Saturn

Saturn's Beautiful Rings

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system, it is a gas giant as well. Saturn's atmosphere is made mostly of Helium, making it extremely light. If you had an ocean large enough to put Saturn in, it would float. Saturn is famous for it's rings. (even though Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter also have rings) Saturn's rings are made mostly of ice, which makes them so bright. It is still unknown how Saturn's rings formed. Most scientists believe that a moon was ripped apart and the pieces continued to orbit Saturn, thus, forming it's ring. The planet takes about 10,759 Earth days, or about 29 1/2 Earth years, to go around the sun.

Jupiter

The Great Red Spot

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It is also a gas giant, a group of 4 planets made almost compeletly of gas. Jupiter has many moons (over 60). One of it's moons, Europa, has a liquid ocean underneath it's icy surface. Jupiter fas a large storm that has been there for at least 50 years known as the great read spot, it is over 100 times stronger than a hurricane. Jupiter has a very thin ring that is not easily seen and has the strongest magnetic field in the whole solar system and often has ultra violent auras at it's poles. It would take 1,00 Earths to fill Jupiter up. It has a diameter of 88,846 Miles. It takes 4,333 Earth days to orbit or almost 12 Earth years.

Comets

The Comet Hyakutake

Comets are dirty balls of ice and dust that form in the outer solar system. They usually have an elliptical or oval orbit. When They get close to the sun their gases start melting and streaming behind them in a beautiful tail that glows brightly. Comets are believed to come from a region beyond Pluto called the Oort Cloud. Comets are believed to have brought water to Earth in the form of ice on comets.

Asteroids

Asteroids are blocks of space debris. They are usually made of iron, rock and other metals. Most asteroids orbit in a belt inbetween Mars and Jupiter in an area known as the Asteroid Belt. This is considered the divider between the inner and outer solar system. Asteroids are basicly failed planets that couldn't come together to form a planet.

Mars

Mars is often called the red planet due to it's rusty rocks that make a red glow. Mars is roughly half the size of Earth and has ice at it's poles. It has the highest peak in the solar system, Olympus Mons. Many believed that Mars was full of life until the 90s when people discovered that it was a barren dusty planet devoid of any life. Mars has no magnetic feild. It has two moons, Phobos and Diemos. It can get as cold as -195°F at it's poles. Mars has many volcanoes but none apear to be active. Mars is right next to the asteroid belt.

Black Holes

Black Hole Drawing

Black holes are small areas of space that have such strong gravity that nothing, not even light can escape. planets, stars, gas dust, and even energy are devoured by black holes. Some people think that black holes can teleport you to other places. The bitter truth is that they are angry beasts that rip everything apart atom by atom. Black holes are one of the most powerful forces in the universe. They are collapsed supergiant stars. They are only detected when the start swallowing a star because, suddenly, the star is gone.

Venus

The surface of Venus

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system at 900°F. It has a mostly Carbon Dioxide atmosphere which creates a powerful greenhouse effect. At its closest, Venus is only 41,840,000 km away. Venus is the most active planet in the solar system with many volcanos. It has a molten, hot surface and is almost exactly the same size as earth. Its surface is a rocky, dusty, waterless expanse of mountains, canyons, and plains, with a 200-mile river of hardened lava. This is not the place to be. Venus also takes 243 Earth days just to rotate once!

Mercury

Mercury is the 1st planet in our Solar System. It has no atmosphere and is pitted with craters like our moon. Temperatures can reach as high as 801F (427C). Some craters are so deep that light has never reached the bottom and with no atmosphere to trap the heat it can get as cold as -279F. Mercury is also the smallest planet in our solar system (Pluto isn't a planet anymore, remember?). Mercury has no moons and is a dead lifeless planet.

Stars

Stars usually seem very simple, but thats far from the truth. Stars are fueled by nuclear fusion. Stars are massive enough that hydrogen is changed (by nuclear fusion) into helium. This change creats heat and light energy. Some stars are larger that others because there is more Hydrogen inside of them. Supermassive stars have very short lives of only a few million years because they burn their fuel faster. People only recently discovered what fueled a star.

Neutron Star in center of a SuperNovae

Stars of all shapes and sizes are in a constant battle against their own gravity which is trying to pull the star into itself. The only thing stopping this from happening is the star heat and light output is pushing against the gravity. So, naturally, when a supergiant star runs out of fuel it collapses into itself. The result is a massive explosion known as a supenovae. In the center of the debris is the colapsed core of the star it is a neutron star (for more info on neutron stars, I have an entry on them as well). If the star was massive enough it would be a black hole. I will have information on black holes very soon.

Hubble's Best Pictures

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Hubble

The Hubble space telescope is now celebrating 10 years of discoveries! Outfitted with the latest equipment, Hubble is ready for 10 more!! Talk about Hubble Via Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and Skype to share your feelings!

Hubble Space Telescope

Nebulas

Crab Nebula

A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust that is the result of a supergiant star explosion. A nebula is sometimes called a interstellar nursery. New stars are born in nebulas and there is usually a neutron star in the center, like the neutron star in the center of the Crab Nebula, one of the most famous nebulas in the universe. The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernovae explosion that took place during the 1000's. It was as bright as our moon in the night sky for several weeks and the brightest in history. This supernovae was best documented by the ancient Chinese. Nowadays you need a good telescope to See it.

Neutron Star

Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of Supergiant stars that were not massive enough to form black holes. Neutron stars are very small (about 12 miles across.) but they have a lot of mass. There are several variations of neutron stars. Like Magnetars, pulsars and blazars. They have pretty cool names.
All neutron stars are surrounded by a nebula.

Pulsars and Quasars

Pulsar Drawing

Pulsars and quasars are some of the most  interesting object in the cosmos.

Pulsars: Pulsars are fast rotating neutron stars. It is still unknown what causes them to spin so quickly. A pulsar has 2 streams of radioactive particles streaming out of it's poles. The name is just short for pulsating star. They appear to blink in the night sky. There is a pulsar in the center of the famous crab nebula. An average pulsar is just the size of Manhatan. and orbits once every 1 or 2 seconds.

Quasar Animation

Quasars: They are strange even for black holes. A quasar is a supermassiveblack hole in the center of a galaxy (Not all galaxies have one, the milky way and many others do not. Quasars are not very common.) The light from a quasar is emited from it's poles, as you can see from the drawing. The light comes from the gas of stars that are being devoured. Sometimes the gas can spread through hundreds of lightyears. These are called Dragns. It is not possible for a quasar to be a star.

The Universe

The History Channel show, The Universe is going to start it's third season Thursday.

The Universe is my favorite show on History and is very informative about comets, planets, stars, and galaxies. I suggest that you watch the premiere.