We feel a special regard to the other planets in our solar system maybe because we have been watching a lot of science fiction stories about visiting the moon and other planets. We love to think about those planets do the processes that Earth does but in different ways.

The planets in our system have taken the names of mythical beings and have appealed in our literature and arts. It is easy to encounter artists who render their own vision of the planets. The names of the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune derived their names from the Greek and Roman mythology. However, the solar system is not only composed of planets, it is composed of other celestial bodies too. Space is a very busy place indeed.

In 2006, Pluto became an overnight controversy as scholars and astronomers agreed to downgrade Pluto to a moon. You might have wondered what makes a planet worthy to be called planet and what happened to Pluto? A planet, by definition, is any object in orbit around a sun. The planet takes a round shape as well as it has cleared away other orbiting items around it. When you say “cleared away”, it does not mean destroying other objects in its path. For example, our planet has not “cleared away” the moon but it has captured it into its own orbit so we classify Earth as a planet.

Aside from the planets, there are other objects floating in our solar system. As a matter of fact, there are 165 moons orbiting around the nine planets. Some of those moons are believed to be advance that some scientist have suspected that they might have supported life at some point.

Aside from the planets and moons, there are also dwarf planets, asteroid belts and comets. Can you imagine that the solar system is bustling with celestial bodies moving everywhere? Two dwarf planets that exist in the outer rim of our solar system are called Eries and Ceres. So when Pluto’s status was changed to be removed from the list of planets, it was no longer considered as a major planet but simply joined those two dwarf planets but is still a solid citizen of the community of celestial bodies in our solar system.

Moreover, there are asteroid belts between Mars and Jupiter that most of the meteor showers that we see in our night sky came from this belt. There is another belt of large objects further out called the Kuiper belt as well as a “bubble” in space called a heliopause. There are additional belts suspected by the scientists that exists in the solar system. Another belt called the Oort belt was believed to be the origin of large asteroids and comets that frequent our solar system and also come into orbit around the sun.

It is also important to take note of the history of our solar system to understand why we have such neighbors around our planet. The universe was once a huge body of gas and clouds of matter eventually cooling and heating, exploding and spinning off stars and massive space giants that become more stars, more galaxies and more solar systems. It was from this activity that our sun separated from the gases and carried with it materials that will be the precursor of out solar system. Moreover, the gravity of the sun captured enough matter that it began to go through the process of forming, cooling, exploding and separating as a result giving birth to the planets that eventually established orbits around the sun.

When you think about it, it is amazing to step back and see the beauty and organization of our solar system today. The more details that you know about the history of the solar system, the more you will appreciate these celestial bodies and the more you will attached to them. Discovery is part of the fun of astronomy.

Author: Gregory McFadden
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news