Table of Contents
Introduction
A planet is a delightful body in orbit around the Sun and its sufficient mass for itself-gravity to overcome rigid body forces, which assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape. It has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit. Thus, all the planets move around the earth with a circular orbit within a flat disc called the ecliptic plane. Here we found some most common questions about planets of our solar system in this article.
How did the planets of our solar system get their names?
The people knew about the five planets thousand years ago. The planet’s name comes from the Greek word for “wanderer.” Thus, people in different lands had various names; still, our names come from the ancient Greeks and Romans. Therefore, they named the planets for some of their gods.
- Here, Mercury was the Roman god of commerce and cunning and also a messenger to the gods.
- Then, Venus was the goddess of love.
- Mars was the god of war.
- Thus, Jupiter was the chief god.
- Saturn was the god of agriculture.
- Therefore, there was quite a debate about what to name when they found the next planet.
- Finally, everyone decided to name it with the Roman mythology as Uranus, for the father of the Titans.
- Then, the next planet was named Neptune, for the god of the seas.
- And Pluto was named the god of the underworld.
- Most of the moons and some asteroids also name from Roman mythology.
How were the first planets formed?
The Sun probably formed first, then the leftover gas and dust remained in a circle around the Sun. Thus, the stuff began to clump and form “planetesimals or planets” in the disk. Therefore, these are small rocky bodies that are something like asteroids. Now, they strike into each other and finally formed the inner planets. This how the planets of our solar system formed initially.
Here, the planetesimals formed the cores of the outer planets Jupiter and Saturn at the same time. Because of their strong gravity, they cleaned up a lot of gas. When Uranus and Neptune did the same, there was less gas because Jupiter and Saturn got it first. The asteroid belt may be leftover planetesimals that never formed a planet because Jupiter’s strong gravity nearby kept it from forming.
Who discovered the first planet, and what kind of equipment they used?
The next common questions about planets of our solar system is which planet was discovered first ?
The first new planet discovered was Uranus. Here, it was initiated by the English astronomer Sir William Herschel on March 13, 1781. Thus, Herschel was one of the first modern astronomers. Therefore, he discovers Uranus while surveying stars in the night sky using a telescope, which he builts by himself.
Herschel saw that one of these “stars” seems to be different, and after observing it many more times, saw it orbited the Sun. Then, he calculated that Uranus had an orbit about 18 times far from the Sun than Earth. Herschel also discovers two of the moons of Uranus (Titania and Oberon).
Since ancient times, the five known planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Why are all the planets round?
Here, the Planets and stars are round because of gravity. Therefore, gravity pulls equally in all directions. Assume you had a great big, tall mountain. The rocks and dirt loosen up and fall down the mountainside as time goes —eventually, the mountains were down. Uniformly, a deep, deep valley will fill up. Thus, a planet is not perfectly round — look at the mountains and valleys on the Earth and Mars!
Also, the stronger the gravity, the bigger the planet. So more giant planets will be rounder. Here, the tiny planets may not be very round. Then, some of the moons around Jupiter are not very big and are not round — oblong and irregular, for instance. Asteroids, which may be a few miles long, are also unstable.
How do the planets get the energy to rotate?
The planets formed from the same big cloud of gas and dust that formed the Sun. As it collapsed and started to create the Sun, that cloud spun faster and faster as it got smaller. Hence, the way spin works — something that scientists call “conservation of angular momentum.” A familiar example is an ice skater. Therefore, the ice skater starts to spin, and when it pulls the arms close around, the spin goes faster. You may do the same thing on a chair that lets you spin. Now, push yourself into a spin with your arms and legs stuck out. Then pull your arms and legs into your body. Your chair will spin faster!
Thus, the same thing happened to the cloud, which formed the Sun (spinning), and the cloud segment, which forms the planets. As their smaller clouds collapsed, they turned faster and faster.
How do planets stay in orbit?
Here, the planet in motion remains in a closed orbit around the Sun mainly because of two things, such as the nature of the gravitational force and virtually no other forces act on the planet. Then, the Solar System formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust spun around a newly forms star, our Sun, at its center. Hence, all the planets originated from this spinning disk-shaped cloud and continued this rotating course around the Sun after they started. Thus, the gravity of the Sun keeps the planets in their orbits. They stay in their orbits because no other force in the Solar System can stop them.
Conclusion:
We hope the information about planets given by us will be helpful for you. Here we have explained planet formation and shapes. It is essential to know more about our planet Earth and helps us understand effects such as space weather and climate change.
