The Major Planets
Unlike the stars whose relative positions remain more or less constant, the
planets seem to move across the sky over time (the word “planet” comes from the
Greek for “wanderer”).
The planets are siblings of the Earth, massive bodies that are in orbit around
the Sun.
Until 2006 there was no formal definition of a planet, leading to some confusion
about the classification for some bodies traditionally regarded as being
planets, but which didn’t seem to fit with the others.
In 2006 the International Astronomical Union defined a planet as a celestial
body that, within the Solar System:
1. Is in orbit around the Sun
2. Has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so
that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape; and
3. Has cleared the neighbor hood around its orbitor within another system:
1. Is in orbit around a star or stellar remnants
2. Has a mass below the limiting mass for thermonuclear fusion of deuterium; and
3. Is above the minimum mass/size requirement for planetary status in the Solar
System.
Moving from the Sun outwards, the 8 major planets are:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Since the
formal definition of a planet in 2006 Pluto has been relegated to having the
status of dwarf planet, along with bodies such as Ceres and Eris.
Terrestrial Planets
The planets closest to the sun are called collectively the
terrestrial planets. The terrestrial planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars.
The terrestrial planets are relatively small, comparatively dense, and have
solid rocky surface.
Most of their mass is made from solid matter, which is mostly rocky and/or
metallic in nature.
Jupiter
(Rom. Myth.) The supreme deity, king of gods and men, and reputed to
be the son of Saturn and Rhea; Jove. He corresponds to the Greek Zeus.
(Astron.) One of the planets, being the fifth from the sun, the
brightest except Venus, and the largest of them all, its mean
radius being about
43,345 miles (69,758 kilometers), almost exactly one-tenth that of the sun. It
revolves about the sun in 4,332.6 days, at a mean distance of 5.2025 from the
sun (778,140,000 km), the earth's mean distance (the astronomical unit)
being taken as unity. It has a mass of 1.901 x 1027 kg, about
one-thousandth that of the sun, and more than the remainder of the planets
combined. It has an average solar day equal to 9.842 earth hours. The rapid
revolution causes a noticeable flattening at the poles; the diameter at the
equator is 71,370 km, and at the poles 66,644 km. HCP61
Mercury
(Rom. Myth.) A Latin god of commerce and gain; treated by the
poets as identical with the Greek Hermes, messenger of the gods,
conductor of souls to the lower world, and god of eloquence.
(Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, being the one
nearest the sun, from which its mean distance is about 36,000,000 miles. Its
period is 88 days, and its diameter 3,000 miles.
Sprightly or mercurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.].
Venus = the goddess of love, the planet Venus
(Class. Myth.) The goddess of beauty and love, that is, beauty or love
deified.
(Anat.) One of the planets, the second in order from the sun, its
orbit lying between that of Mercury and that of the Earth, at a mean distance
from the sun of about 67,000,000 miles. Its diameter is 7,700 miles, and its
sidereal period 224.7 days. As the morning star, it was
called by the ancients Lucifer; as the
evening star, Hesperus.
Mars
(Rom. Myth.) The god of war and husbandry.
(Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, the fourth in order
from the sun, or the next beyond the earth, having a diameter of about 4,200
miles, a period of 687 days, and a mean distance of 141,000,000 miles. It is
conspicuous for the redness of its light.
Earth
The globe or planet which we inhabit; the world, in distinction from the sun,
moon, or stars. Also, this world as the dwelling place of mortals, in
distinction from the dwelling place of spirits.
The softer inorganic matter composing part of the surface of the globe, in
distinction from the firm rock; soil of all kinds, including gravel,
clay, loam, and the like; sometimes, soil favorable to the growth of
plants; the visible surface of the globe; the ground; as, loose earth;
rich earth.
Saturn
Saturn Saturnus, literally, the sower, serere, satum, to
sow.
(Roman Myth.) One of the elder and principal deities, the son of Coelus and Terra (Heaven and Earth), and the
father of Jupiter. The
corresponding Greek divinity was Kρόνοσ, later CHρόνοσ, Time.
(Astron.) One of the planets of the solar system, next in magnitude to
Jupiter, but more remote from the sun. Its diameter is seventy thousand miles,
its mean distance from the sun nearly eight hundred and eighty millions of
miles, and its year, or periodical revolution round the sun, nearly twenty-nine
years and a half. It is surrounded by a remarkable system of rings, and has
eight satellites.
Uranus
Uranus = heaven, sky.
(Gr. Myth.) The son or husband of Gaia (Earth), and father of Chronos
(Time) and the Titans.
(Astron.) One of the primary planets. It is about 1,800,000,000 miles
from the sun, about 36,000 miles in diameter, and its period of revolution round
the sun is nearly 84 of our years.
This planet has also been called Herschel, from Sir William
Herschel, who discovered it in 1781, and who named it Georgium Sidus, in
honor of George III., then King of England.
Neptune
(Rom. Myth.) The son of Saturn and Ops, the god of the waters,
especially of the sea. He is represented as bearing a trident for a scepter.
(Astron.) The remotest major planet of our solar system, discovered as a result of the computations of Leverrier, of Paris by Galle, of Berlin,
September 23, 1846. It is classed as a gas giant, and has a radius of
22,716 km and an estimated mass of 1.027 x 1026 kg, with an average
density of 2.27 g/cc. Its mean distance from the sun is about 5,000,000,000 km
(3,106,856,000 miles), and its period of revolution is about 164.78 years.
Jovian Planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune make up the Jovian planets, also called
gas giants. They are much more massive than the terrestrial
planets, and do not have a solid surface.
Jupiter is the largest of all the planets with a diameter of
about 12, and mass over 300 times that of the Earth!
The Jovian planets do not have a solid surface - the vast majority of their mass
being in gaseous form (although they may have rocky or metallic cores). Because
of this, they have an average density which is much less than the terrestrial
planets.
Saturn’s mean density is only about 0:7g=cm3 – it would float in water!
The Minor Bodies
As well as the Major Planets, the solar system also contains innumerable
smaller bodies in orbit around the Sun. These are generally the
dwarf planets (Ceres, Pluto, Eris), the other minor planets, also known
as planetoids or asteroids, and comets.
Asteroids
Asteroids are celestial bodies orbiting the Sun in more or less
regular orbits mostly between Mars and Jupiter. They are generally rocky bodies
like the inner (terrestrial) planets, but of much smaller size.
They are countless in number ranging in size from about ten meters to hundreds
of kilometers.
Comets
A comet is a small body in the solar system that orbits the Sun
and (at least occasionally) exhibits a coma (or atmosphere) and/or a tail.
Most comets have a very eccentric orbit (featuring a highly flattened ellipse,
or even a parabolic track), and as such spend most of their time a very long way
from the Sun.
Comets are composed of rock, dust and ices. When they come close to the Sun, the
heat evaporates the ices, causing a gaseous release.
This gas and loose material which comes away from the body of the comet is swept
away from the Sun by the Solar wind, forming the tail.
Most larger comets exhibit two kinds of tail: a straight gas tail (often
blue-green in photographs), and a wider, occasionally curved dust tail
(reflecting whitish sunlight).
Comets whose orbit brings them close to the Sun more frequently than
every 200 years are considered to be short period comets, the most
famous of which is probably Comet Halley, named after the
British astronomer EDMUND HALLEY, which has an orbital period of roughly 76
years.
Meteoroids
These objects are small pieces of space debris left over from the early days of
the solar system that orbit the Sun. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes an
compositions, ranging from microscopic dust particles up to about ten meters
across.
Sometimes these objects collide with the Earth. The closing speed of these
collisions is generally extremely high (tens of kilometers per second).
When such an object ploughs through the Earth’s atmosphere, a large amount of
kinetic energy is converted into heat and light, and a visible flash or streak
can often be seen with the naked eye.
Even the smallest particles can cause these events which are commonly known as
shooting stars.
While smaller objects tend to burn up in the atmosphere, larger, denser objects
can penetrate the atmosphere and strike the surface of the planet, sometimes
leaving meteor craters.
Sometimes the angle of the collision means that larger objects pass through the
atmosphere but do not strike the Earth.
When this happens, spectacular fireballs are sometimes seen. Meteoroids is the
name given to such objects when they are floating in space.
A Meteor is the name given to the visible atmospheric phenomenon.
Meteorites is the name given to objects that penetrate the atmosphere and land
on the surface.
In some nights over the year you can observe increased meteorite activity. Those
meteors seem to come from a certain point in the sky, the Radiant.
But what we see is similar to driving through a mosquito swarm which all seem to
come head-on.
Earth itself moves through space, and sweeps up a dense cloud of particles which
originates from a comet’s tail.
• Exactly 2520 years from the exile
of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.
•
The first tribe to be
conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh,
in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.
(Leviticus. 26: 28-46) God warned Israel that if they persisted in continually
breaking His Laws, not only would curses come upon them.
He would punish them for seven times, (a time being 360 years, seven times would
be 2520 years) and would banish them from the land of Palestine and scatter them
among the heathens (like lost sheep)
• Study the book:
Abrahamic Covenant,
(A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt
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