The Seven Wonders Of The Solar System

I have a passion for all things astronomy. I am also a Born Again Christian and a Creationist. I sometimes enjoy watching TV shows about astronomy, however, I don't like their evolutionist and big bang theory approach to everything. I realize I can not get Creationist beliefs out of secular television shows and that is why I rarely watch them. I also don't like the confusion it might cause my children.

Ideas like the universe is 4.5 billion years old and all the matter in the universe was was once so small and then began expanding like a balloon and is still expanding, yet there is no architect or Creator involved. Nevertheless, while my children were otherwise distracted, I watched The Universe on The History Channel. The topic of the show was the Seven Wonders Of The Solar System. I believe they got the idea from a similar show on BBC which aired earlier this year.

The seventh wonder is Enceladus, a satellite of the planet Saturn. Next in line is the Rings of Saturn. The fifth wonder of our solar system is Jupiter's Great Red Spot. Continuing the journey from the gas giant planets is where the fourth wonder is; the Asteroid Belt. Number three is the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, then the surface of the Sun, and finally, the most wonderful of all the wonders is planet Earth.

Enceladus is one of Saturn's sixty-two known moons. Enceladus is unique because of its volcanic activity. It is thought that Enceladus must have an internal heat source but the moon is ice covered. Enceladus erupts with water and ice. When the water reaches the surface it is turned into ice and the geyers spew forth material at over 1400 mph. Vulcanism of water and ice is termed cryovolcanism and can be seen in the southern region of Enceladus. It is believed that the eruptions feed Saturn's E ring with more material.

Saturn's rings were discovered in 1610 by Galileo and have been a source of amazement ever since. The rings are made up of 35 trillion trillion tons of rock and ice. They range in size from pebble to mountain size. Once thought to be one massive ring, it is now known to be made up of many separate rings. In 2009 NASA discovered a nearly invisible ring around Saturn. The ring is so enormous that 1 billion Earths would be needed to fill the space.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the system. It is the home of what is thought to be the longest ongoing storm, the Great Red Spot. The storm has been raging for almost 400 years and is large enough to fit 3 Earths inside. The storm rises 5 miles high in Jupiter's atmosphere and is the largest storm in the solar system.

The fourth wonder of the Solar System is the Asteroid Belt. Located between Mars and Jupiter, the Asteroid Belt is comprised of 100 million miles of rocks. Some are the size of stones and some are the size of cities. Unlike Hollywood's portrayal of the Asteroid Belt, they are not closely compacted together continuously knocking into each other. The average separation between asteroids is about one million miles. Ceres is a dwarf planet located within the belt and it contains approximately 1/4 the mass of all asteroids.

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. It is almost three times taller than Mount Everest. Olympus Mons has a 13 mile summit and it is thought to be so large because the gravity is less than on Earth. Olympus Mons is 100 times the volume of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which is the largest volcano on Earth. Because of the shallow slope of the volcano and its vast size means that a person standing on the surface of Mars would not be able to see the upper profile even from a distance.

The surface of the Sun is the second of the seven wonders. The surface is 10,000 degrees of plasma and its power is equal to a billion tons of TNT. The sun allows life to exist on Earth. The sun is composed mostly of helium and hydrogen. As essential as the sun is it is also as dangerous. Coronal Mass Ejection or CME can send 10 billion tons of solar matter towards Earth at a million miles per hour. When the solar matter reaches Earth it can cause beautiful light shows at the poles, Aurora Borealis in the North and Aurora Australis in the South. It can also wreak havoc on our satellites, communications and power grids.

I concur that the most wonderous of all heavenly bodies on their list is also my number one. The best, the most magnificent and glorious wonder in our solar system is our home planet, Earth. Earth is the only planet with intelligent life. It is also the only planet with surface water on it which makes continued life possible. The distance Earth is from the Sun is perfect for our survival. A little further or closer and life would not be possible here.

The Earth is home to millions of species of animal and plant life. From space it looks like a big blue marble. “It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.”