The Milky Way system is a spiral galaxy consisting

of over
400 billion stars , plus gas and dust arranged into
three general components as shown to the left:
The halo - a roughly spherical distribution which
contains the oldest stars in the Galaxy,
The nuclear bulge and Galactic Center.
The disk, which contains the majority of the stars,
including the sun, and virtually all of the gas and
dust

Milky way consists of

BILLIONS OF STARS
SUN
MOON
SOLAR SYSTEM

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of

plasma held together by gravity. At the end
of its lifetime, a star can also contain a
proportion of degenerate matter. The
nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the
source of most of the energy on Earth.

Alpha Centauri ( Centauri, Cen; also known as Rigil

Kentaurus, Rigil Kent Toliman) is the brightest star in the
southern constellation of Centaurus. Although it appears to the
unaided eye as a single object, Alpha Centauri is actually a
binary star system (designated Alpha Centauri AB or Cen
AB) whose combined visual magnitude of -0.27 would qualify it
as the third single brightest star in the night sky after -0.72
magnitude Canopus.

Sirius is the brightest star in

the night sky. With a visual
apparent magnitude of 1.46, it
is almost twice as bright as
Canopus, the next brightest
star. The name "Sirius" is
derived from the Ancient Greek:
Seirios ("glowing" or
"scorcher"). The star has the
Bayer designation Alpha Canis
Majoris ( Cyma). What the
naked eye perceives as a single
star is actually a binary star
system, consisting of a white
main sequence star of spectral
type A1V, termed Sirius A, and
a faint white dwarf companion
of spectral type DA2, termed
Sirius B. The distance
separating Sirius A from its
companion varies between
8.1 and 31.5 AU.

Betelgeuse, also known by

its Bayer designation Alpha
Orionis ( Orionis, Ori), is
the eighth brightest star in the
night sky and second brightest
star in the constellation of
Orion, outshining its neighbour
Rigel (Beta Orionis) only rarely.
Distinctly reddish-tinted, it is a
semiregular variable star
whose apparent magnitude
varies between 0.2 and 1.2, the
widest range of any first
magnitude star. The star marks
the upper right vertex of the
Winter Triangle and center of
the Winter Hexagon.

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an

internationally defined area of the celestial sphere.
These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns
formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to
one another on Earth's night sky.

Androme
da
Antlia
Apus
Aquarius
Aquila
Ara
Aries

Caelum
Camelopardalis
Cancer
Canes Venatici
Canis Major
Canis Minor
Capricornus
Carina
Cassiopeia
Centaurus

Sagitta
Sagittarius
Scorpius
Sculptor
Scutum
Serpens

Ursa Maj
or
Ursa Min
or

The Moon is Earth's only known natural

satellite, and the fifth largest satellite in the
Solar System. It is the largest natural
satellite of a planet in the Solar System
relative to the size of its primary, having a
quarter the diameter of Earth and 181 its
mass. The Moon is the second densest
satellite after . a satellite of Jupiter .

The revolution of the Moon

around the Earth makes the
Moon appear as if it is
changing shape in the sky.
From Earth we see the Moon
grow from a thin crescent to a
full disk (or full moon) and
then shrink back to a thin
crescent again before
vanishing for a few days.
The Moon phases are produced
by the alignment of the Moon
and the Sun in the sky.

Neil Alden Armstrong (born

August 5, 1930) is an American former
astronaut, test pilot, aerospace
engineer, university professor, United
States Naval Aviator, and the first
person to set foot upon the Moon.

SOLAR SYSTEM CONSISTS OF

SUN
MOON(NATURAL
SATELLITE)

PLANETS
COMATS AND
METEOR

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is

almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma
interwoven with magnetic fields.[10][11] It has a diameter
of about 1,392,000 km, about 109 times that of Earth, and
its mass (about 21030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of
Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the
Solar System.

Terrestrial planet,
telluric planet or rocky
planet is a planet that is
composed primarily of
silicate rocks or metals.
planets closest to the
Sun. The terms are
derived from Latin words
for Earth (Terra and Tells),
so Within the Solar
System, the terrestrial
planets are the inner
these planets are, in a
certain way, "Earth-like".

Jovian planets are also known

as gas giants. There are four
Jovian planets: Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
These four planets also
comprise the outer planets.
The term Jovial came from
Jupiter, describing the other
gas giants in our Solar System
as Jupiter-like. Despite
common belief, gas giants are
not composed entirely of gas.
A rocky core exists
somewhere within these balls
of gas, but it is difficult if not
impossible as of yet, to
determine where this center
is.

Mercury is the innermost and smallest planet in the Solar

System,[a] orbiting the Sun once every 87.969 Earth days. The
orbit of Mercury has the highest eccentricity of all the Solar
System planets, and it has the smallest axial tilt. It completes
three rotations about its axis for every two orbits. The perihelion of
Mercury's orbit precesses around the Sun at an excess of 43 arc
seconds per century, a phenomenon that was explained in the
20th century

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it

every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus,
the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it
is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an
apparent magnitude of 4.6, bright enough to cast
shadows. Because Venus is an inferior planet from Earth,
it never appears to venture far from the Sun: its
elongation reaches a maximum of 47.8. Venus reaches
its maximum brightness shortly before sunrise or shortly
after sunset, for which reason it has been known as the

Earth (or the Earth) is the third planet from the Sun, and the
densest and fifth-largest of

the eight planets in the

Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar
System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to
as the world, the Blue Planet,[20] or by its Latin name, Terra.

The right size and right distance from the sun so that it has right
temperature range and gravity.

Presence of water on its surface.

Suitable atmosphere and blanket of ozone layer.

The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's

atmosphere which contains relatively high
concentrations of ozone (O3). This layer
absorbs 9799% of the Sun's high frequency
ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to
the life forms on Earth.[1] It is mainly located in
the lower portion of the stratosphere from
approximately 20 to 30 kilometres (12 to 19 mi)
above Earth, though the thickness varies
seasonally and geographically.[2] The ozone
layer was discovered in 1913 by the French
physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson. Its
properties were explored in detail by the British
meteorologist G. M. B. Dobson, who developed
a simple spectrophotometer (the Dobsonmeter)
that could be used to measure stratospheric
ozone from the ground. Between 1928 and
1958 Dobson established a worldwide network
of ozone monitoring stations, which continue to
operate to this day. The "Dobson unit", a
convenient measure of the columnar density of
ozone overhead, is named in his honor.

The seasons result from the Earth's

axis being tilted to its orbital plane; it
deviates by an angle of
approximately 23.5 degrees. Thus, at
any given time during summer or
winter, one part of the planet is more
directly exposed to the rays of the
Sun . This exposure alternates as the
Earth revolves in its orbit. Therefore,
at any given time, regardless of
season, the northern and southern
hemispheres experience opposite
seasons.

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System.
The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is
often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide
prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance.Mars is
a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface
features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon
and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of
Earth.

Phobos ( ; Greek: ;
systematic designation: Mars
I) is the larger and closer of
"fear"), a son of Ares (Mars
the two natural satellites of
Mars. Both moons were
discovered in 1877. With a
mean radius of 11.1 km
(6.9 mi), Phobos is 7.24
times as massive as Deimos.
It is named after the Greek
god Phobos (which means )
fear.

Deimos ( /dams/ dyms; also /dims/ dee-ms;

Greek: ) is the smaller
and outer of Mars's two
moons (the other being
Phobos). It is named after
Deimos, a figure representing
dread in Greek Mythology.[6]
Its systematic designation is
Mars II.[6]

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest
planet within the Solar System.[13] It is a gas giant with
mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half
times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System
combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with
Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Together, these four planets
are sometimes referred to as the Jovian or outer planets.

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest
planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. Named after the Roman
god Saturn, its astronomical symbol () represents the god's
sickle. Saturn is a gas giant with an average radius about nine
times that of Earth.[12][13] While only 1/8 the average density of
Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more
massive than Earth.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest
planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It
is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus (Ancient Greek:
), the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).
Though it is visible to the naked eye like the five classical planets, it was
never recognized as a planet by ancient observers because of its dimness
and slow orbit.[16] Sir William Herschel announced its discovery on March
13, 1781, expanding the known boundaries of the Solar System for the
first time in modern history. Uranus was also the first planet discovered
with a telescope.

Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet

from the Sun in the Solar System.
Named for the Roman god of the sea, it
is the fourth-largest planet by diameter
and the third largest by mass. Neptune
is 17 times the mass of Earth and is
slightly more massive than its near-twin
Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of
Earth but not as dense.[12] On average,
Neptune orbits the Sun at a distance of
30.1 AU, approximately 30 times the
EarthSun distance. Its astronomical
symbol is , a stylized version of the
god Neptune's triden

URANUS =21 SATELLITS

MERCURY = 0 SATELLITES

VENUS = 0 SATELLITES

EARTH = 1 SATELLITES

NEPTUNE =8
SATELLITES
MARS = 2 SATELLITES

JUPITER=28
SATELLITES

SATURN =30 SATELLITES

Asteroids (from Greek 'star' and 'like, in form') are a class of small
Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called
planetoids, especially the larger ones. These terms have historically been
applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not show the disk of
a planet and was not observed to have the characteristics of an active comet,
but as small objects in the outer Solar System were discovered, their volatilebased surfaces were found to more closely resemble comets, and so were
often distinguished from traditional asteroids.[1] Thus the term asteroid has
come increasingly to refer specifically to the small rocky and metallic bodies of
the inner Solar System out to the orbit of Jupiter. They are grouped with the
outer bodiescentaurs, Neptune trojans, and trans-Neptunian objectsas
minor planets, which is the term preferred in astronomical circles.[2] This article
will restrict the use of the term 'asteroid' to the minor planets of the inner Solar
System.

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when

close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma (a thin,
fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and sometimes also a tail.
These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar
radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the
comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to
tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose
collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. Comets
have been observed since ancient times and have
traditionally been considered bad omens.

Halley's Comet or Comet Halley (officially designated

1P/Halley) is the best-known of the short-period comets,
and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years.[1][10] Halley is
the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the
naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet
that might appear twice in a human lifetime.[11] Other
naked-eye comets may be brighter and more spectacular,
but will appear only once in thousands of years.

A meteoroid is a sand- to boulder-sized particle of debris in the

Solar System. The visible path of a meteoroid that enters Earth's
(or another body's) atmosphere is called a meteor, or
colloquially a shooting star or falling star. If a meteoroid
reaches the ground and survives impact, then it is called a
meteorite. Many meteors appearing seconds or minutes apart are
called a meteor shower. The root word meteor comes from the
Greek meteoros, meaning "high in the air". The Minor Planet
Center does not use the term "meteoroid".

A meteorite is a natural object

originating in outer space that
survives impact with the Earth's
surface. Meteorites can be big or
small. Most meteorites derive from
small astronomical objects called
meteoroids, but they are also
sometimes produced by impacts of
asteroids. When a meteoroid
enters the atmosphere, ram
pressure (not friction) causes the
body to heat up and emit light,
thus forming a fireball, also known
as a meteor or shooting/falling
star. The term bolide refers to
either an extraterrestrial body that
collides with the Earth, or to an
exceptionally bright, fireball-like
meteor regardless of whether it
ultimately impacts the surface.

Artificial satellites are human-built objects orbiting the

Earth and other planets in the Solar System. This is
different from the natural satellites, or moons, that orbit
planets, dwarf planets and even asteroids. Artificial

satellites are used to study the Earth, other planets,

to help us communicate, and even to observe the
distant Universe. Satellites can even have people in
them, like the International Space Station and the
Space Shuttle.

A geostationary satellite is an earth-orbiting satellite,

placed at an altitude of approximately 35,800
kilometers (22,300 miles) directly over the equator,
that revolves in the same direction the earth rotates
(west to east). At this altitude, one orbit takes 24
hours, the same length of time as the earth requires to
rotate once on its axis. The term geostationary comes
from the fact that such a satellite appears nearly
stationary in the sky as seen by a ground-based
observer. BGAN, the new global mobile
communications network, uses geostationary
satellites.