Knowledge about Solar System & Its Planets

Ø Solar System was discovered by: Copernicus (Polish Astronomer ) (SPSC-CCE-2021)

Ø  Total moons in our solar system: 214

Ø  Total planets in our solar system: 8

Ø  Inner Planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars

Ø  Outer Planets of the solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune

Ø  Only two Planets that spin (rotate) in the Clockwise direction: Uranus & Venus

Ø  Largest moon in the solar system is: Ganymede of Jupiter

Ø  Largest Planet in our solar system: Jupiter

Ø  Smallest planet in the solar system: Mercury

Ø  The planet with shortest rotation period: Jupiter (9 hours, 55 minutes)

Ø  The planet with longest rotation period (longest day): Venus (243 days)

  Rotation period is the time taken to rotate about its axis. Revolution period is the time taken by a planet to complete a revolution (orbit) around the sun.

 

Ø  The planet that takes the just about same number of days for rotation and revolution: Venus

Ø  The planet of the solar system that spins on its axis at the fastest rate: Jupiter

Ø  2^nd largest planet in our solar system: Saturn

Ø  Nearest planet to earth is: Venus

Ø  Hottest planet in our solar system is: Venus

Ø  Brightest planet in our solar system: Venus

Ø  Morning star planet is: Venus

Ø  Planet having longest day than any in the solar system: Venus

Ø  Only planet whose day is longer than its year is: Venus

Ø  The planet visible from Earth is: Venus

Ø  In terms of size and mass, the planet which is also known as ‘Earth twin’ is: Venus

Ø  The planet known as ‘Waterly Planet’ is: Earth

Ø  Densest planet is: Earth

Ø  Coldest planet is: Neptune

Ø  Farthest (Distant) planet is: Neptune

Ø  Nearest planet to the Sun is: Mercury

Ø  Fastest planet around the Sun is: Mercury

Ø  Densest planet is: Earth

Ø  Earth is the 5^th largest planet.

Ø  Planet with a ring is: Saturn

Ø  The planet known as ‘Red Planet’ is: Mars

Ø  Planet with most moons: Saturn (82 moons)

Ø  Most abundant element in our solar system is: Hydrogen & Helium

Ø  Hydrogen accounts for 71% of Sun’s mass and Helium accounts for 26.5% of Sun’s mass.

Ø  The planet Mercury is difficult to be observed most of the time because it is too close to the Sun and gets hidden by the glare of the Sun.

Ø  Time taken by sun rays to reach Earth: 499 seconds (8 minutes and 19 seconds)

Ø  Time taken by the moonlight rays o reach Earth: 1.3 seconds.

Ø  Comets resolves around the: Sun

Ø  Surface temperature of Sun: 6000 Kelvin

Ø  Temperature in center of the sun: 20 million K

Ø  Which two planets of the solar system have no satellites (moons): Venus and Mercury

Ø  Planet with 13 moons: Neptune

Ø  The planet with the length of the day and tilt of the axis are almost identical to that of the Earth is: Neptune

Ø  As per new definition of Planets standardized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), planet Pluto has been discarded from the list of planets in 2006.

Ø  Pluto is considered a Dwarf planet now, and it is a member of the Kepler belt a spherical boundary outside the orbit of Neptune.

Ø  Dwarf planets have sizes between asteroids and planets.

Ø  A planet orbiting close to its star has a shorter year than a planet orbiting farther from its star.

Ø  As the distance of the planet from the sun is increased, the period, or time to make one orbit (revolution), will get longer.

Ø  Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).

Ø  The inner planets (in order of distance from the sun) are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. After an asteroid belt comes, there are the outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Hint to remember the order of Planets in a Solar System:

M VEM J SUN: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune.

List of Planets and their number of moons

List of Planets with their rotation and revolution periods