From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as large as it does when viewed from Earth, and the sunlight would be as much as 11 times brighter., Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus's thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it the hottest planet in our solar system., Earth—our home planet—is the only place we know of so far that’s inhabited by living things. It's also the only planet in our solar system with liquid water on the surface., Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. There is strong evidence Mars was – billions of years ago – wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere., Jupiter is more than twice as massive than the other planets of our solar system combined. The giant planet's Great Red Spot is a centuries-old storm bigger than Earth., Adorned with a dazzling, complex system of icy rings, Saturn is unique in our solar system. The other giant planets have rings, but none are as spectacular as Saturn's., Uranus—seventh planet from the Sun—rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle from the plane of its orbit. This unique tilt makes Uranus appear to spin on its side., Neptune—the eighth and most distant major planet orbiting our Sun—is dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds. It was the first planet located through mathematical calculations., Pluto is a complex world of ice mountains and frozen plains. Once considered the ninth planet, Pluto is the best known of a new class of worlds called dwarf planets., Ceres makes up almost a third of the asteroid belt's total mass, but it is still far smaller than Earth's Moon. Ceres is heavily cratered with large amounts of ice underground, Along with fellow dwarf planets Pluto, Eris, and Haumea, Makemake is located in the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Slightly smaller than Pluto, Makemake is the second-brightest object in the Kuiper Belt as seen from Earth (while Pluto is the brightest). It takes about 305 Earth years for this dwarf planet to make one trip around the Sun., Originally designated 2003 EL61 (and nicknamed Santa by one discovery team), Haumea is located in the Kuiper Belt, a donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. The other known dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt are Pluto, Eris, and Makemake (dwarf planet Ceres is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter)., Eris is one of the largest known dwarf planets in our solar system. It's about the same size as Pluto but is three times farther from the Sun., Caltech researchers have found mathematical evidence suggesting there may be a "Planet X" deep in the solar system. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our Sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed "Planet Nine," could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 times farther from the Sun on average than Neptune. It may take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the Sun., The Sun holds the solar system together, keeping everything – from the biggest planets to the smallest debris – in its orbit., The fifth largest moon in the solar system, Earth's moon is the only place beyond Earth where humans have set foot., Both Arrokoth (visited by NASA's New Horizons mission) and Pluto are in the Kuiper Belt – a donut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. There may be millions of these icy objects, collectively referred to as Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) or trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), in this distant region of our solar system., The Oort Cloud is the most distant region of our solar system. Even the nearest objects in the Oort Cloud are thought to be many times farther from the Sun than the outer reaches of the Kuiper Belt., We call our galaxy the Milky Way because it appeared to ancient observers to be a milky band of light – like a cosmic roadway – stretching across the dark sky., An eclipse is an awe-inspiring celestial event that drastically changes the appearance of the two biggest objects we see in our sky: our Sun and Moon. On Earth, people can experience solar eclipses when Earth, the Moon, and the Sun line up.Safety is the number one priority when viewing a solar eclipse., Meteoroids are objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. Think of them as “space rocks.", When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere, or that of another planet, like Mars, at high speed and burn up, they’re called meteors. This is also when we refer to them as “shooting stars.”, Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky, airless remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago., Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the Sun. When frozen, they are the size of a small town. When a comet's orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets., Stars are giant balls of hot gas – mostly hydrogen, with some helium and small amounts of other elements. Every star has its own life cycle, ranging from a few million to trillions of years, and its properties change as it ages., Our Sun, a main sequence star, emits a strong solar flare flashes in this image captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory., The Helix nebula, imaged here, lies 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Also known as NGC 7293, it is a typical example of planetary nebulae., The remnant of a supernova observed in 1572, notably studied by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, lies about 13,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia., Black holes are among the most mysterious cosmic objects, much studied but not fully understood. These objects aren’t really holes. They’re huge concentrations of matter packed into very tiny spaces. A black hole is so dense that gravity just beneath its surface, the event horizon, is strong enough that nothing – not even light – can escape., Astronomers targeted Caldwell 92 to create one of the largest panoramic images ever taken with Hubble’s cameras, generating a stunning 50-light-year-wide view of the tumultuous central region of this strange stellar nursery. Also known as the Carina Nebula and NGC 3372, Caldwell 92 is sculpted by the action of outflowing winds and scorching ultraviolet radiation from the monster stars that inhabit this inferno., NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected the magnetic field streamlines shown over this image of the Keyhole Nebula, part of the larger Carina Nebula, captued by the European Southern Observatory 3.6-metre telescope on La Silla., Astronomers using NASA Hubble Space Telescope have found a bow shock around a very young star in the nearby Orion nebula, an intense star-forming region of gas and dust., This planetary nebula's simple, graceful appearance is thought to be due to perspective: our view from Earth looking straight into what is actually a barrel-shaped cloud of gas shrugged off by a dying central star., The Crab Nebula is one of the most intricately structured and highly dynamical objects ever observed., The Twin Jet Nebula, or PN M2-9, is a striking example of a bipolar planetary nebula. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system, Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1200 years ago., Rising from a sea of dust and gas like a giant seahorse, the Horsehead nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. NASA Hubble Space Telescope took a close-up look at this heavenly icon, revealing the cloud intricate structure., Atlas Image mosaic, covering 14.8 x 20.0 on the sky, of the Trifid Nebula, aka Messier 20 and NGC 6514. The Trifid is only about 1.5 degrees northwest on the sky of the larger Lagoon Nebula Messier 8 in the constellation Sagittarius, A panoramic view of a vast, sculpted area of gas and dust where thousands of stars are being born has been captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope., In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula., Wispy tendrils of hot dust and gas glow brightly in this ultraviolet image of the Cygnus Loop nebula, taken by NASA Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The nebula lies about 1,500 light-years away., This Hubble telescope snapshot of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula, reveals that the object has an hourglass shape with an intricate pattern of etchings in its walls. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, Sun-like star., Dense filaments of gas in the IC5146 interstellar cloud can be seen clearly in this image taken in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. The blue region is a stellar nursery known as the Cocoon nebula., This infrared image from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye., The Cat's Eye Nebula, one of the first planetary nebulae discovered, also has one of the most complex forms known to this kind of nebula. Eleven rings, or shells, of gas make up the Cat's Eye. The full beauty of the Cat's Eye Nebula is revealed in this detailed view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope., NASA image release April 27, 2012 The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been at the cutting edge of research into what happens to stars like our sun at the ends of their lives. One stage that stars pass through as they run out of nuclear fuel is called the preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage. This Hubble image of the Egg Nebula shows one of the best views to date of this brief but dramatic phase in a star’s life., NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured two festive-looking nebulas, situated so as to appear as one. They reside in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. Intense radiation from the brilliant central stars is heating hydrogen in each of the nebulas, causing them to glow red. The nebulas, together, are called NGC 248., This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a planetary nebula named NGC 6153, located about 4,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). The faint blue haze across the frame shows what remains of a star like the sun after it has depleted most of its fuel. When this happens, the outer layers of the star are ejected, and get excited and ionized by the energetic ultraviolet light emitted by the bright hot core of the star, forming the nebula. NGC 6153 is a planetary nebula that is elliptical in shape, with an extremely rich network of loops and filaments, shown clearly in this Hubble image. However, this is not what makes this planetary nebula so interesting for astronomers., Three simulated planets -- one as bright as Jupiter, one half as bright as Jupiter and one as faint as Earth -- stand out plainly in this image created from a sequence of 480 images captured by the High Contrast Imaging Testbed at NASA JPL., This solar system montage of the nine planets and four large moons of Jupiter in our solar system are set against a false-color view of the Rosette Nebula., In this artist's visualization, the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," is shown where it resides at the outer edges of the known solar system. The object is so far away that the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of a large, warm disc observed from Earth. All that is known about Sedna's appearance is that it has a reddish hue, almost as red and reflective as the planet Mars., The artist's rendition shows the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," in relation to other bodies in the solar system, including Earth and its Moon; Pluto; and Quaoar, a planetoid beyond Pluto that was until now the largest known object beyond Pluto. The diameter of Sedna is slightly smaller than Pluto's but likely somewhat larger than Quaoar., This image from NASA Magellan shows part of the interior of Ovda Regio, one of the large highlands ringing the equator of Venus. Several tectonic events formed this complex block fractured terrain., This illustration shows three possible interiors of the seven rocky exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, based on precision measurements of the planet densities. Overall the TRAPPIST-1 worlds have remarkably similar densities, which suggests they may share the same ratio of common planet-forming elements. The planet densities are slightly lower than those of Earth or Venus, which could mean they contain fractionally less iron (a highly dense material) or more low-density materials, such as water or oxygen., This artist's concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, located in the TRAPPIST-1 system in the constellation Aquarius. Because this planet is thought to be tidally locked to its star, meaning the same face of the planet is always pointed at the star, there would be a region called the terminator that perpetually divides day and night. If the night side is icy, the day side might give way to liquid water in the area where sufficient starlight hits the surface., This illustration shows what the TRAPPIST-1 system might look like from a vantage point near planet TRAPPIST-1f (at right). The system has been revealed through observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) telescope, as well as other ground-based observatories., Kepler-20e is the first planet smaller than the Earth discovered to orbit a star other than the sun. A year on Kepler-20e only lasts 6 days, as it is much closer to its host star than the Earth is to the sun., Artist concept of the first rocky world discovered by NASA Kepler mission. The planet, called Kepler 10-b, is shown in front of its host star., Kepler-7b right, which is 1.5 times the radius of Jupiter left, is the first exoplanet to have its clouds mapped., This artist concept illustrates the two Saturn-sized planets discovered by NASA Kepler mission., Since August 2012, Curiosity has been exploring 3-mile-high Mt. Sharp in Gale Crater. The rover has climbed more than 2,000 feet (612 meters), reaching progressively younger rocks that serve as a record on how Mars has evolved from a wet, habitable planet to a cold desert environment., NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam instrument to take the 126 individual images that make up this 360-degree panorama on March 3, 2021., On Nov. 29, 2021, NASA’s Juno mission completed its 38th close flyby of Jupiter., During its 40th close pass by Jupiter, our Juno spacecraft saw Ganymede cast a large, dark spot on the planet on Feb. 25, 2022., As NASA’s Juno mission completed its 43rd close flyby of Jupiter on July 5, 2022, its JunoCam instrument captured this striking view of vortices — hurricane-like spiral wind patterns — near the planet’s north pole., Lights have been steadily returning to southeast Türkiye after deadly earthquakes triggered power outages in February 2023., Water managers released a surge of water from the dam in late April to help preserve shrinking sandbars and shoreline habitats downstream., This new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows interacting galaxies known as AM 1214-255., This moon map shows the gravity gradients calculated by NASA GRAIL mission. Red and blue correspond to stronger gravity gradients., Gula Mons is displayed in this computer-simulated view from NASA Magellan spacecraft of the surface of Venus., Why does Saturn look like it's been painted with a dark brush in this infrared image?, but Dione looks untouched? Perhaps an artist with very specific tastes in palettes? The answer is methane., A mosaic of four images taken through the clear filter (610 nanometers) of the solid state imaging (CCD) system aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft on November 8, 1996, at a resolution of approximately 46 kilometers (km) per picture element (pixel) along the rings; however, because the spacecraft was only about 0.5 degrees above the ring plane, the image is highly foreshortened in the vertical direction. The images were obtained when Galileo was in Jupiter's shadow peering back toward the Sun; the ring was approximately 2,300,000 kilometers (km) away. The arc on the far right of the image is produced by sunlight scattered by small particles comprising Jupiter's upper atmospheric haze., This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the planet Uranus reveals the planet rings and bright clouds and a high altitude haze above the planet south pole., NASA Voyager 2 was 530,000 kilometers 330,000 miles from Neptune largest satellite, Triton, when this photo was taken, Aug. 24, 1989., This artist's rendering shows a concept for a robot called AquaSimian that would assist with hazardous situations underwater. The concept is derived from RoboSimian, a land-based robot designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. RoboSimian is shown in PIA19313., NASA image release September 29, 2011 This image of the distant active galaxy Markarian 509 was taken in April 2007 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 2..

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