Learn Spanish words related to the solar system is exciting and educational. This blog will explore tidbits about space and the universe and learn Spanish vocabulary related to it. (The English text is in black, and the Spanish (español) text is in purple)
The universe includes all living things, the solar system, and all other forms of energy, even dust clouds. It is everything we can measure, detect, feel, sense and touch. The universe is currently estimated at roughly 13.8 billion years old, give or take 130 million years. In comparison, the solar system is only about 4.6 billion years old.
Our Universe has at least 100 billion galaxies, each containing billions of stars. The Milky Way is the galaxy that we live in. There is a large space between the stars and galaxies. Many of us own a telescope to look out up to the sky and see the beauty beyond.
The solar system is a complex system with stars, moons, planets, comets, asteroids, meteor and let us not forget the black holes. A comet is a body of ice, dust, and bits of rock that passes through space, leaving a trail of ice and dust behind it. A comet may be up to 25 miles across. Asteroids are bodies of rock and ice in space. Millions of asteroids orbit the sun mostly between Mars and Jupiter. A star is a massive ball of scorching gases that gives off lots of light and heat. Is a shouting star a star? It is not a star! A shooting star is a meteor passing through the Earth’s atmosphere and has got so hot that it glows in the night sky. A meteor is a small piece of debris in space, up to the size of a boulder.
The sun is a star called yellow dwarf and part of the Milky Way. The sun is a massive ball of hot gas that provides light and heat, its temperature is around 5,500°C and only takes light 8 minutes to travel to the Earth. The Sun is 93 million miles from the Earth. The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old and will last until it is about 10 billion years old.
A moon is a smaller object orbiting a planet. Some planets have many moons. Earth has just one, called The Moon. The Moon is a ball of rock that orbits around the Earth, in the same way, the Earth orbits around the sun. The Moon is 239,000 miles away and is the only place in the Solar System that man has traveled to apart from Earth. Other planets have moons too. Jupiter has at least 66 of them!
Gravity is what keeps the Moon revolving around the Earth and the Earth revolving around the Sun. The first man to discover gravity existed was Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century. What is Orbit? It is the path that a planet takes around the Sun, or that a moon takes around a planet.
Planets are a large body of either rock or gas that follows a consistent orbit around a star. The Atmosphere is the layer of gas around a planet. At one point there were nine planets in the solar system but today the solar system has only eight planets. The eight planets are round and orbit around the Sun. The nine planets (I knew as a kid) from the closest to the Sun, to the farthest away: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (no longer a planet).
There is a lot of difference between the planets. On some planets there is no air to breathe and on others it is either too hot or too cold. Some planets like Earth are made of rock, and some like Jupiter are made of gas. The biggest planet is Jupiter, and the smallest planet is Mercury today.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and it is the smallest planet. It has a surface like our moon with craters. It only takes 88 days for it to complete its orbit and is much hotter than Earth.
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is also made of rock. Like Earth, Venus has an atmosphere (air) around it, but it is a lot thicker than Earth’s and Venus is permanently covered in clouds. Venus is the hottest planet and has an average temperature of 462°C. Venus’s size is a bit smaller than that of Earth. It takes 22 4.7 days to travel around the Sun.
Earth is the third planet from the sun. It is the one we are most familiar with since it is where we live. It is the only planet that we know has living creatures like plants and animals. We are all held onto the surface of the Earth by a force called gravity. This is the same force that keeps the Earth and the other planets orbiting around the Sun. It takes a year, 365 days for the Earth to complete one circuit around the Sun. It takes the Earth 24 hours to orbits the Sun. The average temperature of Earth is approximately 15º C. Earth’s atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and oxygen. The oxygen on earth is indispensable for living beings. Earth’s surface is rocky and primarily made up of water.
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is a bit smaller than Earth, but a lot further out. Mars atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide and nitrogen Mars is reddish in color and is sometimes called ‘The Red Planet’. Mars takes 687 days to complete its orbit pf the Sun and the average temperature is -46º °C.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System and fifth from the sun. You could fit 1,321 Earths inside Jupiter. Jupiter atmosphere is composed of hydrogen and helium and has an average temperature is approximately -148º C. Jupiter has 66 moons; one of them, Ganymede, is bigger than Mercury. Jupiter takes almost 12 years to travel around the Sun.There is even a storm on Jupiter that is bigger than Earth – this storm has been blowing for hundreds of years and is called the ‘Great Red Spot’.
Saturn is the sixth planet. It is famous for its rings of small pieces of ice and dust around it. The rings were first observed with a telescope in 1610 by Galileo. Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System and is another one of the ‘gas giants’ like Jupiter. It takes 29.45 years to travel around the Sun.
Uranus is the seventh planet. Due to its fluid internal structure, Uranus does not have a solid surface it is another of the ‘gas giants’. You could fit 63 planets the size of Earth inside Uranus. It has 27 satellites discovered to date. Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun and is the coldest planet, with an average temperature of -220°C. The distance to the sun is double that of Saturn.
Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun and is the eighth planet of the solar system. The atmosphere is composed of methane. It is 30 times as far from the sun as earth and takes 165 years to travel around the Sun. Neptune is the last of the four ‘gas giants’ and is 58 times the volume of Earth. Its atmosphere is composed of methane. Neptune is the fourth biggest planet in the solar system
Pluto, once considered the ninth and most distant planet from the sun, is now the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system. In 2006 when Astronomers decided that Pluto was too small to be called a planet. Pluto is the most famous demoted planet, but it is not the first. A lot of people seem to feel that scientists wronged Pluto by changing its classification. Did you know the sun was once a planet?
I hope you enjoyed my blog and learned some tidbits of the universe. If you need to learn more Spanish vocabulary join millions who already are learning at LingoHut.com