Friday, November 25, 2011

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Most of it, anyway.  Here is our sun, the planets, and one rather peculiar object.





The following photos were taken by the Hubble telescope.





Here is our sun, shown with its atmosphere





Mercury is the planet nearest the sun.






Venus has an extensive cloud cover, but 
here it is without its clouds.





Our earth with a full moon.





And earth showing a new moon.





Next out is the red planet Mars





Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.





Saturn is considered to be the most beautiful in the system.





Uranus -- a big blue dot.





Neptune





Okay, here is the peculiar object.  This is Pluto, and was recently downgraded from a planet to a new category
of dwarf planet.  Hope we didn't hurt its feelings, but it is even smaller than some moons in the Solar System.
In addition it has a highly elliptical orbit that brings it inside the orbit of Neptune.  Go figure.




Fun -

A man in Florida calls his son in California two days before Thanksgiving and says, "I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. Forty-five years of misery is enough."  “Pop, what are you talking about?" the son screams.  "We can't stand the sight of each other any longer," the father says. "We're sick of each other, and I'm sick of talking about this, so you call your sister in Denver and tell her."

Frantic, the son calls his sister, who explodes on the phone. "Like heck they're getting divorced," she
shouts. "I'll take care of this. "

She calls Florida immediately, and screams at her father, "You are NOT getting divorced! Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back, and we'll both be there tomorrow. Until then, don't do a thing! DO YOU HEAR ME?" and hangs up.

The old man hangs up the phone and turns to his wife. "Okay," he says. "They're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own way."

4 comments:

  1. I like to think of Pluto as "King of the Kuiper Belt." And give some thanks to Jupiter for taking the bullet for us so often!

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  2. Look what I just spotted:
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/11/29/142886036/is-8-a-magic-number-how-many-planets-did-we-start-with

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  3. Saturn is a fancy lady's hat, on her way (cue the Ricky Nelson) to a garden party, to reminisce with her old friends. Planets came from miles around, everyone was there, no one heard the music; there was magic in the air. But not a lot of oxygen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6S9dCGwB8M

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  4. LOVE these photos - you know what a sucker I am for all things "outer space"

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