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10: The James Webb Space Telescope

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  The James Webb Space Telescope                                                                 Photo Credit: Wikipedia Humans have learnt about the solar system and now we are planning to go beyond. To learn about the space beyond our solar system we use space telescopes. Space telescopes do the work of a telescope but these telescopes are placed not on earth’s land but in space itself. Due to their placement in space they give better results and information than other usual telescopes. The James Webb space telescope (JWST) is the most powerful and the costliest telescope ever built. It was made with the joint efforts of National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA), European Space Agency (ESA) and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). It was sent into space on 25 December 2021 to explore exoplanets. Exoplanets are planets beyond our solar system which orbit another star. In terms of size, JWST is about the size of a football field, and is thus very big. It has 18 mirrors in the front. It can ide
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8: Venus 101

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Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system. It is also known as the Twin Sister of Earth.  Location:  2nd planet in the solar system. Planet type:  It is a terrestrial planet. Moons:  It has no moons. Surface:  Broiling surface  Size:  Slightly smaller than Earth. It has a diameter of 12,100 kilometers. Evidence of life:  There is no evidence of life on venus because of the broiling hot surface. Climate: Venus's surface temperatures can get extremely hot. They are as high as 464°C. Venus has a very dense atmosphere mainly made up of Carbon Dioxide. Rotation and Revolution:  Venus rotates from East to West. Fun Fact:  One day is 243 Earth days long. Coming up next: Mars 101 
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7: Mercury 101

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Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. It is the fastest planet in the solar system too. Location: 1st planet in the solar system. Planet type: It is a terrestrial planet. Moons: It has no moons. Surface: Solid and cratered  Size: Slightly larger than Earth's moon. It has a radius of 2,440 kilometers. Evidence of life: There is no evidence of life on mercury till now. Climate: Mercury's surface temperatures can get extremely hot and cold at day and night. Temperatures can be as high as 430°C.  Mercury does not have an atmosphere to retain that heat at night so temperatures come out to be -180°C. Orbit shape: Mercury has an eccentric, egg-shaped orbit. Fun Fact:  Only 2 spacecraft have visited mercury till now: Mariner 10 and MESSENGER. Coming up next: Venus 101 
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6: The Sun

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Definition: The sun is our solar system's parent star.  C omposition:  Mainly Hydrogen and Helium. S tar type: Yellow dwarf star  A ge: Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old star.  M ass: It covers 99.84℅ of the mass of the solar system. D istance from Earth: 150 million kilometers  (approx.) D iameter: 1.4 million kilometers  F ormation:  The Sun has formed about 4.6    billion years ago in the Solar nebula. P roperties:  Largest celestial body in the Solar System. Its Gravity is holding the solar system, keeping planets in their respective orbits. It pulls the smallest pieces of ace debris towards it. P arts of the Sun: Hottest part: Core (15 million °C) Surface: Photosphere (5,500 °C) Outer Atmosphere: The corona (2 million °C)           L ocation:   Center of our solar system; Milky Way galaxy's spiral arm called the Orion Spur that extends outward from the Sagittarius arm. O rbit:   The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way. Our solar system
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5: Kuiper Belt

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The Kuiper belt is the belt containing rocky and icy bodies beyond Neptune . It contains minor bodies like Dwarf planets and Comets. It also contains leftovers from the birth of planets and stars. Now, You have an idea about what Kuiper Belt is, let us look into some facts about The Kuiper Belt. 1. Most of the objects in the Kuiper belt have moons: Like pluto's moon, Charon.  ____________________________________________ 2. The Kuiper belt was discovered by the efforts of  David C. Jewitt and Janet Luu . But it is named after an astronomer known as Gerard Kuiper. ____________________________________________ 3.  The first known Kuiper belt object was 1992 QB1 which was discovered by David Jewitt and Janet Luu.  ____________________________________________ 4.  The first spacecraft to visit an object in the Kuiper Belt was NASA's New Horizons space craft, in July 2015. ____________________________________________ 5. Fun
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4: Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites

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Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites are ice and rock chunks in space which are the remains of asteroids and comet debris.  When a large number of meteors originate from one point, It is known as a  meteor   shower . DIFFERENCE BETWEEN METEORS, METEOROIDS AND METEORITES. What people may confuse a lot is the difference between Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites. So let's learn about their differences now: Meteoroids are called meteors or shooting stars when they enter Earth's atmosphere. When a meteor survives the atmosphere and falls on the ground, it is known as a meteorite.  TYPES OF METEORITES Three major types of meteorites are: • Irons meteors: Irons meteors are the meteors which mostly contain iron are their main compound. • Stonys: Stony Meteors are the meteors which mostly contain Silcate (Rock forming minerals) as their main compound. • Stony-irons: Stony-Irons are the meteors which contain iron as well as Silcate (Rock forming minerals) as their
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3: Dwarf planets

Hi! It's me again! Today we are going to learn about dwarf planets. A dwarf planet is an object which is of the size of a planet but it is neither a planet nor a natural satellite.  They are also known as TRANS NEPTUNIAN OBJECTS.   The properties of dwarf planets are: •They orbit a star •Are spherical •May have moons •Can have other celestial bodies orbiting them. There are 5 dwarf planets in our solar system: • Pluto •Eris  •Ceres •Makemade •Haumea Pluto is the largest of all dwarf planets. Fun Fact: Pluto's moon Charon is half the size of Pluto! Coming up next: Meteors, Meteorites, Meteoroids From a space enthusiastic: Aashni
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2: Asteroids

Hello again! Today I will be telling you about asteroids as asked by a comment. Asteroids are solid, Rocky and irregular bodies. Given below are the asteroids  classifications: • Asteroid belt- These asteroids are found in the solar system are found between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter, which it's recognized as the asteroid belt. • Trojans- These asteroids revolve around the sun on other planets' orbits. • Near Earth asteroids- These asteroids are found near Earth. Near Earth asteroids are classified into 4 types: •Apollos •Atens •Amors •Atiras Fun Fact An asteroid named Chicxulub Impactor caused the extinction of dinosaurs. Aashni
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1: Comets

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Space is a fascinating subject, in which people of all age groups are interested. Space is also known as the universe, totality and also Cosmos. Space consists of many celestial bodies like Supernovas, Nebulae, Comets, asteroids, Meteors, or meteorites, Dwarf planets, Planets, Galaxies, Stars, Black holes and much more. This list never ends! I will tell you more fascinating things about space.                                 COMETS A comet is an icy and muddy ball. It develops a beautiful long tail as it comes near the sun. It has 2 types of tails.  Ion  tail and a  Dust tail . Comets come from the end of our galaxy, which is the Oort cloud . Parts of a comet are defined as follows: Nucleus - It is the centre of the comet, covered by the coma. It is made up of ice, rock, etc Coma - It is a group of gas hiding the Nucleus. Hydrogen Envelope -It is an invisible, irregular cloud, surrounding the coma Dust tail - It is a tail containing dust and gases  Ion tail- I
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