Archive for May 2nd, 2008

Are black diamonds rare? Are they expensive?

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

What is this question doing in the middle of my Week of Astronomy? Well, stay with me and you’ll find out! Kathleen of Virginia asked this one, maybe as a hint to her husband?
Kathleen – Black diamonds, also known as Carbonado, are indeed rare in the same sense that any gem is relatively rare compared […]

What is a solar system?

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

With all this talk about stars, planets and moons in previous posts, it’s about high time I mentioned a solar system. A solar system is exactly what the name implies - the system associated with a sun (star). Our own solar system contains 8 planets. We once had nine but the planet Pluto was downgraded […]

What is the biggest planet in our solar system?

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Mighty Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system with a mass 318 times that of the Earth. In fact, its mass is more than twice that of all the other planets in the solar system combined. Aside from mass, the planet also takes up a lot of space. It is 88,736 miles in […]