The final day!

Today was the last day of the term and year. This is my 300th blog post over the three years 😃! Let's recap the awesome year what has happened over the year (till Term 4). It's because I hadn't posted a recap each holiday.

Term 1

In Science: Psychology - I had finished my badge.

In Cybersmart - Smart Learner

Reading

We hadn't done that much things in the first term. Below are some things that I've posted.

Me on the Scenic Railway
Not a good image because
I had taken it on one hand
while it going on

1. Blue Mountains

The post was about the trip to the Blue Mountains, Katoomba, Sydney. Here's the link to the post. I had been seen the Three Sisters (an unusual rock formation), been on the 'Scenic Railway' (a 52° railway that goes down, it is the steepest railway in the world) and went on the 'Cableway' and 'Skyway'. It was really fun.

2. The Olympics

2018 Commonwealth Games

I had posted two posts about the '2018 Commonwealth Games'. Here is the link to the post. The first post was about information about the 2018 Commonwealth Games. It included why it is held in the Gold Coast and other recommended cities. 

In my second post, it included the medal standing scoreboard. Well, Australia was first, with a lead of 72 medals. New Zealand was 6th place, with 32 medals. 

After the Commonwealth Games ended, I had made a post about the medal standings scoreboard (again) and I added in the best moments in the Commonwealth Games.

Term 2

In term 2, I had posted a lot. Most of them are from my Astronomy science badge. On the 23rd of May, I had been to the EPro 8 Challenge at Cobham Intermediate. In my team, there was Axle, Zayd, Lars and I. It was really fun, we were 6th place. We were just a few points away from 3rd place. Here is the link to the post.

For Philosophy, I had made a Powtoon about 'Why Don't we feel Earth Orbiting?'. Here is the link to the post if you want to see the video.

My most favourite moment of term 2 was making the Solar System. On the right, is an image of how it looked like. It looked really realistic and I'm really proud of it. Here is the link to the post if you want to know some facts/information.



Holidays after Term 2

I had gone on a trip to Rotorua, it was awesome and it was really fun. Here is the link to the posts. My most favourite moment was going to Wai-O-Tapu. So we went to Wellington by plane, then drove to Palmerston North and stayed there for a night. The next day, we drove to Taupo and had lunch there. After an hour later we reached Rotorua. By then, it was night time. We had reached the lodge. The third day was long, we had heaps of fun. So first we drove south (between Rotorua and Taupo) to Wai-O-Tapu (a geothermal area). First, we had been to the 10:15 AM, Lady Knox Geyser. It was really cool and we could feel the water (because of the wind blowing in our direction), by then the water had turned cold when it came to us. After the show, we went to Geothermal Park via the Visitor Centre. It was a 2.5km walk. One of the coolest parts was the Champagne Pool (not really champagne [just the name]). We had to cross a wooden boardwalk. As you can see the second image, you have to cross over a boardwalk. That time it was the winter season so the Champagne Pool was steamy and we couldn't even see anything.

Walk 2 was quite boring because there were only bushes and trees that we could see. As we go down the stairs, there were two directions to go. We had gone on the right side (starting from No.13) and we went till No.15. When we reached at the end of the Frying Pan Flat, it started drizzling. It was a good thing that we didn't go in the other direction. So we ran back, we went past the Champagne Pool, saw the Sulphur Cave and the Devil's Cave.

Below is the map of Wai-O-Tapu.

After Wai-O-Tapu, we drove past Rotorua, Tirau, Piarere, Cambridge, Kihikihi, Otorohanga, Hangatiki and arrived at Waitomo. I can remember some cool facts that the guide told us.

1. "Every time the water drops from the rock it creates the rock. Every thousand drop makes about the size of one cubic centimetre."
2. The host showed other rocks and said that that looks like a family with a mother, two kids, a dog and a tiny father. There was a big rock that looked like an elephant. The host also talking about the rock shaped Kiwi.
3. "Glowworms' food can be their family members."

We went to Hamilton for a short while and went to Rotorua. 

It was an amazing trip at Rotorua. Now, I'll talk to you about Term 3. 

Term 3

In Term 3 we had done Business and Enterprise. For cybersmart, we had done Smart Relationship.

Here's a small preview of our Business and Enterprise.

In my first post, I had included who was in my group, what we were deciding to make, writing the financial letter, making our logo/slogan, marketing plan, making our banners, listing our tasks and what we need to do on time. 

On the 22nd of August, we had gone to Cantamath 2018 competition at Horncastle Arena, after school. In the group, there were Axle, Zayd, Jeff and I. There were many schools competing in different years. Our school had about 3 teams competing, year 7s, 8s, 9s.

Also, there was another competition, it was the 'Great Christchurch Technology Challenge'. We took part in the Construction Challenge. We had to make a walking frame out of newspaper and sellotape. In the group, there were Axle, Lyan and I. After the walking frame was built in 1:30 hours, the judges had to put a wooden beam on top of the walking frame. Our walking frame could hold only one wooden beam. We got points by getting the perfect measurements right. We had come 3rd place. In the prizes, there were a VR and Bluetooth speakers. We could choose one, so I chose the Bluetooth speakers. It was really fun and I wish that I could do it again.

Holidays after Term 3

I had done my Geology badge, to finish it. Here's the link to the posts. I just had my science badge over the holidays.

Term 4

It was the final term of the year and I was so excited. I had started my Environmental Science Badge and finished it. In cybersmart, we had done Smart User. We had answered some questions from A Google A Day (Explorers, Amphibious vehicle), written a biography about Sir Peter Blake who was a famous sailor and done some Summer Learning Journey Preps (Activity 1, Activity 3).

We had passion projects and I chose Discovery. In Discovery, we had chosen to do food, trying to discover something and change it. If you want to see the posts, click here. It was really fun and we discovered cool things. I was in a group with Axle, Vann and Ranit. We had lots of fun trying and making new products/dishes. My favourite product was the Panna Cotta. It looked so good.

On the 27th November 2018, I had watched the landing of NASA's InSight Lander. Here is the link to see the posts. I had posted about the lander on that day. It included goals in the mission, an overview, images, a video of the landing, more other videos and why is InSight going to Mars. After a few posts later, I had posted another post about NASA's InSight Lander. It was mostly about the instruments that NASA's InSight lander has. A day later, I looked at the articles of InSight and I found out that InSight had recorded a clip of Mars' wind.

I hope you like my post about the review of this year. Be tuned to view my posts about NASA InSight, the Summer Learning Journey and I will be starting a new series, starting from today December, so be tuned. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

Parker Solar Probe

Today's post we are looking at a solar probe launched a few days ago, named Parker Solar Probe. Parker Solar Probe was launched on 12 August 2018. If you haven't seen my last post, It's Here!, check it out. My last and first probe was for the Voyagers, for my Astronomy badge, check it out if you haven't! First I'll talk about the launch of the solar probe. Let's go!

Launch

The liftoff of the spacecraft, Parker Solar Probe on the mission to the sun.
Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA's Parker Solar Probe was launched on Sunday 12 August 2018 from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force, Florida.
Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls 

As you know the launch was on 12 August 2018 at 6:31 AM ETC (7:31 AM UTC). The rocket was launched into the sky from John F. Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rocket was launched on Delta IV-Heavy with Upper Stage.

It has been 5 days, 14 Hours, 0 Minutes, 0 Seconds (On 17/8/18, At 5:31 PM)

There hasn't been enough information because the spacecraft had been launched a few days ago. So here is some information. First are some videos of the launch and information of the spacecraft.

This is a video of the launch of the Parker Solar Probe (video from NASA)

This is a timeline video of the Parker Solar Probe (video from SciNews)

This is NASA's video of the Parker Solar Probe in detail - NASA TV (video from SciNews)

This is a diagram showing the planned route of the Parker Solar Probe Mission
Credit: http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

Venus Flyby: 2 October, 2018 at 7:45 PM EDT (23:45 UTC)

7 Venus gravity assist flybys

After the three final orbits, Parker Solar Probe will fly around 6.2 million kilometres of the Sun's surface. The space probe will be more than seven times closer than the current record holder, Helios 2 spacecraft, which came 43 million kilometres in 1976.
Credit: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/

This is a timeline of the Solar Wind and Corona Timeline
Credit: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/

References:

http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu - Parker Solar Probe Website
https://www.nasa.gov/ - NASA's website
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/ - Jet Propulsion Laboratory Infographics
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpGTA7wMEDFhjou2ZaH6sRCOGUpW9UVAD - Youtube - SciNews (playlist of the videos of the Parker Solar Probe) [SciNews might publish more videos]


I hope that you like my post. Hope you learnt something new. I'll try to post another post of the spacecraft if there is more information. Comment down below what I need to go next. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

Wow! Our Solar System

For this post, we are looking at our solar system. Not just the solar system we also made a model of the solar system, with polystyrene. It took some periods, but it was awesome. It was fun. First, I got some polystyrene balls and coloured them. Next, I let them dry and added skewers and placed them on the polystyrene box. Later I attached the rings to Saturn. When I completed my model it looked outstanding. In this post, we will tell you why do outer planets or gas planets have rings. Comment down what you've learnt. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

The Solar System
Finished Product

Me painting Uranus

Me painting Mars

Me with the Solar System

What are the sizes of the Planets

The planets go from smallest to largest in diameter.

• Mercury - 4,879.4 km
• Mars - 6,787 km
• Venus - 12,104 km
• Earth - 12,756 km
• Neptune - 49,528 km
• Uranus - 51,118 km
• Saturn - 120,600 km
• Jupiter - 142,800 km

Rings

Why do gas planets have rings?

Well the outer planets are of course far away from the sun where they have more debris, (means something wrecked or destroyed) left over when they were formed, so they turned into rings or moons.

Why don't inner planets have rings?

The inner planets are too close to the sun and have more sunlight, the sunlight sublimes the ice (makes solid into gas), which makes the solar wind sweeps the dust away.

What I've learnt?

• The outer planets have rings because they have more debris.
• The inner planets don't have rings because the planets are too close and the solar wind sweeps the dust away.
• Mars is the second smallest planet
• Neptune is smaller than Uranus by 2,000 km.
• Saturn is x2 the size than Uranus - Uranus, 51,118 km - Saturn, 120,600 km
• Jupiter is nearly x3 the than Uranus - Uranus, 51,118 km - Jupiter - 142,800 km

Our Satellite

For today's post we are looking at our Moon. In this post there will be information about the moon, the phases of our moon. Comment down what you've learnt. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

Our moon is the satellite of our Earth. Our Moon is the brightest and largest object in the night sky. The Moon was named as the "Moon" because there wasn't any other moon discovered, that time. In 1610, Galileo Galilei discovered four moons or Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter. In Latin, our Moon was called Luna, which is our Moon-related: lunar.

Size and Distance

The size and distance of our Moon, with a radius of, 1,737.5 kilometres. Our Moon is less than a third of Earth. Did you know that the moon is far away than most people think, the moon is an average 384,400 km away from Earth. That means that there would be 30 Earth-sized planets between the Earth and the moon. If the Earth was a size of a nickel than the moon would be the size of a coffee bean. The moon is getting about 2.54 centimetres away from Earth every year.

How did the moon form?

The theory of the moon being formed is when a Mars-sized body crashed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago.

The moon's core is smaller than other inner planets. The hard, iron-rich inner core is 240 km in radius.

Structure 

The surrounded liquid iron shell, 90 km thick. A partly molten layer with a thickness of 150 km, surrounds the iron core. The mantle expands from the top of the partly molten layer to the bottom of the moon's crust. It is more likely made of minerals like, olivine and pyroxene, which are made up of magnesium, iron, silicon with oxygen atoms.

Atmosphere

The moon's atmosphere is very thin and weak, called an exosphere. The atmosphere doesn't provide any protection from the sun's radiation or the impacts of meteoroids.

Missions

Left: Neil Armstrong
Center: Michael Collins
Right: Buzz Aldrin
Credits: wikipedia.com

Luna 1 spacecraft
Credits: wikipedia.com

The first seven missions were unsuccessful, there were four Pioneer spacecrafts, that had failed. But Luna 1, was the first moon flyby.

Luna 1 launched on January 2, 1959. The next Luna spacecraft, Luna 2 was fully successful. Luna 2 was the first spacecraft to impact the moon's surface. On September 14, 1959, Luna 2 reached to the moon by crashing the moon. Luna 3, had a flyby, it was successful, Luna 3 took the first pictures of the lunar farside. Most of the Luna spacecrafts had succeeded, but some had been unsuccessful. Luna 9 was the first lunar soft landing and the first picture from the lunar surface.

Surveyor 1 was the first U.S. moon landing and first U.S. photo from the lunar surface.

Apollo 8 was successful and was the first humans to orbit the moon. Apollo 11 was a famous knowing spacecraft because Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to land on the moon. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the only two to step on the moon.

What I've learnt?

• In Latin, the moon means lunar.
• Our moon is less than a third of our Earth.
• 30 Earth-sized planets could fit between the Earth and the moon.
• The moon is getting 2.54 centimetres away from Earth every year.
• Our moon formed 4.5 billion years ago.
• In our Moon, there are elements like olivine, pyroxene, magnesium, iron, silicon, and oxygen atoms.
• The atmosphere is very thin and weak, that is called an exosphere.
• The first seven moon missions had failed. Luna 1 was the first layby spacecraft to reach the moon. Luna 2 had reached the moon's surface. 

The Differences?

For today's post, we are looking at the differences between, comets, meteors, asteroids and meteorites. Our activity was to 'make a poster which explains the difference between comets, meteors, asteroids and meteorites'. In the slideshow, there are the posters that I had made. There is a lot of things to learn. In the end, there is what I have learnt about. Comment down below what you have learnt new about. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

What I have learnt?

• There are billions of comets orbiting the sun in the Kuiper Belt and even more in the Oort Belt.
• There are 3,520 known comets. I thought that there were less than 3,520 comets.
• Some comets are called sungrazers, they get so close that they crash to the sun or they brake up.
• There is a crater in Arizona, the Barringer Meteorite Crater that is 1 kilometre long.
• There are more than 50,000 meteorites have been found on Earth.
• 99.8 percent have been from asteroids, but the 0.2 percent of meteorites are from Mars and the moon.
• They are leftover rock from the early formation of the solar system.
• There are more than 150 asteroids are known to have a small partner moon.

Eclipses!

For today's post, we are looking at Eclipses. We are focusing on the two eclipses, Lunar Eclipse and Solar Eclipse. Well, there was a Solar Eclipse last year in America on 21 August 2017. I had posted a post about the Solar Eclipse. It was known as 'The Great American Eclipse". If you haven't seen the last post about the Car in Space, click here. In this post, I have learnt something new too. I learnt that there are four types of Solar Eclipses. If you have learnt something new comment down below. I hope you like my post about Eclipses. Have a cool day!! Bye!!

Planets of our Solar System

For the 3 weeks we are doing a information report on the topic that we like. I chose the Planets of our Solar System. Here is my information report. This may be a really long report but it has heaps of information about our solar system. I hope you like my information report. Have a cool 😎 day!! Bye!!

Planets of our Solar System

Hello, my name is Khush and I will tell you about the Solar System. Do you know anything about the solar system? I am going to tell you tell you some facts and information that you may or may not know. So listen carefully and come to my space journey.

Let’s discover the history of our solar system. It all started 4.5 billion years ago when a cloud of interstellar gas and dust collapsed resulting in a solar nebula, a swirling disk of material that collided to form the solar system. So that was how the solar system was created or formed. It has 8 planets. Do you know where is the solar system? It is located in the Milky Way’s Orion Star Cluster. Did you know that only 15% of stars in the galaxy host planetary systems, one of those star is our star named the Sun.

Talking of the Sun let’s know some facts about the sun. The sun is our star in our solar system. The sun has been for the last 4.5 billion years ago. It is known that the sun’s temperature is estimated about 15 million celsius. The sun is about 93 million miles away from earth. Do you know how many earth’s can fit the sun? It can fit about more than a 100 earth’s in the sun! How cool! Let’s talk about the categories of our solar system. We have 2 categories in our solar system. One is terrestrial planets. They are the first 4 planets in our solar system. Second, Jovian Planets, they are the last 4 planets in our solar system. 2 of them are gas giants and the other 2 are ice giants, we will talk about them at the end of our report. Jovian Planets have rings. I have one question to you. Have you heard about the smallest planet on this solar system?

Yes, you might guess it. It is Mercury, the smallest and first planet to the sun. Mercury is fast, it takes 88 earth days a year for Mercury. But a day in Mercury is about 59 earth days. It travels 50 km per second. The surface of Mercury is similar than Earth’s Moon. The first spacecraft to Mercury was Mariner 10, it was launched at November 3, 1973. It had it imaged 45% of the surface. Mercury has no moons. Did you know how Mercury got it’s name? In ancient Roman gods, Mercury is the messenger of the gods.  I forgot to say one more fact about Mercury. It’s temperature. Mercury’s temperature while facing the sun reaches about 430 celsius (800 fahrenheit), that’s hot! So what happens at nighttime? The temperature drops down to -180 degrees celsius (-290 degrees fahrenheit), I would not like to live in Mercury! Do you know what is the hottest planet in our solar system?

I think you might know it. It’s Venus. The hottest and 2nd planet from the sun. Venus spins the opposite direction to some of the planets. Venus is hot enough to melt Lead. Venus is named after Love and Beauty in ancient Roman gods. As Mercury, Venus has no moon. In 650 BCE, Mayan astronomers had detailed, watching Venus. In 1962, NASA sended Mariner 2 to Venus and releases Venus extraordinary surface  temperature. It was the first spacecraft to send back information from a different planet.

A day in Venus is 243 Earth days. So what about the year in Venus, Venus is fast so the year is 225 earth days. Now the extreme temperature of Venus, lets see the graphics. The surface temperature is about 471°C (880°F). The average temperature of Venus is about 864°F (462°C) and Earth’s average temperature is 57°F, that’s about 14°C! Gravity on Venus is 91% as strong as Earth’s gravity. Venus’s atmosphere is mostly Carbon Dioxide (CO2) , with clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. Venus also has mountains, valleys and hundreds of thousands of volcanoes. The highest mountain is named Maxwell Montes, it is 20,000 feet high, it is similar to Mount Everest in Nepal.

No man has been to Venus, but there has been some spacecrafts that had been to Venus’s surface, the spacecraft didn’t last long in Venus. All of the heat in Venus has overheated the electronics in the spacecraft in a really short time. So it means that it is really hard to live on Venus. Venus has a lot of Electric Field Strength, Venus has 10 volts, Earth has <2 (less than 2) volts. Sometimes Venus and Earth are called twins because of their similar sizes and similar mass (weight). Now let’s go to our own planet.

Earth, our own planet. Earth is the 3rd and the 5th largest planet in the solar system. Earth is the only living planet in the solar system. As talking about Venus’ and Earth’s size, Earth is slightly larger than Venus. Let’s talk about Earth’s rotation. A day for Earth is about 23.9 hours, so what about a year, we know what a year is 365 days in a year, but it is really 365.25 days in a year, it adds one quarter in the calendar because every 4 years we have a leap year.

As Venus, Earth has volcanoes, mountains and valleys. Earth’s crust (continental and oceanic), is divided into huge plates that are continuously moving. Example: the North American plate moves west to the Pacific Plate. The water covers up 70% of Earth’s surface. Most of Earth’s mountains are under Earth’s surface. In Hawaii, Mauna Kea is volcano is taller than the summit of Mount Everest.

The longest range of mountains is in South America named, the Andes. The length is 7,000 km long. The Andes goes through, Perú, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Bolivia. The highest point in the Andes is Aconcagua, it’s height is 6,962m high. Aconcagua is the highest mountain out of Asia.

The atmosphere of the Earth. Earth has 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% of other gases (argon, carbon dioxide, and neon).

Earth is the only planet with 1 moon. Our moon is the brightest and familiar object in the night sky. Do you know how the moon was made? When Earth was young, a huge chunk of rock smashed into Earth which made the Moon. The moon is the 5th largest moon in our Solar System (after Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Io). The moon is far away than we seem. The Moon is estimated about 384,400 km away from Earth. That equals 30 Earth’s that could fit between Earth and the Moon. Let’s see the Red Planet.

The Red Planet, Mars. It is really hard to see Mars’ surface from Earth. Mars is really likely to find more life, and water might exist in polar caps. Mars is the last planet in the terrestrial planets. Mariner 4 is the first spacecraft to Mars. Mars is a rocky planet like the other terrestrial planets. The comparison. Let’s see the distance of Earth and Mars from the sun. Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun, Mars is 142 million miles away from the sun. Now the deepest canyon. Earth’s deepest canyon is Grand Canyon that has 1.1 miles deep. Valles Marinis is 4.35 miles deep. A day in Mars is 24 hours and 37 minute. A year in Mars is 687 Earth days. The highest mountain on Mars is Olympus Mons, which is the highest mountain. Earth’s mountain Mauna Kea is estimated about 6.34 miles high and Mars’ Olympus Mons is estimated about 16 miles high. Mariner 9 was the discovery of Olympus Mons. The largest crater in Mars is named Hellas Crater, it is 1,400 miles deep. Mars has 2 moons, Phobos and Deimos. Mars’ atmosphere is 96% Carbon Dioxide. Mars’ volume: 6 Mars’ could fit Earth. If your weight is 100 pounds (45.3kg) on Earth, on Mars your weight is about 38 pounds (17.2kg)! Mars is 1/10 of the mass of Earth. The average speed of Mars orbiting the sun is about 14.5 miles per second. Did you know that Mars is more tilted than Earth. Now that’s a lot of Mars, do you want to know about the largest planet in our solar system? So check this out.

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system and the first planet of the Jovian Planets. Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth. If Earth was a size as a nickel, than Jupiter would be a size of a basketball. Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to cross the asteroid belt and pass Jupiter. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth than you would weigh 253 pounds (114.7 kg) on Jupiter (you would get more fatter in Jupiter). As knowing the days and the years of each planet in the solar system, Jupiter has the shortest day in the solar system. A day is only 9.9 hours. Would you think that a year is also short? But no, a year is 4,333 Earth days (12 Earth years)! Jupiter’s atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, Great Red Spot had been created and a giant storm larger than Earth had been going on for hundreds of years. Jupiter has 53 conformed moons, there are 16 provisional moons. So there were about 69 known moons in Jupiter. Talking about the moons in Jupiter, I’ll tell you about the largest moons of Jupiter.

The largest, Ganymede. The largest moon of Jupiter and the solar system. Ganymede is larger than Mercury and Pluto, but it is slightly smaller than Mars. Ganymede would be a planet if it would orbit the sun. The 4 largest moons of Jupiter are, Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto, that were discovered by Galileo Galilei. Jupiter means the king of ancient Roman gods. Jupiter is tilted 3 degrees. That means that Jupiter has no seasons. Scientists says that diamonds rain on Jupiter!

Do you think that Jupiter has rings? If your answer is no, you are wrong. Jupiter’s rings were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1. In Jupiter’s ring system it has 3 main components, the first outer ring is called, Gossamer Rings, second Main Ring and third Halo. Let’s see the next planet after Jupiter.

Saturn. The second largest and second planet in the Jovian Planets. Saturn’s rings are made of chunks of ice and rock. Like Jupiter, Saturn is made of hydrogen and helium. It is confirmed that Saturn has 53 moons, but there are still 9 provisional moons. The moons like Enceladus, Europa, and Titan has many secrets. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon of Saturn. Titan is a bit bigger than Mercury. Titan is the 2nd largest moon after Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon.

Saturn rotates the same direction as Earth. Saturn is far but it is fast, it spins around the sun in 10.7 hours. Saturn’s axis is tilted 26.73 degrees, which is similar to Earth’s axis, 23.5 degrees. It takes about 29 Earth years or 10,756 Earth days to orbit the sun. Saturn doesn’t have a right surface. The planet is mainly gases and liquids. A spacecraft wouldn’t land on the surface of Saturn. The temperatures and pressures of Saturn would crush and melt the spacecraft, trying to fly around the planet. Saturn is 95 the mass of Earth. Saturn is 764 the volume of Earth. The wind of Saturn is about 1,100 mph (1,750 kph). Saturn’s temperature is about -178 degrees celsius (-288 degrees fahrenheit). Saturn is 1.4 billion kilometres away from the sun (886 million miles).

Saturn’s spacecraft ‘Cassini’ has been traveling for 20 years. Cassini has taken 22 orbits around Saturn. Let’s talk about the rings of Saturn.

Saturn’s rings are believed of pieces of asteroids, comets and broken tiny moon pieces. They are made of billions of small blocks of ice and rock. Some small pieces are as big as a house. Also some of the pieces are are large as a mountain! The rings would look mostly while from Saturn’s cloud tops.

The rings are named alphabetically in order of their discovery. The main rings of Saturn are know as C, B and A. The Cassini Division is is the largest gap between ring B and Ring A. Did you know that there are more rings than A, B, and C.

Scientists have discovered the D, E, F, and G rings. The D ring is the closest ring to Saturn. It is really difficult to see the D ring. No one has seen the D ring from Earth, but it is seen from Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s. This is something weird but the E ring is the farthest ring from Saturn. From the view of the rings the E ring is much wider than the other rings. That’s a lot of talking about Saturn, now the next planet.

Uranus. Uranus is the 7th planet from the sun. Also Uranus is the 3rd largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus is cold and windy. Uranus is a ice giant. Uranus was found from a aid telescope, it was the first planet to be seen from a aid telescope. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. Before Uranus was discovered he thought that it was comet or a star. But after two years Uranus was officially a new planet. William Herschel tried to make a name for the new planet. But he couldn’t make one. After a few time he named the new planet, Uranus, meaning the Greek god of the sky. Uranus has 27 small moons orbiting Uranus. With size and diameter, Uranus is 4 times wider than Earth. Imagine if Earth was a size of a nickel, Uranus would be a size of a softball. The average distance of Uranus is about 2.9 billion kilometres (1.8 billion miles). One day in Uranus is 17 hours and 14 minutes. But a year is much longer, it is about 84 Earth years! That equals 31,025 days! Uranus is the other planet where it rotates the other direction, Venus and Uranus rotate the opposite direction to other planets. Most 80 percent of Uranus is made up of icy materials which includes, water, methane and ammonia. How about the core of Uranus? It is so hot that it reaches about to 4,982 degrees celsius or 9,000 degrees fahrenheit. Do you know how Uranus’ colour is blue-green? Methane gas in the atmosphere makes the colour blue-green. Uranus’ atmosphere is mainly helium and hydrogen. also it has some amount of methane, some parts of water and ammonia. The methane gives Uranus the blue colour. When Voyager 2 was flying by Uranus it saw a Great Dark Spot while passing by also it saw a small Dark Spot in 1986. Uranus’ minimum surface temperature is about -224.2 degrees celsius (49 Kelvin), it is quite colder than Neptune’s temperature. The wind of Uranus reaches about 560 miles per hour, that means 900 kilometers per hour. Uranus is not a good place for humans to live on. Now the rings of Uranus. Did you know that Uranus’ rings are wied? If you don’t know check this out. All of the Jovian Planets have west to east sides of rings, but Uranus is the only planet with north to south side rings. It is quite weird, right. The inner rings are mostly dark gray rings. Uranus has 2 outer rings, the most inner ring is dusty and reddish. The outer ring is blue like Saturn’s E ring. Let’s tell you the most weirdest things about Uranus. Do you know why Uranus’ rings is facing north to south? It is not the rings fault, but Uranus’ axis is tilted 98° degrees. That’s how the rings are facing north to south. When Voyager 2 was flying around Uranus in 1986, it released that Uranus’ magnetic field was also tilted, by 60 degrees! But Earth’s magnetic field was closely lining up to it’s axis. So Earth’s protective magnetic shield stables. Actually that is not for Uranus. Uranus’ magnetic field always moves around. This doesn’t happen to any other planet in the solar system. From Uranus’ magnetic tilt makes the magnetic shield unstable. Now let’s talk about the 8th planet and last planet in the solar system.

Neptune. Neptune is the last planet in our solar system. From the mathematical calculations, the astronomers discovered Neptune the 8th planet in 1846. Also on the same year Neptune’s largest moon, Triton was discovered as well. In 1984 astronomers were trying to find if Neptune’s rings exist or not. In 1989 Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to visit Neptune, it flew 4,800 km above Neptune’s north pole. In 2011, Neptune passes the sun at its 165 year orbit from Neptune’s discovery in 1846. Neptune is about 4.5 billion miles away from the sun. Like Uranus, Neptune’s magnetic field is tilted, but it is just by 47 degrees. The magnetic field of Neptune is 27 times powerful than Earth. Neptune’s wind is 3 times stronger than Jupiter and 9 times stronger than Earth. Neptune has 6 known rings. Neptune has 13 known moons, 6 of the moons were discovered by Voyager 2. A new 14th moon was discovered in 2013. Triton, Neptune’s largest moon orbits the opposite directions to other moons of Neptune. Triton is extremely cold than other moons, on it’s surface goes down to -235 degrees Celsius (-391 degrees fahrenheit). Now let’s see how Neptune got it’s name. Neptune was named after the Roman god of the sea. Did you though that was less information about Neptune. But Neptune has less information, but later in the future there will be heaps of information about Neptune. There are the facts and information of the planets of the solar system. Now let’s see the famous dwarf planet, Pluto.

Pluto. Before Pluto was named as a planet (the 9th planet). But in 2006 scientists declared that Pluto will be a dwarf planet. Pluto’s diameter is about ⅔ of Earth’s moon. But Pluto’s mass is about ⅙ of Earth’s moon. Pluto is 49.3 astronomical units away from the sun. One astronomical unit is the distance from Earth to the sun. From 1979 to 1999 Pluto was much closer to Neptune. In 1989, Pluto was 29.8 astronomical units away from the sun. Pluto’s largest moon, Charon is ½ the size of Pluto, that was discovered in 1978. Charon takes 6.4 Earth days to take a orbit of Pluto. Pluto’s orbit takes about 249 Earth years. Let’s wrap up the information report.