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E Y E W I T N E S S

P L A N E T S
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 OceanofPDF.com

ekraPrSolar Probe

Ameteortiagment
efr

nifaslecolor

Ayoung rocky planet

Jupteisr’GreatRedSpot,

bombardedby rocks

capturedbythe ned
airf

fromspace

elesJcoaebb
pmeesW
SpaceT
 OceanofPDF.com

E Y E W I T N E S S

P L A N E T S

Writen
t by

CaroleStott
 OceanofPDF.com

REVISEDEDITION

SaturnV oekctr

DK DEL H I

blastso the

S e n i o r A r tEdi t o r VikasChauhan

Editor A n k i t aG u p t a

launchpad

A r t Editor A p a r a j i t a Sen

S e n i o r M a n a g i n gEdi t o r Rohan S i n h a

M a n a g i n g A r tEdi t o r GovindMit tal

DTP Des i g n e r s H a r i s h A g g a r w a l, Pawan Kumar

, Ra j d e e p S i n g h

J a c k e t sDes i g n e r JuhiS h e t h

S e n i o r J a c k e t sC o o r d i n a t o r P r i y a nka S h a r m a - S a d d i

DK LONDON

SeniorE d i t o r C a r r on Bro w n

ArtEditor C h r i s s yC h e c k e t t s

US Edi t o r Jen n e t t e ElNa g g a r

U S E xe c u t i ve Edi t o r Lori C a tes H a n d

ManagingE d i t o r Franc e s c a B a i n e s

M a n a g i n g A r tEdi t o r Philip L e t s u

Senior P r o d u c t ionE d i t o r AndyHilliard

S e n i o r P r o d u c t ionC o n t r o l l e r PoppyD a v i d

S e n i o r J a c k e t sD e s i g n e r SurabhiW a d h w a - G a n d h i

J a c k e t D e s i g n Devel o p m e n t M a n a g e r Sophia M T T

Publisher AndrewM a c i n t y r e

A s s o c i a t e Pu b l i s h i n g D i r e c t or Liz W h e e l e r

A r t D i r e c t or K a r e nSel f

P u b l i s h i n g D i r e c t or JonathanMetc a l f

Consultant Gile s Sp a r r o w

FIRSTEDITION

Consultant D.r J a c q u e l i n e M i t t o n

DK LONDON

SeniorE d i t o r s C a m i l l a H a l l i n a n , J e n ny Sic h

SeniorD e s i g n e r S p e n c e rHolb r o o k

DK DEL H I

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P i c t ureR e s e a r c her Sumedha C h o p r a

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M a n a g i n g J a c k e t sE d i t o r Saloni S i n g h

P i c t u r e R e s e a r c h Ma n a g e r iaT yaba K h a t o o n

ManagingE d i t o r K i n g s h u k Gho s h a l

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This A m e r i c a n E d i t i on, 2023

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P u b l i s h e d in th e Uni ted S t a t es byDKPu b l i s h i n g

5 4 7 1 B r o a d way, 2 0 t h Flo o,rNewYor k , NY109 10

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D K , a D i v i s i o n of Pen guin R andom H o u s e LLC

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001– 3 3 5 4 4 9 – A p r / 2023
 OceanofPDF.com

s t n e t n oC

Planet Earth and

its neighbors

What is a planet?

10

Changing worlds

12

Skywatching

14

Space age exploration

16

The sun

18

Mercury

20

neV us

22

Earth

24

Weatr world

26
 OceanofPDF.com

thentadrnal aEP

st i srobhgi en

Part ofthefamily of space objects called the solar

system, Earth and seven more planetsformed about

4.6 billion years ago.They each orbit the sun, as do

billions of smaller bodies such as asteroids, and

othersafr beyond the planets.

Planetary

solar system

The sun is our local. star Its gravity

Inner planets

holds the solar systemtogether

. Following

Thefour planets closestot the sun are also the solar

elliptical orbits—stretched, circular paths—

system’s smallest. Oftencalled the inner or rocky

around the sun, the eight planets and the asteroids

planets, allour
f are balls of rock and metal, but with

together orbit in a disc-like plane thatextends about

very differentsurfaces. Earth has life andoceans;

2.8 billion miles (4.5 billion km) out from the sun.

Mars is a frozendesert;
enus
V has a volcanic surface;

and Mercury isovered

c withcraters.
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This ring ofasteroids

separat
es the inner

Earth Mars

and outer planets.

Sun

Saturn

Mercury Vnues

Neptune

The young sun A rocky planetorms

f

startsotproduc
e in the,inner
hoer
tt

Planetary moons

energy in its core. part of the disc.

There aretaleast 219 moons in the

solar system. Earth has one, and Mars

hastwo;Mercenu
uryand
shavVenone.

Allfour giants have largefamilies of

moons—Jupiter and Saturn have ta

least 80 each, including Saturn’s

e T thys and Titan(right).

Earth’s axis

tiltsby 23.4°.
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tsahaiW

?tena l p

Forcenturies, people have labeled Earth and

other huge, round bodies orbiting the sun as

planets.Recentdiscoveries have ledot aormal

f

definition, and two new classes—dwarf planets and

exoplanets. Just as Earth and seven more planets

orbit the sun, exoplanets orbit other stars. There

maybetens of billions of exoplanets orbiting stars

in the Milky WayGalaxy

.

Dwarf planet

Discovered in 1930,Pluto was classed

as a planet. But then Eris, a body more

distant and seemingly larger than Pluto,

wasfound in 2005. Botharefar smaller

than the other planetsandfollow

elongated orbits among other objects.

In 2006, the IAU introduced the class of

dwarf planet. A dwarf planet orbits the

sun and is massive enough for its gravity

tomakeit round but has not cleared the

neighborhood around its orbit.

Plutowith itsmoon

Charon(upper elft)
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The solar syst

em is in an arm

oftheMiklyWa
y Gal
.yxa
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gnignahC

sd l row

Early in their history, the planets were

bombarded by rocks from space that scarred

the surfaces of the rocky inner planets. Over

millions of years, volcanic activity

, land

movement, and the action ofwater

, wind,

and atmosphere havecontinuedto shape

the landscapes and featuresof the planets.

Mars’s Santa Maria Cra

teris about

the sizefoaootball
f field

Rocky balls

The rocky planetsook

t shape as

material left over from the sun’s

formtaion clumpedogether
t

intoour
f hot, molten balls. As they

cooled,they settled into layers,

creating a rocky surfaceandmetal

coreMore
. rocks fromspace

crashed into the young planets,

Cratering

formingcraters.Inside the planets,

Millions of impact craters scar the rocky planets and their moons.

heatfrom radioactivity made the

Theyform when rocks from spacesmash intothesurfaceand gouge

rockmolten and some of it flowed

outmaterial. The largestcraters are hundreds of miles across. The

out in volcanic eruptions.

rateof impact has slowed sincethe mostintense period of

b b d t 3 5 billi
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c t awygnk iSh

Humans have alwayswatchedthesky. The first

people to study it made patterns from the stars

and identified five planets. They observed the sun,

moon, and planets moving against the background

sky.The introduction of the telescopeour

f

centuries ago revealed many more space objects.

o T day,we know that the solar system is a tiny part

of one galaxy in a vast universe of galaxies.

(above
). In 1543, Polish scholar Nio

First observations

Ancient peoples used the sun’s movement, and

the changing shape of the moon,otkeep track

oftime.Around 4,000 years ago,

the Babylonians drew the first

constellations—imaginary

patterns around stars—and

recorded the movements of

the planets. At the same time,

ancient Britonswerecompleting

Stonehenge (right). Its stones

align with the rising or setting

sun atertain
c times of. year
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Expanding universe

Until the 18th century, the solar system was

thoughtto end at Saturn. This changed with

thediscoveries of Uranus, Neptune, and the

first worlds in the Kuiper Belt.eWnow know of

many planetary systems in the Milky Way

Galxy,itself just one of many galaxies (below).

Sizing up the solar system

In1609, German mathematician Johannes Kepler showed that

planets orbit in an ellipsean( elongatedcircle), and those near the sun

orbitfaster than those farther

ears
, aw.yralateY astronomers worked

out the masses of the planetsamount

( ofmaterial they are made of ).

Jupiter’s mass is almost 2.5 times thatof the other sevenombined.

c
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eceagpaS

a r o lnopi xt e

Robotic spacecraft have been exploring the solar system since 1959.

Farfrom home, in ocnditions no human could endure, they have

investigated the planets, a host of moons, two dwarf planets, asteroids,

comets, and the sun. Mostly about the sizeof a family, they
car carry

scientific instruments thattest conditions on other worlds and

transmit their findings home, making far distant worldsafmiliar

.

Early exploration

The first missions to another world were the Luna craft

Lunokhod’s

cameras

sent by the Soviet Union to the moon. Luna 1 was the

guided the

firstto leave Earth’sgravity, in 1959

. Luna 9 was the first

driver on Earth

tosoft land on the moon, in 1966. Lunokhod 1 (left) was

whosteered

the first roverotexplore the moon. It landed in 1970 and

it around.

roved across 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of its surface.

Mariner 9 started

returning imagesfo

Mars in January 197 2 .

Mariner missions
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Camerasprovided

views ofMars’s

Sending astronauts

north polar region.

to the moon

ewT lve American men have

walked on the surfaceof the

moon, arriving two at a time

on Apollo landing craft. The

first, Apollo 11’s Eagle,touched

down on July 20, 1969. Just

over six hours, onlater

Artist’sm
i pression

July 21, Neil Armstrong

ofPhoenix landing

became the first manot

in2008

steponto the lunar surface,

followed by Buzz Aldrin.

Bristling with

Their trip to the moon and

back was 953,054 miles equipment

(1.5 million km).

Eachspacecraftcarriesadoz
en or so

scientific instruments, including

several cameras, as seen here on the

Curiosity rover on Mars. In this selfie

takenbyanothercamera, the large

round eye is ChemCam, which

includes a laser and telescopic

camera. Below are two rectangular-

shaped cameras, and ta either side of

them, a pair of navigation cameras.

The Apollo 11

spacecraft was

carried inside the

upper part of

therocket .

ewoL r sections

contained fuel and

engines. These

detached and fell

wya as the rocket

climbed higher and

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ehT

Our local star generatesvast amounts

of energy
, which is released into
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Thebodyof the probe can

Studying the sun

withstandempera
t turesfo

The sun is best studied fromspace,

up to 2,511°F (1,377°C).

and a number of satellites

continuously monitor it from a saf

e

distance.TheParker Solar Probe

(launched in 2018) has a daring orbit

thesatakiwithni6mioilnmiles

(10 million km) of

the sun’s surface

tomeasure

conditions in

The sun constantly emits a streamoftiny particles

its searing hot

called the solar wind, which shapes the magnetic field

atmosphere.

around planets and causes auroras. These spectacular

light displaysabove
( ) occur when solar wind particles are

drawninot the tamosphere above Earth’s poles, collide

withatoms, and cause them to give off light.

Sunspots

Dark,temporary patches on

the sun’s surfacecalled

sunspotsare cooler

regions where the

sun’smagnetic field

interrupts rising

heat. The number

ofspots varies in

an 11-year cycle

that also faects

otherorms
f of

solar activity
. The

cycle’snextpeak,

or solar maximum,

isexpected to be in

Coronal mass ejections

2025, and its next solar

Made of billions of tonsof gas, a coronal mass ejection

minimum will probably

speeds away from the sun (above).If it travels in Earth’s

be around 2030.

direction, it can cause a solar storm. Solarstorms can

damage satellites, disruptcommunications, cause surges

 OceanofPDF.com

y r uc r eM

Sun-baked Mercury is the solar sy stem’s innermost

planet. It has a huge iron ocre and a rocky

, barren

surefacoverednicrtears.Thesunshinesseven

times brighter than on Earth, but Mercury’s

atmosphere is farot o thin otretain the

heat, so it is freezingcold at night.

Mercury

Vnues

Crescent

moon

View from Earth

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The Caloris Basin is one Magnetometer

ofthe largest cra

etr s in measures

the solar syst

em. Mercury’s

magnetism

Sunshade

protects

Messenger’s

instruments

o T sltoj, a large

and ancient impact

, is named
acetr

after Russian writer

. yool
ts oeL T

Caloris Basin

Mercury’s impact craters range

from small, bowl-shaped onesot

the huge Caloris Basin, which is

960 miles (1,550 km) wide. In this

false-color image by Messenger

,

dull orange highlights volcanic

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n e V su

Am
l ostasbgieansuEsaorthbVt,siaboutwcieasfar

fromthesunasMe,yrcrubutsiuetrfamcpaeutrre

8of67°F(464°C)maketsihehetspoalnet

ootf.Iaicsnlugfatmospheerhidesa

alndscapeovaflpanlisandvoclanoes.

Atmosphere

neV us’s carbon-dioxide

atmosphereextends about

50 miles (80 km) above the

surface. Its layers of cloud

contain sulfuric acid

droplets.
enusV takes

eight monthsotrotate,

but the high clouds speed

around
enusVinjustfourdays.

neV us has the thickest and densest

atmospherefoall the rocky planets.

LOOK I N G T H R O U G H T H E COLU DS

Magellan

compled
et each

Radar

circuitofeV nus

beam

in less than

3.5 hours.
 OceanofPDF.com

Wm
o an’s world

This radar view by Magellan shows

enus’s
V rocky

surface, with huge volcanoes, lava plains,

canyons, and impact cratersformed in

the last 500 million years, fater the

main era of volcanism.

enus
V

is named faert theoman

R

goddess of love. All but one

ofitssurfaceeatur
f es

havewomen’snames.

Shield volcanoes

are built from

a suc
ession
c

foeruptionsfo forms when thick

runnyvla . alva erupts.slo

wly

loV canic surface

MaatMons is

More than 85 percentenus

of V iscovered in volcanic

namedafter

av.Hlundehftrdeosavcenltrosehstdathaevla

anEgyptian

dearcvshloniloweths,igenostlpesbtupluiby

goddess.

eccusvaoesailwfThs.eascm
henadrolvcaiolnoes,

nm
aoedfhdsrtpeand
wki-,rapieblaen-cr the

aflt-opped pancake domes are unique toeV nus.

Most of the volcanoes are thought tobeextinct.

Maat Mons

Magellan data has

been used to create

this computer-generated

image of the shield volcano

MaatMons (right). It is the

tallest volcano eon V nus,

rising 5 miles (8 km) above

the surrounding landscape.

Lavaflowsextendorf hundreds

of miles across the

plains in the foreground.

 OceanofPDF.com

In 2018, an environmentalsatellite

GOES-17 captured this view of Earth,

htraE
showing wispy white clouds,

deep blue oceans, and pale

Our home planet is uniqueorf its liquid browncontinents of land

thatcover more

wateroceans and the presence oflife.

than a quarterof

Earth’s surface.

The largest of thefour inner planets,

Earth is made of rock and metal and

gets denser and hotterotward its

core.Surrounding it is a nitrogen-rich

atmosphere protectinglifebelow.

Inner

INSIDE EARTH

core

Crust

Outer

core

Oceans

Mantle

Beneath

theoceans is

a rigid crust 4–5 miles

(7–8km)deep. Thicker

parts—the continents—are

16–43 miles (25–70 km) deep.

Amantleofrock below churns like

thicktreacle,heated by the iron and

nickelore.
c Theouterore
c ismolten,

but the inner core, though

, is solid.
hoter
 OceanofPDF.com

Eurasianepla
t

North American pla

et

Pacificepla
t

S outh

American

apetl

Antarctic Airfcan

apetl apetl

The rock cycle

On Earth’s ever-changing surface,rocks are broken down

bywaterandweather
, and pieces are moved by glaciers,

wind, and. wat

r e Those carried to theseacompactinto

layers ofectoni
ro ck.cactivity
T brings rockot the surface

as mid-ocean island chains, mountains, or lava.

Snowandrainfeed

glaciers and streams,

which erode rocks.

The remains

fomarine life
 OceanofPDF.com

r e t aW d l r ow

retW
a evaporaets

and condensesot

Eatrhswe’m
traakesourpalnetunqiuO
e.ceans form clouds.

and seas of liquid saltywatercover about

70percent of Earth’ssurface.Freshwater

in lakes and rivers, as well as frozenin

glaciers, ice sheets, and icebergs, brings

thetotal to more than 80 percent. The

movement of waterplays a huge role

retW
a returnsot

in shaping Earth’s surface.

the sea via rivers

and streams.

AmazonRiver

Rivers hold less than 1 percent

High tide wotide

L

ofEarth’swater but have a

bigeffect on its landscape,

carrying about 20 billion tons

of sedimentot the oceans

annually. TheAmazon (left)

On this side, the

delivers a fifth of all river

moon’sgra
vity

waterreaching the sea.

attracts Earth

more than
. rwat
e

E Y E W I T N E S S

The moon’s gravity pulls ontheoceans. The pull is stronger nearer

to the moon, so a bulge of waterorms

f on the side of Earth nearestto

JacquesPiccard

the moon, and on the opposite side. As Earth turns, the bulges create

aphognraer nserndaeSwgoic

daily changes in the sea level—our high and low tides.

euqcacacJi9sP12d(r0–08)

ezi laicepsndginuseibem
.sbliser

deiongs960lUa1I,SNavy

tnanetueinLoW
Dhs,ahlemade
 OceanofPDF.com

Frozenwater
Jason-3 orbits 830 miles

(1,336 m) abo
ve Earth,

More than thre e-quarters of Earth’s fresh wateris ice—in glaciers, ice

passingover the same

sheets and shelves (above),ebergs,

ic mountaintopcoverings, and

pointvee r y 10 days.

soil. Most of it is in the ice sheetcoveringAntarctica—if it melted,

sea levels would rise by about 197 ft (60 m).

TheHaw aiian Islands rise Hawaii, the largest

5.9miles(9.5 km) from island in the chain, is

theocean. floor five merged volcanoes.

Satellitesorbitin

Under the oceans

Theocean floor is mostly flat plains, but it also has

mountains and trenches. The Mariana

rench plunges
T 7 miles

(11 km) below the PacificOcean’ssurface.TheMid-A

tlantic

Ridge is Earth’s longest mountain ar nge. Deep-sea volcanoes that

breakthrough the water’s surfacemake islands such as Hawaii.

 OceanofPDF.com

gn i v i L t ena l p

Lifebegan at least3.7 billion years ago, and evolved

Myriad lifeforms

from small bacteria-likeeclls ot the huge variety we

Earthteems with about 78.million

see today. Human expansion across the planet has

species. Each species has its own

set of characteristics that suit its

contributedot the extinction of other lifeorms,

f and

own particular environment.

to climatechange.
et weY are alsoafscinatedby the
There are almost 1 million species

of insects, including around 40

potentialforlife on other planets.

species of leafcutterants(above).
 OceanofPDF.com

Natural selection Extinction

Animals born with adaptations that Extinction is a

happen to help them in a particular naturalpart of the

environment thriveandproduce more evolution ofe.lif Some

offspring. Over time, this allows their species adapt and

adaptations to spread through an entire survive events such

popualtoinm
, aknigtidsitnictfromothers. as climate change or

Thisprocess,calledevolutionbynatural competition from

selection,wasfirstobservedbyBritish other species, but

naturasiltCharlesDarwin(1809–1882) many die out and

duringafive-yearvoyageaboard becomeextinct.

thesurveyshipHMS Beagle . Many more species

areextinct than

arealivetod.ya
 OceanofPDF.com

ehT noom

The moon is Earth’s nearest neighbor

, a quarter

of Earth’ssize, and the largest and brightest

object in our nightet sky

this
. Y ball of rock

and metal has a dry

, deadsurface,with

huge volcanic plains and highlands

covered by impact craters. As it orbits

Earth, it appears ot change shape,

from a slim crescentot a full moon.

Violent origin

About 4.5 billion years ago,a Mars-siz

ed asteroid

gave young Earth a glancing blow

. Material from

both splashed into space,forming a ring around

Earth and then slowly clumped togethertoform

the young moon.

 OceanofPDF.com

Samefac
e alwa
y s

i xW
ang

pointsotEarth

ecrsnt

First

quarter

Day1

i xW
ang

gibbous

Lunar eclipse

directly between

Full

the sun and the

moon

moon, it blocks the

sunlight. The moon

is in Earth’s shadow
,

and is eclipsed. A small

amount of sunlight

passing around Earth

reaches the moon and

makes it look reddish.

inW
anggibbous
 OceanofPDF.com

gni rolpxE

noom

eht

People have studied the moon for

thousands of years. Since1959, more

than 60 spacecrafthavesuccessfully

traveledthere. Six Apollo missions ot ok

12 men to its surfacebetween 1969 and

1972. It remains the only place that

humans have visited beyond Earth.

Galileo and

the moon

Italy’s Galileo Galilei was

the first to study the moon

throughatelescope. In

1609,he saw that it is not

flat, as previously thought,

but has mountains, craters,

and smoother dark areas.

His observations and

sketches (such as the lunar

phasesabove) became

widely known.
 OceanofPDF.com

Driving around

The last three Apollo missions—Apollo 15, 16, and 17—used

aLunarRoving
ehicVletoexplore a wider area. Itould
c carry

two astronauts, cameras,ools,

t and rock and soil samples.

Apollo 17 ‘s

EugeneCernan

Rockand soil

The Apollo astronautsollect

c ed 2,200 rock

and soil samples weighing a totalof 842lb

(382kg).Thebrecciarocks(above)ormed
f

wm
doheirntaspacsm
tetdlandcom
edpact

the surfacerock and soil. The basalts are

volcanic rockormed
f from lava that seeped

through the moon’s crust, creating the maria.

Therover

tarveledatup

to 11.5 mph

(18.5 kph).

Lunar

noceRnaissance

Orbteir

Luna landings

TheSoeUtvionidniaontldanaosrtnauotnhtemoobntu,ditauilnch

key missions. Luna 9 made the first soft landing there, in 1966, proving

that the lunar soilould

c support landingcraft. Luna 16eatur
(f ed on

stamps,above) was the first to return a soil sample to Earth, in 1970.

 OceanofPDF.com

sM
ra

Fourth from the sun, Mars is the farthest

and coldest rocky planet. Its day lasts

a little longer than Earth’s,ittakes

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Phobos is 16.7
Moons of Mars

miles (26.8 km)

Masrhastwosmerg,sha-urilploerdcky,moons,

long,crat
ered, and

covered in loose

rock and dust.

Phobos

Deimos

First close-up

owT identical Viking missions arrived ta Mars in 1976. Viking 1

transmitted the first black

-and-white image from the Martian

surface,followed by the firstolor

c image (below),revealing a red-

colored rockyterrain with fine-grained sand under a red sky

.
 OceanofPDF.com

aLnd has slid do

wn the

slopes and collected

inthecanyon. floor

ehT dt el nPRa

Mars is a cold, desert-like world with rock

-strewn plains,

hills, huge shield volcanoes, and vast canyons. Its rocky

crust is in one solid piece over a mantle of rock. When

 OceanofPDF.com

Fields of dunes

Dunesarecommon on Mars. They

formed as wind piled up the sand and

then sculpted it intodierent

ff shapes.

Some look like Earth’s dunes, but others

havelessfamiliar shapes, such as long

straight linesformed by wind consistently

blowing in one direction. The crestsof

these dunes in EnduranceCraterare

less than 3 ft (1 m) high.

 OceanofPDF.com

i v o Rgnon sM
ra

Out of more than 25 successful missions

to Mars, 10 have landed on its surface,

with six of these roving over the planet’s

rust-red landscape. Operatedby on-

boardcomputers directed from Earth,

and fitted with cameras and rock-

analysis tools, the rovers recordtheir

findings and send them back to Earth.

Curiosity’s selfie

Curiosity and Perseverance

are the largest and most

sophisticatedrovers to have

explored Mars so
, studying
far

rocks and soilotlearn about its

past climateand geology

, and

to find out if itmayonce have

supportedlife. Curiosity’s

self-portrait on August 5, 2015,

combines several images taken

by one of its 17 cameras.

 OceanofPDF.com

Drilling into Mars

Spirit and Opportunity scraped

samples from surfacerocksfor

study, but Curiosity and

Perseverancecan extract samples

frombeneath Mars’s surfaceusing

drills. The samples are analyz

edot

find out how the rocksormed,

f

showing evidence of an ancient

wet environment.

ChemCam’s

laser emits

Shortly after landing, Perseverancereleased a small, four-bladed

pulses

helicoptercalled Ingenuity (above).Ingenuity has so far made 32

from here.

flights using high-speed rotors to fly in the thin Martian atmosphere.

It also helps guide Perseverance and identifies targetsforstudy.

The robotic arm, bearing the camera

thatacptured this selfie, is notshown

in full in this compositeimage.

OceanofPDF.com

Caetr ver
sco

seVta in this view

ofits northern

hemisphere,

takenybDa
wn
 OceanofPDF.com

The Asteroid Belt

Asteroidsthat come within about4.7 million miles.5(7million km) of our

Theasteroids in this doughnut-shaped ring

planet are potentialthreats. Hundreds of the larger ones are closely

typically takefourtofive years

monitored, but small ones arrive unexpectedl

. Iny2013, an asteroid 59 ft

ot orbit the sun. Oncethe

(18 m) wide broke up above Chelyabinsk, Russia, creating a trail of gas

orbit of a newlyound
f

anddust(above).Larger chunksellfot the ground as meteorites.

asteroid is known,

the body may

o r T ajns

be assigned a

name chosen by

thediscoverer
.

Mars

n e V us

There are also two

Sun

Mercury

swarms of

asteroidsthat
Earth

have similar orbits

toJupiert and are

namedrojans.
the T

Jupteir

o r T ajns

Asteroid

Belt

Down to Earth
 OceanofPDF.com

r e t i pu J

The solar system’slargest

and most massive planet

is named after the king of

theRoman gods and ruler

of the sky
. Five times the

sdatniceofEarthfromthe

sun, and the closest giant

planet, Jupiter is made

of mainly hydrogen and

helium, with no solid surface.

When we look at it, we see only

the top of its deep atmosphere.

COLOR ED CLO U D S

Winds sweep high

clouds int
o bands.

High clouds are

colder and. paler

woL clouds

are warmer

and.darker

Wm
ar gases rise,

cool, and then sink .

Jupiter’sgravitational pull can change the orbit of a passing asteroid,

retW
a clouds form deeper
 OceanofPDF.com

m
Atosphere W inds in this dark belt

streameast ward at 298 miles

(480 km) per. hour

Liquid-like

alyer

Liquid

metallic

hydrogen

alyer

Solid core

Inside Jupiter

Jupiter’s hydrogen and helium are in a gaseous

formin the outertamosphere. Inside, as

pressure,density, and temperatureincrease,

theybecome more liquid-like. Deeper still,

the hydrogen swirls like a liquid metal.

Atthe cenet r is a rockyore.

c

Ring discovery

Jupiter’s rings—discovered in 1979

oyager
by V 1—are made of fine, dark

dust grains from the surfaceof

nearby moons. The grains are so

 OceanofPDF.com

’ r e t i pusJ snoom

Jupiter is orbited by at least 80 moons and

astronomers are on the lookoutorf more. The

largestfour are huge, round worlds in their own

right, each with ocmplexsurfaceeatur

f es. About a

dozen aretens of miles across, and the rest are just

afewmiles wide and irregular in shape.

Italy’s Galileo Galilei was the firsttoseeJupiter’sfour

largest moons, in 1610.They were the first moons tobe

foundafter Earth’s moon and are known as the Galileans.

Whiteareas

appear where

Galileo’sportrait and his description ofa1610observation

impact cra
ters

exposenewcie

Callisto
’s surf
aceis
 OceanofPDF.com

Ice-filled cracks

Europa and water

called linea criss-

The smallest and second-most distant of the Galilean

cross Europa
’s

surfac
e.

moons, Europa is squeezedandstretched by the

gravitational pull of Jupiter on one side and Ganymede

Solid crustfoeic

on the other
. Anocean of liquid waterbeneathitsfren
oz

Wm
ar iceyer
la

crust is one of theewf placesinthe solar systemthat

Liquid wat
er

could be hospitabletolife. Ganymede also has an ocean,

oc
ean is

roughly 124 miles (200 km) below its surface,between

about62 miles

(100 km) deep

layers of cie.

loV canic Io r T iple eclipse

In1979, US astronomer Linda Jupiter’s largest moons

Morabit1953)
o(b. was regularly travel across

studying images of Io from itsface, but the sight of

the
oyager
V 1 mission when threeat a time occurs

she spotted a crescentof only onceor t wice

light above the moon’s edge. a decade. In this view

She soon proved this was due by the Hubble Space

toavolcanic eruption on Io. e T lescope inanuary

J

2015, Callisto,Europa,

and Io are all passing

between Jupiter and the

sun, casting shadows

Ioisvered
co bylava flows,

on the planet as they

andwering
to plumesof

eclipse the sun.

molten sulfur burst from

its volcanic cra

etr s.

Callisto
 OceanofPDF.com

n r u t aS

In ancient times, Saturn was the most distant

planet known, and marked the edge of the solar

system.We now know this giant planet is the second

largest, the sixth of eight orbiting the sun, with a

wide system of rings and a largeafmily of

moons. The Cassini probe orbited

Saturn from 2004 until 2017

.

Early observations

When Galileo Galilei used hiselesc

t opeot

Horizontal winds
observe Saturn in 1610,he noted its strange

sweep the colored

shape. Galileo thought the planet might be

clouds int
o bands like

flanked by two huge moons, while others

those on ,Jupit
buter

suggested it had handle-like extensions or an

withfewerstorms.

oval shape with dark spots. Dutch astronomer

Christiaan Huygens was the firstotexplain the

truenature of the rings in the 1650s. His

drawingsof Saturnfrom his book Systema

Saturnium (1659) are shown above.

Ringed world

Like Jupit
, r e Saturn is mainly hydrogen

and helium, gaseous in its outer layer but

liquid inside. Not quiteas wide as Jupiter

,

it has less than a third of its material, making

Saturn the least dense of all the planets.

 OceanofPDF.com

Banded

atmosphere

The upper layer of Saturn’s

atmosphereorms
f bands with

clouds and storms driven by

windsofupto1,120 mph

(1,800 km/h). Saturn’slargest

stormsappear as white spots

in its northern hemisphere

every 20–30 years, at the

onset of its summer

.

Themostintensestorm ever

took shape in the northern hemisphere in 2011

(above
). Within th

Saturn is 10 percent

wider at itsequat
or

thanatits poles.

Polar regions

Saturn’satmospheric
 OceanofPDF.com

s ’ n r u t aS

sgn i r

The most impressive rings of any planet encircle

Saturn. They are made of millions of orbiting pieces

prevented bySaturn’s gravity fromcombining to

forma single moon. The rings extend ot many times

Saturn’s width but average only about 33 ft (10 m)

deep, and small moons sweep the gaps in between.

Dring Cring Bring Cassini Aring

Divsion

Rings within rings

The rings most readily seen from Earth are named A, B, and C. Each

consists of individual rings ofmaterial.At either side of these three are

morerecentlydiscovered rings that are almost transparent. The D ring

is closest to Saturn, while

, andE, GF lie beyond the A ring. There are a

small number of gaps between the rings, such as the Cassini Division.

They look empty from a distance but are full of material.

Icy particles reflect

sunlight well, making

the rings bright and

easytosee.
 OceanofPDF.com

Changing view
November

2000 Our view of the rings changes as Saturn orbits the sun.

The planet tilts by 27 degrees on its spin axis, and each

hemisphere pointsoward
t the sun once per orbit.

In these five views, more and more of the southern

hemispherefaces the sun. The rings will lie edge on

in 2025, and be wide open onceagain in 2032.

November

1999

Ring peaks

The gravity of moons within the ring system

causes kinks and waves in individual rings, or

ofcres piecesintopeak s. Cassini imaged

these peaks rising up to 1.6 miles (2.5 km)

above the edge of the B ring.

a T ll peaks cast long shado

w s on the B ring.

Shepherd moon

Daphnis (right) is just 5 miles (8 km) wide

and orbits within the KeelerGap. It shepherds

October

materialinto the ring and maintains the gap,

1998

causing ripples on both edges.

Giant dust ring

A huge new ring found in

October

2009 is tiltedfromSaturn’s

1997

main ring system. Made of

dust, it starts3.7 million miles

(6 million km) from Saturn

andextends twice as far again.

It is also very thick , about 20

October

times Saturn’s width fromtop

1996

tobottom.Invisibleto the

eye, the giant ring is seen

here in infrared.
 OceanofPDF.com

s ’ n r u t aS snoom

Saturn’s 83 moons range from Titan, bigger

than Mercury
, tomore than 30 city-sized icy

Christiaan Huygens

Dutchastronomer Christiaan

rocks. The planet has seven major moons,

Huygens(1629–1695) made

all of which are round. The bigger ones orbit

advancesinelesc
t ope design

thatallowedhimtodisc
over

closest to Saturn—some within its rings—

s ’nrutnaStmiTno6a1n5d,

tofigure out the true structure

while the smallest orbit up to 15.5 million

ofSaturn’s rings. His toher

miles (25 million km) awa

.y All are icy worlds,

important breakthroughs

include the invention of the

butTitansitheonlysolarsystemmoonwith

pendulum clock.

adenseatmosphereandqiludiseasandalkes.

Hyperion

Some of Saturn’s moons

are irregular in shape.

Hyperion, the largest of

these, is 360 km (224

miles) long. This icy

rock body looks

spongelike—hit by other

objects in the past, its

surfacematerial was blasted

awa.yIt orbits Saturn in 21.3 days,

rotatni gchaotically as it travels.

Explosive Enceladus

WhenNASA’sspace probe Cassini flew by Enceladus, Ithaca Chasma is a

canyonsystemthat

it saw that huge areas havebeenresurfaced and that

runsorf 75
7 miles

it is geologically active. Jetsofwatericeandwaetr

(1,219 km).

vapor burst throughour

f long fractures in its crust
 OceanofPDF.com

Titan

The second-largest moon in the

solar systemisacold world of

rockandice about 3,200 miles

15(, 50 km) across, hidden by

a thick nitrogen atmosphere.

Casnisn’istrumenetsvreaeld

Titan’ssurfacefor the first

Seas on Titan

time, showing a world

Titan’sthree large seas are all close

wherelowtemperatures

to the north pole. Ligeia Mareabove

( )

createa methane cycle

shtiesconsadogrinm
talens,tdcanyil

similarto Earth’s

methane. It is about 311 miles (500 km)

watercycle.

at its widest point, and up to 525 ft

(160 m) deep.

Huygens probe

Cassini’s Huygens probe parachutedonto

Titan’ssurface and sent back datafor about

90 minutes. The landing site was flat and strewn

with smooth pebbles and rocks.

 OceanofPDF.com

PIONEER

(1973–1995)

Where are they now ?

4bilion miles

Allfour Pioneer and

oyager
V craftcontinuetotravelaway from

(6.5bilion km)

the sun. The year of launch, and the year and distancewhenwe

lastreceived a signal from Pioneer 10 and 11, are shown above.

The
oyagers
V are still sending signals from beyond the planets.

gn i t i sehi tV s tna i g

The first spacecraftot venture beyond the

Asteroid Belt and fly by the outer planets

were Pioneer 10 and 11 and

oyager
V 1

and 2, which were launched in the

1970s. In-depth study came, lat

re with

Galileo and Juno, and Cassini orbiting

Jupiter and Saturn, respectively

.

ayoV ger 2 launch

August20, 1977

Thegrandtour

The
oyager
V craft left

Earth ino1977
. V yager 1 flew

Neptune

by Jupiter and Saturn and

was the first to leave the

Jupteir

Uarnus

planetary par t of the solar

Sautnr
system when it entered

interstellarspacein 2012.

yoV ager 2 flew past Jupiter

 OceanofPDF.com

GAYOV ER

(1977–ongoing)

1.21bilion miles

.91( 5bilion km)

Cassini’s mission to Saturn

Cassini’s main

Thesize of a bus, Cassini is the largest and most

radio dish is 4 m

complexcraftsentto a planet. In 2004, it started

(13 ft) across.

orbiting Saturn (below). On an early flyby of Titan,

it released the Huygens probeonto the moon’s

surface. Its mission ended in 2017

, aetf r 20 years

of service —7travelingtoSaturn and 13 in orbit.

main parachute openedot slow its

descenttoTitan. As itsheat shield

fellaw,yathe probe began

testthetamosphere and

image the moon’ssurface.

 OceanofPDF.com

r eteuhoT

mreat sl yos

The first object discovered beyond Saturn was Uranus, in

1781.
oday,weTknow the dark and cold outer region of the

solar systemcontains billions of objects—not only the

planets Uranus and Neptune but dwarf planets and a ring

of Kuiper Belt objects, too. Beyond, surrounding all of this,

lies the Oort Cloud of deep-frozencometnuclei.

The Oort Cloud consistsof The sun and the planets

Beyond Saturn

bil ionsofcometnuclei on are in the centerofthe

The eight planets orbit the sun in

individual orbits around the sun. Oort Cloud.

roughly the same plane, making a disc-

shaped system. Beyond is the Kuiper Belt, a

falttened belt thought tocontain hundreds of

thousands of ice -and-rock bodies. Many of these, such as

Pluto,follow orbits that takethem out of the planetary plane.

The Belt and the Oort Cloud are made up ofmaterial left over

aftertheplanetsformed at the dawn of the solar system.

The Oort Cloud

The vast Oort Cloud is a reservoirofcomet nuclei that

 OceanofPDF.com

Pluto

Sun

Neptune

Earth

Asteroid Belt

Saturn

Jupiter

Mars

Mercury Vnues

Makemak
e is about

What’s in a name
?

889 miles (1,430 km)

Some astronomers referot the

across and has a moon.

Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud as the

Edgeworth-Kuiper BeltandÖpik-

Oort Cloud. Kenneth Edgeworth

predicted a belt in 1943—in 1951,

 OceanofPDF.com

Some parts of Uranus’s

atmosphere are –371°F

(–224°C )older
c than

s una rU

Barely visible to the naked eye, and twice as afr from

the sun as its inner neighbor Saturn, Uranus is a

freezingocld world. Onlyoyager

V 2 has visited this

icegiant, flying by in 1986. Spinning on its side as

it makes its 84-year orbit of the sun, Uranus

has faint, dark rings and 27 moons, which

are much smaller than Earth’s moon.

Pale blue ball

Uranus isour
f times the width of Earth and is the solar

system’sthird-largest planet. It is made mainly of, wat

re

ammonia, and methane. Theyorm

f a slushy liquid

mantle around aore

c of molteniron and magma.

The outer layer is an atmosphere of hydrogen and

helium. Methane gas in the tamosphere absorbs the

red wavelengths ofincoming sunlight and gives

Uranus its blueoloring.

c

Clouds appear white, and

pink around the planet’s

edge represents a high-

altitudehaze.

Bright clouds

When
oyager
V 2flewby, the

south pole faced the sun and

the planet lookedfeatureless.

 OceanofPDF.com

Inner and

outer rings

Gerard Kuiper

Uranus has 13 narrow rings

Uranus’s fifth moon Miranda

made of dust and dark, rocky

wasdiscoveredin1948 by

material—11form an inner ring

Dutchastronomer Gerard

system, and two are more

Kuiper (1905–1973), who also

distant. In this false-color

made severaltoher important

image of the inner rings, the

planetary disc
overies. He was

brightwhite one is Epsilon,

the first todetect carbondioxide

the farthestfromUranus.

in the atmosphere of Mars,

Closer and thinner rings, just

and the belt of icy objects

afew miles across, are

beyondNeptuneis named

pale green, pale blue,

afterhim.

and cream.

Titania

Umbriel

Uranus

Oberon
 OceanofPDF.com

Neptune’s rings are so

thin and sparse that they

Adams ring is Neptune’s

appear transparentto

outermost ring

theeye.

enu t peN

The most distant planet in the solar system,

Neptune is 30 times farther from the sun than

Earth. It was also the last ot be discovered, in 1846,

and the last to be visited by a spacecraft,oyager

V 2

in1989. Neptune has the longest orbital path

around the sun, completing just one 165-year

orbit since its discovery.

Deep blue world

Neptune is an eicgiantlike

Uranus and is made of mainly

, ammonia,
water and methane.

Beneath its atmosphere is a slushy

layer of liquid and ice,and deep

inside is a coreofrock and iron.

It is a little smaller than Uranus

but more massive, dueot its thinner

atmosphere and deeper liquid .layer

Its spin axis is tilted at a similar angleot

Earth’s, and it experiences seasons –

each lasting about 40 years.

Atmosphere
Methaneeicstrongly
 OceanofPDF.com

r T iton

About three-quarters the sizeof our

moon,
ritonisaTball of rockandice

and orbits Neptune in less than

erum
etcaperstufsIrxidsay.s

of –391°F (–235°C) is one of

thecoldest in the solar

system. Pink methane

iceisound
f near its

r T itonisice-cold but volcanically active.

oyager
V 2’s

lava.Beneath is a mantle of ice thaterupts through

 OceanofPDF.com

r eteuhoT

s f r awd

Four known dwarf planets orbit in the

Kuiper Belt. Pluto was discovered in 1930

during the searchorf a ninth major planet,

while the others werefound among the

Kuiper Belt Objects in the early 2000s.

Allfour are small, cold worlds of ice and

rock. New Horizons revealed more detail

when it flew by Pluto in 2015.

Seeing Pluto close up

NewHorizons’ images of Pluto showed

mountains as high as EarthsR’ ockies, and the

Clyde

soalrsystem
agrsle’stgalceir—th-ertcfreae,

o T mbaugh

withhisown

central region called Sputnik Planitia. This

reflecting

620-mile (1,000 km) wide ice plain is

elesc
t ope

constantly renewed as older nitrogenice

in 1928

isreplaced by newer material rising

fromunderneath.

Discover y

American astronomer Clyde

o T mbaugh joined the Lowell

Observatory inArizona, in 1929

.
 OceanofPDF.com

Thin crust mainly

offrozennitrogen

SMALL WORLD

Pluto is only 1,4

73 miles (2,370 km)

wide—far less than the width of the

US.Pluto’s moon Charon is a little

more than half of Plut

o’ssizewhich
,

suggests the two wereformedatthe

same time, from the same material.

 OceanofPDF.com

This illustra
tionfoaomet
c

nucleus revealsthesnow
, cie,

and rock dust held together

looselybygarv.yti

s t emoC

Visitors from the edge of the solar system,ocmets are

primitive material left over from when the planets

formed. These city-sized, dirty snowballs, each

on its own orbit around the sun, are mostly too

distantto be seen. Every sooften, when a star’s

gravity pushes one much closer to the sun, it

becomes a long-tailedcomet.

Dirty snowball

E Y E W I T N E S S

nucleus

Caroline Herschel

In the 1950s, American Fred

German astronomer Caroline

Whipple suggested that the

Herschel (1750–1848), sisterof

long-tailedcomets we see in our

William Herschel (discoverer

skies are produced by a huge,

ofUranus),was one of the

dirty snowball nucleus. In 1986,

first women to have

the Giotto spacecraft imaged the

herworkrecognized

nucleus of Comet Halley

. It was a mix

by the scientific

of two-thirds snow and ice, one-third

community in

orck- dust,.59miles (15.3 km) in length.

Europe.She

discoveredat

leastfivecomets.

The surfac
e loses ayer
la

3.3 ft (1 m) thick on each

close orbit to the sun.

 OceanofPDF.com

TOWAR D T H E S U N

Acometbecomes big and bright

only as it orbits closer to the

sun. The sun’s heatturns its

snowandice to gas, which jets

out from the nucleus, taking

dust with it. A huge coma

(head)forms around the

nucleus, and two tails—one

ofgas,the, other
dust. They

shrink again as it moves.awa

y

Spacecraft missions

Mostspacecraftmissions toomets
c have been

flybys. In 2004, the Stardust flyby missioncaptured a

sample of Comet Wild 2. A deviceshaped like aennis

t

racket(right)ollect
c ed dust fromthecomet’s

coma and brought its cargo home.

sRa’toes. 7 2 ft (2.2 m)

widesteerableant
enna

communicteadwith Earth.

Jetsof gas shoot

out where the

 OceanofPDF.com

s t ena l po x E

Weknow of more than 5,000 planets orbiting

other stars. Ranging from near-Earth-liketo more

massive than Jupiter

, exoplanetsfollow orbits at

various distances around different stars. Some

orbit as part of a afmily

, butfew multiplanet

systems resemble our solar system.

Fardistant worlds

Theknownexoplanets orbit about 3,800 stars.

In most cases, the star’s brightness drowns the

ghtoi.sm
ec
trnaTehfltacpdnbeilt

when their gravity causes their starot wobble,

or when they pass in front of the star and dim

its light. Mostexoplanets orbit a single, star but

some orbit around a stellar. pair Saturn-siz

ed

Kepler-16babove
( ) orbits a small red star and

a larger orange one in 229 days.

The first exoplanetound

f around a sun-like star was 51 Pegasi b,in October

1995. It is massive like Jupiter and hot dueot its closeness to its. Itstar
travels

Solar panels

providepower
around the star 51 Pegasi injustfour days. Exoplanets generally takethe
 OceanofPDF.com

This artist’s

impression depicts

peK ler-186f with

Earth-likeoceans.

Earth-like

The first exoplanets

detected were similar

in mass to the solar

system’sgiant planets.

Less massive ones

followed—super-

Earths more massive

than Earth but not

Earth-like in makeup,

andnow, Earth-like

rocky planets. In 2014,

Kepler-186f became

the first Earth-siz

ed

planettobefound in

the habitable zone of

anotherstar—today
,

we know of several

dozen more. It orbits

thestarKepler-186 every

130 days. Four other

exoplanets orbit closer to

the star and are toohot

forwaetr andlifetoexist.

StarHR 8979 is

markedyban
— X its

HR87 99 b

light has been block

ed

toreveal the ex
oplanets.
 OceanofPDF.com

duoiyD ?wonk

SAF CINA
T I NGFACTS

More than 2,000 years ago, Chinese In 2014, astronomers disc

overed that

astronomers recordedlong-tailedcomets theasteroid Chariklo has two dense,

sweeping across Earth’s night.sky They narrow rings—the firstfound other than

called them broom stars, or hairy star s . the rings around theour
f giant planets.

Chariklo is only 155 miles (250 km) wide

and orbits the sun between Saturn

and Uranus.

Threetoy LEGO® figures 1.5 in (3.8 cm)

tall are on board the Juno spacecraftat

Jupiter—theoR man god Jupiter

, hiswife

Juno, and the astronomer Galileo Galilei.

The planet Uranus was discovered in 1781,

but it may have been seen by the Greek

bce

astronomer Hipparchus in 128 . He

thought it was, aasstar

did England’s

Cometsdepied
ct on Mawangduisilk

Astronomeroyal,
R JohnFlamsteed, when

bce

stxetc ( 3.00 )from tombs in

he saw it in 17 12.

Hunan,China

If you traveledotNeptune—the most

Some 19th-century astronomers thought a

distantplanet in the solar system—at

planet they namedulcVanexisted between

62mph (100 km/h), it would takeyou

the sun and Mercury

u. V lcanexistsonly in
500yearsto getthere.

Star

the science-fiction TV and film series

r T ek

, as a planet orbiting a distant

. star

et i loou
sAnf—waem
cram
lnerladionthe

moon in July 1969

. Ittakes its name from the

three Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong,

Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

The bunny

Personal objects left by astronauts on the

on Mars

moon include two golf balls left behind by

Apollo 14’s Alan Shepard in 197 1 , and a family

photoplacedthere in 1972 by Charles Duke,

the Apollo 16 astronaut and 10th manot

 OceanofPDF.com

Q U E S T I O N S A N D A N S W E RS

Who names newly disc

overedplanets

andmoons?

Since the 1920s, the IAU (International

Astronomical Union) has overseen the

naming of space objects and their features,

suchascrat
ers, mountains, and maria.

Anyone can suggest a nametotheAI U,but

there are guidelinesfor each type of object.

Dwarf planets,orf example, are given the

name of a god relatedotcreation. Moons

ofJupiterarenamedafterthelovers and

descendants of, Jupit

r e or his Greek

equivalent, Zeus.

Who was the last astronaut on

themoon?

The last mission to takeastronautsto the

Jupteisr’GreatRedSpotc e(),ntr

moon was Apollo 17 in December 1972.

wo T

wtihRed.Spot
b(eolw)and
Jr Baby

ofitscrew
, Harrison Schmitt and Eugene

Spot(elft),June 2008

Cernan, made three excursionstogether

on to the moon’ssurf
ace.On the final trip,

Does Jupiter ha
ve more than one

Cernan led the way out of the landing craft,

redspot?

making Schmitt the last man to steponot

the moon. A little over seven hours

, laetr

TheGreateR d Spot is the huge, long-

Schmitt was the first back int

o the craft,

runningstormthatrages in Jupiter’s

making Cernan the lastostep

t off the moon.

southern hemisphere. Less well known are

its short-lived, smaller companions.Red

Spot
. firstJrappeared in early 2006 and

HarrisonSchmitt
moved across Jupit
er’secaf below the Great

ceolcntigsamples
RedSpot. A smaller spot—BabyRedSpot—

witha ulnarekar
appeared in 2008 butould
c notpass

unscathed and was quickly consumed by

theGreateR d Spot.

HasEarthysawlpaunound
ar ni24hour
?s

Earth spun about four times fasterwhen

it was younger
. Friction produc
ed by both

the moon and sun’s tidal efect on Earth is

 OceanofPDF.com

er taslyosSm s t ca f

The eight planetsorm

f two groups. Smallest

SUN
A TDA

and closest to the sun are the rocky planets

Damietr

Mercury
e, V nus, Earth, Mars, and just three

Mass(Earth = 1)

moons.arF ther out and much oclder

, Jupit
, er Energyoutput

ecafSurtem
eruptaer

Saturn,Uranus, and Neptune havefaster

Cem
oreutpear

spins, longer orbits, and numerous moons.

AveargedstaincefromEarth 92.9mioil nmi6.mi

el slio419n( m
k)

i tatoRonperiod

PLANET
AARYTDA

Mercury enus V Earth Mars Jupteir Satunr Uranus Neptune

Damietrin miles 0323, 5 , 721 29 , 7 6 4,220 88,846

km
() 847(9,) 12,1(04) 756)
21(, 7962(,) 984)
41(2,

Mass(Earth = 1) 060. 82.0 1 1 1 .0 38. 173

Gravity(Earth= 1) 3.08 190. 1 308. 2.36

i tatoRonperiod 6. 407,1 5,8352. 92.3 4.26 9 . 9

inhours

Solarday(sunrise 4,222.6 2,802 42 7 .42 9 . 9

toseu)nir

inhours

Avearge 333°F 8F6°7 59°F –81°F 2°61–F

eurtmaper 61(7°C) (464°C) (15°C) –(63°C) (–108°C)

Closestdisteanc 28.6mioiln 66.8mioil n 91.4 mioiln 128.4moilin 1 .064milion

tothesun in (46.0mioinl) 5.mioil07n)1( 1 . 471m

o(ilni) (206.6mioinl) 47 ( 0.5mioil)n

miels(km)

traFhestdisteanc 43.4milion 7 . 7 6 mioiln 94.5mioiln 154.8mioil n . 7 05 4milion

fromthe sunni . 96( 8mioiln) 10(89. 1m

oiln1(5i)2. . 942( 2mioiln) (8166.mioiln)

miels(km) m
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Orbtiaper
l oid 69 . 7 8 0724. 36254. 69786. 35940,.
 OceanofPDF.com

WHAT DO YOU WEIG H ?

onoLicat %of

wegiht

onEarth

Mercury . 7 73

enus V 890
.

Earth 100

Moon 165.

Mars 1 .38

Jupi
er t 236

Sauntr 92

anus
Ur 89

Neputne 12

Apololo16ung
s’ John
on Ythemoonin 1972

If you visited other planets, or the moon, your mass (the amountofmaterial

you are made of ) would stay the same. But your weight is determined by the

pullofgravity on mass, and each planethasadifferentgravitational pull.

Thegreater the pull, thegreater your weight.

o find your
T weight on another

planet or the moon, multiply your Earth weight by the percentage shown in

the table above, and divide the answer by 100.

Sun Penumbra
, out(er Umbra(the inner

paler shadow) part of theshadow)

What is a solar eclipse

?

The sun is 400 times larger than the moon but 400 times more distant, so they

appearthesameszieniousrkyWhen
. thesun,moon,andEartharedirectlyalgi ned

(above
), the sun is eclipsed and hidden from view
. The shadow cast by the moon

falls on Earth. In the darkest part, or umbra, darkness falls and a total solar eclipse

is seen. Anyone in the penumbra (therest of the shadow) sees a partial eclipse.
 OceanofPDF.com

4000 bce

en i l emi T

Earth’s sky is our window on the solar

system. Our earliest ancestorsollowed

f

the motions of the sun, moon, and planets.

, with
Later telescopes, people saw the details

on these objects and discovered many more.

Spacecraft then became our eyes and

4000

Near East use the s u n and moon of r

laboratories in space, opening up these

timekeeping, and thinkive planets—

far-off worlds.

Mercury
e, V nus, Mars, Jupiter
, and

Saturn—orbit Earth.

1957 1930

The irst

spacecraft, Sputnik 1, is astronomer

putinto orbit around Clyde

ombaugh
T

Earth by the discovers a n inth

Soviet Union. Modelof planet—Pluot. Its

Sputnik1 statusis changed

to that of dwarf

planet in 2006.

r u Y iGagarin,

osintsiokd1eV

1961
1959

S oviet
astronomer Johann Galle

cosmonaut
uri Y
The Soviet discovers Neptune, ver y

Gagarin becomes
Union’s Luna close to t h e position

the irst human

2 i s the irst to predicted b y French

in space, orbiting
land on the moon.

Earth inostok
V 1.
Urbain Leerrier
. V
 OceanofPDF.com

1200 ce
1500

1252 1424

The Islamic astronomer

Alphonsine Ulugh Beg builds

a T bles produced his observatory at

by scholars Samarkand (now

forAlfons o X in Uzbekistan).

of Castile list

the accuaret

positions of the

sun, moon, and

Persiandepiction

planetsorf

ofthe Perseus

speciic dates.

ateliocntsn,

Bookof

fromthe

theFixedStar s

964 ce

Pe rsian scholar

Abd al-Rahman al-Sui updates the

astronomy of ancient Greece i n hi s

Ncioalus

Book of t h e Fixed Stars

Coperncius

1800 1700

1687 1655

English scientist Dutch scientist

Isaac New ot n’s theor y Christiaan Huygens

ica
Replof of grav i t y is published. It observes Saturn and say s

Herschel’s explains why the moon it is encircled b y a r ing.

ecostlpe orbits Earth a n d the In 1659

, he measures the

planets orbit the sun. spin period of M ars.

1682

English

scientist Edmond

Halley sees a comet,

calculaets its orbit ,

1781

German-born English

and predicts its

astronomer William Herschel

return. Named after

discovers a n e w planet—Uranus—

him, it returns ever y

doubling the known extentof the

76 years.

solar sy stem.

Halley’sComet,1986
 OceanofPDF.com

yrassolG

ANTENNA CORE
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 OceanofPDF.com

KUIPER
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andMars.

METEORITE
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thatlndsonecthaeosufaprfalnetor

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moonandsurviesthem
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 OceanofPDF.com

Astronomical Union gravity 24

(IAU)8 orbitandrotation28–29

Jemison, Mae 14 phases29, 30

Juno spacecraft15,42, moons

x edn I

50, 51, 64 dwarf planets 59

atmosphere 11, 22
AB

Jupiter6 Jupiter2–43
4

gnignahca-freu3vse2c

Aldrin, Buzz 14, 30

atmosphere 40–41 Mars

, 337

the moon 7

animals 26, 27

exploring50, 51 Neptune56–57

orbtispi, nand
, seasons

Apollo 11 spacecraft14,

GreatRed Spot 10 Saturn48–49

22

30–31

mass 13 Uranus 54, 55

solar system 6

Armstrong, Neil 14, 30

moons7,42–43 Morabit,oLinda 43

view from space 22–23

Asteroid Belt 38, 39

,Kepl
Johannes
er 13,26 mountains 25,, 29
30,58

volcanoes 10

asteroids 18, 28,, 29

33

Kepler spacecraft62

water24–25

exploring 38–39
, 43
NO

Kepler-186f 63

eclipses,921767

the moon 31

NASA 14, 15, 50

Kuiper Belt 52, 53, 58

Eris
, 87

solar system 7

Neptune,6,52,
9 56–57

erosion 11

L
astronauts 14, 23, 30–31

atmosphere 56

EuropeanExoMars 37

astronomers, 13,
9 43, 48,

Leavitt, Henrietta 13 exploring 50

exoplanets8,9,62–63

50,52, 53, 60

feil moons 56–57

see also extinction 27

Galilei, Galileo
on Earth 22 view from Earth 7

extremophiles 27

atmospheres 10
human impact on 26 ozi orwbHNes5pn2r,

fungi 26

Earth 11, 22
ngkidomsandspecs2i6 95

Jupiter 40–41
searchorf lifeelsewhere nitrogen 22, 59

GH

Mars 34
27 nuclear fusion 16

galaxies, 139

Saturn45 Lunaspacecraft14,30,31 observatories 13

Galilean moons,2–43
4

neV us 18 oceans, Earth 11, 22, 24,

M
, oi e l i2, 2l40a31G,4

auroras40 25

Galileo spacecraft50

magnetism, 40,
19 51

BepiColombo probe 19 Oort Cloud 52, 53

giant planets 6, 10,50–51

Mariner spacecraft14,

orbits,6,8,728–29

CD
gravity 31,40,42
19
see also

rotation;

and rings 46–47

Mars 32–37
canyons32 , 34, 35, 55, 58

individual names of

and tides 24
crater s 35
carbohydrates 16

planets

greenhouse eff
ect 21
exploring 12, 14, 15,
carbondioxide 18, 59

oxygen16, 22

Halel y, Edmond and 36–37

Carruthers, George 29

ozone layer 22

Halley’s Comet60,69 liquid water 11

Cassini, Giovanni 46

PQR

helium 40–41, 55 moons7, 33

Cassini spacecraft50,51

Mayor
, Michel62 Pakrer Solar Probe 17
Herschel, Caroline 60
China 30, 37

Mercury
, 8,718–19 Payne- Gaposchkin,
Herschel, William 52
Collins, Michael 30

exploring 14 Cecilia 17
HubbleelSpace
escopeT
comets
, 40,760–61

rockysurface11,18, 19 photos ynthesis 16

56,57
Copernicus, Nicolaus 12

view from Earth 18 Piccard,Jacques24

human population 26
r e t8,5a r ,c9532,8031s

see also Messenger spacecraft19 Pioneer spacecraft50

naai t,ssniegyr,84CHhu
volcanoes

meteoriest 38, 39 planets

Huygens probe,49
51
yt isoim
,reaC76hu3

methane, 49
55, 56, 59 defining, and naming of

hydrogen 6,, 40–41,

17 44,
Darwin, Charles 27

microorganisms 26, 27 8–9

55
dwarf planets
, 8,738, 52,

MilkyWay Galaxy 9 dwarfandexoplanets 8

Hyperion (moon) 48
53, 58–59

monerans and protists 26 masses 13

EF IJK

moon, Earth’s, 7 28–29 solar system 6–7

Earth 8, 12 ice25,33, 35, 58 eclipses 29 plants 26

asteroids, and 39 International exploring 14, 30–31 Plu, to

8,752, 53, 58–59