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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Our Solar System is full of wondrous things. Did you know that the mass of Jupiter is two and a half times greater than all the other planets put together? Can you name the biggest moon, tallest mountain and biggest ocean? The answers may surprise you. Jumbos of the Solar System
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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
Joined: May 2010
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Jupiter's moon Ganymede and Saturn's moon Titan are larger than the planet Mercury. However Mercury is more massive. Proportional to the planet's size, Mercury's iron core is larger than Earth's. It's likely that Mercury was once larger than it is now, but lost much of its mass in a collision in the early Solar System.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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The biggest volcano in the Solar System is on Mars. It's called Olympus Mons (Mt Olympus). It's 22 km (14 miles) from base to summit, and it's not only tall, it's big. Here is Olympus Mons compared to the US state of Arizona.
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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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This is an approximation to a true color image of the mountain in the Rheasilvia crater on asteroid Vesta. The mountain is at least 14 miles from base to summit, which makes it about six times higher than Mt Everest. (Credit/Credit: NASA / JPL / MPS / DLR / IDA / Daniel MacháÄek)
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30 |
Here is the Vredefort Crater in South Africa. Before it suffered two billion years of erosion, it was probably about 300 km (190 miles) across. That's big, but not compared to some of the holes left by impacts elsewhere in the Solar System.
Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 03/22/16 09:06 AM.
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,111 Likes: 52
Chimpanzee
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Chimpanzee
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 7,111 Likes: 52 |
Mona, check this article and photo out: More from Hubble
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Angie, this is very interesting. Thank you. I said in my article How Big Are the Biggest Stars? that a star in R136 was the most massive known. But here they're saying that they've found several really massive stars there and that it's improbable that so many could have formed by mergers. So does the Eddington limit need to be revised?
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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Here's a size comparison between Olympus Mons, Everest and Mauna Kea. Everest is the highest mountain above sea level because its base is at quite a high altitude. Mauna Kea's base is on the sea floor. But look at Olympus Mons! Wow! And the mountain in Vesta's Rheasilvia crater may be taller even than Olympus Mons.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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This topographical map of Mars shows the whole planet as if the surface were unrolled. Utopia Planitia is circled in the upper left, so we can see its size in relation to the rest of Mars. Note: The colors represent heights. Blue shows lowlands, not water, though if there were still water on Mars, I guess that's where it would be.
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Joined: May 2010
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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How big is Valles Marineris? To give you an idea about the size of the Martian rift valley, it's shown with the USA superimposed on it to the same scale. You can see that it would stretch right across the country and somewaht beyond New England. Credit: The Valles Marineris image is from a shaded topographic map from the MOLA altimeter, on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 11,915 Likes: 30
BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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BellaOnline Editor Renaissance Human
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The Mid-Atlantic Ridge runs along the sea floor the length of the Atlantic. A rift valley runs alongside it. It makes the Martian Valles Marineris seem a pity puny in comparison.
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