A Journey Through the Seven Wonders of the Solar System | Unveiled

A Journey Through the Seven Wonders of the Solar System

If you could travel in space, where would you go first? The moon? Mars? The many moons of Uranus? Well, in a future reality where space flight is possible for all, there’s something of a bucket list of tick box travel destinations, waiting for you to explore… which is what we’re going to do, today!

This is Unveiled and today we’re taking an extraordinary journey to the seven wonders of the solar system.

The original seven wonders of Earth date back to a list compiled in the second century BCE, which included such legendary places as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and the Colossus of Rhodes… plus the only structure still standing today, the Great Pyramid of Giza. A new list of wonders was more recently created, featuring amongst others the Great Wall of China, Petra in Jordan, and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil. But really, why stick to just this planet? The wider solar system has plenty to offer, and while there’s no official list just yet… the seven places (or things) we’re about to explore do almost always feature, whenever the topic is debated - including, most famously, as part of a 2010 documentary shown on “History”. So, in no particular order…

First up, we have the rings of Saturn, a celestial spectacle that it’s almost universally agreed is deserving of the “wonder” tag. Saturn isn’t the only planet with rings, of course - Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune have them too - but Saturn’s are so spectacular that they’ve become a defining characteristic of the planet. The rings are formed from pieces of asteroid, disintegrated comets, and debris from moons, plus general space dust that has gotten stuck in orbit around the gas giant. There are eight main rings in total, as well as the fainter Phoebe Ring more recently discovered - although there are various, smaller rings in the gaps between these markers. Each ring also moves independently of the others, with them all traveling around Saturn at different speeds. It’s a cosmic balancing act around this particular world, and a majestic part of space.

Not far from Saturn is our next wonder, the Saturnian moon Enceladus. It’s covered in thick ice, and because of this it bounces most of the sunlight that reaches it back out into space… making Enceladus one of the most reflective objects in the solar system. After years of speculation, the presence of subsurface liquid water on Enceladus was proven in 2014, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. It was an extremely important discovery, confirming the moon as one of the most likely places in the solar system - other than Earth - to support life. Enceladus also has a role in forming the Rings of Saturn (specifically the E Ring) thanks to eruptions from the ice volcanoes (or geysers) on its surface. These volcanoes shoot out water vapor and ice particles with such incredible force that they’ve essentially fed the E Ring into being - while some of the erupted material falls back to Enceladus, as snow. Much of what we know about Enceladus so far does come from the Cassini probe, but it’s a sure bet that this moon will continue to be a key solar system location for us, in the future.

Saturn’s neighbor, Jupiter, is home to our next wonder - the Great Red Spot. This is the largest storm in the solar system, with a diameter far larger than even Earth’s is. The Great Red Spot is visible to us, with a sharp enough telescope. But what makes it truly amazing isn’t simply its size… it’s also the fact that scientists have been watching it rage, nonstop for close to two hundred years now. And most researchers think it’s been a feature on Jupiter for even longer than that. Massive clouds inside the Spot create destructive cyclones and hurricanes, stretching for more than 10,000 miles across the Jovian surface, and penetrating some three hundred miles down into the atmosphere. This storm is so strong that its power can be felt from space itself, as its gravitational pull reportedly affected the flightpath of the Juno probe, when it passed Jupiter in 2019. Interestingly, however, the storm does appear to be shrinking… but scientists are unsure whether it will ever disappear completely.

The fourth solar system wonder can be found much closer to our home, on a planet that we might reasonably call home in the future… Mars. The Red Planet has a number of massive volcanoes scattered across its surface, but the Olympus Mons, named after the towering Mount Olympus in Greece, is the largest of them all… and also the most massive volcano and mountain found anywhere in the entire solar system. This colossal, natural structure rises so high from the Martian surface that it’s measured to be two-and-a-half times the size of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is surrounded by unique cliffs that are five miles tall in themselves, while the volcano (as a whole) covers an area of Mars that’s about the size of Italy. It’s just a staggering landmark! The leading theory as to how it’s been able to grow so big is that, because Mars doesn’t have plate tectonics, throughout its history lava has just continually erupted from the same spot over and over again… and that lava has then solidified into rock, layering on top of itself, getting taller and taller. What’s more, some believe that Olympus Mons it’s still young and could still be active, meaning it may grow to an even larger size in the future.

Next up, we head right to the center, to the surface of the sun, our next wonder of the solar system, and for plenty of reasons. For one, the sun provides all of the light for the solar system… and without it, everything would just be dark. It also dictates the gravity that keeps everything in orbit, and it provides the general energy for life on Earth to exist, too. The sun is so massive that it makes up ninety-nine percent of the solar system’s total mass. As for its surface specifically, though, one layer of it (the photosphere) is around 300 miles thick. It’s also so hot, at around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), that according to NASA it wouldn’t just melt diamond - it would actually boil it. The sun’s surface is far from stable, however, hosting (as it does) massive temperature fluctuations and sunspots, all while it casts out blistering flares into space. The sun is, then, a unique balance between a heavenly giver of life, and a deadly ball of scorching nuclear fusion that could feasibly end us all at any moment.

But, onto our penultimate wonder now, the Asteroid Belt. It, too, could feasibly cause a disaster for us, but scientists are fairly sure we’re safe from harm. Found between Mars and Jupiter, the Asteroid Belt cumulatively accounts for very little mass… but it’s interesting because it works something like a waste bin for solar system things that might have been. The Belt is thought to contain the remnants of some long-gone moons (and possibly planets) that broke apart over a 4.5-billion-year history. The largest Asteroid Belt object, though, is the dwarf planet Ceres. One reason why the Belt can be considered a “wonder” is perhaps the specific conditions needed for it to form at all. It’s really thanks to Jupiter’s position, and Jupiter’s gravity, that the asteroids and dust within the Belt have never coalesced into another, bigger, planet-like object. But, what’s even more remarkable is how lucky we are that the Belt did form… because asteroids from it are thought to have accelerated evolution and life on Earth, by delivering essential compounds and water to our world. And that’s pretty wonderful, don’t you think?

But the last wonder is, maybe unsurprisingly, Earth itself. And while it might seem a little vain to include our own world, it’s not difficult to see why so many “wonders of the solar system” lists do. The sheer odds of Earth seem almost impossible. A planet that’s seemingly fine-tuned for life… it’s just the right distance from the sun, it has an atmosphere, a magnetosphere, the right chemical makeup, and it has liquid water, among other things. Earth has given rise to billions of different life forms over its history, from beings as small as single-celled bacteria to large dinosaurs and predators. Not to mention us, the super-smart humans. There’s rich diversity on Earth, too, from arid deserts to frozen tundra, to lush rainforests, and sprawling cities. And then, of course, we have the oceans. So far, Earth is the only place in the universe where we know life has developed, too... that could change, but for now it’s a truly special place.

It's easy to see why the destinations we’ve been to in this video are those which most often come up whenever there’s talk of the most magnificent and awe-inspiring solar system places. They’re the most widely credited with “wonder” status. But, if you could add something else to this video, what would you choose? What’s your favorite thing about our particular part of the universe?