We've all heard of the 7 wonders of the world, from the Leaning Tower to the Pyramids in Giza. But how about we take a trip beyond Earth, and discover the Seven Wonders of the Solar System? Fasten your seat belts, you're in for an otherworldly adventure! Don't wory about this being a boring information text about the Solar System, because you are in for some shocks in this post. First, let's leave the tertiary of the terrestrial planets and go to Jupiter, the giant of our Solar System. This gaseous giant has a huge crimson spot on it, but it isn't just a circle painted on for decoration. You know when you're outside, and it starts raining? And the rain turns into a full-fledged storm? And the storm lasts for days? Weeks? Months? Years? Centuries? You've probably never experienced that, but that's because you haven't been to Jupiter before. That large red oval is a massive storm that has been raging on for almost three centuries! And it's still going strong, at 270 miles per hour covering between 15,000 and 25,000 miles in length and between 7,500 and 8,700 miles in width. The storm is showing signs of ceasing though, and seems to be shrinking. Maybe in the next couple of centuries it could disappear! Now let's venture a little farther, to Jupiter's moons. Our next stop is at Jupiter's sixth closest moon, Europa. Everyone always talks about how there might be life on Mars. But since large bodies of liquid water can't exist on Mars (scientifically), there isn't much hope. But have we overlooked Europa, which might harbor life one day. Europa is a little smaller than Earth's moon, with criss-crosses of water ice. There seems to be a huge ocean of salty water underneath the icy crust, which is so deep it almost reaches the iron core! Now we're in for another storm. Jupiter's Giant Spot might be well known, but another little known storm is Saturn's hexagonal shaped storm. It sounds unbelievable, a storm in a hexagon shape, but it's very much true, and here's more about it. Its sides are as long as the diameter of Earth, and it's pretty young, and has only existed for 30 years. It was discovered 1980. This is the weirdest part: There have been conspiracy theories related to this outrageous storm, maybe some of them are true. Now let's go farther, to Pluto. Pluto was declassified as a planet in 2006, but there's still something wonder-worthy here. Pluto might have a secret twin. *ultimate plot twist* Orcus, which is a planet similar to Pluto in it's orbit period, size and distance from the Sun, has been discovered. That's not all. Pluto's moon Charon is half the size of Pluto, while Vanth, Orcus's similar moon, is half the size of Orcus! Let's learn a little more about Orcus. Orcus is covered in crystal water ice, and maybe even ammonia ice which is a typical molecular crystal. Orcus might help scientists and astronomers understand other objects beyond Neptune. We all know this had to be included in the list. Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain/volcano in our Solar System at 22 kilometers tall. We don't know if it's still active, but it might erupt some day in the future. Anyway, this massive mountain was first discovered in 1971, but it had formed less than 100 million years ago, which is a not much considering how old our Universe is. If it was on Earth, it could COMPLETELY cover the state of Arizona in USA. Let's now go to the heart of the solar system, the Sun. Don't worry about being burnt to death, we'll go at night! Almost all life on earth gets its energy from the radiation coming from its 10,000 degree surface. We often think of the sun as a part of our solar system, but it might be more correct to think of it as the solar system. Almost 99.86% of the mass of the solar system is tied up in the sun. All the rest of the solar system - the rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; the gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus; the asteroids and dwarf planets like Pluto - only add up to the measly remaining 0.14 %. So the sun is huge. In fact, its diameter is 863,706 miles (1,390,000 km): large enough to fit 1.3 million earths inside of it. Because the sun is so large, it has an enormously strong gravity field. This huge mass, 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg, is 300,000 times the mass of Earth. The gravity this mass generates keeps all the other members of the solar system orbiting around the sun. In addition, the gravity field also causes huge pressures deep in the sun's core. Yep, the only known planet in this Universe that is thriving with life, is home to 7 billion human beings, has 7 enormous oceans and lots more huge bodies of water, is just the right distance from the Sun to support life, the list goes on. What's not a wonder about Planet Earth? AKA our home. There's so much to discover right here on our planet, from thick jungles to deep oceans. I think it's safe to say that Earth is the most wondrous of all these wonders.
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