Solar System

I don't know to be honest, but I might be able to help you find out. Take a look at this website which allows you to view the position of the planets at any date and time.

This website contains lots of useful information about the night sky including the constellations.

Clicking on the "Did you know..." link on each of the planet pages on my website reveals an interesting fact about each of the planets. For more solar system information, try looking at this other Solar System site.

I'm afraid I don't have any additional information I can send people. The temperatures of the planets can be found in the datastore.

This NASA site contains information and images of Saturn and its moons.

This site about Black Holes contains useful, easy to understand information about black holes plus some animations, links and a bit of maths.

The idea of terraforming a planet to make it inhabitable by humans has been suggested by many people in the past. Perhaps one of the most famous was the suggestion by Carl Sagan that a certain type of bacteria could be introduced into the upper atmosphere of Venus, which would gradually convert it into a habitable planet. I think that terraforming a planet is probably possible, but would require an awful lot of time, research and expense.

Just because human colonies on Mars may be a long time coming, it doesn't mean it's not interesting to think about it. Take a look at the Darian Defrost Calendar, a website which provides a fascinating glimse into the life of a fictitious Martian colony living on a fully terraformed Mars in the 22nd century.

When I mentioned oceans of methane I was actually talking about Titan, one of Saturn's moons. Some scientists have speculated that the temperature is just right for methane to be in liquid form on the surface. Methane is a simple hydrocarbon, consisting of one carbon atom and 4 hydrogen atoms bonded together. It is quite common in the outer regions of the solar system, which is why scientists think there may be enough to form vast oceans. We cannot currently see what the surface of Titan looks like, because it is covered by thick clouds.

The masses and densities of all the planets in the Solar System (and some of the major moons) can be found in the Datastore. The volumes can be worked out by dividing the mass by the density.

I'm sorry, but I don't really have any more information available than you can find on my website. The best I can do is recommend a few resources where you can find more information. Much of the information on my website is from an excellent book called "Wanderers in Space" which contains detailed information and pictures of the bodies in the Solar System. One of the most complete websites is Views of the Solar System.

The Sea of Rains is the translation (from Latin) of Mare Imbrium more commonly known as the Sea of Showers. It is located to the north-west side of the Moon. It is approximately 750 x 670 miles across and is largely ringed by mountains. A bit more information about Mare Imbrium can be found at this site.

One of my favourite sites about the solar system is called Views of the Solar System. It contains loads of information and pictures about our Solar System.

The Earth is 150 million kilometres (around 100 million miles) from the Sun, which means that it travels 942 million kilometres (628 million miles) every year.

The planets are named after Greek and Roman Gods. Here's a brief list:

Mercury	Roman God of Commerce/Speed
Venus	Roman Goddess of Love/Beauty
Mars	Roman God of War
Jupiter	Roman Captain of Gods
Saturn	Roman God of agriculture
Uranus	Greek God of the Heavens
Neptune	Roman God of the Sea
Pluto	Roman God of the Underworld

The reasons behind these names make quite a lot of sense. For instance, Mercury's close orbit to the Sun means it moves very rapidly in the sky, so it is named after the God of Speed.