Tuesday, September 02, 2008

The Inner Solar System

The stellar system hosting this blog is characterized by two gas giants and two ice giants. These four bodies constitute 99.5% of the planetary mass of the system. However, there is a small amount of rocky matter orbiting close to the star Sol, which accreted in an area too warm for the ices to condense into proper sized planets. Although this part of the solar system is dynamically insignificant, great importance is placed on it by a particular species of bipedal mammal, as these creatures are unfortunate enough to live on the largest of these rocks. In the following picture, all three other planets and the planet-sized moon of the largest object can be seen behind the clouds of this largest inner planet’s atmosphere. Readers interested in the relative mass of these planets are referred to the rocky planet pie chart. Correct identification of each rock is left as an exercise for the reader.

3 comments:

Chris said...

Nice shot. Where was it taken?

Unknown said...

great shot!! wish it wasnt so freakin cloudy here all the time!!!

C W Magee said...

Whadda you mean, astropixie? There are heaps of clouds in that picture.

The shot was taken from a hill above our suburb in Canberra. Use astropixie's website to find the date from the position of the moon.