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About Planets

Solar Family:
Our solar system or Solat family consists of an average star we call the Sun(Ravi), the planets Mercury(Budha), Venus(Sukra), Earth(Bhoomi or Dharitri), Mars(Kuja or Angaraka), Jupiter(Guru), Saturn(Shani), Uranus(Indra), Neptune(Varuna), and Pluto(Yama). It includes: the satellites of the planets; numerous comets, asteroids, and meteoroids; and the interplanetary medium.

For  electromagnetic energy (mostly in the form of heat and light) , Sun is the riches source in the solar system.  The whole solar system, together with the local stars visible on a clear night, orbits the center of our home galaxy, a spiral disk of 200 billion stars we call the Milky Way. The Milky Way has two small galaxies orbiting it nearby, which are visible from the southern hemisphere. They are called the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The planets, most of the satellites of the planets and the asteroids revolve around the Sun in the same direction, in nearly circular orbits. When looking down from above the Sun's north pole, the planets orbit in a counter-clockwise direction. The planets orbit the Sun in or near the same plane, called the ecliptic. Pluto is a special case in that its orbit is the most highly inclined (18 degrees) and the most highly elliptical of all the planets. Because of this, for part of its orbit, Pluto is closer to the Sun than is Neptune. The axis of rotation for most of the planets is nearly perpendicular to the ecliptic. The exceptions are Uranus and Pluto, which are tipped on their sides.

Sun:
The Sun is the most prominent feature in our solar system, or we can say its King of all Grahas. It is the largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's disk, and its interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths. The Sun's outer visible layer is called the photosphere and has a temperature of 6,000°C (11,000°F). This layer has a mottled appearance due to the turbulent eruptions of energy at the surface.

Sun Statistics

Mass (kg)

1.989e+30

Mass (Earth = 1)

332,830

Equatorial radius (km)

695,000

Equatorial radius (Earth = 1)

108.97

Mean density (gm/cm^3)

1.410

Rotational period (days)

25-36*

Escape velocity (km/sec)

618.02

Luminosity (ergs/sec)

3.827e33

Magnitude (Vo)

-26.8

Mean surface temperature

6,000°C

Age (billion years)

4.5

Principal chemistry

Hydrogen
Helium
Oxygen
Carbon
Nitrogen
Neon
Iron
Silicon
Magnesium
Sulfur
All others


92.1%
7.8%
0.061%
0.030%
0.0084%
0.0076%
0.0037%
0.0031%
0.0024%
0.0015%
0.0015%



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