Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

May 28, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Which of the Planets is Closest to the Sun?

[/caption]
Were you wondering which of the planets is closest to the Sun? The answer is planet Mercury. At an average distance of only 57.9 million km, Mercury orbits closer to the Sun than any other planet.

Just to give you a comparison, Venus orbits the Sun at an average distance of 108.2 million km. And Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.6 million km. So you can see that Mercury is much closer, taking only 88 days to complete an orbit around the Sun.

So, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. And then Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun, and Earth is the third closest planet to the Sun.

The distance of Mercury to the Sun is actually an average. Mercury follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun. Sometimes it’s much closer, and other times it’s much further. At its closest point, called perihelion, Mercury is only 46 million km from the Sun. And then at its most distant point in orbit, called aphelion, Mercury gets out to 69.8 million km from the Sun.

And just for comparison, the planet furthest from the Sun is Neptune, with an average distance of 4.5 billion km from the Sun.

We’ve written many articles about distances in the Solar System. Here’s an article about the distance to the Sun, and here’s an article about how far all the planets are from the Sun.

If you’d like more information on Mercury, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide, and here’s a link to NASA’s MESSENGER Misson Page.

We’ve also recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about Mercury. Listen here, Episode 49: Mercury.

May 28, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

How Many Earths Can Fit in the Sun?

Earth Compared to the Sun. Image credit: NASA

[/caption]
So, how many Earths can fit in the Sun? The answer is that it would take 1.3 million Earths to fill up the Sun. That’s a lot of Earths.

The Sun makes up 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System. And it’s the giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn which make the most of that remaining .14% of the Solar System.

If you’d like to do the calculation yourself, here are your numbers. The volume of the Sun is 1.412 x 10¹⁸ km³. And the volume of the Earth is 1.083 x 10¹² km³. So if you divide the volume of the Sun by the volume of the Earth, you get 1,300,000.

Of course, the Sun is a fairly average sized stars. There are some enormous stars out there. For example, the red giant Betelgeuse has a radius of 936 times the radius of the Sun. That gives it hundreds of millions of times more volume than the Sun.

And the largest known star is VY Canis Majoris, thought to be between 1800 and 2100 times the radius of the Sun.

We’ve written many articles about size comparisons for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the Moon compared to Earth, and here’s an article about Saturn compared to Earth.

If you’d like more info on the Sun, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on the Sun, and here’s a link to the SOHO mission homepage, which has the latest images from the Sun.

We’ve also recorded several episodes of Astronomy Cast about the Sun. Listen here, Episode 30: The Sun, Spots and All.

May 28, 2010May 4, 2017 by Fraser Cain

What Galaxy is the Earth In?

What galaxy is Earth in? We're in the Milky Way

[/caption]
Were you wondering what galaxy is the Earth in? You’ll probably recognize the answer: it’s the Milky Way Galaxy.

If you go to a dark spot, away from the bright city lights, and look up, you should be able to see the Milky Way as a cloudy band stretching across the sky. It really does look like spilt milk spread across the sky. But if you take a telescope and examine it more closely, you’ll see that the clouds are actually the collective light from thousands of stars.

Since we’re embedded inside the Milky Way, we’re seeing our home galaxy edge-on, from the inside. To get a better idea, grab a dinner plate and take a look at it edge on, so you can’t see the circular shape of the galaxy. You can only see the edge of the plate.

The Milky Way is an example of a barred spiral galaxy. It measures approximately 100,000 light years across and it’s only 1,000 light years thick; although, it’s more thick at the core where the galaxy bulges out. If you could fly out of the Milky Way in a rocket and then look back, you’d see a huge spiral shaped galaxy with a bar at the center. At the ends of this bar, there are two spiral arms which twist out forming the structure of the Milky Way.

The Earth is located in the Solar System, and the Solar System is located about 25,000 light-years away from the core of the galaxy. This also means that we’re about 25,000 light-years away from the outer edge of the Milky Way. We’re located in the Orion Spur, which is a minor arm located in between the two major galactic arms.

If you’d like more information on the Milky Way, check out NASA’s Starchild info on the Milky Way, and here’s more info from the WMAP mission.

We’ve written many articles about the Milky Way for Universe Today. Here’s an article with facts about the Milky Way, and here is a map of the Milky Way.

We’ve also recorded several episodes of Astronomy Cast about the Milky Way. Listen here, Episode 99: The Milky Way.

May 27, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

How Many Miles to the Center of the Earth?

[/caption]
Were you wondering how many miles to the center of the Earth? The simple quick answer is 3,958.8 miles – the mean radius of the Earth in miles. In other words, if you dug a tunnel straight down, you’d reach the center of the Earth after going 3,958.8 miles, and then you’d need to go another 3,958.8 miles to reach the opposite side of the planet.

But wait, if you need to be really precise, the answer depends on where you’re standing on Earth. That’s because the Earth isn’t a perfect sphere. It’s rotating in space, and so it bulges around the middle, while it’s more flattened at the poles. And so, if you’re standing at the poles, you’re only 3,949.9 miles from the center of the Earth. And if you’re standing on the equator, the distance is 3,963.2 miles.

The difference between those two amounts is 13.3 miles. In other words, you would have to dig 13.3 miles further if you were standing on the equator to reach the center of the planet.

This might not sound like much, but it’s actually a pretty big deal. The furthest point from the center of the Earth isn’t Mount Everest. In fact, it’s Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Even though it’s shorter than Mount Everest, it’s actually 8,969.8 feet further from the center of the Earth because it’s located near the equator.

We’ve written several articles about the center of the Earth for Universe Today. Here are some interesting facts about the Earth, and here’s an article about the radius of the Earth.

Want to learn more about the interior of the Earth? Check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Earth. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about the Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

May 27, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Tsunami Photos

Tsunami damage along Sumatra northern coasts, Indonesia — Image Credit: Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC

Here are some amazing tsunami photos – at least, the after effects from tsunami impacts on coastlines. You can make any of these images into your computer desktop background. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

[/caption]

This is an image of the island of Sumatra after the 2004 tsunami struck, destroying huge portions of the coastline. If you look closely at the photo, you can see how most of the island is green, except for a patch of brown along the western coast.

Deep Ocean Tsunami Waves off the Sri Lankan Coast — Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

This is an image of the southern coast of Sri Lanka, another part of the world ravaged by the 2004 tsunami. This image was taken by NASA’s Terra satellite, showing huge waves just a few kilometers off the coast of the island nation.

Breaking Tsunami Waves along India's Eastern Coast — Image credit:NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

Here’s an image taken by NASA’s Terra satellite showing huge waves breaking off the coast of India. These were generated by the 2004 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, which traveled across the ocean to strike the coast of India and other countries.

Earthquake off Samoa Generates Tsunami — Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using data from the NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

This is an image of the island of Samoa, showing the damage caused by a 2009 tsunami. The damaged areas are highlighted in brown.

Camaná, Peru, and Tsunami Vulnerability — Image Credit: Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory at Johnson Space Center

This is an image of Camaná, in southern Peru, which was struck by a tsunami in 2001. The dotted line shows the part of the town which was inundated by water – waves rose to 8 meters high in some spots.

If you’d like more information about tsunami, check out the NOAA Tsunami website, which has alerts when there are tsunami dangers. And here’s a link to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

We’ve written many articles about tsunami for Universe Today. Here’s a story about a recent earthquake in Chile that generated a tsunami, and here’s an article about the biggest tsunami ever recorded.

We’ve recorded an entire episode of Astronomy Cast all about our home planet. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

March 5, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Tsunami Wave Pictures

Here are some tsunami wave pictures. You can make any of these images into your computer desktop background. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

Here’s an image from space shortly after the Boxing Day 2004 earthquake that generated the terrible tsunami. You can see the large waves rippling in the ocean just off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

This photo from space shows the devastation that occurred after the December 2004 tsunami struck Little Andaman Island, off the coast of India. You can see how a village was completely wiped out.

Here’s an image of Sumatra in Indonesia, after the 2004 tsunami struck the coast, wiping out a huge portion of the coastal forest. After the tsunami struck, the entire coast of the island looks like it was cleared back several hundred meters.

This photograph shows damage from the 2004 tsunami off the west coast of Sumatra.

Here’s an image of Phuket, an island off the coast of Thailand. It’s famous for its warm water and beautiful beaches, but it was slammed with a powerful tsunami in 2004, just an hour after the earthquake that generated the wave.

We’ve written many articles about tsunami for Universe Today. Here’s an article about why a recent tsunami was smaller than expected, and here are some tsunami pictures.

If you’d like more info on Earth, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Earth. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

March 5, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Apollo 13 Pictures

Here are some Apollo 13 pictures. You can make any of these pictures into your computer desktop background. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background.

Here’s a photo of the Apollo 13 mission launching from Florida’s Cape Canaveral. It launched on April 11, 1970, just a few days before its accident in space, which has been turned into a popular movie.

This is an image of the Apollo 13 re-entry capsule returning to Earth, slowed by three large parachutes. Because of the accident, Apollo 13 kept its lunar lander attached to the Command Module for the entire trip around the Moon and back to Earth. They jettisoned it at the last minute just before re-entering the atmosphere.

Here’s a photo of the Apollo 13 capsule floating on the ocean after its landing. You can see command module pilot John L. Swigert Jr being lifted up by a helicopter.

And here’s a photo of Commander Jim Lovell being lifted up into the helicopter. He was the last of the three astronauts lifted up to safety after their capsule landed in the ocean.

This is an image of the Apollo 13 command module, which was normally used by the astronauts through the mission. Their command module had to be powered down to save power so they had to use the service module after the accident.

We’ve written many articles about Apollo 13 for Universe Today. Here’s an article about what really happened on Apollo 13, and here’s an article about the Apollo 13 launch.

If you’d like more information on Apollo 13, here’s a link to NASA’s Apollo 13 mission page, and here’s more information on the accident.

We’ve recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about the NASA capsules. Listen here, Episode 124: Space Capsules.

March 4, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Thunderstorm Pictures

Here are some thunderstorm pictures. You can make any of these into your computer desktop wallpaper. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

Here’s a photo of thunderstorms above the Gulf Coast near Galveston Bay. These thunderstorms build in the morning out over the ocean and then move inland as the day warms up. This photo was taken from the space shuttle during mission STS-40.

This is a photo of some severe thunderstorms that formed in May, 2003. There were several very large tornadoes generated during this period that struck the midwest. This picture was taken by the space shuttle.

This is a world wide map of lightning. This shows the places in the world where lightning is mostly likely to happen. This is the total lightning accumulation over the course of a year.

Here’s an image of the Himalaya mountains seen from the space shuttle. You can see huge monsoon thunderstorms above Bangladesh and India. This is some of the regions that receive the most rainfall in the entire world.

This is a satellite photo of a severe storm that struck the Red Sea in 2006. It was so severe that it caused an Egyptian ferry to sink, carrying 1,300 people.

We have written many articles about storms for Universe Today. Here’s an article about dust storms on Mars, and here’s an article about storms on Saturn.

If you’d like more info on Earth, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Earth. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth. Listen here, Episode 51: Earth.

March 3, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Supernova Pictures

Here are some cool supernova pictures. You can make any of these images into your computer desktop wallpaper. Just click an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

This is an image of a supernova remnant N132D, as photographed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. You can see how the shockwave of the supernova is colliding with the surrounding gas and dust in the nebula.

Here’s an image of supernovae seen by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers found many supernovae like this to determine that the expansion of the Universe is actually accelerating.

This is an image of an expanding shell of hot gas blasting away from a supernova that exploded in 1987. This photo was taken by Hubble in 1994, 7 years after the supernova.

This is a small portion of the Cygnus loop supernova remnant, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This picture was taken in 1991.

Astronomer Johannes Kepler recorded the brightening of a star in the sky in 1604. We now know that this was a supernova exploding in the sky. Here’s a photo of the supernova remnant, taken 400 years after the supernova exploded.

We’ve written many articles about supernovae for Universe Today. Here’s an article about a supernova that exploded in slow motion. And here’s an article about how supernovae might have generated dust in the early Universe.

If you’d like more info on supernovae, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases on Supernova, and here’s a link to the NASA Science Homepage: Supernova for recent stories and images.

We’ve done many episodes of Astronomy Cast about stars. Listen here, Episode 12: Where Do Baby Stars Come From?

March 1, 2010December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Spaceship Pictures

Here are some spaceship pictures. You can make any of these pictures into your computer desktop wallpaper. Just click on an image to enlarge it, and then right-click and choose “Set as Desktop Background”.

[/caption]

This is a picture of the Apollo 17 landing module “Challenger”. When this picture was taken, Challenger had already descended to the surface of the Moon, and the astronauts had completed their lunar excursions. This is just before the lunar module docked to the orbiting command module.

Here’s a picture of the space shuttle Endeavour landing at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The shuttle deploys a chute like this to slow it down once it’s on the runway. This wrapped up mission STS-118, where Endeavour and its crew of astronauts flew up and fixed the Hubble Space Telescope.

Here’s a picture of the space shuttle Discovery as it rolled out to its launch pad. The shuttle is mated to its fuel tank and solid rocket boosters in the Vehicle Assembly Building, and then carried slowly out to the launch pad.

Here’s an image of the space shuttle’s Endeavour’s cargo bay. This photo was taken after the Tranquillity module had already been removed from the shuttle and attached to the International Space Station.

In this photograph, you can see the space shuttle Discovery hitching a ride on the back of a specially modified Boeing 747 carrier. When the shuttle lands in California, NASA uses this aircraft to carry it back to Florida.

We’ve written many articles about spaceships for Universe Today. Here’s an article about a double spaceship sighting alert, and here’s an article about a triple spaceship sighting.

If you’d like more information on the shuttle, here’s a link to NASA’s Official space shuttle page, and here’s the homepage for NASA’s Human Spaceflight.

We’ve recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about the space shuttle. Listen here, Episode 127: The US Space Shuttle.