SOLAR SYSTEM REPORT

I’m Emily Harris. I have just come back from the planet Mars, a six year round trip!  I am now at the Canadian Space Agency in Ottawa to report on the solar system.  I will explain interesting facts such as the creation of a star/planet, the differences between a planet, satellite and stars, solar and lunar eclipses, the impact of the moon on the earth, the phases of the moon and many other fascinating facts about our solar system.  Let’s get started.

Have you ever wondered how a planet or star was formed? Both stars and planets developed from clouds of dust and gas that began collapsing. Gravity helped form them into round shapes. There are two kinds of planets: rock planets and gas planets. Rock planets are made of rock, metal and dust and include Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars as shown in this picture. 

Gas planets are planets made of gases (like nitrogen and helium), water and dust and include Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus as shown in this picture.

Now let’s look at the differences between stars, planets and satellites. First, a satellite (or moon) orbits a planet and a planet orbits around a star. Second, a star projects light while a planet and a satellite reflect light. Third, a satellite is made of oxygen, silicon, iron, and nickel, planets can be made of rock or gas and a star is mainly made of helium and hydrogen. The Sun, the largest star, is at the centre of our solar system.  It contains about 98% of all the material in the solar system. Planets orbit the Sun, satellites orbit the planets and asteroids and comets orbit the Sun between planets. Here is a picture that shows all bodies in the solar systems.

Asteroids and comets are made of rock and ice.  They are not round because they do not have enough gravity to pull themselves into a ball like our planets.  Next I will talk about lunar and solar eclipses.  

You may think that lunar and solar eclipses are the same but they are not.  A lunar eclipse occurs when a planet (like Earth) blocks a moon’s light source. This happens when the moon is full [around the 14^th day of a month] and is traveling behind the earth which is on a tilt. A solar eclipse occurs when a moon covers a planet’s light source and make’s the planet darken for a moment.  But because the size of the moon is smaller than the Sun only part of the Earth gets dark. Here are two pictures that show lunar and solar eclipses.

Have you ever wondered why the tide comes in and out when you’re at the beach? Tides are caused by the moon’s gravitational force which pulls on water in the oceans causing bulges on both sides of the Earth (as shown in the diagram below).  The moon pulls water towards it, causing the bulge toward the moon.  The bulge on the side of the Earth that is farthest away from the moon is caused by the moon pulling the Earth away from the water on that side. This is known as high tide and is illustrated in this picture. 

Have you ever thought why the moon appears to change its shape?  As the moon orbits the Earth it goes different phases depending on its position in relation to the Sun and Earth.  Over a period of 29.5 days, the moon goes through the following  eight phases: new moon, waxing crescent, 1^st quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter and waning crescent. Here is a picture that shows a diagram of the moons phases.

Another interesting fact about the phases of the moon is that if we followed the phases of the moon we would have 13 months in a year rather than 12 months. One last moon fact deals with how the indentations were formed.  No, it was not caused by Superman being pushed into the moon.  There are three types of indentations: lunar Marias, craters and rills.  Marias are large flat plains on the moon’s surface that were made from volcanic eruptions.  Craters are depressions on the moon’s surface that were caused by the impact of an object such as a meteor.  Rilles are channels that wind across marias that were formed by running lava.   Here is a photo of rilles located near the crater Prinz on the Earth’s moon.

I hope you learned a lot about our solar system today.  Next time I will report on my trip to Mars and show you exclusive video footage of the “red planet”.  This is Emily Harris wishing you Happy Space Travels!