Our solar system is full of staggering numbers, from Jupiter's storm large enough to swallow Earth twice to Saturn's rings stretching over 282,000 kilometers yet only as thick as a building.
Key Takeaways
- The Sun contains 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System, equivalent to about 333,000 Earth masses.
- Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm approximately 16,350 km in diameter, large enough to engulf Earth twice over.
- Saturn's ring system spans up to 282,000 km in diameter but is only about 20 meters thick in many places.
- Proxima Centauri b orbits at 0.04856 AU with a minimum mass of 1.07 Earth masses.
- Rigel, a blue supergiant in Orion, has a luminosity 120,000 times the Sun's and radius 79 solar radii.
- Betelgeuse's radius is approximately 887 solar radii, making it one of the largest known stars.
- The Milky Way's supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* has mass 4.3 million solar masses.
- Andromeda Galaxy (M31) spans 220,000 light-years and contains 1 trillion stars.
- Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is 61,000 light-years across with no central bulge.
- Universe observable diameter is 93 billion light-years despite age 13.8 billion years.
- Cosmic microwave background temperature is 2.72548 K with blackbody spectrum.
- Hubble constant measures 73.04 ±1.04 km/s/Mpc from HST.
- Voyager 1 launched August 5, 1977, now at 163 AU from Sun.
- Hubble Space Telescope has imaged over 1.5 million observations since 1990.
- James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror 6.5 m diameter with 18 segments.
The Solar System is an immense and extreme realm of spectacular and violent wonders.
Cosmology
- Universe observable diameter is 93 billion light-years despite age 13.8 billion years.
- Cosmic microwave background temperature is 2.72548 K with blackbody spectrum.
- Hubble constant measures 73.04 ±1.04 km/s/Mpc from HST.
- Universe age estimated at 13.787 ±0.020 billion years from Planck.
- Dark energy density parameter Ω_Λ = 0.6847 ±0.0073.
- Dark matter density Ω_m = 0.3111 ±0.0056.
- Baryonic matter fraction is 4.9% of critical density.
- Universe critical density ρ_c = 8.62 × 10^{-27} kg/m³.
- Reionization optical depth τ = 0.0544 ±0.0073 at z~7.7.
- Scalar spectral index n_s = 0.9649 ±0.0042.
- Tensor-to-scalar ratio r < 0.06 from BICEP/Keck.
- Largest cosmic void is Boötes Void, 330 million ly diameter.
- Sloan Great Wall spans 1.37 billion ly, largest structure.
- Universe flatness parameter Ω_k = -0.0007 ±0.0019.
- Number of galaxies in observable universe estimated at 2 trillion.
- Expansion acceleration discovered in 1998 via Type Ia supernovae.
- Big Bang nucleosynthesis predicts primordial helium-4 mass fraction Y_p=0.24.
- Cosmic neutrino background temperature ~1.95 K.
- Horizon problem solved by inflation expanding by factor e^60.
- Baryon acoustic oscillation scale 147 Mpc.
Cosmology Interpretation
Despite a light-speed limit and a mere 13.8-billion-year head start, our universe, like a clever overachiever, managed to stretch itself to a 93-billion-light-year diameter, fill itself with inexplicable dark stuff, and still leave behind a nearly perfect 2.7-degree afterglow as a cheeky receipt.
Galaxies
- The Milky Way's supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* has mass 4.3 million solar masses.
- Andromeda Galaxy (M31) spans 220,000 light-years and contains 1 trillion stars.
- Triangulum Galaxy (M33) is 61,000 light-years across with no central bulge.
- Large Magellanic Cloud is 14,000 light-years in diameter at 163,000 ly distance.
- Small Magellanic Cloud has 3 billion stars and diameter 7,000 ly.
- Centaurus A hosts a supermassive black hole with jets spanning 1 million ly.
- Messier 87's black hole shadow is 38 billion km across, imaged in 2019.
- Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) has spiral arms 60,000 ly long.
- Sombrero Galaxy (M104) disk is 60,000 ly with central bulge 10,000 ly.
- Bode's Galaxy (M81) is 90,000 ly across at 12 million ly distance.
- Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) spans 170,000 ly, one of the largest spirals.
- Black Eye Galaxy (M64) rotates clockwise in outer halo, counterclockwise in core.
- Cartwheel Galaxy has outer ring 150,000 ly diameter from collision.
- Stephan's Quintet contains 500 galaxies colliding over 100s of millions years.
- Tadpole Galaxy's tail stretches 280,000 ly from gravitational interaction.
- NGC 6872 spans 522,000 ly, one of the largest spirals known.
- IC 1101 is the largest known galaxy at 6 million ly diameter.
- Milky Way's bar is 27,000 ly long, tilted 27 degrees to disk.
- Local Group contains over 54 galaxies, diameter 10 million ly.
- Virgo Cluster has 1,300-2,000 galaxies spanning 15 million ly.
- Coma Cluster contains over 1,000 galaxies at 320 million ly.
Galaxies Interpretation
While contemplating that our galaxy's central black hole is a mere 4.3 million solar mass heavyweight, and our Local Group a modest 10 million light-year neighborhood, one must appreciate the cosmic gall of calling IC 1101 a 'galaxy' when it spans a positively vulgar 6 million light-years all by itself.
Solar System
- The Sun contains 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System, equivalent to about 333,000 Earth masses.
- Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm approximately 16,350 km in diameter, large enough to engulf Earth twice over.
- Saturn's ring system spans up to 282,000 km in diameter but is only about 20 meters thick in many places.
- Uranus has a diameter of 51,118 km and rotates on its side at a tilt of 97.77 degrees.
- Neptune's winds blow at speeds up to 2,100 km/h, the fastest in the Solar System.
- Earth's Moon has a mean distance from Earth of 384,400 km and a diameter of 3,474 km.
- Venus rotates retrograde with a sidereal day of 243 Earth days, slower than its orbital period of 225 days.
- Mars' Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the Solar System at 22 km high and 600 km wide.
- Mercury's surface temperature ranges from 430°C during the day to -180°C at night.
- Pluto's largest moon Charon has 12% of Pluto's mass and orbits at a distance of 19,591 km.
- The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter contains objects up to 940 km in diameter like Ceres.
- Comet Halley's nucleus measures about 15 km long, 8 km wide, and orbits every 75.3 years.
- Eris, a dwarf planet, has a diameter of approximately 2,326 km and is 27% more massive than Pluto.
- Haumea's rapid rotation completes one spin in 3.9 hours, making it one of the fastest rotating large bodies.
- Makemake's surface reflects 77% of sunlight, one of the highest albedos in the Kuiper Belt.
- The Oort Cloud extends from 2,000 to 100,000 AU from the Sun, containing trillions of icy bodies.
- Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has a thick nitrogen atmosphere denser than Earth's at 1.5 times surface pressure.
- Europa's icy surface hides a subsurface ocean estimated to contain more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
- Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon, has a diameter of 5,268 km, larger than Mercury.
- Io experiences over 400 active volcanoes due to tidal heating from Jupiter.
- Enceladus ejects water plumes from its south pole at speeds up to 400 m/s.
- Triton orbits Neptune retrograde at a distance of 354,759 km with a diameter of 2,707 km.
- Phobos, Mars' larger moon, orbits at 9,377 km altitude and will impact Mars in 30-50 million years.
- Deimos has an irregular shape measuring 15 x 12 x 11 km and reflects only 6.8% of sunlight.
- Miranda, Uranus' moon, features Verona Rupes cliff dropping 20 km, the tallest in the Solar System.
- The Kuiper Belt extends from 30 to 55 AU and contains at least 100,000 objects over 100 km in diameter.
- Vesta's south pole crater Rheasilvia is 505 km wide and 22 km deep.
- Pallas asteroid has a diameter of 512 km and a highly inclined orbit of 34.8 degrees.
- Hygiea, the fourth-largest asteroid, measures 407 km in diameter and comprises 3% of the asteroid belt's mass.
- The Solar System's heliopause, the boundary with interstellar space, is located at about 120 AU.
Solar System Interpretation
The cosmos reminds us that we live on a blissfully average rock, politely orbiting a cosmic furnace that utterly dominates everything, while our neighborhood is filled with eccentric giants, sideways spinners, and tiny, hyperactive worlds that make our own drama seem charmingly quaint.
Space Exploration
- Voyager 1 launched August 5, 1977, now at 163 AU from Sun.
- Hubble Space Telescope has imaged over 1.5 million observations since 1990.
- James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror 6.5 m diameter with 18 segments.
- Apollo 11 landed on Moon July 20, 1969, with 22 kg of samples returned.
- International Space Station orbits at 408 km altitude, speed 7.66 km/s.
- Perseverance rover landed Jezero Crater February 18, 2021, collected 24 samples.
- New Horizons flyby Pluto July 14, 2015, at 12,472 km closest approach.
- Cassini orbited Saturn 13 years, 293 orbits, ended September 15, 2017.
- Juno arrived Jupiter July 4, 2016, polar orbit 4,167 km perijove.
- Parker Solar Probe closest approach 6.16 million km to Sun Nov 2021.
- OSIRIS-REx returned 121.6 g Bennu sample September 24, 2023.
- Artemis I uncrewed lunar orbit November 16-29, 2022, 1.4 million miles.
- SpaceX Falcon 9 launched 61st orbital class rocket as of 2023.
- Chandrayaan-3 landed Moon south pole August 23, 2023, Pragyan rover 100m.
- Tianwen-1 orbited Mars February 10, 2021, Zhurong rover May 14.
- Hayabusa2 returned 5.4 g Ryugu sample December 2020.
- Voyager 2 Uranus encounter January 24, 1986, discovered 10 moons.
- Spitzer Telescope operated 2003-2020, discovered 1,300 exoplanets.
- Kepler discovered 2,662 exoplanets confirmed from 2011-2018.
- TESS launched 2018, found 8,300 candidates by 2023.
- Chang'e 5 returned 1.731 kg lunar samples December 2020.
- GPS constellation 31 satellites, orbits 20,200 km altitude.
- The Event Horizon Telescope imaged M87* black hole April 10, 2019, at 55 million ly.
Space Exploration Interpretation
From launching a golden record that has traveled beyond our solar system to photographing a black hole fifty-five million light-years away, humanity's relentless curiosity is measured not in miles or megabytes, but in the profound act of turning cosmic whispers into a collective roar of understanding.
Stars
- Proxima Centauri b orbits at 0.04856 AU with a minimum mass of 1.07 Earth masses.
- Rigel, a blue supergiant in Orion, has a luminosity 120,000 times the Sun's and radius 79 solar radii.
- Betelgeuse's radius is approximately 887 solar radii, making it one of the largest known stars.
- Sirius A has a mass of 2.063 solar masses and rotates every 16 days.
- Vega spins at 20 times the speed of the Sun, completing a rotation in 12.5 hours.
- Arcturus, a red giant, has a luminosity of 170 solar luminosities and surface temperature of 4,300 K.
- Aldebaran has a diameter 44 times the Sun's and is 65 light-years away.
- Capella Aa and Ab form a binary system with masses 2.6 and 2.7 solar masses respectively.
- Pollux has a mass of 1.91 solar masses and a radius of 8.9 solar radii.
- Fomalhaut's debris disk spans 158 AU and is offset due to an unseen planet.
- Regulus A rotates once every 15.9 hours, equatorial speed 318 km/s.
- Castor consists of six stars, with the primary pair orbiting every 9.2 days.
- Deneb's luminosity is 196,000 solar luminosities at 1,400-2,600 light-years distance.
- Antares has a radius 680 solar radii and mass 12-18 solar masses.
- Spica is a spectroscopic binary with orbital period 4.014 days.
- Pollux hosts a planet Pollux b at 1.64 AU with minimum mass 2.9 Jupiter masses.
- Mira (Omicron Ceti) varies from magnitude 3.4 to 9.3 over 331.8 days.
- R Doradus is the second-largest star at 370 solar radii.
- UY Scuti has a radius of 1,700 solar radii, the largest known as of 2012.
- Stephenson 2-18 measures 2,150 solar radii, potentially the largest star.
- VY Canis Majoris lost mass at 8 solar masses per year pre-2000s.
- Eta Carinae is a luminous blue variable with luminosity up to 5 million solar.
- P Cygni shows expanding shell at 140 km/s.
- WR 104's Wolf-Rayet wind speed exceeds 3,000 km/s.
- Theta1 Orionis C powers the Orion Nebula with 45 solar masses.
- Trappist-1 hosts seven Earth-sized planets, three in habitable zone.
- Proxima Centauri flares increase brightness by factor of 68 in UV.
- Kepler-444 has five sub-Earth planets orbiting in less than 10 days.
Stars Interpretation
Our galaxy is a cosmic zoo featuring everything from blisteringly fast dwarfs like Vega to immense, unstable red giants like Betelgeuse, while quietly suggesting in systems like Trappist-1 that the most profound discoveries might be modest, Earth-sized worlds orbiting a dim, flaring star next door.
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