May 10, 2020
By: Haris Ahmad[1]
In my last blog of the same series, I explained what the Solar System and the Sun are in very simple words so that people with very little or even no knowledge about the universe can understand. In this blog, I will move on further and explain the four inner planets of the Solar System.
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| https://www.tes.com/lessons/lwmnzI_djhVevA/solar-system-the-inner-planets |
The first Planet of the Solar System which is the closest to the Sun is Mercury. Mercury was named after the swift-footed Roman messenger god because it moved across the sky faster than any other planet. It is a rocky planet with no natural satellites/Moons. This planet is 57 million km away from the Sun and lacks an atmosphere. This means that there is no shield protecting the planet from the intense radiations of the Sun which I explained in the previous blog. Its surface is full of craters/impact points due to the collision of asteroids (Small rock bodies) with it. I will explain about asteroids in the coming blogs in simple words. Even though this planet is the closest to the Sun, it is not the hottest one in the Solar System and has a temperature of 427 degrees Celsius since it lacks an atmosphere which means that not only does it not have a shield to protect it, it also doesn’t have a cover to trap heat inside the planet.
The second planet is Venus. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It also doesn’t have any natural satellites/Moons. It is a rocky planet similar to Mercury. Though it is almost thrice larger than it. Moreover, it has an atmosphere. This means that it has a shield as well as a heat keeper. However, due to its distance from the Sun, the planet’s atmosphere stores an insane amount of heat which makes the planet the hottest of all in the Solar System. The temperatures on this beast reach up to 462 degrees Celsius. This is enough to kill you and turn you into ashes in less than 2 seconds. Moreover, if that isn’t enough to kill you, the Sulphuric acid rain on the planet will surely do the job. This deadly rain is caused due to the composition of its atmosphere. If you want to see hell in this life, then go the Venus and you’ll get an idea. This sure is a hard fella to stay with. Hence let’s move on to our home planet.
The third planet from the Sun is our very own planet Earth. It has one natural satellite named Luna or Moon. This planet exists in a zone of the Solar System called the Goldilocks Zone. Therefore, it orbits the Sun in an area where water remains liquid. Neither does it boil due to high temperatures nor does it freeze due to low temperatures. Hence, this is the reason why it is the only perfect planet is all of the Solar System to sustain life. Temperatures of this planet are warm and stable enough for life to thrive on it. However, we humans are destroying the planet even though we know we have nowhere else to go with the current technology.
The fourth planet from the Sun is called Mars or the red planet. Mars was named after the Roman god of war. It has two moons named Phobos and Deimos. Mars rotates around the Sun in a tilted motion and so, it has seasons. On this planet, the daytime temperatures can reach up to 26 degrees Celsius, which doesn’t seem bad at all. But, since this planet has an extremely thin atmosphere, approximately 100 times less thick than Earth’s atmosphere there is an immense amount of radiation on the planet. Moreover, due to the absence of a thick atmosphere, temperatures at night can reach -125 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere of this planet was destroyed by the solar winds because it had a very small gravitational field. Furthermore, even though this planet is a hard fella to stay with, humans can still terraform it to help it meet the requirements for life to strive for it. In a few years or even soon, humans will be sent to Mars for the first time.
This was the end of this blog. In my next blog, I will explain the jewel and the vacuum of the universe which all of you may know as Saturn and Jupiter.
[1] Haris Ahmad is currently studying in 9th grade (O levels) in The City School Islamabad.
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