Portal:Astronomy/Featured
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[edit] This month's featured article
The Solar System or solar system comprises the Sun and the retinue of celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 162 known moons, three currently identified dwarf planets and their four known moons, and thousands of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and interplanetary dust.
In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun (astronomical symbol 
), four rocky bodies close to it called the inner planets, an inner belt of rocky asteroids, four giant outer planets and a second belt of small icy bodies known as the Kuiper belt. In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury (
), Venus (
), Earth (
), Mars (
), Jupiter (
), Saturn (
), Uranus (
), and Neptune (
). Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites (usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon) and every planet past the asteroid belt is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. The planets other than Earth are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology. The three dwarf planets are Pluto, (
), the largest known Kuiper belt object, Ceres, (
), the largest object in the asteroid belt, and Eris, (no symbol), which lies beyond the Kuiper belt in a region called the scattered disc.
Recently featured: Globular cluster – Binary star – Barnard's Star
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[edit] Upcoming featured articles
[edit] May 2007
Mars (IPA: /ˈmɑɹz/ (GenAm); /ˈmɑːz/ (RP)) is the fourth planet from the Sun and is known as the Red Planet due to its reddish appearance as seen from Earth. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. A terrestrial planet, Mars has a thin atmosphere and surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, and the largest canyon, Valles Marineris. Mars' rotational period and seasonal cycles are also similar to those of the Earth.
Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, it was speculated that there might be liquid water on Mars. This was based on observations of periodic variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the polar latitudes, which looked like seas and continents. Also, long dark striations were interpreted by some observers as irrigation channels of liquid water. These straight line features were later proven not to exist and were instead explained as optical illusions. Still, of all the planets in our solar system other than Earth, Mars is the most likely to harbor liquid water, and perhaps life.
Recently featured: Solar System – Globular cluster – Binary star
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