Have you ever seen the sky? You must have seen the sun in the day and the moon at the night long with the presence of some stars or have heard of the news bout something in space coming towards the earth and can damage it, etc. Well, there are a lot of things that we cannot see with our naked eyes. Here, we will talk about the stars and solar system, various celestial bodies in the solar system, solar system definition geography, the 8 planets name, sun, moon and stars, etc. This page will give you basic information about the space and the solar system we live in and its related features and will help you in Geography and Science subjects and will also increase your knowledge.
Celestial Body Definition and Meaning
All those heavy objects which are present in space such as the sun, the moon and other bodies are called celestial bodies. There are a number of celestial bodies present which have different features which are mentioned below.
Galaxy and Universe
If you have ever seen a white glowing path in the sky at night full of stars, that band is actually called the Milky way which is also known as Akash Ganga. It is a cluster of stars where our solar system lies and this cluster of stars is called a galaxy and there are a huge number of galaxies that comes together to form the universe. We still do not know the exact size of the whole universe and the number of different galaxies present in the universe.
Solar System
From the above information, you have already come to know that the solar system is a subpart of a galaxy and a system that comprises the sun, the planets and their satellites and other celestial bodies, is called a solar system. There are a number of celestial bodies in the solar system which we will discuss below:
Stars
The celestial bodies which are larger in size and hot and made of various gases, have their own heat and light are called stars. For example, the sun in our solar system is a star that is huge in size and emits light in larger amounts. It also a great source of energy and heat for our planet Earth. There are millions and billions of stars in our solar system.
At night, you must have noticed the twinkling stars which are similar to the sun but we cannot feel their heat as they are far from us and looks like a tiny dot at the night in the sky. Sometimes you have seen some patterns of stars in the night sky, those patterns are called constellations. For example, Ursa Major or Big Bear. The most famous and easily recognizable is the Saptarishi or group of 7 stars. There is also a star namely the Pole star which has a fixed position and was used by the ancient people to locate directions. Now you can answer the question – Is constellation a part of the solar system?
The Sun
It is called the centre of the solar system which binds it with its pulling force. It is made up of huge amounts of gases such as hydrogen and helium. Its mass is 99.8% of the total mass of the entire solar system. It is almost 150 mn km away from our planet and is a huge source of heat and energy. From the above information, you will able to answer one question- Is the sun a star or a planet?
Planets
These are those celestial bodies that do not have a light of their own and move around the sun in fixed paths called orbits. 8 planets namely are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Earlier, Pluto was also considered as a planet but now has been excluded from the list and is known as a dwarf planet.
The Earth
This is the third planet from the Sun and it is the only planet where life exists. It is the fifth-largest and has a Geoid shape because it is flattened at the poles. It is also called the blue planet and venus’s twin.
The Moon
It is the only satellite of the planet Earth having a diameter of one-quarter of the Earth and 3,84,400 kms away from the planet. It moves around the planet earth and takes 27 days for one revolution. It does not support life like earth.
Asteroids
There are some other tiny bodies as well in addition to the above-mentioned ones which move around the sun and are found between Mars’; and Jupiter’s orbits. As per the scientists, they were once parts of the planet which have been broken off.
Meteoroids
These are other pieces of rocks that revolve around the sun and sometimes also reach the earth and in that process, they start burning sometimes and emit light because of which they look like a shooting star.