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As the dwarf planet of Pluto is left behind, we are already within the next region of the Solar System; the Kuiper Belt. It begins just outside the orbit of Neptune and encompasses the orbit of Pluto. The Kuiper Belt is a flat disc consisting of rocks and ice boulders of many sizes. They varyContinue reading “Kuiper Belt & Oort Cloud – the Edge of the Solar System”

As stated in an earlier article, Pluto has been relegated to the status of a dwarf planet. But many people still think of it as an object of importance which deserves its own section. I tend to agree with them so I have included it as part of this series of blog articles.     HavingContinue reading “Pluto – The Planet that Isn’t”

The next object we find in this series as we move out far beyond Uranus is the planet Neptune. Since 2006 when Pluto lost its status as a fully-fledged planet, Neptune assumed the role of the last planet in our Solar System. It is also the last of the gas giants and measures 30,760 milesContinue reading “Neptune – the Final Outpost?”

In this article we journey further out into the Solar System and we are leaving our Sun far, far behind. The heat and light received from it is now very weak. This makes the temperature of the cloud layer we observe as we approach the next planet an extremely cold minus 214º Celsius. We haveContinue reading “The Blue Planet – But not Earth”

Saturn is the one planet almost everyone will recognise. And what is it that makes it stand out? It is its ring system orbiting the planet. But before we talk about the rings, let’s first discuss the planet itself. Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system and it is over 886 millionContinue reading “Saturn – a Rare Beauty in the Solar System”

Everything about Jupiter is big, very big. It is the first of the gas giants and next to the Sun, it is the largest object in the solar system with a diameter of just under 88,850 miles. If you were to lump all the other planets together, Jupiter would still be over 2.5 times biggerContinue reading “Jupiter – The King of Planets”

Between Mars and Jupiter is a region of space we call the Asteroid Belt. It consists of millions of rocks of all sizes, from the microscopic to the very large. And like the planets, they orbit the Sun. But what is an asteroid?     Quite simply, it is a lump of rock floating in space.Continue reading “Asteroid Belt – Mass Extinction or Not?”

The second planet out from the Sun is Venus. And Venus is bright, very bright. In the night sky it is second only to the Moon. And because it is closer to the Sun than the Earth, it always appears in the same region of space as the Sun. In practice, this means it isContinue reading “Venus – the Warning of Doom”

If we move outwards away from the Earth we will eventually encounter a planet which has been the focus of interest, mystery and on occasion, fear. It is Mars, the Red Planet. Named after the Roman god of war, Mars justly earns its descriptive title of red planet. If you look at it with theContinue reading “Mars – the Planet of Mystery and Fear”

With the news that Space-X has been given the contract to build the new lunar landing vehicle for NASA, the intention of returning both male and female astronauts back to the Moon in 2024, looks even more likely. Therefore, it may be a good time to take a closer look at our nearest astronomical neighbour.Continue reading “Secrets of the Moon”