Planet Mission Astronomy Essay Example For Students

Planet Mission Astronomy Essay Astronomy is not just about the stars. Astronomy is about the constellations, the nine planets, the sun and the moons. The solar system is very complex and has many extraordinary objects. There are four different types of stars: Protostars, Bright Stars, Red Giants, and White Dwarfs. Protostars are stars that are on the verge of being born. They are glowing clouds of dust and gas. Gravity pulls on every atom moving them towards the center of the cloud of dust, which causes the Protostar to collapse. Over a period of twenty million years the star begins to form and 10 million years after the pocket of gas was formed, a star is born. The second types of stars are called Bright Stars. They are formed when the new star has completed about 35 million years of its life cycle. A stars life cycle is a lot like a humans life cycle, except a stars years are in millions. When a star is about 10 million years old it is in the same stage on average as a regular human that is about twenty years ol d. The birth and death rate of stars is called Stellar Evolution. A Bright Star is made when nuclear fusion doubles the size of the star. The third types of stars are called Red Giants. They are made because the outward flow of the stars core energy stops. Gravity then steps in and squeezes the star to make it decrease in size. The core of the stars heat increases and it starts releasing small amounts of energy, the energy holds a large amount of hydrogen gas. The star then begins to grow larger, but it does not get brighter. As a result of the sudden and fast temperature drop, the stars color changes from blue-white to a red color. Most Red Giant stars have been found in groups called Globular Clusters. Globular Clusters are groups of up to one million stars that move through space. The fourth type of stars are called White Dwarfs. When a White Dwarf is made the star begins cooling off. As a result of cooling, the outer gas layer spreads out. The stars temperature drops and makes t he gas layer spread out even more. Eventually, the outer layer spreads out so far that the gas layer separates from the star. Then, a Planetary Nebula (cloud of glowing atoms), moves in all directions. The stars core isnt giving out any more energy and is to the point of collapsing slowly. All of the matter that the star had in the beginning is still there, but it is compressed more tightly. Because it is packed so tightly the star is now as big as planet Earth. The star is still very hot. Because it is so hot it gives off a glowing white light. This star is called a White Dwarf because of its color. Out of the twenty stars that are closest to the Earth, two are White Dwarfs. The next big thing about the solar system is the Planets. The nine planets play a big part in our solar system. Astronomers have been studying them for a long time but there are still many things to learn about them. The nine planets are Earth, Jupiter, Uranus, Pluto, Saturn, Neptune, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. Mercury is also known as the planet of Hot days and Cold nights and it is the closest planet to the sun. It has the shortest year out of all the other planets, which is 88 days long and is half the size of Earth. Mercury orbits the sun at an average distance of 36 million miles. Daytime temperatures of Mercury can reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. At night they can get down as low as -279 degrees Fahrenheit. Venus, also known as Cauldron, has a yearlong period of 243 Earth days. It is the second planet away from the sun and can reach oven-like temperatures up to 475 degrees Fahrenheit, even at night. Venus is a very bright planet, totally surrounded by clouds. It is the sunli ght reflected off these clouds that makes the planet so bright (Ridpath 24). This planet is very unique compared to the other planets because scientists discovered that Venus actually rotates backwards also. Chemistry: Water Pollution Phosphates In Water Pollution Phosphates Ma EssayThe Constellations are another great feature of our solar system. Constellations are names for groups of stars that appear to form shapes in the sky. (Miller, 1) There are about 2000 stars visible to the naked eye on a clear night and there are now 88 known constellations covering the whole sky. They were given their names many hundreds of years ago to help stargazers and astrologists to remember which stars were which. Astrologers use constellations to divide the sky up. Finding one constellation can help them find another because they move so slowly that they will always be found in about the same place. The earliest efforts of organizing the stars into constellations date back 6000 years ago. Many civilizations depended on the stars for direction and they became a large part of many cultures lives. The ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Hebrews were the first to form the constellations in the sky. Behind every constellation there is a story or tale of some sort. The most famous constellation in called the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper is made up of a group of seven stars. Three stars form a handle and the other four form a bowl. The Big Dipper is actually not a constellation itself, but part of one called Ursa Major, or Great Bear. The Little Dipper is a smaller version of the Big Dipper which is part of the constellation Ursa Minor or Little Bear. Another famous constellation is Orion. Orion was an ancient Greek hunter and warrior. The constellation Orion shows him caring a club shield, and a sword dangling from his belt. Orion has more Bright Stars the any other constellations. The two brightest stars in it are Betelgeuse and Rigel. Betelgeuse is Orions shoulder and Rigel is his foot. Cassiopeia is another well-known constellation. Cassiopeia is a group of stars, the brightest which form a large W in the northern sky. (Miller, 10). Cassiopeia is found next to the Big Dipper and Orion. Its shape is an exact M or W, formed with the five bright stars. The mythic Cassiopeia was an Ethiopian Queen. (Miller 10). Constellations are probably the most interesting thing in the solar system. Most people look at them as an exciting look at the mythological part of our solar system, and others think that they are just another interesting part of the night sky. The Universe is something no one can explain. Our Galaxy is one of the countless galaxies dotted throughout the Universe, like islands in a big ocean. Many objects in the Solar System have yet to be discovered and may never be, but it will always be there and may never change for generations to come.