Far away from the Sun's warmth there is an icy edge to the solar system. At almost a quarter of the distance to the next nearest star is the Oort cloud, where 100 thousand million comets were born. Much further in than this, just outside of the orbit of Neptune, the Kuiper Belt, another cloud of comets, formed from debris of the stellar explosion that were too small to form a planet. The largest of these we call Pluto, 5 times less massive than our Moon and covered in frozen methane, Pluto spins with its twin planet Charon crossing the orbit of Neptune every few hundred years.

The furthest properly formed planet, Neptune, circles 40 times closer to the Sun than the first belt of comets. Neptune is full of dark blue methane storms and small white clouds. A number of large moons and millions of small ones circle its cold, gaseous body. The small moons make a ring around its centre whilst one of its larger moons, Triton, explodes with volcanic activity producing gases similar to those that used to dominate Earth and 15–35% of its mass is composed of frozen water.

Uranus, the next planet in, is the same deep blue as Neptune and has the same type of ring around it, but it has been knocked sideways from all of the other planets and one of its moons, Miranda, shows deep scars from being blown apart and fused back together again.

Further in still is Saturn, a yellow planet with a million colourful small moons circling around it in hundreds of separate rings. Saturn's outermost moon, Iapetus, is split into two colours, one side is as black as tar and the other as white as snow. It too once had a ring like Saturn's but the rocks fell in making a huge range of mountains across the equator. Another of Saturn's moons, Titan, is shrouded in bright orange clouds which contain within them all of the molecules needed to make life. Like Neptune's Triton, Saturn's Titan contains the same materials Earth used to have, it is cold and its ocean of methane and water is frozen and slushy.

The next planet in is the largest, had Jupiter been any larger it may have lit up to become a star too but it is instead a stormy, electronic, red ball of gas, containing a cyclone 3 times the size of Earth that spins around at tremendous speeds.

Jupiter's largest moons are Europa, Io, Ganymede and Callisto. Europa has an ocean of liquid water separating its rocky core and icy surface. In this ocean heat rises like in the underwater volcanoes on Earth, icebergs float above. On Io, volcanoes explode releasing clouds of sodium above a rocky surface of yellow sulfur. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and is bigger than Mercury. It is composed primarily of silicate rock and frozen water, a saltwater ocean is believed to exist nearly 200 km below the surface. Further out than the rest Callisto does not have active volcanoes or tidal heating but still contains frozen water carbon dioxide, silicates, and organic compounds.

Jupiter is so large that it pulled apart the planet which was to form next, leaving the asteroid belt, a scattering of boulders made of iron and semi-precious stones. Asteroids are not massive enough to become spherical, a sphere is formed because everything falls to the centre in the same way that apples fall down to the Earth instead of up to the sky, no matter which side of the world you are on. There is no up and down, things always falling towards the center of the heaviest object. Planets and moons are so large that everything falls inwards at the same rate and a sphere is formed, any dents will even out as matter falls in to fill the gap, but the asteroids are too small to pull everything inwards and so are dented and distorted.

Two of these asteroids, Phobos and Deimos, were knocked out of their orbit as Mars flew by and now orbit as moons. The plains of Mars make a sandy desert which was once blown by a carbon dioxide wind. It was warmed by volcanoes, some 3 times taller than Mt Everest, but it is cold at the poles and dry ice snows down.

Venus is incredibly bright as it is covered in a thick layer of white clouds made from greenhouse gases and sulfuric acid. This insulates the planet so that the volcanic, crater covered, surface exists at the same temperature throughout the day and across the whole of its surface.

Closest to the Sun lies Mercury, a rocky planet covered with dust, lava flows, and a surface filled with as many craters as the moon.

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In the dark wells of the universe matter fell together. It is thought that the first stars formed only 30 million years after the big bang, and around 500 million years after this galaxies like the Milky Way formed. Clumps of hydrogen and helium formed huge clouds, some places were denser than others and clumps of gas and dust fell in on each other, crushing under their own weight. As these giant gas clouds spun they became denser and denser causing objects to collide more and more, and warming up everything around them.

Most of these balls of gas remained unchanged, making brown dwarfs, which are just a bit bigger than Jupiter, but the heavier ones pushed at the hydrogen atoms in their center so much that they eventually ignited. These were the first stars.

Alchemy began in the stars as hydrogen atoms fused together to make more helium. Huge amounts of energy is released when this happens, exploding in a fire strong enough to keep the star burning for millions more years. After all of the hydrogen is used up stars can then burn helium to create heavier elements, this releases less energy as less mass is lost. The stars then loose some of their thermal pressure and they collapse a little. This can ignite them again and give them enough energy to keep burning, making heavier atoms and causing the star to swell, shedding its skin in a giant red cloud. These are known as red giants. Some stars stop here, leaving a core as small as the Earth made of heavily compressed carbon, the same thing as diamonds, and weighing as much as the Sun. These are white dwarfs.

The more massive a star is the hotter, and bluer, it is. Hotter stars can burn more elements into existence but live significantly shorter lives. All of the natural elements burnt into existence inside of the most massive stars. Lastly, they grow a skin of iron which sets off a nuclear fission reaction resulting in a supernova. The star explodes with the power of a trillion nuclear bombs, splashing the elements all around them. Sometimes after these explosions the core is so heavy that all of the electrons are released from their atoms creating a sea of electrons. In heavier stars still the electrons and protons melt together creating neutrons once again. These are known as neutron stars.

The largest stars leave ashes so heavy that they fall in on each other, stretching space into a black hole. Black holes are wells in spacetime so deep that even light cannot escape and can be as massive as 250 million Suns. These were so heavy that they bent the space around the newly formed galaxies, pulling at distant stars just enough to ignite them.

Eventually one of these supernova explosions created a cloud of dust and gas so heavy that almost all of this fell back together again and, 4.57 billion years ago, it began to glow as a dull yellow star, the Sun. A tiny amount of matter was left swirling around the valley of space created by its mass. Some parts were denser than others and so they fell together making larger and larger clumps. After a few tens of thousands of years the planets took their shape. Our Earth is just part of the debris of a huge stellar explosion, and from these ashes humans grew.

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The Star of the Magi?
Some historians think that a similar conjunction between Jupiter and Venus in 2 B.C. may be the source of the "star of Bethlehem" story related in the Bible. According to scholars, the stellar pair would have appeared so close together that they might have seemed to meld into one brilliant beacon of light. A one night show so to speak. Could this have been the Star of the Magi? We will never know.

Venus and Jupiter
The two planets have been visible in the West after sunset for a while now. Venus, twin or Earth, is much closer than Jupiter but in reality Jupiter is the biggest. If they were at the same distance we would hardly notice Venus.

Where are they?
Look in the southwestern sky around twilight. The two planets are already visible and the moon will join them on Monday. It is really a lucky coincidence that the moon will join them at the moment they appear to meet up in the sky.

How do you see them?
No telescope or binoculars needed as they are naked eye objects. You only need one eye. The show will even be visible in cities if it is a clear night. Only the clouds can stop you from seeing the bright objects in the west after sunset. It will be a crescent moon and the two planets will look like bright stars close to the moon. Venus, the brighter of the two, will be slightly lower left of Jupiter, and when the crescent moon joins the show, it will sit to the upper left of Venus.

Which are the brightest?
The moon is the brightest of the three. Only around 252,000 miles away now. Venus, the second brightest, is 94 million miles away. Jupiter a staggering 540 million miles away.

Why do they shine while the rest of the sky is black?
They reflect sunlight but if the sun would die you will not see any of them at night. It would obviously be one cold long night as there would not be any day on Earth.

Can I take a picture of them?
Sure you can take a picture of a rare group shot. It would be better to put the camera on a tripod and keep it very still. Even better if you have a good zoom lens.

What if I miss it?
You will have to wait some time The next time the three will be as close and visible as this week will be Nov. 18, 2052. On New Years Eve the moon and Venus will meet again, but without Jupiter.

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A telescope is such a great tool to witness the marvels of heavenly creation. But do you know about the various factors that add value to a telescope before you buy it. If not, take some time to read through some of the points that count in the purchase of a telescope. Initially, you can seek the help and advice of an astronomical club, organization or society in your local area and they can enlighten you on the buying as well as the working of a telescope. But, before buying a telescope, you must be careful about the tens of thousands of telescopes being flooded in the market. They may comprise lenses that are figured improperly, eyepieces that are cheap and unusable sold in the guise of magnification ranging from 400x, 640x up to 1200x, which actually they fail to provide.

One of the primary attributes of a telescope is the magnification as discussed previously. Therefore, compare similar telescope by mode of aperture - the size of objective lens or a mirror. The magnificent Galaxy in Andromeda considered one of the most splendid sights in the sky is eight times the size of full moon, but much more dimmer. So a magnification of 20-40x is all that you need to view it. You can of course look for larger telescopes, but you should be careful as there is a higher price tag every time that come along with it you go for a larger one. A small telescope with exceptional optics can help you see more than a bigger scope having mediocre optics. For example, 3.5" Questar will be better off to watch the Galaxy in Andromeda than a 21" telescope.

If you want to choose between a big scope that fits into your city garden polluted by light, and a small scope that you will be able to carry out to remote and dark areas, then it is better to go for a small scope that is easily transportable. Again experts in using telescopes would suggest you to purchase a smaller scope because the smaller your scope, the more often you can make use of.

Look out for a good mount as it as important as the telescope itself because cheap mountings can wobble your focus a lot and make your focusing absolutely impossible. With the help of steady, rock -solid mounting your focusing will be much more precise. Add to that a stable tripod that will make your viewing a pleasure. Just follow these simple tips before you go on to buy a telescope and if required you can also consult with an expert astronomer who can provide you comprehensive knowledge on scopes.

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