Planets | AUSCC

Archive for the ‘planets’ tag

Some planets, called terrestrial planets, have a surface of solid rock. Others, called gas planets, have a surface of liquid or airy gas.

The solar system has nine planets including Pluto. But Pluto may be an escaped moon or an asteroid, not a planet. More interesting facts

Giant planets have now been detected orbiting stars other than the Sun. These are called extra-solar planets.

Extra-solar planets are too far away to see, but can be detected because they make their star wobble.

The Milky Way is the faint, hazy band of light that you can see stretching right across the night sky.

Looking through binoculars, you would see that the Milky Way is made up of countless stars.

Neptune is so far from the Sun that its orbit lasts 164.79 Earth years. Indeed, it has not yet completed one orbit since it was discovered in 1846.

The Milky Way is 100,000 light-years across and 1000 light-years thick. It is made up of 100 billion stars.

Written by admin

August 1st, 2008 at 5:50 am