List Of Top 10 Interesting Facts About The Solar System

Think Mercury is the hottest planet in the Solar System? Think again. Find out which planet is superheated, along with these 10 other incredible facts about the Solar System.Show more

#10 The Sun makes up 99.86 % of the Solar System’s mass. The sun’s gravity is the majority force for 2 light years, nearly halfway to the nearest star. The Sun is It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth.

#9 There are 5 dwarf planets: Haumea, Ceres, Pluto, Eris, and Makemake. with the exception of Ceres, which is located in the asteroid belt, the other dwarf planets are found in the outer solar system. Vulcan was a false dwarf planet created to explain away irregularities in Mercury’s orbit.

#8 Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, too thin and dark to see it from Earth. Saturn has 53 Moons, 2 are within its rings, controlling ring f’s movements. Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter.

#7 Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a cryovolcano, blasting water into space. Caused by Saturn’s gravity, heating an underground ocean on the moon. Saturn is a gas giant and is composed of similar gasses including hydrogen, helium, and methane.

#6 There are 535,000 minor planets measuring over 1km across, 3000 are registered each month. Each member of ‘Monty Python’ has one named after them. Minor planets can be dwarf planets, asteroids, trojans, centaurs, Kuiper belt objects, and other trans-Neptunian objects.

#5 We actually live within the atmosphere of the sun, in an area called corona. The Northern lights are evidence of this, created by Solar winds. The material in the corona is an extremely hot but very tenuous plasma.

#4 A huge asteroid hit mercury, creating a 1300 km crater, called the Caloris Basin. The shock wave wrinkled the crust on the opposite side of Mercury, creating hills. We only know what half of the crater looks like because the other half was in darkness when Mariner 10 flew by the planet.

#3 Mercury is not the hottest planet in the Solar System, its lack of atmosphere prevents heat being trapped. Venus, however, reaches temperatures of 465 degrees. Mercury is the hottest planet because it has an atmosphere made of carbon dioxide; it also has clouds of acid inside its atmosphere. This is called the greenhouse effect.

#2 Volcanoes or asteroids can sometimes blast rock from Mars towards Earth normally landing in Antarctica or the Sahara, the eldest dates back 4.5BN years. The asteroids are orbiting the Sun, each one traveling around the Sunfast enough for the orbits not to degrade.
#1 Earth spins on its axis at 460m/sec, orbits the Sun at 30km/sec and whirls around the galaxy center at 220km/sec. Earth rotates once in about 24 hours with respect to the Sun, but once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds with respect to the stars.

Did you learn something new about our Solar System? Maybe you know more interesting facts? Tell us below in our comment section.