Throughout the solar system, there are many incredible places waiting to be explored.
Out there spread across the darkness of space thousands of celestial bodies are bound by
gravity to that life-giving star straight ahead.
Over the years spacecraft and powerful telescopes have allowed us to observe many fascinating
locations throughout the solar system.
So sit back, relax and get ready to travel further than any human being, as we take a
tour of some of the greatest wonders in our solar system.
Your watching V101 Space. My names Rob and if you enjoy my content why not consider tapping the like button
and subscribing for much more to come.
It may seem like a familiar sight these days, a blue marble hanging in front of the black
background of space.
But as it stands, this planet is the only place we know of where life flourishes.
Its dynamic and complex surface boasts a variety
of environments, many of which you have experienced
yourselves.
From the dark depths of the oceans to the dry, windy dunes of the deserts.
From hot, humid jungles, to vast frozen poles.
The organisms and the physical environments of planet Earth interact in an incredible
way to create our home.
Next, we will travel to our neighbour, Mars to visit a colossal structure.
This journey would normally take about 9 months, but don't worry, because we will be there
in a blink of an eye.
We can travel faster than the speed of light.
This is Mars, the red planet, but it's not the entire planet itself that we are here
to look at, instead the enormous structure that can be found on its surface.
That massive martian mountain down there is called Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in
the solar system and our second wonder.
Olympus Mons towers above every other known volcano, reaching an astonishing height of
16 miles, which is 26 kilometres.
In fact, it is so big that if it was placed next to Mount Everest, for example, it would
be around three times as tall.
However it's not just its colossal height that's impressive, it's also extremely wide.
If you placed Olympus Mons in the USA, it would cover the entire state of Arizona.
And if you placed it in Europe, it would almost cover France.
The age of Olympus mons is a mystery, but its most recent eruption may have only occurred
25 million years ago.
But it was likely active for hundreds of millions of years before then, far longer than any
volcano on Earth.
Whether it is still active is up for debate and requires further research.
Our third wonder of the solar system is the mysterious ring of debris that marks the boundary
between the inner rocky planets and outer gas giants, named the asteroid belt, a ring
of leftovers.
The asteroid belt is made up of objects left over from the dawn of the solar system.
Most of these objects orbit between Mars and Jupiter and as its name suggests it contains
millions of Asteroids.
They come in many different sizes, from small boulders to enormous mountains.
But there are some that are significantly
larger such as Ida, an asteroid that was discovered
to have its moon.
Or the intriguing object named 16 Psyche, a giant metal asteroid that may actually be
the partial core of a shattered planetesimal.
Which is a small world about the size of a small country that were the building blocks
of the major planets such as ours.
And of course, there is Ceres, the closest dwarf planet to the Sun and the largest world
in the asteroid belt.
Occasionally people wonder whether the belt was made up of the remains of an ancient destroyed
planet, or a world that didn't quite form.
However, the total mass of the belt is less than our moon, far too small to weigh in as
a major planet.
Instead, the debris was likely shepherded by Jupiter, which kept it from becoming the
building blocks of other growing planets.
Next, we will travel to the largest storm in the solar system, a centuries-old cyclone.
This is the Great Red Spot, an enormous storm full of mystery that is raging through the
clouds of Jupiter.
It is so big in fact, that it could engulf the entire Earth, and it is over 40 times
deeper than the deepest point in our oceans.
As you can see It is a giant oval storm of swirling clouds that travel anticlockwise,
with wind speeds reaching over 400 miles per hour which is about 640 kilometres per hour.
Much faster than any storm found on Earth.
And this storm has been raging for a long time, having been observed by astronomers
for over 150 years.
But recent observations of the Great Red Spot have revealed that the mighty anti-cyclone
is actually shrinking.
No one knows how long it will last, it could be decades or centuries.
But the end of Great Red Spot, whenever that might be, could signal the beginning of something
else.
Like its storms, Jupiter's chaotic clouds are perpetually unpredictable.
The 5th wonder that we will visit orbits the next planet from the Sun and is sometimes
called the Jewell of the solar system.
Silently occupying this distant cold region, Saturn is arguably the most recognisable planet
after Earth due to its spectacular, complex rings.
Although it has been discovered that all the gas giants have rings, none can be observed
quite like Saturn's.
Made up of billions upon billions of pieces of broken up ice and rock that range from
tiny dust particles to enormous chunks, some bigger than the iceberg that sank the titanic.
This magnificent feature extends out to around 175,000 miles from Saturn, which is around
282,000 kilometres.
How this encircling field of glistening debris formed is a mystery, but It is thought that
the rings may have been created when small, ancient icy moons collided or were torn apart
by Saturn's powerful gravity.
Shattering them into billions of pieces during a dramatic event.
Certain studies even suggest that the ring is fairly young, possibly forming between
10 million and 100 million years ago.
This means that during the age of the dinosaurs, Saturn transformed into the planet we see
today.
Our next location isn't far, because it orbits this magnificent planet, but it also helps
to create, at least part of its outer ring.
Next, we will visit the wonder that is the tiger-striped, icy moon, Enceladus.
Enceladus is one of the solar system's most captivating worlds because, beneath those
beautiful so-called tiger stripes, it is thought a vast liquid ocean exists.
Only a handful of worlds are thought to have liquid water oceans beneath their frozen shell,
but Enceladus sprays its ocean out of geysers into space confirming its existence.
From this spray, incredibly, it has been determined
that Enceladus has most of the chemical ingredients
needed for life, and likely has hydrothermal vents spewing out hot, mineral-rich water
into its ocean below the ice.
About as wide as Arizona, Enceladus also has the whitest, most reflective surface in the
solar system and not only that, the bizarre moon creates a ring of its own as it orbits
Saturn, its spray of icy particles spreads out into space, circling Saturn to form Its
E ring.
What could be lurking below that shell of ice?
One day we might find out.
The last stop on our tour is all the way back at the centre.
At the place where it all started for us, our star.
Or more precisely its scorching surface.
The Sun is a giant sphere of unimaginably hot plasma.
It has no solid mass, meaning it doesn't have a distinct, solid surface like the Earth.
Instead, it is composed of layers made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, and
so the surface of the Sun is considered the first visible layer, called the photosphere.
It is from the photosphere that light created deep within the Sun, which is already thousands
of years old, is released in all directions, some of which, make the 8-minute and 20-second
journey to Earth and is absorbed by your eyes.
The reason the photosphere seems like it's bubbling is because hot plasma from within
the Sun rises to the surface, cools and sinks back down in a process called convection.
The same process can be seen when water is bubbling in a boiling pot, for example.
It reaches scorching temperatures above 5,500 degrees Celsius, which is around 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Making it hot enough to melt diamond.
Sparsely scattered across the photosphere are also enormous dark features called sunspots
which are caused by disturbances in the Sun's powerful magnetic fields.
The magnetic fields are very active here, often tangling, crossing and reorganising,
frequently causing sudden, powerful explosions of energy called solar flares.
And Sometimes the flares are also accompanied by coronal mass ejections, which are huge
bubbles containing billions of tons of charged particles, blasting out into space at extremely
high speeds.
So that completes our epic tour of some of the greatest wonders in the solar system.
If you enjoyed the tour, please tap the like button, subscribe if haven't already, and
let me know in the comment section if you would like to take another epic tour too other
wonders found throughout the universe.
There are plenty of places that are waiting to be explored.
Thank you all for joining me on this adventure and I'll see you all next time.