earth. Thats why comets were considered as bad omen in past.

The English astronomer Edmond Halley, who lived over 200 years ago, discovered about 24 different comets in his life time. One that keeps coming back was named fo him because he worked out when it would return. Halley first saw it in 1759, and it reappeared in 1835, 1910, and 1986. The next time it comes near the Earth will be in the year 2060.How old will you be then?

American author Mark Twain, who wrote Tom Sawyer, was born in 1835 on a day when Halley's Comet could be seen in the sky. Just as he predicted, he died when Halley's Comet was again seen in the sky, in 1910.

Solar System...The Family of Sun

The sun is the center of our solar system. It is a ball of very hot gases burning all the time. It provides light and heat to the bodies revolving around it, this it is the sole source of life in solar system.The Sun's temperature on the surface is about 5,537 to 6,093C. That's 100 times hotter than a really hot day on Earth!
The Sun moves through a huge black space, taking many smaller bodies with it. These smaller bodies include planets, asteroids, comets, meteors, and tiny molecules of gases. Together all these form the sun's family that we name as  'solar system'. Many solar systems and stars clustered together make up a galaxy. Our solar system is located in the galaxy known as "Milky Way".

Astronomers have not been still able to find out that how far out our solar system extends. They are of the view that some objects may be as much as 15 trillion kilometers away from the center of solar system, our Sun.

The Sun provides energy to all the bodies located in our solar system including earth. It also provides the heat and light necessary to support all forms of life on our planet. Gravity of our sun keeps the planets, comets, and other bodies in orbit around it.

After the Sun, the planets are the largest and most massive members of the solar system. Some of them are huge but some are pretty small. There are eight known planets in our solar system named as: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Not long ago scientists used to think that there were nine planets in our solar system. They thought that Pluto was a planet because it revolves around the Sun. But in 2006 they decided that Pluto should be named as a dwarf planet. Dwarf planets are the minor bodies that also orbit the Sun but are smaller than the planets. Bodies even smaller than dwarf planets are called asteroids, most of which lie between Mars and Jupiter.

Comets are the other bodies in solar system. Some people call name them as stars with huge tails. This is because a comet appears in the sky as a fuzzy spot of light with a huge tail behind it. Comets are, mostly, made up of dust and frozen gases. As a comet moves closer to the Sun, the ice melts and thus appears like a tail. Halley's Comet is probably the most famous of all the comets.

Venus.....The Star of Dawn & Dusk

Venus is the second planet from the Sun and according to the size, the sixth largest of all. It is named after the Roman goddess of love, beauty and fertility who plays a key role in many mythological Roman religious festivals. Some people are of the view that ancient people named it after the Roman goddess of love and beauty because it shines much more brightly than all the other planets in the solar system. After the moon, it is the second brightest natural object in the night sky. If you want to observe Venus on the night sky, you must find it in the western sky in the evening and at other times in the per-dawn eastern sky. This is why some people name it Morning and sometimes evening star. Some also call it Dawn and Dusk star.

Sometimes people call it earth's sister planet because on one hand it is about the same size as our earth and on the other hand it is very much similar to earth. Some astronomers are of the view that earth and Venus were twin planets in the beginning but separated later.

Although Venus is the closest planet to Earth, it is difficult to study because almost all of its surface is completely covered by a thick layer of opaque clouds. This dense layer of clouds  does not allow much sunlight to reach its surface. They also play an important role in keeping its surface very hot. Now the question is from where does the heat come when there is a considerably thick layer of clouds covering its surface from all sides. Answer to this question lies in the great number of active volcanoes covering its surface. whats more surprising is more than 80 % of its surface is covered with smooth volcanic plains which is enough to increase its temperature up to 464 degrees Celsius. The highest clouds, by contrast, have a daily range of 25 to  -149C.

Of all the members of the solar system, Venus is also closest to Earth in size. In fact, Earth and Venus were once regarded as sister planets. Some scientists and astronomers have suggested that Venus could support some form of life, perhaps in the clouds around it. However, its atmosphere is not suitable for human life as people can not breathe on it.
It completes its one orbit around the sun in about 224.7 Earth days

Until now Several spacecraft have visited it and sent back information about its surface and the clouds around it. The journey of research on Venus started with Mariner 2 in 1962 but most of its secrets were revealed in 1990-91 in Project Magellan. According to some the planet is about 300 to 600 million years old Away from the space probes The immensely powerful Hubble Space Telescope has also provided considerable information about the planet.

With the help of images sent back by Hubble Space Telescope Scientists have come to know that the surface of Venus is marked with hundreds of large meteor craters. These craters suggest that since the planet come into being, its surface has changed in a different way from Earth's surface. Earth has only a few large craters that are easy to recognize while the number of craters on Venus is considerably large.

Venus is different from Earth in another way too. Our earth has got a moon while we don't find one around Venus.
Scientists have classified it in the list of terrestrial planets, which means it is one among the planets similar to our earth. Away from its size and rocky surface, its gravity is also almost equal to our earth. Its diameter is only 650 km less than earth while mass is 81 % of our earth.