Essay on Planet Composition: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto

There are 9 planets in our solar system, here they are going in order from the closest to the sun, to the furthest away from the sun:

The sun is made up of hydrogen and helium. The sun is like a giant fusion nuclear reactor. the suns temperature is 6000 degrees Celsius on the surface but the atmosphere around the sun is one million degrees Celsius and has solar winds that radiate out into space.

Mercury is made up of metals and a silicate like substance. Mercury doesn't have any moons. Mercury's atmosphere has very small amounts of hydrogen, helium and oxygen.

Venus: The composition of Venus is core metal, a mantle of liquid rock and an outer crust of rock. Venus had a lot of liquid water on its surface despite its proximity being so close to the sun. Venus's atmosphere is 120 Km deep. Like mercury, Venus doesn't have any moons. The atmosphere surrounding Venus is mostly all carbon dioxide to be exact 96% is carbon dioxide. Venus's orbit has it spin on its axis and goes in a clockwise direction whilst the other planets orbit anti-clockwise. (excluding Uranus).

Earth is made up of iron-nickel and iron-sulphur compounds. Earths outer core is molten iron. Thanks to earth's magnetic field it protects us against the solar winds. Earth is now the only blue planet remaining in our solar system. Earth also had the chemical building blocks for life. The reason why earth appears blue is because 70% of the earth's surface is covered in water. Earth has one moon, which is named Luna.

Mars is made up of an iron core, and silicate rock, Mars's atmosphere is 80 KM deep. Mars has two moons that are named Phobos and Deimos these names are in Latin. Mars also has Olympus mons which is the biggest volcano in our solar system. Mars is also the sister planet to earth cause mars also once had all the organic matter needed for there to be signs of life. However, mars as we know it in present day looks completely different, this is because Mars's magnetic field has deteriorated, and the solar winds had scorched the surface completely drying up the once existing plethora of sea to the red planet we see today. The reason why the magnetic field was lost was both due to the core and the size of mars. Mars is also 230 million KM away from the sun. Gas was leaving mars into the atmosphere and space. Mars is half the size of earth and Venus and it is speculated the reason why it is smaller than its sisters is due to Jupiter in the early stages of the solar system, moving to the inner part of the solar system.

The asteroid belt orbits the inner solar system and, in a way, separates the rocky worlds from the 4 gas giants. The asteroid belt Is made up of waste and debris from the early stages in the solar system. As well as containing a plethora of failed worlds that had their formation cut off short by Jupiter. In the asteroid belt there are two asteroids that are bigger than the rest and is what mostly makes up for all the mass in the asteroid belt. One of the asteroids is named vesta which is the smaller one of the two and the bigger one is named ceres. Ceres on its surface has salt residue suggesting that liquid water was present, and it might have developed into an actual planet but due to Jupiter's disturbance it was never able to finish its development and is now an asteroid on the asteroid belt.

Jupiter is made up of hydrogen as well as helium adding to its mass, Jupiter has a whopping 79 moons, the largest of the four moons are named, Ganymede, Callisto, lo and Europa. It is 780 Km away from the sun. It has a marbled appearance. It is one of the biggest out of all the gas giants. Jupiter's mass is about two and a half times the mass of the other planets, moons and asteroids combined. Therefore, Jupiter due to its large mass has a Stronger gravitational pull. Jupiter was the first planet in our solar system, and it helped structure the solar system in the way it looks today. Early in its life Jupiter began to move inwards towards the sun, causing a lot of destruction in the early stages of development for our solar system. Io, which is Jupiter's largest moon, is deemed the most volcanic world in our solar system, with a vast number of active volcanos and lakes of molten lava. The largest of the volcanos is Loki Patera which is 200 KM in diameter. Io orbits just 350,000 KM from Jupiter's clouds, and it orbits Jupiter every 48 hours. Since Io has no internal heating like earth does for our volcanos, the way Io's works is do with the gravitational potential and tidal heating. This process happens when Jupiter's gravitational pull on io is at its strongest, which then causes the volcanos to erupt. To this day Jupiter retains a gravitational pull on the asteroid belt as well as acting as a shield for earth due to its size, mass and gravitational pull.

Saturn is made up of hydrogen, helium and small amounts of methane and ammonia, Saturn has 82 moons Saturn has 62 large moons. Saturn's ring is 300,000 KM wide. The wide ring is made up of frozen water. Saturn is 1.4 Billion KM from the sun. Saturn's rings and moons are profoundly linked. Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, is the most reflective thing in our solar system and it is because it is completely made of ice. Enceladus is also harbouring liquid water and there is an ocean below with thermal vents, this means that there could be a possibility of life even if it is small microbes.

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Uranus is made up of mostly ices. Uranus is 2.9 billion KM away from the sun. The upper atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium gas, the lower atmosphere is made up of an icy mix of methane, ammonia and water. Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. Uranus has rings as well like Saturn, and the rings are delicate and thin. Uranus has 27 moons two of those moons, (Cordelia and Ophelia) are shepherd moons. Like Venus, Uranus orbit spins on their axis in the opposite direction than the other planets. Uranus is also on its side.

Neptune: The composition of Neptune is hydrogen, helium, water, and other volatile compounds. Neptune is 4.5 billion KM away from the sun and is the 17 times the mass of Earth. The average temperature is '214 degrees Celsius. Neptune has 14 moons; the largest moon is Triton, and it is covered in a frozen sheen of nitrogen.

Pluto is on the far edge of the solar system and it is classed as a dwarf planet. The atmosphere of Pluto is mainly nitrogen. The surface temperature of Pluto is '240 degrees Celsius. The ice on the surface of Pluto is a combination of frozen nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide.

The Kuiper belt is in the outer rim of the solar system, it extends from the orbit of Neptune to approximately 50 AU from the sun. It is thought that Neptune migrated into the Kuiper belt.

Kepler's laws consist of three laws, these are:

• The first law is the law of orbit and it states that, all planets move in an elliptical orbit, with the sun at one focus.
• The second law is the law of areas and it states that, a line that connects a planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times.
• The third law is the law of periods and it states that, the square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semimajor axis of its orbit.

Section 2' The special relationship

The Earth's moon Luna has a chemical composition of silica, alumina, lime, iron oxide, magnesia, titanium dioxide and sodium oxide. The moons atmosphere is assumed to be made up of Argon, helium, neon, sodium, potassium and hydrogen.

Section 3' Here comes the sun.

Here is a diagram of the layered structure of the sun:

The Corona is on the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere. The only time that you can see the corona is during a total solar eclipse, this is because the corona is hidden by the powerful bright light coming from the sun's surface. The atmosphere of the sun is a combination of gases such as hydrogen and helium.

The convection zone is where energy gets pushed towards the surface of the sun through the process of convection. The process of convection is heat transfer through the movement of molecules within fluids like liquids or gases. The heat transfer happens because of the motion of the fluid.

The sun's core is like a giant reactor, energy is generated by thermonuclear reactions which is what creates the extreme temperatures in the sun's core. The thermonuclear reaction is the fusion of two light atomic nuclei into a single heavier nucleus by a collision of the two combining particles at scorching hot temperatures, which leads to the release of an extreme amount of energy.