May 3, 2024

Curious Kids: What is the coldest planet in the solar system?

Planets are made when smaller chunks of rock smash together, constructing the complete planet piece by piece over many millions of years. Because it does not have this blanket, the front side and the back side of Mercury can have very different temperatures.Measuring temperatures in spaceFor some neighboring worlds like Mars, we can send probes to study the environment directly from the planets surface. We do this by studying the light from the planet, which can inform us the types of atoms and molecules which make up the planets atmosphere.

Planets are made when smaller chunks of rock smash together, constructing the full world piece by piece over numerous millions of years. If you clap your hands together for a long time they will start to feel hot– the very same thing takes place with planets.Neptune wasnt hit by a big asteroid like Uranus was, so it has been able to hold on to more of its heat.You might also be amazed to find out that the closest world to the sun, Mercury, can also be very cold. Since it does not have this blanket, the front side and the back side of Mercury can have extremely various temperatures.Measuring temperature levels in spaceFor some nearby planets like Mars, we can send out probes to study the atmosphere directly from the worlds surface area. We have not been able to do this for distant worlds such as Neptune and Uranus.Instead, we have to work out how cold they are by determining their temperature level from here on Earth. We do this by studying the light from the world, which can inform us the types of atoms and molecules which make up the worlds atmosphere.