Eight Wonders Of Our Solar System | The Planets | BBC Earth Lab

The Solar System hides many wonders. This time, we will explore the four most fascinating moons, what makes them special, and even dig into the possibilities of alien life on them. Welcome to Charon, Pluto's largest moon and the Solar System's most substantial moon relative to its planet's size. The mass of Charon is greater than all of Pluto's moons combined. Compared to Earth, Charon's surface is slightly larger than that of India. While it's often likened to Pluto, this celestial body couldn't be more different. Its surface is covered in frozen water with complex system of chasms and fractures that are surprisingly four times as long as the Grand Canyon and twice as deep, even as much as nine kilometers. In some parts of Charon, it looks like as if the entire crust has been split half-open. Imagine that! From the observations of Pluto's system, done by New Horizon Missions in 2015, astronomers concluded that Charon might have active ice geysers and cryovolcanoes, which shoot liquids out into the outer space. This could also serve as a hint that its geology is solely based on ice. However, the most puzzling question is if Charon should be viewed as a dwarf planet rather than a moon, due to the fact that it actually doesn't orbit Pluto at all and is quite big for a moon accompanying a tiny ex-planet. The center which both Pluto and Charon orbit is located just above Pluto's surface, called a barycenter. Some astronomers went as far as to say that these two stellar objects are a binary system. Moving on to the coldest known object in Solar System, Triton, Neptune's largest moon, that was possibly captured from the Kuiper Belt, a ring-shaped reservoir of small icy and rocky objects located in the outer solar system. We think so because of its unique rotation. It is the only large moon in our solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet's rotation, phenomenon called a retrograde orbit, which is unnatural to happen when forming with enormous mass near a planet. Despite the cold, Triton is an active world. It has very few craters, pointing to a young surface that is being constantly reshaped. In Triton's mid-latitudes, you'll find a fascinating mix of landscapes. A significant part looks like it's covered in bumpy, wrinkled textures that we call cantaloupe terrain. Other areas feature smooth plains with large calderas. And in the southern region, something truly unique awaits. A gigantic cap made of nitrogen ice, packed with dozens of cryovolcanoes. These volcanoes erupt with towering jets of water, reaching heights of up to 8 kilometers. It's a breathtaking sight on Triton, which also forms a very thin nitrogen atmosphere. Throughout the history, only one spacecraft visited the stunning Triton, Voyager 2, which captured these images. The same way as you visited this video, now might be good time to explore further and subscribe. Let's go back to this extraordinary moon that is unfortunately orbiting Neptune at a really close distance. As a result, it is almost certain that tidal forces will cause the moon's orbit to decay further at an increasing rate. Inevitably, this means that in approximately 3.6 million years, Triton will be crushed and broken apart, maybe even forming a belt or ring around Neptune. Our next stop is the best possible candidate for an alien life within the solar system. Enceladus is the 6th largest moon of Saturn, which has a spectacular surface made from heavily cratered regions to newly fresh and clean ice. Because of this thick icy layer that reflects up to 90% of the light hitting its surface, it is the single brightest object in our solar system. Enceladus' density is 1.61 times that of liquid water, which suggests the little moon is composed of about half water ice and half rocky material. But most interesting part is moon's hundreds of icy geysers, which continually spew out a mixture of water and organic chemicals into space at around 800 miles per hour. While some of the material falls back to the icy world, some escapes and feeds Saturn's large E-ring, which the Enceladus orbits, creating its own planetary ring. How cool is that for a moon? Still, there is one more thing unique about this moon. Somewhere beneath the so-called tiger stripes or icy crust is an ocean that harbors, according to recent research, most, if not all of the chemical ingredients necessary for life. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. This makes Enceladus the top spot within the solar system for possibility of an alien life. We can now move to the smoothest solid object in the solar system called Europa. It is not called smoothest by any chance. Its unusual relief doesn't possess any mountains, hills, or canyons. This fourth largest Jupiter moon is rich in water, similarly as Enceladus. What's crazy is that Europa's vast ocean hidden under ice may contain twice as much water as Earth's global ocean. This ocean is suspected to be about 100 kilometers deep. We call Earth the water world of solar system. Yet that title should be passed to Europa. Now we can delve into the enigma of how Europa has a smooth crater-free surface. Well, secret lies in the fact that it's a geologically active world. Europa's interior stays warm enough to fuel this activity, constantly reshaping its surface and preventing the formation of craters. From Europa's images, you could have spotted a strange lines on its surface. These are known as lineae and formed by the moon's icy crust getting stretched and compressed due to its slightly oval orbit around Jupiter. Europa is so captivating yet equally perilous. Solar radiation. Radiation levels on the surface of Europa are so high that a one-day stay would cause severe illness or death to any human being. It is the result of solar radiation and energetic particles produced by Jupiter's very strong magnetic field. If you enjoyed the video, you will also like the colonization of Venus with insights on scorching planet. So go check it out.