10 Amazing Facts About the Solar System

1. Uranus tilts to one side

Uranus may look like a blue ball at first glance, but this giant planet in the outer reaches of the solar system has some very strange characteristics. For starters, Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. It's not clear why the star is so strangely tilted, but a common theory is that during the formation of the solar system, an Earth-sized protoplanet collided with Uranus, skewing the planet's rotation axis.

Uranus

The star also has very thin rings, which were observed when it passed in front of another star (as seen from Earth) in 1977. Uranus' rings are estimated to have formed 600 million years ago. Most recently, astronomers discovered storms in Uranus' atmosphere after it made its closest approach to the Sun.

2. Jupiter's moons have violent volcanic eruptions.

The Jovian moon has hundreds of volcanoes and is considered the most active moon in the solar system. These volcanoes sometimes erupt lava more than 402 km into the atmosphere. Many spacecraft have caught this sight. In 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Uranus observed volcanic eruptions on the Jovian moon. According to NASA, because the Jovian moon is closest to Jupiter, it is "caught in a fierce gravitational battle" between Jupiter and the other two large moons. The opposing gravitational forces create a lot of heat inside, leading to hundreds of volcanic eruptions on the moon's surface. However, it is difficult to predict the location of volcanoes using only scientific models.

3. Mars has the largest volcano known to man

Volcanoes on Mars

Mars may seem calm at first glance, but scientists say that in the past, phenomena have occurred that caused giant volcanoes to form and erupt, including Olympus Mons. This is the largest volcano ever discovered in the Solar System, with a width of 602km, equivalent to the size of the state of Arizona, USA. It is 25km high, 3 times the height of Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. The reason why volcanoes on Mars can grow to such a huge size is because the gravity on this planet is much weaker than on Earth. However, scientists still do not know the process of forming these mountains.

4. Venus has super strong winds

Venus has been likened to a hellish planet due to its extreme temperatures and pressures on its surface. The Soviet Union's heavily shielded and equipped Venara space probe only survived a few minutes when it landed on the planet's surface in the 1970s.

The surface of Venus is very strange. Scientists have found that its high-altitude winds move 50 times faster than the planet rotates. The European spacecraft Venus Express (which orbited Venus from 2006 to 2014) tracked the winds over long periods of time and found that the planet’s winds and storms have gotten stronger over time.

5. Water ice exists throughout the Solar System

Ice was once thought to be a rare substance in space, but scientists have since discovered it exists throughout the solar system. It is a common component of comets and asteroids. It also resides in hidden craters on Mercury and the Moon. Mars also has ice in its polar regions. But not all ice is the same. When scientists took a close-up look at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, they found that the ice found there was different from the ice found on Earth.

6. There may be life in the Solar System

So far, scientists have found no evidence of life elsewhere in the solar system. But as we learn more about how creatures live in underground craters or in icy environments, new discoveries could potentially shed light on where they might live on other planets. These aren’t aliens living on Mars, as in science fiction movies, but incredibly small creatures. There could be microorganisms somewhere in Jupiter’s Europa ocean or beneath Saturn’s Enceladus ice sheet…

7. Mercury is shrinking

Mercury

For many years, scientists believed that Earth was the only planet in the solar system with plate tectonics. That changed after the MESSENGER spacecraft launched its first mission to Mercury, mapping the entire planet in high resolution and examining features on its surface.

In 2016, data from the MESSENGER spacecraft revealed cliff-like features called faults on Mercury’s surface. Because the faults are relatively small, scientists believe they formed relatively recently and that the planet is still shrinking. Mercury is shrinking because the planet is cooling. This cooling has had an unusual effect on its already rugged terrain, creating cliffs up to 3km high and mountain ranges up to 1,700km long that run across the planet’s surface.

8. Neptune radiates more heat than it receives from the Solar System.

Neptune is very far away from Earth. And scientists hope to send spacecraft to this planet soon to solve the mystery of why it radiates more heat than it receives, as well as why this star is so far away from the Sun.

9. Jupiter has more heavy elements than the Sun

Scientists believe that the Sun and the planets likely formed from a dense cloud of cosmic dust, possibly gas, surrounding a core containing heavier elements. This is especially true of Jupiter, a planet 317 times the size of Earth, which absorbs more gas than our planet. Given its similar structure, why does Jupiter have more heavy elements than the Sun? One of the leading theories is that Jupiter’s atmosphere was “enriched” by comets, asteroids, and other small bodies that it sucked in thanks to its powerful magnetic field.

10. Saturn has a hexagonal storm

A giant hexagonal storm has appeared in Saturn’s northern hemisphere that scientists have yet to explain. This storm has some characteristics in common with other common storms on Earth, and it has existed on Saturn for decades, even hundreds of years.

According to VOV