Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

Do you not see that God has made subject to you whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth and amply bestowed upon you His favors, both apparent and unapparent? But of the people is he who disputes about God without knowledge or guidance or an enlightening Book.

And if you asked them, “Who created the heavens and earth?” they would surely say, “God.” Say, All praise is due to God “; but most of them do not know.

To God belongs whatever is in the heavens and earth. Indeed, God is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy.

End of Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

O people I told you that these few programs are somewhat technical for an average person but all this is very important to give you an idea of the various things various creation of your Lord around you and within yourselves and that this will also help you later to understand the religious scriptures in a better way. Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and day are surely Signs for men of understanding. 

Now today I will continue with the Solar system by giving you a brief overview of planets and other bodies in it.

Starting from the first planet Mercury named after the messenger of the Roman gods this is the smallest planet in the Solar system. It has no moon. Mercury is second in density after Earth and has the highest orbital speed. Earth’s core is 17% of its size, but Mercury’s core is not compressed and is 46% of the size. From space, Mercury looks like the back side of the moon and can be seen as morning or evening star but get lost in sun’s glare. It has phases like moon and its one day is equal to 59 earth days and 1year equals to 88days. Mercury has almost no atmosphere only very thin exosphere because of which extreme temperatures at day and night -173 Celsius at night to 427 Celsius during the day. Mariner-10 mapped mercury 45% in 1974-75 than Messenger launched in 2004 & put in orbit around Mercury in 2011.

The second planet is Venus which is named after the Roman goddess of love & beauty. Venus is slightly less in size than earth. After sun and moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky. It has no moon. From space, Venus looks like the back side of the moon and also has phases like moon. We cannot see full Venus but from crescent to gibbous. Axis tilt of this planet is only 3 degrees as compared to 23.5 of earth, so it has no seasons. A day on Venus remains for 243 Earth days, and it takes 225 Earth days for Venus to go all the way around the sun. That means that a day on Venus is a little longer than a year on Venus. Since the day and year lengths are almost similar, one day on Venus is not like a day on Earth. On Earth, the sun rises and sets once each day. But on Venus, the sun rises every 117 Earth days. That means the sun rises two times during each year on Venus, even though it is still the same day on Venus.  And because Venus rotates backward, the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. This retrograde rotation of Venus may because of some collision in the past which did two things change of direction & slowing down to 243 earth days. Venus has no evidence of magnetic field because of slow rotational speed. It has thick, toxic atmosphere 98 time high pressured than that of earth. The atmosphere consists of 96% CO2 covered with an opaque layer of clouds mostly of sulphuric acid. On earth lot of CO2 tied up in rocks & sediments while in Venus because of temperature rocks cannot hold and CO2 become part of the atmosphere which result in runaway greenhouse effect & increase in temperature. Temperature ranges from 450C to 850C. Venus has two continents Ishtar In north about the size of Australia & Aphrodite On equator about the size of Africa & several mountains ranges all named after women except Maxwell mountains & 2other regions. Venus has largest no. of volcanos in the solar system. Mariner in 1960’s, Venera 1961-81 and Magellan early 1990’s mapped Venus 98%. Venus Express was the first Venus exploration mission of the European Space Agency. Launched in November 2005, it arrived at Venus in April 2006 and began continuously sending back science data.

Before going to Mars let me explain here the runaway greenhouse effect happening in Venus. It is a process in which a net positive feedback between surface temperature and atmospheric opacity increases the strength of the greenhouse effect on a planet until its rivers, seas and oceans boil away. To understand it more I give you an example, in Hot summer days when you open the door of a car park outside, it is hotter inside the car than outside. Why is it that? Sunlight has visible light and glass is transparent to it that’s why we can see both ways in & out. But sunlight has Ultra Violet light also. So Uv when passing thru the glass of car losses its energy & becomes longer wavelength i.e Infrared which than trapped inside the car and makes it hotter than outside. The Same effect is happening in Venus that Uv light trapped as Infrared in the atmosphere. That’s why people on earth should be worried about climate changes and global warming on earth as because of pollution, factories, vehicles on road our atmosphere is also becoming polluted and heavier.

Mars is named after Roman god of War. It’s red because of rusty iron in the ground. It is half the size of Earth and has no magnetic field. Mars has moons Phobos & Deimos. Gravity is 38% of earth’s gravity. One day on Mars is 24.6 hours, and 1year is equal to 687 earth days. Temperature ranges -140C to 21C. The retrograde Orbital motion of Mars is because of optical illusion of Earth-Mars motion difference.  It has a very thin atmosphere made of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon. There are seasons and weather on Mars, and it also has water in the form of ice at poles.  Mars has huge volcanos like Olympus Mons which is almost the size of the state of Missouri and 25km above the surface. Then there is Valley of Mariners, a tectonic fracture 4000km long 7km in depth. A Mars-orbiting satellite recently spotted seven dark spots near the planet’s equator that scientists think could be entrances to underground caves and have been dubbed the seven sisters -Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abbey, Nikki and Jeanne -after loved ones of the researchers who found them. Mars was visited by Viking 1&2 in 1976. Current missions are Mars Odyssey NASA and Mars Express by European Space Agency.

So these were the terrestrial planets. Now let’s talk about something for the Gas Giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. All are Hydrogen based no oxygen there. Jupiter & Saturn are more like Liquid giants as kind of liquid if we go deep in their surface. Each of Gas giants radiates more energy than they receive from the sun so they must have some internal energy source like gravitational collapse or radioactive decay. Uranus is the coldest of all. All have strong Magnetic field due to spinning fluids. Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field almost 14 times that of Earth. There are various exploring efforts and missions towards these planets. The mission Voyager took advantage of the alignment of the planets which occur once every 175 years and Voyager 2 visited all these planets. They were launched in 1977 and are now exploring the outer boundary of the heliosphere in interstellar space. With a velocity of 17 Km/s relative to the Sun. In August 2012, data from Voyager 1 indicated that it had become the first human made object to enter interstellar space. Going farther than anyone or anything in history. At a distance of 141 Astronomical Units from the Sun. As of November 22, 2017, it is the farthest spacecraft from Earth as well as the farthest man-made object. It is also the most distant object in the solar system whose location is known.

Each Voyager spacecraft carries a gold plated audio visual disc in the event that the spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life forms from other parts of the galaxy or for future humans, who may find them. Those records are thought as a sort of a time capsule. These are called the Voyager Golden Records. It carries photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, some scientific information, greetings from people in 55 different languages and parts of speeches of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States. Also a medley, Sounds of Earth, that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a collection of music. 

 Another spacecraft mission known as Pioneer also has a Plank showing few things to outer civilizations. Which are the figure of a Man & a woman showing they can move their hands. Without cloths and at a distance so that they are separate beings & showing in the background The Pioneer Craft to get an idea of their sizes. And a map of the solar system from 3rd planet earth, pulsar near our solar system & a chemical structure of hydrogen molecule. 

Coming back to gas giant planets, Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It’s similar to a star, but it never got big enough to start burning. It is at a distance of 5.2AU almost 778Million Km from Sun. It has no tilt in its axis therefore no seasons. Made up mainly of Hydrogen & Helium Jupiter is quite big. It is equal to 318 earth in mass, 11 earths in diameters and 1400 earths in volume. It has 10 hours day an year on Jupiter is like 11.8 years on Earth. Jupiter has a faint ring system and its famous Great Red Spot is a big storm remained for years. Jupiter has  50 known moons & 17 more awaiting confirmation. Just consider spending a night on Jupiter with your loved one under the light of 67 moons. Eight different space crafts visited or passed by Jupiter such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini, New Horizons and Juno. 

Saturn is at a distance of 9.5AU almost 1.4Billion km from sun. It has a 27-degree tilt in its axis thus has seasons. The atmosphere consists mainly of Hydrogen and Helium. Saturn has 53 known moons & 9 more awaiting confirmation. It has 7 rings with spaces between them. When Galileo Galilei saw Saturn through a telescope in the 1600s, he was not sure what he was seeing. Initially, he thought he was looking at three planets, or a planet with handles. Now we know those handles turned out to be the rings of Saturn. Saturn is equal to 95 earths in mass, 9 earths in diameters and almost 780 earths in volume. A day on Saturn is 10.7 hours on Earth and a year is 29.5 Earth years. Five space crafts have been by Saturn such as Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2 and Cassini. 

The third gas giant Uranus is surrounded by a set of 13 rings. Uranus is an ice giant instead of a gas giant. It is mostly made of floating ice material above a solid core. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium like Jupiter and Saturn, but it also has methane. The methane makes Uranus blue. It is at a distance of 19.19AU almost 2.9 Billion km from the sun. It has as a 29 degrees tilt in its axis and thus has seasons. Uranus is equal to 14.6 earths in mass and 4.1 earth in diameters. It has 17 hours day and a year on Uranus is like 84 years on Earth. So if you were born there, you would have to wait your whole life to celebrate your birthday. Uranus has 27 moons. Like Venus Uranus also rotates in the opposite direction as compared to earth. And unlike any other planet, Uranus rotates on its side which means it spins horizontally and sun rises from south to north. Voyager 2 is the only Spacecraft visited Uranus.

The last gas giant Neptune is surrounded by a set of 6 rings. Neptune is the last of the planets in our solar system. It’s more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth at 30.07AU or almost 4.5 Billion km. It has 98 degrees tilt in its axis thus rolls thru the solar system on its sides. Like Uranus it is an ice giant made of thick soup of water, Ammonia and Methane. It has 16 hours day and a year on Neptune is like 164 years on Earth. It has 13 known moons & 1 more awaiting confirmation. Neptune is equal to 17.2 earths in mass and 3.9 earths in diameters. Voyager 2 is the only Spacecraft visited Neptune.

O humankind you can see that only in this solar system in which you live there is so much to explore and so much to wonder. Is this all designed, created, happening and running by its own. Nay, it is all by the Will and command of your Lord. So which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?

Recitation of the Holy Scripture.

Do you not see that God causes the night to enter the day and causes the day to enter the night and has subjected the sun and the moon, each running its course for a specified term, and that God, with whatever you do, is Acquainted?

And if whatever trees upon the earth were pens and the sea was ink, replenished thereafter by seven more seas, the words of God would not be exhausted. Indeed, God is Exalted in Might and Wise.