Mercury/Venus

Our solar system consists of the Sun, the planets and their moon satellites, asteroids (small planets), comets, and meteorites. The planets are generally divided into two categories Earth-like (terrestrial) planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars and Giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Little is known about Pluto, the most remote planet from Earth. 

In the region of the terrestrial planets, there may have been several thousand planetesimals of up to several hundred kilometres in diameter. During about ten million years, these united to form the four planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars—which are close to the sun. Far outside the orbit of the planet Mars, the heavier planets were formed, in particular Jupiter and Saturn, the huge masses of which attracted all the hydrogen and helium around them. Apart from their cores, these planets have a similar composition to that of the sun. Between the planets Mars and Jupiter, there is a large zone which should really contain another planet. It... 

The density estimates in Table 7.1 show a distinction between the structures of the planets, with Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars all having mean densities consistent with a rocky internal structure. The Earth-like nature of their composition, orbital periods and distance from the Sun enable these to be classified as the terrestrial planets. Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus have very low densities and are simple gas giants, perhaps with a very small rocky core. Neptune and Pluto clearly contain more dense materials, perhaps a mixture of gas, rock and ice. 

In one sense, the creation of alchemy represented a step backward. The Egyptians had known seven metallic elements gold, silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, and mercury, which they associated with the seven planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, respectively). The Greeks, however, failed to recognize them as distinct elements. According to the Aristotelian theory, the metals were mixtures of the traditional four elements. This idea seemed to... 

No rock samples have been collected from Mercury and Venus, and the arsenic chemistry of their crusts is unknown. Like the Moon, the crustal rocks on Mercury, Venus, and Mars are primarily basalts and other mafic rocks. If the trace element chemistry of their basalts is similar to lunar specimens, they should contain <1 mg kg-1 of arsenic. 

Planetesimal A body in the early solar system that eventually accreted with other planetesimals to form the rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars). Asteroids are probably the remains of unaccreted planetesimals. 

Plate tectonic activity, which is responsible on Earth for subduction zones, spreading centres and obducted ophiolites, as well as associated ore deposits of Cu, Cr and Ni described in 8.6, appears to have been less significant on other terrestrial planets. As a result, local enrichments of these and other transition elements (apart from Fe and Ti) are probably absent on the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars and the asteroids. Since Fe and Ti minerals are predominant on terrestrial planets, electronic spectra of Fe2+ and Fe3+ in silicates and oxides influenced by Ti4+ and Ti3+ are expected to dominate remote-sensed spectra of their surfaces. 

When thinking about how our solar system may have evolved from proplyds (protoplanetary disks), we must remember that the violence of the early Solar System was tremendous as huge chunks of matter bombarded each other. In the inner Solar System, the Sun s heat drove away the lighter-weight elements and materials, leaving Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars behind. In the outer part of the system, the solar nebulas (gas and dust) survived for some time and were accumulated by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. 

But what was there, in addition to water, on the primitive Earth The four outer planets of the solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are still made up mainly of hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia and water, and it is likely that those same chemicals were abundant everywhere else in the solar system, and therefore even in its four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars). These were too small to trap light chemicals, such as hydrogen and helium, but the Earth had a large enough mass to keep all the others. It is likely therefore that the Earth s first atmosphere had great amounts of methane (CH4), ammonia (NHJ and water, and was, as a result, heavy and reducing, like Jupiter s. 

Why were there precisely six planets (Only Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and... 

Body Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto... 

These space-based observatories and a number of terrestrial observatories have produced a growing body of data about five of the planets in the solar system—Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—as well as numerous other bodies, including comets, asteroids, and many planetary satellites, including our own Moon. 

The solar system is sometimes divided into two parts consisting of the inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—and the outer planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and, until recently, Pluto. One might imagine that understanding the chemical and physical properties of the inner planets would help in understanding the chemical and physical properties of the outer planets. No such luck. The two groups of planets differ from each other in some fundamental and important ways. 

The composition of the outer planets is also very different from that of the inner planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are all made of rocky-like material with a density of about 5.5 g/cm3. By contrast, the outer planets seem to consist largely of gases (which accounts for their sometimes being called the gas giants) with densities of about 0.69 g/cm3 for Saturn to 1.54 g/cm3 for Neptune. These... 

T-TIuiri star A young star that is approaching the main sequence on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, terrestrial planets Solar system planets that are relatively small and dense compared with the gas giants, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars sometimes referred to as the minor planets. 

Current evidence indicates that all major bodies in our solar system originated about the same time, approximately 4.6 Ga ago. The oldest rocks taken from the surface of the Moon and meteorites found on Earth are about 4.5 Ga old. The Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars have cratered surfaces that appear to be the result of the same type of meteoric activity that produced craters on Earth. The early atmosphere on Earth was probably similar to those found today on nearby planets on which life did not evolve. Hence, we can use information about those planets to help us infer the nature of the conditions on Earth under which life presumably evolved. 

The chapters in this part help fill in those blanks. Chapter 8 illuminates the Moon and the Nodes of the Moon in all 12 signs. Chapters 9 and 10 discuss Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — plus the asteroid Chiron, which was discovered in 1977 and is now routinely included in horoscopes by many astrologers. Chapter 11 talks about the Ascendant, and Chapter 12 describes the influence of the planets in each of the houses. Finally, Chapter 13 looks at the way the planets interact by analyzing the aspects, or geometrical relationships, that link them together. 

The sign that the Sun occupied at the moment of your birth is the most basic astrological fact about you. It defines your ego, motivations, needs, and approach to life. But the Sun isn t the only planet that affects you. (For astrological purposes, both luminaries — the Sun and the Moon — are called planets. Do yourself a favor and don t use this terminology when talking to astronomers.) Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, not to mention the Moon, represent distinct types of energy that express themselves in the style of the sign they re in. 

To ancient astrologers, that meant noting the positions of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn —the only planets visible from Earth. For thousands of years, stargazers assumed that there were no other planets. Then, in 1781, an amateur astronomer in England discovered another planet, and the race was on. Today, astronomers argue over how many planets there are in the solar system. Some claim there are only eight. Others insist there are 23 — and counting. The answer depends entirely on whom you ask. 

Astrologers regard those five planets, the ones you can see for yourself in the night sky (and sometimes during the day), as the ones with the most immediate impact on the individual. That s why Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are known as the personal planets. The outer planets, which aren t visible without a telescope, are less personality-driven and more generational in their effects (with exceptions that 1 note in Chapter 10). 

I consider the planets in this order first the Sun and Moon, then the planets in order of their distance from the Sun Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. When looking up an aspect, be sure to look for it under the planet that comes first in the list. An aspect between Mercury and Uranus, for example, appears under Mercury an opposition between Venus and Pluto is discussed under Venus, and so on. 

Retrograde Mercury, Venus, and Mars in the birth chart... 

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