10 Great Facts About The Planets

Planets in the solar system- Author; Lunar and Planetary Institute- Wikimedia Commons

10 Great Facts About The Planets

Planets are very very interesting when you take the time to read about them and understand more about them. I mean, so many movies have been made about going to the space and you really can’t blame movie makers for the fascination. Doesn’t it blow your mind how we have so many planets and others are even getting discovered? I find it so amazing how there so much life and so much going on outside our planet earth. That’s why I’m a strong believer that there are other beings living in these other planets. That as human beings we really are not the only ones. Only, if I continue I’m gonna delve more into conspiracy theories about aliens and that is not really what we should be talking about in this article. So anyway, what are some of the great facts there are about the planets? Let’s take a look.

1. Earth is the only planet that has water on its surface

Planet Earth- Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

So the planet earth is the only planet on the whole solar system that actually has liquid water on its surface. That’s why we have oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. The other planets do not have water so naturally, they don’t also support marine life. Meaning earth is pretty interesting if you were to look at it from the point of it supporting so much life. I mean, apart from human life we ofc ourse have other animals that live comfortably. Thanks to the nature of planet earth  that makes all that possible.

2. Mars is referred to as the ‘Red Planet.’

Planet Mars- Photo by Daniel Olah on Unsplash

Mars is known as the ‘red planet’ because of the reddish colour it usually has especially in the night sky. And no, that reddish appearance is not because that is where hell is. I have heard and read a number of conspiracies that try to explain why Mars appears red. Some of these arguments are downright laughable and it is a breath of fresh air to realize that there is actually a factual explanation. The scientific and factual reason for this is because of the presence of iron oxide(in other words rust) on its surface. Do you know how rust usually appears to be reddish brown? That is the same colour that covers planet Mars. That is why it appears as if it red. In my opinion, though, that reddish colour makes it an extremely beautiful planet.

3. Planet venus has the longest day in the solar system

Planet venus hot surface- Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

So planet venus, the second one closest to the sun takes about 234 earth days to complete one rotation around the sun. This is kind of ironic regarding it is that close to the sun but takes almost a year (in terms of earth days) to do a single rotation.

4. Jupiter is the largest planet

Planet Jupiter- Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Did you know that Jupiter is so big that all the other planets could actually fit into it? Being the fifth planet from the sun, it is a gas giant that has a mass of more than two and a half times that of all these other planets combined. It is so huge that it has a total of 66 known moons.Pretty wild and unfathomable if you think about it.

5. The rings around Saturn are made up of ice particles and rock fragments

Planet Saturn- Photo by NASA on Unsplash

The planet Saturn is masked with so many rumours and speculations that sometimes you may not know what to actually believe. Factually, however, it is not the only planet to have rings. The unique thing however about the rings of Saturn is that they are the most spectacular and they are made up of ice particles and rock fragments. Furthermore, it is made up of helium and hydrogen and cannot really support life. Moreover, the temperatures, pressures and materials found on this planet may be a bit too harsh and extreme and that is why living organisms cannot really live here and adapt to the conditions here.

6. Uranus is actually an ice giant

Planet Uranus- Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Uranius was named after the Greek sky deity in Greek mythology, Uranus, who was pretty important in the Greek mythology. He was the personification of heaven  and thus he meant so much in this mythology, especially when it came to the representation of divinity. Uranus has the third-largest radius in the solar system. Moreover, it being an ice giant means that it is mostly composed of ice and rock. Together with Neptune, they have always been referred to as ‘ice giants.’ One of the most unique features it has is how it rotates on its side with its poles that are almost in the plane of its orbit around the sun.

7. Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet

Pluto as seen from the New Horizons spacecraft in 2015 at a distance of 476,000 miles- Photo by NASA on Unsplash

I remember a while back, people on Twitter saying that planet Pluto is the most underrated planet in the whole of the solar system and they were right actually.  It is never really given a chance and it has always been made fun of. Almost like the bullied kid in all high school movies featuring mean kids. Planet Pluto was once considered the ninth planet in our solar system (I remember reading about it in school) but then later on it was reclassified as a dwarf planet after the discovery of similar intriguing worlds in the deeper and distant world of Kuiper belt. However, Pluto has a shed of mystery around it seeing as it has mountains, valleys, plains, craters and possibly even glaciers. It is orbited by around five moons, among which is Charon which ironically speaking is about half the size of Pluto itself.

8. Scientists believe there are other planets in our galaxy

The universe galaxy space- Image by beate bachmann from Pixabay

As much as we initially had nine planets discovered in our solar system, but later reclassified to eight after Pluto was no longer considered a planet, scientists have come to believe that there are possibly millions of other planets in our galaxy. It could be why so many books, movies and conspiracy theories have tried to talk about the existence of other forms of life out there. It is possible because I believe that there are so many things we really don’t know of.

9. Neptune is the only planet to have been discovered via a mathematical prediction

Planet Neptune- Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Typically, all these planets we know of were discovered through observation. It took hundreds of scientists to come together with their very elaborate telescopes and have years at their disposal to make reports on what they were able to observe in the galaxy system. Neptune is however the only planet discovered through a mathematical prediction. It wasn’t observed as the rest of the planets, yet it is the farthest from the sun. This makes it quite a unique planet in our solar system.

10. Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system but not closest to the sun.

Surface of planet Mercury- Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

So, planet mercury is actually the smallest planet in the solar system but ironically it isn’t the closest to the sun.  Although this has always been a debate and that is why even on the planet in accordance to how near they are to the sun Mercury is always the first, Venus has been said to the closest planet to the sun. Of course, other scientists have argued differently and it is still an ongoing debate.

There is still so much we do not know about the planets in our galaxy system but all the same, the more you learn about them, the more intriguing they all seem. The galaxy system has a lot of surprises and the features of the planets found here are part of those surprises.