Planetary System

Planetary System
1) What are classical planets?

Ans. Our ancestors understood that the stars are fixed but only these seven
distinct heavenly bodies are in continuous motion and called them Planets.
2) Which is the first planet to be discovered using telescope?
Ans. Uranus
3) Who discovered planet Uranus?
Ans. Sir Frederick William Herschel
4) Name the three discoverers of Neptune?
Ans. John Couch Adams, Urban lee Verrier and Johan Galle
5) What do you mean by terrestrial planets?
Ans. The Latin word 'Terra' means earth or land. In short Terrestrial planets are
those which have 'land' on them or are 'earth-like'.
6) What are the prominent features of Gas giants?
Ans. They are all made up gas and have no hard surface for any spacecraft to
land on.
7) What is the full form of TNO?
Ans. Trans-Neptunian objects
8) Why is Venus the hottest planet?
Ans. Venus has the thickest atmosphere causing the highest Global warming
making it the hottest planet.
9) Which planet has density less than water?
Ans. Saturn
10) Why there are seven days in a week
Ans. Our ancestors understood that the stars are fixed but only seven distinct
heavenly bodies are in continuous motion, and called them Planets.
Answer in 3to 4 sentences
1) Write a short note on discovery of Pluto?
Ans. slight variations in the movement of Neptune prompted Astronomers to
presume that there was another planet behind it which was gravitationally
affecting its movement and tugging at it. Many astronomers began a
systematic hunt for this planet “X”. Finally Clyde Tombaugh discovered it
in February 1930 from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, USA.
2) What are the main characteristics of terrestrial planets?
Ans. They are made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface and have surface
Features such as valleys, volcanoes, and craters and they all have a molten
heavy-metal core. A prominent feature of all these is that they have very few
Moons orbiting them, Mercury and Venus having none, Earth has one and
Mars has two Moons.
3) Explain characteristics of Gas giants?
Ans. Gas giants have a rocky core with a presence of metal alloys and the majority
of its mass is in the form of the gases like hydrogen and helium, with traces
of water, methane, ammonia, and other hydrogen compounds. All these
planets are the bigger, faster moving and colder planets of our system. A
prominent feature of all the gas giants is that they have a huge number of
solid Moons and massive ring systems composed of dust and icy rocks
encircling them near their centres.
4) Write a short note on TNOs?
Ans. After 2006, a new group of planets has come to prominence and this group
is called The Trans-Neptunian objects, Dwarf planets or simply TNOs. Any
minor planet of the solar system that orbits the sun at a greater average
distance than Neptune meaning, one that is located beyond Neptune , falls
in this group. There are estimated to be perhaps 70,000 TNOs, each at least
100 km across or smaller, lying between 30 to 50 astronomical units from
the Sun, many having their own moons orbiting them.
5) Why is the Earth only planet in the solar system known to host life?
Ans. Earth is the only known place in the universe to have Life. This is made
possible by the exact distance of 150 million kms from the Sun allowing
water to exist in liquid state on the planet and this was what gave rise to life
and sustained it.
6) Why it is said that Saturn could float on water?
Ans. The gas inside Saturn is so loosely spread that this planet is even less dense
than water. If at all there were an ocean of water large enough to hold
Saturn, the planet would literally float on it.
7) Why is that one hemisphere of Uranus receives continuous day light and
other remains in darkness for 42 years?
Ans. The axis of rotation of Uranus is parallel with the plane of the Solar System,
with a tilt of 97.77°. Meaning, Uranus is almost like a fallen down planet
rolling around on its stomach! This causes the strangest effect of one pole
in darkness for 42 years, then in sunlight for the next 42 years causing
weird seasons.
Fill in the blanks

1) Uranus is named after Greek God of Sky
2) Neptune was discovered in the year 1846.
3) Pluto is named after roman god of dead and the underworld.
4) Ring of Gas giants are made up of dust and icy rocks.
5) The largest known trans Neptunian objects are Pluto and Eris
6) Mercury is the planet with least axial tilt.
7) The Greenhouse effect was first discovered on Venus.
8) Mars is the most explored planet.
9) According to some theories Jupiter is considered as failed star.
10) Neptune is named after God of oceans.

Planetary System

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Planetary System

1) What are classical planets?

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