The smallest planet with big secrets. The largest and smallest planet in the solar system

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The smallest planet in solar system Mercury became, taking away this title from Pluto - a dwarf planet. Read the description, history, interesting facts.

The solar system is filled with a variety of planets, including the terrestrial group, gas and ice giants. If we are looking for the tiniest one, then sometimes disputes arise. Some still believe that this is Pluto. In 2006, Pluto was downgraded to dwarf, so it's officially the smallest planet in the solar system is Mercury.

Size and mass of the smallest planet in the solar system

The radius is only 2440 km (0.38 Earth). It is almost a spherical body. It is inferior in size to Ganymede and Titan, but superior in massiveness. With a weight of 3.3011 x 10, 23 kg is equivalent to 0.0.55 earth mass.

Density and volume of the smallest planet in the solar system

With a density of 5.427 g/cm 3, Mercury is in second place in the solar system after Earth. Gravity is 3.7 m/s 2 , which reaches 38% of Earth’s. Volume – 6.083 x 10 10 km 3 (0.056 Earth). That is, it would be possible to install 20 Mercurys in the Earth.

Structure and composition of the smallest planet in the solar system

Mercury is a terrestrial planet, composed of silicate materials and metals. The structure of the planet contains a metallic core, silicate mantle and crust. But the radius of the core reaches 1800 km, which occupies 42% of the planetary volume. Below is the structure and structure of the planet Mercury.

In addition, the core contains the highest concentration of iron. It is believed that the planet was previously much larger, but its upper layers were erased by a powerful impact. After the core comes the mantle with a thickness of 500-700 km (silicate material) and the crust (100-300 km).

Yes, Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. But it outperforms others in density and temperature.

Since ancient times, people have looked at the sky and stars, predictions were made from them, locations were determined, etc. Scientists are working on the study of planets and stars. Which planet is the smallest?

Planets smaller than Earth

Venus is almost the same as the Earth in both size and mass. Of the earth's mass, its mass is 0.815. It is known that it completes a revolution around the Sun in almost two hundred and twenty-five Earth days. There is water there, but it is much less than on Earth. After the Moon and the Sun in the sky of our planet, Venus is the third brightest luminary. The following is known about it: the surface temperature is more than four hundred degrees, the extremely high density of the atmosphere, the absence of satellites. Despite all the apparent similarities between the planet and the Earth, they have too many important differences. The surface of Venus is not visible due to the fact that it is covered with dense clouds consisting of sulfuric acid. These clouds are highly reflective. The relief was explored only thanks to radio waves.

Planetology as a science suggests that most likely at one time the planet had oceans similar to those that now exist on Earth. This planet has been little studied, despite the fact that its surface has been explored by more than one spacecraft. It should be noted that none of them worked more than two hours due to difficult conditions. It was thanks to these spacecraft that the photographs they took of the surface of this planet first appeared on Earth. This happened in 1975.

Another planet that is much smaller when compared to Earth is Mars. It received its second name “red planet” due to the presence of iron oxide on the surface. She was named after the ancient Roman god of war. It has two natural satellites named Deimos and Phobos. Scientists from many countries are studying the “red planet”. According to them, there may be water on it, but it is not in a liquid state, which is due to the pressure on the surface being too low. This conclusion indicates that primitive life may well exist on the planet.

Thanks to research and the work of Mars rovers, scientists have discovered that the surface was once covered with water. The climate on the planet is seasonal, with an average temperature of minus fifty degrees. A person can easily see Mars even with the naked eye. It is known that its mass is less than eleven percent of the earth's mass.

The smallest planets in the solar system

Officially, today the smallest planet in our solar system is considered to be a planet called Mercury. It moves much faster than other planets, most likely because of this it was given this name. After all, as you know, the god of trade Mercury was fleet-footed. Its mass is 3.3 1023 kg. Relative to the mass of the Earth, the mass of Mercury is 0.055. Considering its density, it can be argued that its depths contain a lot of metals. This small planet orbits the sun in eighty-eight Earth days.

Mercury has been studied very little, but it is known that it has no satellites. Some of its notable features include jagged, numerous slopes and impact craters.

The smallest planet in the Galaxy

We can only be content with what is already known for sure about our solar system, namely, that the smallest planet until 2006 was Pluto, and now Mercury has taken its place.

Meanwhile, the largest planet is in the constellation Hercules.
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What thoughts come to your mind when you look at the night sky strewn with billions of stars? That the universe is huge, and does it have a beginning, or which planet is the largest? And where is the end of this infinity? This mysterious and enigmatic world has attracted scientists and astronauts for many years.

The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter

Scientists claim that our Earth is what it is only thanks to Jupiter. It was this planet that was one of the first to form after the big bang and helped in the formation of the remaining planets.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and is in fifth place in terms of distance from the Sun. Its radius is 69,911 km. It will take about two years to get from Earth.

Jupiter has 67 satellites, which are arranged in such a way that they resemble a system of planets around the Sun. Its satellite Europa is of particular interest. Scientists admit that life is possible on it. And the satellite Ganymede, whose surface is covered with craters, is also the largest in the solar system.

The surface of Jupiter, which has no solid spots, is a boiling ocean of hydrogen and is a heat producer. The amount he gives is much more than he receives from the Sun. If he was 30% bigger, he could very well be a star.

This planet has the shortest rotation period in the entire solar system. Because of this, winds constantly blow there, the speed of which reaches 600 km/h, which leads to the formation of atmospheric vortices.

The largest has been known for about three hundred years and is called the Great Red Spot. Its impressive size (41 thousand km) is several times larger than the Earth. But in Lately it is noticeably decreasing, today its value is 18 thousand km.

The smallest planet in the solar system is Mercury

People have been observing Mercury since ancient times. Its appearance at different times and on different sides of the Sun made it possible to think that it was completely different planets. It received its name in honor of the god of trade, Mercury.

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The circumference of this smallest planet in the solar system is 4879 km. The density of Mercury is greater than that of our planet, which indicates that the content of metals there is high.

Very large differences between daytime (350 °C) and nighttime (170 °C) temperatures are due to the fact that there is no atmosphere on Mercury. The close proximity to the Sun and very slow rotation also affect this temperature range. And yet scientists admit that there is ice there, falling from passing comets.

The composition of its crust resembles Earth, Mars and Venus, although there is more sulfur than in earth's crust. Logically, due to high temperatures, it should evaporate.

Scientists also cannot explain what causes the high density of Mercury. After all, it directly depends on weight. Gravity is 3 times less than on Earth. This planet holds many still unsolved secrets.

The hottest planet we know

The temperature on the surface of Venus is 475°C. It is quite enough to melt tin or lead. It is higher than on Mercury, which is located much closer to the Sun.

Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system; it was not always this way; it even had oceans of liquid that evaporated.

This contributed to the formation of the greenhouse effect. Today it is too overheated because of this and this process is increasing.

A very cold planet with temperatures below -200°C

Researchers unfairly neglect Uranus. In this major planet there is no line between different states. If you move to the core, you will notice how the gaseous state turns into a liquid, and then becomes more dense.

Due to the fact that Uranus is turned on its side, one side of it is not illuminated by the sun for 500 Earth months.

Uranus is the most cold planet Solar system.

In spring and autumn, the Sun rises every 9 hours. But even during the hours when it shines the temperature does not rise above -200°C

I love looking at the starry night sky. This is extraordinary beauty. But from Earth we see only a small part of cosmic bodies. There are many more of them in open space. I liked studying astronomy at school. Now, many years later, I am also interested in the unexplored expanses of the Galaxy. Next, I want to answer the question posed above and talk a little about these planets of the solar system.

Smallest terrestrial planet

Everyone knows that in the solar system there is only 8 planT. The first 4 of them revolve around the Sun. Scientists call them terrestrial planets. Interestingly, until 2006, Pluto was considered the smallest planet, but scientists have proven that it is not a planet. Mercury is considered the smallest terrestrial planet:

• has a volume of 6.083 1010 km³. Because this is the smallest planetA;
• the most nearby planet to the sun. It is paradoxical that Venus (further from the Sun) is much hotter than Mercury;
• the side facing the Sun has a temperature of 400°C. On the other side at the same time maybe minus 100 °C;
• From Earth this planet can be seen without a telescope with the naked eye;
• in 2004 from Earth was launchedMessenger probe, he is still on Mercury;
• the first evidence of the existence of Mercury was back in 3000 BC e.;
• The planet has a thin atmosphere;
• A day on Mercury lasts 176 Earth days..

Mercury is little explored planet.

Earth is the largest terrestrial planet

Of the 4 terrestrial planets, Earth is the largest. This is our home planet, so Earth is the most explored planet in the solar system:

• it has been proven that this is ethe only planet that has life;
• among the terrestrial planets Earth has the greatest gravity and magnetic field;
• The earth has a shape geoid is a sphere flattened at the poles;
• The largest one was discovered in 2006 ozone hole over Antarctica;
• The earth has only one satellite - the Moon;
• In fact A day on Earth lasts 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds..

The most intriguing and mysterious thing for humanity is the Universe. This concept includes a huge space that has no boundaries, it is filled with matter, galaxies, black holes, and this is only what scientists know. Galaxies, in turn, consist of star systems and their clusters. People have always been interested in what space hides. It has long been a known fact that the solar system is not the only one in the entire universe. This system includes the Earth and many other planets.

The solar system is one of the components of the Galaxy. The most important element at the center of the entire system is the Sun, around which the planets revolve. All planets are completely different, not similar friend on a friend. If we consider the surface of each planet, that is, icy and hot, some contain gas, others do not, so they are considered dense. Each planet in the solar system also differs from each other in its size. In this article we will talk about what is the smallest planet in our Solar System and in the Universe.

Planet Pluto

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered the new planet Pluto. For a long time it was considered a full-fledged ninth planet of the solar system, but since 2006 it began to be considered a dwarf planet. It is the largest dwarf planet in size and second in mass. After this planet was discovered, it was perceived as the farthest, ninth planet in the solar system. It was the appearance of Pluto that marked the beginning of the emergence of such a category as small planets, otherwise they were called plutoids.

Pluto takes 248 years to complete one orbit around the Sun.

Pluto is located 40 astronomical units from the Sun. Accordingly, 40 times further than Earth. If we compare in kilometers, it is about 6 billion kilometers. It was noticed that this dwarf planet has an atmosphere that extends beyond the Earth's atmosphere. But this atmosphere appears when Pluto approaches the Sun. Gravity on Pluto is very weak, since it is many times lighter than Earth. The processes that occur on the planet directly depend on its location, although we can only draw conclusions about this by observing from the outside.

Scientists believe that the Sun should be visible on Pluto and it is not completely dark there. The weather is most likely bad, low temperatures and the strongest wind. About availability magnetic field this dwarf planet has no data yet. Pluto is located at a very great distance, so it is difficult to say its exact dimensions, but it is known that its mass less mass planet Earth 5 times. Astronomers theorize that the planet's surface is made of frozen gases, with one hemisphere of methane ice and the other hemisphere of frozen nitrogen.

In 2006 at dwarf planet the spacecraft was sent

Not long ago, the title of one of the smallest planets in the Universe passed to another planet called Mercury.

Mercury

Mercury is the planet of the solar system closest to the Sun and it rotates so quickly that ancient civilizations believed that these two were completely different stars, appearing during the day and evening. After Pluto became a dwarf planet, Mercury began to be considered the smallest planet of the eight. Mercury is larger in size than the Moon, but not by much. This is the only planet that does not have natural satellites, and a day is equal to 176 days on Earth. The temperature difference during the day is surprising: during the day the indicator rises to 480°C, and at night it drops to minus 167°C. There is no atmosphere on the surface, so the planet is not able to retain heat, and in the shadow the temperature can be noticeably lower, but clouds still form at the poles.

There are some features on the surface of the planet:

• A large number of impact craters that formed over many billions of years;
• Between the craters there are plains that are believed to have been created by the movement of lava flows in the distant past;
• The presence of rocks that are scattered throughout the surface of Mercury and stretch for several thousand kilometers in length.

In the solar system, Mercury is the smallest planet and at the same time it is one of the few planets that can be seen in a clear night sky with the naked eye. There are five such planets in total.

1 year on Mercury is equal to 88 Earth days

The new smallest planet in the Universe

Scientists managed to discover a planet that was later recognized as the smallest, this happened in 2013. It turned out that it is smaller in size than Mercury and is three times closer to its star than Mercury is to the Sun. On its surface reign high temperatures, reaching up to 425°C. Scientists have given Its name is Kepler-37b.

Unfortunately, there is still little accurate data on the size of the new planet; it is known that in its dimensions it is slightly larger than our Moon. According to astrologers, it consists of stone. The difficulty of studying lies in the fact that the atmosphere interferes with instruments on Earth.

An interesting way to detect large and small planets. Astrologers for a long time They watch this or that star and wait for the moment when the light from it fades. This means that some body called a planet passed between the observed star and the earth. However, using this method it is easier to determine which planets are the largest, because most of these planets were much larger more than Earth and are more comparable in size to Jupiter.

Kepler-37b's dimming was very difficult to notice, but scientists have made a new discovery

For many years, scientists have made assumptions about what lies beyond the solar system. Thanks to the latest developments and equipment, many discoveries have been made that have made it possible to learn more about the Universe as a whole. It is currently impossible to say how many planets there are in total in the Universe. The galaxy contains hundreds of trillions of planets, of different sizes and having various features. Of this incredible number, few objects have been studied. It is quite possible that scientists will soon discover a new planet, which will be even smaller than those given in our article.