Pluto ( ♇ , प्लूटो ) was once a planet but thanks to the discovery of Eris, it was demoted to the status of a dwarf planet. This tiny ball in space was just recently pictured from a short distance for the first time. This Flyby mission revealed many characteristics of this demoted planet. Here are some interesting facts about the ex-planet with a heart, Pluto:   Pluto is the largest known Plutoid   Tombaugh’s task was to systematically image the night sky in pairs of photographs, then examine each pair and determine whether any objects had shifted position. After the observatory obtained confirmatory photographs, news of the discovery was telegraphed to the Harvard College Observatory on March 13, 1930   The final choice of name was helped in part by the fact that the first two letters of Pluto. These are the initials of Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian…

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Uranus ( ⛢ , अरुण ) is the Solar System‘s weirdo. Let it be its featureless look, mysteriously low temperature or excessive tilt, it is unlike any other planet. This far from home icy planet has its own amazing set of quirks. Here are some interesting facts about Uranus, the icy misfit:   Uranus is the Latinized version of Ouranos   Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on 13th March 1781, but he assumed it was a comet. By 1783, he acknowledges that his discovery is, in fact, a planet Appendix: Classical Planets The interior of Uranus is mainly composed of ices and rock. Uranus and Neptune are known as the Ice Giants   This could be because of the low heat generated by the planet Neptune, which is Uranus’ near twin in size and composition, radiates 2.61 times as much energy into space as it receives from the Sun.…

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Saturn ( ♄ , शनि ) can be deemed as the most royal planet of the Solar System. With a huge set of rings, the distinctive look of Saturn makes it the most talked-about planet. This fascinating planet is even more interesting from the close. Here are some interesting facts about Saturn, the one with the rings:   Saturn has only one-eighth of the average density of Earth   Saturn’s astronomical symbol (♄) represents the god’s sickle   An apparent oddity is that it does not have any known Trojan Asteroids. Trojans have been discovered for Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune Appendix: AU   The equatorial diameter of Saturn is 11,808 km longer than the diameter measured through the poles while the diameter of Earth is only 12,742 km   The outermost layer of Saturn spans 1,000 km and consists of gas Appendix: Metallic Hydrogen   Saturn’s finer cloud…

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Jupiter

Jupiter (♃ , बृहस्पति) is the giant of our Solar System. Not only Jupiter is very huge, its gravitational force also helped in sculpting the structure of the Solar system, as we see today. First of the giant planets, Jupiter is a mammoth ball of gas with many striking features. Here are some interesting facts about Jupiter, the giant of the giants:   Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System   Roman god Jupiter is also called Jove which is the reason behind the name Jovian planets. ‘Jovian planets’ is the other term used for ‘Giant planets’   Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is about 88–92% Hydrogen and 8–12% Helium by percent volume of gas molecules   Jupiter’s rotation is the fastest of all the Solar System‘s planets   But like the other giant planets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface   Astronomers have…

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Between tiny Mars and humongous Jupiter, lies a band of objects known as Asteroid Belt. This belt of ‘minor planets’ was supposed to be a planet but Jupiter’s gravity didn’t let that happen. So, it ended up as Sun‘s own ring system made up of asteroids and a dwarf planet. Here are some interesting facts about the Asteroid Belt:   The Asteroid Belt is also termed the ‘Main Asteroid Belt’ or ‘Main Belt’ to distinguish it from other asteroid populations in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and Trojan Asteroids   Collisions became too violent and instead of fusing together, the Planetesimals and most of the Protoplanets shattered and formed the Asteroid Belt Appendix: Accrete, Primordial   Computer simulations suggest that the original Asteroid Belt may have contained the mass equivalent to the Earth   Although some scientists refer to the asteroids as residual Planetesimals, other scientists consider them…

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The Solar System

Billions of years ago, there was no Sun and there were no planets. All there was a big cloud full of gases. So, how it all turned into a balanced system of a star and planets orbiting around it? How a star and planetary bodies around it made it possible to have life? The story of the Solar System ( सौर मण्डल ). Here are some interesting facts about our Solar System which will give you some insights on this series covering our planetary system:   The Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC) in Orion–Cygnus Arm, also known as the Local Fluff is roughly 30 light-years across ————————————   As is typical of molecular clouds, this one consisted mostly of hydrogen, with some helium. It also had small amounts of heavier elements fused by previous generations of stars   Within 50 million years, the pressure and density of hydrogen in the centre…

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