PLANETS

THE PLANET

Planets look like stars, but they do not have light of their own.

They merely reflect the sunlight that falls on them.

 Can you distinguish between planets and stars?

The simplest method of identifying planets from stars is that stars twinkle, whereas planets do not. Also the planets keep changing their positions with respect to the stars.

ORBIT OF A PLANET:

·       A planet has a definite path in which it revolves around the Sun. This path is called an orbit.

·       The time taken by a planet to complete one revolution is called its period of revolution.

·       The period of revolution increases as the distance of the planet increases from the sun.

HINDI NAMES OF THE PLANETS

·      Mercury is Budh (बुध)

·      Venus is Shukr (शुक्र)

·      Earth is Prithvi (पृथ्वी)

·      Mars is Mangal (मंगल)

·      Jupiter is Guru (गुरू) or Brihaspati (बृहस्पती) and

·      Saturn is Shani (शनि)

·      The names of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are simply translated as is from the Greek/Roman versions.

·      Uranus – God of sky – Arun अरुण (Don’t ask me how, Arun is the charioteer of the Sun, not the God of Sky. That would be Dyaus Pitr)

·      Neptune – God of the ocean – Varun वरुण

·      Pluto – God of death – Yam यम

SIZE OF THE EIGHT PLANETS:

According to NASA, here is the estimated radii of the eight planets in our solar system, in order of size.

·      Jupiter (69,911 km / 43,441 miles) – 1,120% the size of Earth

·      Saturn (58,232 km / 36,184 miles) – 945% the size of Earth

·      Uranus (25,362 km / 15,759 miles) – 400% the size of Earth

·      Neptune (24,622 km / 15,299 miles) – 388% the size of Earth

·      Earth (6,371 km / 3,959 miles) 

·      Venus (6,052 km / 3,761 miles) – 95% the size of Earth

·      Mars (3,390 km / 2,460 miles) – 53% the size of Earth

·      Mercury (2,440 km / 1,516 miles) – 38% the size of Earth

GRAVITY ON DIFFERENT PLANETS

To calculate the weight on any other planet, multiply the weight on desired planet’s by the following constant:

      ·      Mercury: 0.38

      ·      Venus: 0.91

      ·      Earth: 1.00

      ·      Mars: 0.38

      ·      Jupiter: 2.34

      ·      Saturn: 1.06

      ·      Uranus: 0.92

      ·      Neptune: 1.19

       ·      Pluto: 0.06

If you weigh 68 kg on Earth, you would weigh 159 kg on Jupiter, 26 kg on Mars and a mere 4 kg on the dwarf planet of Pluto.