Monthly Archives: August 2011

Planetary orbit and spin in our Solar System (please see details)?

This is not a homework question – this is just out of curiousity.

Why do the eight Planets in our solar system orbit the sun in the same plane? (The newly demoted Pluto is also “close”, orbiting slightly off of this plane.)

Is there a meaningful relationship between the sun’s equator and the plane of the orbiting planets?

Why are the spins of these planets also the same (they all spin in the same direction as Earth and not the opposite)?

Do other solar systems in the universe exhibit the same phenomenon described above?

The answer to your question lies billions of years in the past before our solar system had formed. At that time an immense cloud of gas and dust drifted in interstellar space. Within this nebula were regions of higher density, and in one of them the gas and dust began to accumulate into individual objects. Also within this region there was random motion that was transferred to the developing spheres (..conservation of momentum). As more and more material was acquired by the proto-planets and sun, the developing solar system formed itself into a disc because it took on more and more of the original nebula’s motion, thus the velocity of the disc increased, and that led to a disc that was progressively flatter and flatter.

Today most of the Planets Of Our Solar System orbit the sun in almost the same plane (..called the ‘ecliptic’) with Venus and Pluto the most notable exceptions.

Solar System Dynamics: Orbits and Kepler’s Laws

Orbit Sprinkler System Rain And Freeze Sensor 57071 $35.00 Automatically interrupts sprinkler timer when it rains and freezes. Easy to mount. Wireless communication eliminates the need to string wire. Accurate digital freeze sensor. Works with 24V sprinkler timers. Adjustable rain sensitivity 1/8” to 1”. Transmits up to 200′….

Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals – Solar System – Removable Graphic WallMonkeys wall graphics are printed on the highest quality re-positionable, self-adhesive fabric paper. Each order is printed in-house and on-demand. WallMonkeys uses premium materials & state-of-the-art production technologies. Our white fabric material is superior to vinyl decals. You can literally see and feel the difference. Our wall graphics apply in minutes and won’t damage your paint or l…

Perkins Designs Science Fiction – Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit – Wall Clocks Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit Wall Clock is new, handcrafted utilizing unique process resulting in a stunning high gloss ceramic-like finish. Measures 10″ x 10″, comes with a wall mounting hook. Single AA battery is not included….

Wallmonkeys Peel and Stick Wall Decals – Illustration of Planet Earth with America in Front – Removable Graphic WallMonkeys wall graphics are printed on the highest quality re-positionable, self-adhesive fabric paper. Each order is printed in-house and on-demand. WallMonkeys uses premium materials & state-of-the-art production technologies. Our white fabric material is superior to vinyl decals. You can literally see and feel the difference. Our wall graphics apply in minutes and won’t damage your paint or l…

Destiny $1.99 …

Destiny [HD] $2.99 …

Perkins Designs Science Fiction – Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit – Greeting Cards-12 Greeting Cards with envelopes $15.95 Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit Greeting Card is measuring 5.5w x 5.5h. Greeting Cards are sold in sets of 6 or 12. Give these fun cards to your friends and family as gift cards, thank you notes, invitations or for any other occasion. Greeting Cards are blank inside and come with white envelopes….

Perkins Designs Science Fiction – Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit – Greeting Cards-6 Greeting Cards with envelopes $10.49 Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit Greeting Card is measuring 5.5w x 5.5h. Greeting Cards are sold in sets of 6 or 12. Give these fun cards to your friends and family as gift cards, thank you notes, invitations or for any other occasion. Greeting Cards are blank inside and come with white envelopes….

Perkins Designs Science Fiction – Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit – Mouse Pads $11.99 Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit Mouse Pad is measuring 8w x 8h x .25d, soft commercial quality high resolution product. The image is permanent and becomes part of the mouse pad surface. Our transfer method produces professional matte finish with Premium Quality and Superior image resolution….

Perkins Designs Science Fiction – Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit – Coffee Gift Baskets – Coffee Gift Basket $44.99 Moon Dance solar system scene of planet Earth and moon dancing in space orbit Coffee Gift Basket is measuring 9x9x4. Contains 15oz mug, BONUS free set of 4 coasters, biscotti and 5 blends of gourmet coffee. French Vanilla, Kenya AA, Decaf Colombian Supremo, Chocolate and Italian Roast Espresso elegantly presented in our signature black planet coffee gift box. A very nice and thoughtful gift for …

An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics $188.8 An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Second Edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect the dramatic changes and advancements in astrophysics that have occurred over the past decade. The Second Edition of this market-leading book has been updated to include the latest results from relevant fields of astrophysics and advances in our theoretical understanding of astrophysical phenomena. The Tools of Astronomy: The Celestial Sphere, Celestial Mechanics, The Continuous Spectrum of Light, The Theory of Special Relativity, The Interaction of Light and Matter, Telescopes; The Nature of Stars: Binary Systems and Stellar Parameters, The Classification of Stellar Spectra, Stellar Atmospheres, The Interiors of Stars, The Sun, The Process of Star Formation, Post-Main-Sequence Stellar Evolution, Stellar Pulsation, Supernovae, The Degenerate Remnants of Stars, Black Holes, Close Binary Star Systems; Planetary Systems: Physical Processes in the Solar System, The Terrestrial Planets, The Jovian Worlds, Minor Bodies of the Solar System, The Formation of Planetary Systems; Galaxies and the Universe: The Milky Way Galaxy, The Nature of Galaxies, Galactic Evolution, The Structure of the Universe, Active Galaxies, Cosmology, The Early Universe; Astronomical and Physical Constants, Unit Conversions Between SI and cgs, Solar System Data, The Constellations, The Brightest Stars, The Nearest Stars, Stellar Data, The Messier Catalog, Constants, A Constants Module for Fortran 95 (Available as a C++ header file), Orbits, A Planetary Orbit Code (Available as Fortran 95 and C++ command line versions, and Windows GUI), TwoStars, A Binary Star Code (Generates synthetic light and radial velocity curves; available as Fortran 95 and C++ command line versions, and Windows GUI), StatStar, A Stellar Structure Code (Available as Fortran 95 and C++ command line versions, and Windows GUI), StatStar, Stellar Models, Galaxy, A Tidal Interaction Code (Available as Java), WMAP Data. For all readers int

Astronomy & Space Internet-Linked $120 Astronomy and Space gives you a breath-taking surface-eye view of the planets.See stars exploding, black holes forming, and zoom through the solar system with comets and asteroids.Navigate the night sky using our clear, detailed maps.This updated edition shows you the universe, using the latest amazing information from astronomers around the world, and space probes around the galaxy.This book also includes practical information on home astronomy and buying and using equipment.See X-ray images of the sun, learn about eclipses and see the International Space Station in orbit on the Quicklinks Web site.

At the Edge of the Solar System $34.95 Astronomers recently discovered a very rich population of Pluto-like objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. This book offers in-depth historic and physical discussions of those remote regions and includes nearly two hundred amazing illustrations, most in color.

Blindsight: $66.25 Two months since the stars fell… Two months since sixty-five thousand alien objects clenched around the Earth like a luminous fist, screaming to the heavens as the atmosphere burned them to ash. Two months since that moment of brief, bright surveillance by agents unknown. Two months of silence, while a world holds its breath. Now some half-derelict space probe, sparking fitfully past Neptune’s orbit, hears a whisper from the edge of the solar system: a faint signal sweeping the cosmos like a lighthouse beam. Whatever’s out there isn’t talking to us. It’s talking to some distant star, perhaps. Or perhaps to something closer, something en route. So who do you send to force introductions on an intelligence with motives unknown, maybe unknowable? Who do you send to meet the alien when the alien doesn’t want to meet? You send a linguist with multiple personalities, her brain surgically partitioned into separate, sentient processing cores. You send a biologist so radically interfaced with machinery that he sees x-rays and tastes ultrasound, so compromised by grafts and splices he no longer feels his own flesh. You send a pacifist warrior in the faint hope she won’t be needed, and the fainter one she’ll do any good if she is. You send a monster to command them all, an extinct hominid predator once called vampire, recalled from the grave with the voodoo of recombinant genetics and the blood of sociopaths. And you send a synthesist –an informational topologist with half his mind gone–as an interface between here and there, a conduit through which the Dead Center might hope to understand the Bleeding Edge. You send them all to the edge of interstellar space, praying you can trust such freaks and retrofits with the fate of a world. You fear they may be more alien than the thing they’ve been sent to find. But you’d give anything for that to be true, if you only knew what was waiting for them…

Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics $79.16 A classic, by one of the masters of the field. Belbruno found the almost magical low energy chaotic orbit that got the Hiten spacecraft successfully to the moon. This text has a beautiful general treatment of chaotic orbits, which are now of great importance both in the celestial navigation of spacecraft and in evaluating the threat of killer asteroids in near earth orbit. –J. Richard Gott, III, Professor of Astrophysics, Princeton University It is truly amazing to see how many new gems have been discovered recently in the classical three-body problem, which has led to theoretical delight as well as to practical applications in solar-system space flight. In this book we hear the story firsthand, from someone who has been instrumental in both aspects of these developments. –Piet Hut, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton This is a well-written book, the first one in the literature to combine modern and advanced theoretical results in celestial mechanics with practical methods used for understanding and designing the low energy trajectories of space missions. –Florin Diacu, University of Victoria This book stands alone in developing a rigorous theoretical framework to explore the complexities of motion within those portions of the system phase space where the small body is bound to the system but not necessarily to either of the large bodies. It establishes a comprehensive framework for a wide variety of research problems in solar system evolution and in space mission planning. Belbruno has tied together an extensive range of material into a logical construction. –Wendell Mendell, NASA Johnson Space Center

Every Planet Has a Place $14.95 Look up! Discover that Every Planet Has a Place. The Earth is just one of many planets in our solar system. Why is this the perfect place for us to live? Which are the gas planets? And why have we changed what we think of Pluto? Then Zigzag into other questions: what does Earth look like from space? Will I ever live on Mars? What experiment can I do to swing a planet into orbit?

Every Planet Has a Place $5.99 Look up! Discover that Every Planet Has a Place. The Earth is just one of many planets in our solar system. Why is this the perfect place for us to live? Which are the gas planets? And why have we changed what we think of Pluto? Then Zigzag into other questions: what does Earth look like from space? Will I ever live on Mars? What experiment can I do to swing a planet into orbit?

Hubbard Scientific 201 Orrery-Motorized Solar System Simulator $230.18 Give your students the chance to see the solar system in action. You will be able to show the students the relative orbit speeds of each planet and the relative position between individual planets and the sun. Lesson plan facilitates explanation of orbit and speed. Model is gear driven within the base. Not Chain-Driven. Slightly smaller in scale than our non-motorized version Product #200 Solar System Simulator!

Jupiter $14.7 Isaac Asimov’s 21st Century Library of the Universe draws upon the legendary writer’s wit, clarity of style, enthusiasm, and enormous command of facts about space to give youngsters the most current information about the wonders of the universe. In twelve volumes Asimov takes young astronomers on a tour of our particular place in this marvelous universe–the Solar System–proceeding step by step from the Sun at the center of it all to the distant outer orbit of Pluto. In between he covers all the interior planets, including our own Moon and the asteroid belt between Earth and Mars. Now Prometheus Books is making these enchanting and educational books available in affordable paperback editions. Jupiter, named for the king of the gods in ancient Roman myths, is the largest planet in our Solar System. This enormous world dwarfs our own Earth. In fact, nearly everything about the planet is extreme–its atmosphere, its storms, its temperatures, and its collection of moons, where you can find fiery volcanoes, icy plains, and perhaps even salty oceans. Scientists have learned much about Jupiter and its moons in recent years, thanks to the spacecrafts that have explored them. Topics include Jupiter’s rings, fierce winds, swirling storms, enormous Great Red Spot, sixteen moons, and shepherd satellite, plus the Galileo mission to Jupiter. This beautifully illustrated series of astronomy books for young readers–available in paperback exclusively from Prometheus Books–by one of our all-time great science writers will educate and inspire a love of learning in the young scientists in your household.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 1 Pt 2 $39.98 The year is 2307 AD. The world is in a state of conflict between three superpower blocs, each possessing one of the three orbital elevators which grant them an inexhaustible energy supply through a solar power generation system in satellite orbit.The private armed organization known as Celestial Being, whose declared goal is to eliminate war from the world, is well on its way to success thanks to its amazingly advanced mobile suit weapons called Gundams. But now, the most resourceful military forces of the Human Reform League have launched a grand operation to trap and capture these mysterious mobile suits in the depths of space. As the four young pilots who call themselves Gundam Meisters fight back against this formidable enemy, their emotional fragility and personal secrets begin to come to light.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Season 1 Pt 2 Se $49.98 The year is 2307 AD. The world is in a state of conflict between three superpower blocs, each possessing one of the three orbital elevators which grant them an inexhaustible energy supply through a solar power generation system in satellite orbit.The private armed organization known as Celestial Being, whose declared goal is to eliminate war from the world, is well on its way to success thanks to its amazingly advanced mobile suit weapons called Gundams. But now, the most resourceful military forces of the Human Reform League have launched a grand operation to trap and capture these mysterious mobile suits in the depths of space. As the four young pilots who call themselves Gundam Meisters fight back against this formidable enemy, their emotional fragility and personal secrets begin to come to light.

Motor Solar System $34.99 EDI1300: The sun is lighted with an ultra-bright 1000-hour light bulb that shines onto the planets as they orbit around it. The central tower and the planetary support rods are black so that they disappear in a darkened room for a spectacular effect! Features: -GeoSafari Motorized Solar System. -Base features planetary longitude marks so the planets can be set up to their correct positions. -Plus, the unique star dome (included) converts the unit into a planetarium. -Powered by four C batteries (not included) or A/C adapter. -Grades 3+ / Ages 8+. -Dimensions: 6.6 H x 10.2 W x 13.6 D.

Motorized Solar System $34.99 EDI1461: The sun shines onto the nine planets as they orbit around it. The central tower and planetary support rods are black so that they disappear in a darkened room for a spectacular effect! Replace the solar dome with the star dome included to create a spectacular planetarium sky complete with major constellation names. In addition, the base features a special 1000-hour light bulb and planetary longitude marks so the planets can be set up to their correct positions. The Solar System model is powered either by four C batteries (not included) or by an optional AC adapter (sold separately).

Planets $14.09 Read this book to find out about the planets in our Solar System. Books in this series introduce children to outer space. Each book uses simple, repetitive text to teach children basic vocabulary, and includes stunning photographs and artwork to show the main features of our Solar System. In Planets, children learn what planets are made of, how planets orbit the Sun, and our planet, Earth.

Pluto $8.12 Pluto is the ninth and farthest planet from the Sun. Its icy, dark surface, size, and orbit make it unlike any other planet in the solar system. No probes have yet to visit Pluto, but perhaps the Pluto-Kuiper Express, to launch in 2003, will bring back some answers.

Pushing Ice $25.31 @lt;DIV@gt;Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship mine comets, and they are good at it. But nothing can prepare them for the surprises in store when one of Saturn”s ice moons inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed.@lt;/div@gt;

Pushing Ice $36.95 @lt;DIV@gt;Bella Lind and the crew of her nuclear-powered ship mine comets, and they are good at it. But nothing can prepare them for the surprises in store when one of Saturn”s ice moons inexplicably leaves its natural orbit and heads out of the solar system at high speed.@lt;/div@gt;

Shoemaker by Levy Unapproved Copy: The Man Who Made an Impact $1.01 The author’s collaboration with Eugene Shoemaker led to the 1993 discovery of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet. Levy offers an insightful account the late scientist’s life and his impact on today’s understanding of the universe–particularly how comets and asteroids have collided with other heavenly bodies to shape our solar system. 39 halftones. 2 tables. From the Publisher It was a lucky twist of fate when in the early 1980s David Levy, a writer and amateur astronomer, joined up with the famous scientist Eugene Shoemaker and his wife, Carolyn, to search for comets from an observation post on Palomar Mountain in Southern California. Their collaboration would lead to the 1993 discovery of the most remarkable comet ever recorded, Shoemaker-Levy 9, with its several nuclei, five tails, and two sheets of debris spread out in its orbit plane. A year later, Levy would be by the Shoemakers’ side again when their comet ended its four-billion-year-long journey through the solar system and collided with Jupiter in a brilliant display. Not only did this collision revolutionize our understanding of the history of the solar system, but it also offered a spectacular confirmation of one scientist’s life work. As a close friend and colleague of Shoemaker, and as a writer with a keen sense of human drama, Levy offers a uniquely insightful account of the geologist/astronomer’s life and the way it has shaped our thinking about the universe and beyond. Early in his training as a geologist, Shoemaker suspected that it wasn’t volcanic action but rather collisions with comets and asteroids that created craters on the moon and on planets. Convincing the scientific community of the plausibility of impact theory , and revealing its power for penetrating other mysteries such as the extinction of the dinosaurs and the timing of the earth’s eventual demise, became Shoemaker’s mission. Through conversations with Shoemaker and his family, Levy reconstructs the journey that

Solar System $5.35 What is the surface temperature of Mercury? How many known satellites does Neptune have? What is the Kuiper Belt? Are there other dwarf planets besides Pluto? Answers to these and other questions about our solar system can be found in this jam-packed 2-panel (4-page) guide. Comprehensive, up-to-date facts as well as full-color illustrations about planets and other solar system objects are featured in our easy-to-use format. Topics covered include: What Is Our Solar System? Essential Terms What Else Orbits the Sun? What Does the Sun Orbit? What Is a Planet/Dwarf Planet? Planet & Solar System Object Facts Astronomical Units Comparing Planets Gravity & Weight The Earth/Sun Relationship And more!

Solar System in My Room $47.99 Solar System in My Room – an orbiting solar system right in your room. Now you can explore the wonders of the solar system right in your own room. Just look up at your ceiling and watch as all nine planets orbit around the light-up sun. Listen as the audio CD takes you on a fascinating tour of our solar system. Use the included light-pointer to locate each planet and make comets and meteors streak through the sky.

Space $6.63 Readers explore the wonders of space through a variety of components — puzzles, poems, stories, music, myths and legends, science experiments, and arts and craft ideas. The author explains the different theories about the Big Bang and the origin of the universe, the planets that make up our Solar System, stars and galaxies, Earth’s orbit, gravity, the moon and the constellations, satellites and probes — and even how astronauts survive in space. Space stations and space settlements will allow people to live in space and study it more closely in the future. Interesting panels ( Did You Know.. . Space Words , and Try This! ) break up the information on each spread. Fascinating facts and activities are presented throughout the text: make moon cookies or play a low-gravity game, learn about rocket power, the discoveries of Galileo, how the Earth was made, and how the universe is changing.

Teachers Friend TF-8158 Mp Card Packs Love Our Planet $13.9 Centers are ready for liftoff with this quick-assembly easel chart and manipulatives. Supports solar system studies as students place 28 magnets on orbit lines or in space, learning order, names and characteristics of planets and celestial bodiesIncludes

The Brightest Day $15.6 The Brightest Day opens when the High Energy Laser Applications Agency is established to develop a fast and non-polluting technique for oil exploration. Work concentrates on developing a powerful particle beam. The particle beam system is placed on a platform in space orbit. Added security protects the site, known as ALBERT, from nations bent on destroying the weapon system. Two local computers and one super-computer, AGNES, control the system. But then, the super-computer begins to take on human reasoning powers, as a huge asteroid enters our solar system and must be destroyeda].

The Earth and the Moon $39.5 The moon is the only body in the solar system outside of the Earth that has been visited by humans. More than 440 pounds of lunar material are brought by NASA and Soviet space missions to Earth for study. The information gleaned about the moon from this relatively small pile of rocks is mind-boggling and stands as the greatest proof that Martian planetary science would be greatly enhanced by returning samples to Earth. Compositional studies of lunar rocks show that the moon and the Earth are made of similar material, and because lunar material has not been reworked through erosion and plate tectonics, it sheds light on the early formation of the moon and its internal evolution.Presented in full color, The Earth and the Moon, Revised Edition compares the Earth with the other planets from the point of view of a planetary scientist. It provides in-depth information on the fundamental aspects of the Earth as a planet including its size and mass, its orbit, and the causes of its seasons.

The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalry and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting $12.58 The Neptune File is the first account of the dramatic events surrounding the discovery of the solar system’s eighth planet, and the story of two men who were able to see on paper what astronomers looking through telescopes for 200 years did not. Illustrations. From Publishers Weekly At a time when new extra-solar planets are announced monthly, Standage (The Victorian Internet) recounts an extraordinary tale of the confluence of great scientific and mathematical investigation and talent, as well as personal and national rivalries, which produced both a momentous discovery and enough embarrassment to cloud the careers of several distinguished astronomers. The protagonist is mathematical prodigy and Cambridge University astronomy graduate student John Couch Adams, who in 1845 completed a detailed calculation of the orbit of an unseen planet based on its supposed gravitational effects on Uranus. To put the enormous originality of Adams’s hypothesis into proper perspective, Standage actually begins his account with the discovery of Uranus in 1781, considered inexplicably unruly in its movements and thus an anomaly among planets. Applying the fresh approach of mathematics to this conundrum, Adams calculated exactly where another planet, soon to be known as Neptune, was in the solar system. England’s astronomer royal, George Airy, as well as Adams’s own observatory director, James Challis, although intrigued, did not endorse Adams’s theory until Airy began corresponding with a French mathematician named Urbain Le Verrier, who shared Adams’s belief. This finding ignited Airy’s desire not to let England lose out to France in what could be a monumental breakthrough. On August 12, 1846, Challis spotted but did not recognize Neptune and missed earning Adams and himself credit for the discovery, which went ultimately to an astronomer in Berlin. Standage, science correspondent at the Economist, gives a colorful account of the Neptune affair. Both astronomy

The Stardance Trilogy By Spider and Jeanne Robinson $26 <p>Three novels complete in one volume. <BR>Stardance: Shara Drummond was a gifted dancer and a brilliant choreographer, but could not pursue her dream of dancing on Earth, so she went to space, creating a new art form in three dimensions. And when the aliens arrived, there was only one way to prove that the human race deserved not just to survive, but to reach the stars. The only hope was Shara, with her stardance. <BR>Starseed: Years later, another dancer of genius faced the end of her career when her body failed her, and Rain McLeod followed Shara into space. If she joined with a symbiotic lifeform that would let her live without artificial protection in the vacuum of space, she would take a quantum leap in human evolution. <BR>Starmind: Rand Porter has been offered the job of a lifetime, as a shaper of visual effects and music for the world’s most famous zero-gravity dance company in High Orbit. But his beloved novelist wife Rhea Paixao has her roots sunk deep in the Earth, in her beloved Cape Cod. And as they wrestle with their private dilemma, bizarre things-small miracles-are beginning to occur everywhere on Earth and throughout the entire Solar System. The human race-and its evolutionary successors, the space-dwelling Stardancers-find themselves approaching the terrifying cusp of their shared destiny, an appointment made for them a million years ago, a make-or-break point beyond which nothing, anywhere, can ever be the same again.</p><BR>

Universal War One $24.99 The Purgatory Squadron”s survivors have done the impossible; by traveling through time they”ve shut down the impenetrable Wall that cut the solar system in two. In doing so, they”ve discovered that the rebellious Colonization Industrial Companies have hidden a satellite in Earth”s orbit that could destroy the planet just as the CIC eradicated Uranus. But the Purgatory Squadron has a trump card. Now stranded three days in their own past, they just might be able to return to Earth without notice. That gives the team of outcasts and criminals three days to stop a cataclysm that could bring about the first universal war. Collects Soleil: Universal War One – Revelations #1-3.