 |
| Jupiter |
Our Planets And
Their
Names
How The Planets Got Their Names (And Other Things You
Didn't Know)
How ARE you supposed to pronounce Uranus?
By About.com Social Team
Our Solar
System is endlessly fascinating.
Explorers and astronomers have spent thousands of years
exploring the galaxy to answer the universal question, "Is there anybody out there?"
The stories of the planets they found are equally
amazing.
But, have
you ever wondered how the planets got their names?
Mercury
The closest planet to the sun, Mercury, is
named after the Roman god of commerce, travel and
thievery (who was also known as Hermes in Greek mythology).
Did you know:
 |
| Mercury |
- Mercury is the second smallest planet in
the solar system.
- Mercury's temperatures range widely, from
90 degrees Kelvin to 700 degrees Kelvin.
- Mercury has no known moons or satellites.
- In astrology, Mercury's speed and
elusiveness make it associated with mind and communication.
- Mercury (the element) derives its name from
the use of Mercury (the planet) in alchemy.
Venus
The second planet from the sun, the planet Venus is
named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. .
 |
| Venus |
Did you know:
- Venus is considered Earth's sister because
it is roughly the same size as Earth, and has roughly the same chemical makeup.
- Venus rotates east to west, instead of west
to east like the other planets that orbit the Solar System.
- Today, Venus is completely uninhabitable by
humans.
- The weight of Venus' atmosphere is 90 times
greater than that on Earth, the same pressure as if submerged under 3,000 feet
of water.
- A Soviet spacecraft was only able to
send data for 51 minutes before the Venus' atmosphere crushed it.
Earth
Earth, the planet you're currently on (unless you have
some really good astronaut connections) is the third planet from the sun.
Its name
comes from Old English and Germanic languages, the only planet not named from
Roman or Greek mythology!
Did you know:
 |
| Earth |
- Earth is actually the fifth largest planet
by diameter.
- The idea of the Earth orbiting the Sun was,
well, controversial. Originally philosophy held the opposite
idea; Copernicus changed that thinking around 1543, but it wasn't
until about 60 years later that Galileo helped confirm it (despite the
heresy it represented).
- The Earth actually isn't perfectly round.
It has a slight bulge around the Equator, making its diameter a bit longer
there.
Mars
The fourth planet, Mars, is named for the Roman God
of War.
It's also
known as the Red Planet, because its surface is, well, red.
 |
| Mars |
Did you know:
- The average temperature on Mars can
range from -133° C (-207° F) at the winter pole to almost 27° C (80° F) on the
day side during summer.
- The Martian year is nearly two Earth years,
but a day on Mars is only about half an hour longer than Earth's.
- Mars has two "satellites" or
moons, Phobos and Deimos.
- As the closest planet to Earth, Mars has
been visited by many probes, starting with Mariner 4 in 1967, the Mars Rovers
in 2004, and the Phoenix Lander in 2008.
- The Phoenix Lander discovered water in
2008, starting a new debate on whether life could survive there.
Jupiter
Next up is Jupiter, which is named for the king of the
Roman Gods because it is the largest planet in the known Solar System.
|
| Jupiter |
Did you know:
- Jupiter
has a Red Spot that is bigger than the entire Earth. It's a sort of permanent
storm, which is actually shrinking.
- Although Saturn is more commonly known for
this feature, Jupiter also has rings that are made up of dust. They
extend to the top of Jupiter's clouds.
- It's the fastest rotating planet; Jupiter's
days last just under 10 hours, compared with Earth's 24.
- Jupiter has at least 60 moons, with more
discovered all the time.
Saturn
Saturn's name comes from the Roman god of agriculture.
Its most
iconic feature, its rings, are primarily made up of dust and ice particles.
 |
| Saturn |
Did you know:
- It appears as if Saturn's rings generate
and destroy "mini-moons" in a regular pattern.
- Saturn's moon, Titan, has conditions that
could, under the right circumstances, support life.
- Saturn has more than 60 moons of its
own.
- Saturn's year is nearly 30 Earth years
long, and its day is about 10 Earth hours in length.
Uranus
While Uranus' name ended up being chosen for the
Latin translation of the Greek God of the sky, it took a little while to get
there.
When Sir William Herschel discovered the planet in 1781,
he decided to name it Georgium Sidus in
honor of Britain's newly minted King George III.
Unsurprisingly,
this very British-centric name was not adopted.
Other
names like Hershel (for its discoverer) and Neptune (more on that later) were
discussed, but in 1850, the Greek connection was secured when Uranus was
adopted.
 |
| Uranus |
Did you know:
- Yes, the
primary pronunciation of Uranus is likely to make some folks giggle. Its
alternative, well, isn't really much better.
- One Uranus year is roughly equivalent to 87
Earth years. One Uranus day, however is about 17 Earth hours long.
- Uranus has a highly tilted orbit, giving
the appearance of "rolling" around the sun.
Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is now the farthest planet from the sun (sorry,
Pluto).
Like its
neighbor planet, Uranus, Neptune's naming history was a bit more complicated.
Urbain Le Verrier, claiming the right to name the planet,
since it was his calculation that lead to its discovery, offered the name
Neptune.
After
changing his mind because he wanted to name the planet after himself, he was
denied by the British.
Neptune, named
for the Roman God of the Sea, emerged as the winner.
 |
| Neptune |
Did you know:
- Neptune was discovered by Mathematics
before it was actually sighted by telescopes.
- Neptune has a Dark Spot, a storm much like
Jupiter's Red Spot. It was explored by Voyager 2 in 1989.
- A Neptune year is roughly equivalent to 165
Earth years.
Honorable Mention - Pluto
Long
considered a planet after its discovery in 1930, Pluto was stripped of its
planethood in 2006, and is now considered a "dwarf planet."
The name Pluto was chosen in March 1930 after an
11-year-old in Oxford, England suggested the name.
Pluto was the Roman God of the Underworld
(Pluto's conditions are particularly bleak), and the first two letters honor
Percival Lowell, who spent the last years of his life trying to discover it
unsuccessfully.
 |
| Pluto |
Did you know:
- Pluto was the most recent planet to be detected (1930).
- The debate of whether or not Pluto should be a planet
rages on to this day.
- Its orbit is so eccentric that it actually brings Pluto
inside the orbital path of Neptune.
RELATED POSTS:
CLICK HERE . . .
CLICK HERE . . .
CLICK HERE . . .
CLICK HERE . . .
CLICK HERE . . .
CLICK HERE . . .
..
 |
Multi-Media Filter, Highly-Activated Carbon Filter,
Zeolite-Process Water Softener With Brine Tank,
Fiberglass Ballast-Type Pressure Tank
(fully automatic backwash & regeneration)
|
PURICARE
Water
Treatment
Systems
.
.
...
Aganan, Pavia, Iloilo, Philippines
...
CLICK HERE . . . to view company profile . . .
CLICK HERE . . . to view company profile . . .
|
| Neptune |
No comments:
Post a Comment