SOLAR SYSTEM

-The sun (solar) is the center object controlling the orbits of the individual planets.

-The system containing the sun and the bodies held in its gravitational field, including the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), the asteroids, and comets

THE PLANETS

MERCURY

the smallest planet and the nearest to the sun

Venus
the second nearest planet to the sun; it is peculiar in that its rotation is slow and retrograde (in the opposite sense of the Earth and all other planets except Uranus); it is visible from Earth as an early `morning star' or an `evening star'; "before it was known that they were the same object the evening star was called Venus and the morning star was called Lucifer"

Earth

the 3rd planet from the sun; the planet we live on; "the Earth moves around the sun"; "he sailed around the world"

Mars
a small reddish planet that is the 4th from the sun and is periodically visible to the naked eye; minerals rich in iron cover its surface and are responsible for its characteristic color; "Mars has two satellites"

Jupiter

the largest planet and the 5th from the sun; has many satellites and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky

Saturn

a giant planet that is surrounded by three planar concentric rings of ice particles; the 6th planet from the sun

Uranus
a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 7th planet from the sun has a bluegreen color and many satellites; "Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781"

Neptune
a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 8th planet from the sun is the most remote of the gas giants; "the existence of Neptune was predicted from perturbations in the orbit of Uranus and it was then identified in 1846"

THE SUN

The Core The innermost layer of the sun is the core. With a density of 160 g/cm^3, 10 times that of lead, the core might be expected to be solid. However, the core's temperature of 15 million kelvins (27 million degrees Fahrenheit) keeps it in a gaseous state. In the core, fusion reactions produce energy in the form of gamma rays and neutrinos. Gamma rays are photons with high energy and high frequency. The gamma rays are absorbed and re-emitted by many atoms on their journey from the envelope to the outside of the sun. When the gamma rays leave atoms, their average energy is reduced. However, the first law of thermodynamics (which states that energy can neither be created nor be destroyed) plays a role and the number of photons increases. Each high-energy gamma ray that leaves the solar envelope will eventually become a thousand low-energy photons. The neutrinos are extremely nonreactive. To stop a typical neutrino, one would have to send it through a light-year of lead! Several experiments are being performed to measure the neutrino output from the sun. Chemicals containing elements with which neutrinos react are put in large pools in mines, and the neutrinos' passage through the pools can be measured by the rare changes they cause in the nuclei in the pools. For example, perchloroethane contains some isotopes of chlorine with 37 particles in the nucleus (17 protons, 20 neutrons). These Cl-37 molecules can take in neutrinos and become radioactive Ar-37 (18 protons, 19 neutrons). From the amount of argon present, the number of neutrinos can be calculated. Solar Envelope Outside of the core is the radiative envelope, which is surrounded by the convective envelope. The temperature is 4 million kelvins (7 million degrees F). The density of the solar envelope is much less than that of the core. The core contains 40 percent of the sun's mass in 10 percent of the volume, while the solar envelope has 60 percent of the mass in 90 percent of the volume.

The solar envelope puts pressure on the core and maintains the core's temperature. The hotter a gas is, the more transparent it is. The solar envelope is cooler and more opaque than the core. It becomes less efficient for energy to move by radiation, and heat energy starts to build up at the outside of the radiative zone. The energy begins to move by convection, in huge cells of circulating gas several hundred kilometers in diameter. Convection cells nearer to the outside are smaller than the inner cells. The top of each cell is called a granule. Seen through a telescope, granules look like tiny specks of light. Variations in the velocity of particles in granules cause slight wavelength changes in the spectra emitted by the sun. Photosphere The photosphere is the zone from which the sunlight we see is emitted. The photosphere is a comparatively thin layer of low pressure gasses surrounding the envelope. It is only a few hundred kilometers thick, with a temperature of 6000 K. The composition, temperature, and pressure of the photosphere are revealed by the spectrum of sunlight. In fact, helium was discovered in 1896 by William Ramsey, when in analyzing the solar spectrum he found features that did not belong to any gas known on earth. The newly-discovered gas was named helium in honor of Helios, the mythological Greek god of the sun. Chromosphere In an eclipse, a red circle around the outside of the sun can sometimes can be seen. This is the chromosphere. Its red coloring is caused by the abundance of hydrogen. From the center of the sun to the chromosphere, the temperature decreases proportionally as the distance from the core increases. The chromosphere's temperature, however, is 7000 K, hotter than that of the photosphere. Temperatures continue to increase through the corona. Sunspots Sunspots are dark spots on the photosphere, typically with the same diameter as the Earth. They have cooler temperatures than the photosphere. The center of a spot, the umbra, looks dark gray if heavily filtered and is only 4500 K (as compared to the photosphere at 6000K). Around it is the penumbra, which looks lighter gray (if filtered). Sunspots come in cycles, increasing sharply (in numbers) and then decreasing sharply. The period of this solar cycle is about 11 years. The sun has enormous organized magnetic fields that reach from pole to pole. Loops of the magnetic field oppose convection in the convective envelope and stop the flow of energy to the surface. This results in cool spots at the surface which produce less light than the warmer areas. These cool, dark spots are the sunspots. Corona The outermost layer of the sun is the corona. Only visible during eclipses, it is a low density cloud of plasma with higher transparency than the inner layers. The white corona is a million times less bright than the inner layers of the sun, but is many times larger. The corona is hotter than some of the inner layers. Its average temperature is 1 million K (2 million degrees F) but in some places it can reach 3 million K (5 million degrees F). Temperatures steadily decrease as we move farther away from the core, but after the photosphere they begin to rise again. There are several theories that explain this, but none have been proven. Solar Flares In the corona, above sunspots and areas of complex magnetic field patterns, are solar flares. These sparks of energy sometimes reach the size of the Earth and can last for up to several hours. Their temperature has been recorded at 11 million K (20 million degrees F). The extreme heat produces x rays that create light when they hit the gasses of the corona.

Prominences Prominences are generally less violent than solar flares. They are "cool sheets of gas that condense out of the corona above the active regions. Some are quiet and hang there for weeks, others rain matter down on the photosphere, still others literally explode into space, pushing the corona out in front of them in a great burst that carries the gas off the sun altogether." (113, Kaler)Solar Wind

COMETS A celestial body, observed only in that part of its orbit that is relatively close to the sun, having a head consisting of a solid nucleus surrounded by a nebulous coma up to 2.4 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) in diameter and an elongated curved vapor tail arising from the coma when sufficiently close to the sun. Comets are thought to consist chiefly of ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide, and water.

ASTERIODS . Astronomy Any of numerous small celestial bodies that revolve around the sun, with orbits lying chiefly between Mars and Jupiter and characteristic diameters between a few and several hundred kilometers. Also called minor planet, planetoid.

METEORS
A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's atmosphere. Also called falling star, meteor burst, shooting star.

METEORITES might be falling in a heavy shower upon the planet, or that a huge volcanic explosion was in progress.

TIDES

SPIRING TIDES
A tide in which the difference between high and low tide is the greatest. Spring tides occur when the Moon is either new or full, and the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth are aligned. When this is the case, their collective gravitational pull on the Earth's water is strengthened. NEAP TIDES the lowest tides of the lunar month, which occur in the second and fourth quarters of the moon

MOON [PHASES

A lunar phase or phase of the moon is the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases vary cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon, and Sun. One half of the lunar surface is always illuminated by the Sun (except during lunar eclipses), and hence is bright, but the portion of the illuminated hemisphere that is visible to an observer can vary from 100% (full moon) to 0% (new moon). The boundary between the illuminated and unilluminated hemispheres is called the terminator.