The Solar System : A Summary
While early man fantasize over the milky way and its
various components, we can know for sure now that the earth is not the only body to circle
the sun. Other types of matter, some even microscopic will require an electron microscope
to see them. The Earth in its own, is merely the 3rd planet that revolved round the sun
and comes under the Sun's gravitational field. Other matter that can be found in the solar
system are comets, meteorites, satellites and more.
Sir Isaac Newton was the first scientist to discover
gravity and also calculated the acceleration of the moon towards the Earth. It was much
more lighter and accounts for the 'floating' action of astronauts in space.
Till the 18th century, people then understood that other
seven bodies existed. They were the sun, moon and other five planets that can be seen with
the unaided eye :Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In 1871, William Herschel next
discovered a new planet to be known later as Uranus. Subsequently, astronomer Johann
Gottfried Galle located the actual position of the new planet, neptune. Finally, in 1930
the planet Pluto was unravelled by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh.
All planets travel round the sun in circles that lie at
close proximity to one another. They travel in the same direction around the sun. Most of
them rotate on their own axes in the same west-to-west direction and most axes are nearly
perpendicular to the orbital plane of the planets themselves.
Further discoveries of the solar system are still being
made known today as we summarise the above for your interest...
