[INTRO]

(...water)
(even if there’s no moon or atmosphere)
(so we can take our time…)

In the beginning, the heavens and the earth
On day four of God’s creation was the solar system’s birth
F-f-far to the- far to the naked eye
But we can make it seem close if we go beyond the sky

[THE SUN]

The Sun - A star, it’s the only one that we’ve got
Not far, 93 million miles; it’s large,
And wide, million times Earth’s size; it’s hot
15 million Celsius, 27 million Fahrenheit!

Super bright, don’t stare at it, you’ll go blind
Average size - star type: G2V means cyan off-white
Its light’s just right for Earth’s life
When it’s on the other side, you can guarantee it’s night
But it can fight, in our atmosphere aurorae ignite
And coronal mass ejections make the Sun not so polite
Block the Sun; your hands, the clouds, the Moon they might
It all happened ‘cuz God said, “Let there be light!”

[CHORUS 1]

Even if there’s no water
Even if there’s no moon or atmosphere
So we can take our time
To search around, up and down
Till we have every orbit clear

[MERCURY]

(Here we go)
Mercury’s the smallest and the closest of them all
Marked with craters, scrapes, and wrinkles, it’s a rocky iron ball
Orbit’s tilted and eccentric; 88 days it repeats
And each and every day its size continues to retreat

No water, moon, or atmosphere; it’s too close to the sun rays
Even if it had them, they’d just boil, pull, or blast away
Its sunny face is hot, the other’s definitely not
Though between the two extremities there lies a sweet spot

Seven times greater sun glow, the way its sodium tail blows
And solar wind flow makes magnetic tornadoes

[VENUS]

(Second)
Venus might look pretty, but its surface is deceiving
Its thick and toxic atmosphere’s high pressure makes it seething
Hotter than Mercury from the greenhouse gases’ heating
Sulfuric acid lightning’s gonna make you start retreating

Bright from Earth known as morning and evening star
Compared to its backwards rotation, orbit’s shorter; so bizarre
Sharing size, make-up, and mass, it’s known as Earth’s “evil twin”
And volcanoes shape the surface bringing lava from within

[EARTH]

Earth is planet number three
Home to all humanity
Place of most our history
Rivers, continents, and seas
Ranging mountains at their peaks
Ocean trenches in the deep
Tectonic plates convections heave
Powered by Earth’s internal heat

Earth’s rotation, Coriolis, makes the air and oceans flow
Got the most optimal spot in the habitable zone
Means the climate it’s got is just right for life to grow
Only satellite, the Moon, controls the tides, one side is shown

[MARS]

Orange Mars, not red, planet number four
Will Elon have the newest of the 40 probes explored?
Rovers study from volcanoes down to every canyon floor
Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, highest/deepest scores

Dust storms, thin air, making little breezes
Permafrost, vapor, polar water freezes
CO2 with clouds, Phobos, Deimos fly around
But where are all the Martians? No one to be found…

[ASTEROIDS]

(Asteroids)
Asteroids, little clumps of metals, ices, rock
Abundant in the system, over millions in stock
Literally everywhere, they like to move in crowds
From Jupiter’s oppression, any growing’s not allowed

The Asteroid Belt, loaded to the brim
But the chances of you hitting one is really, really slim
Carbonaceous, metallic, siliceous, types: C, X, and S
The big to small’uns ratio ascending’s staggeringly less

Ceres is a dwarf planet with salty ice formation
Vesta’s layered self has Rheasilvia, highest elevation
Pallas’ orbit is peculiar; a stand-out inclination
And Hygiea’s oddly spherical and carbon presentation

Interamnia, Davida, Juno, Psyche, Patientia
Thisbe, Doris, and Euphrosyne, Elektra’s moon trifecta
Themis, Sylvia, Romulus, Remus, Hebe, and Bamberga
Iris, Cybele, Eunomia, Camilla, and Fortuna

Lutetia, Donaldjohanson, Flora, Gaspra, Dinkinesh, Selam
Annefrank, Hungaria, Litva, Massalia, Nysa, Polana
Phocaea, Maria, Tyche, Io, Agnia, Kleopatra
Alexhelios, Cleoselene, Koronis, Ida, Dactyl
Antiope, Kalliope, Linus, Herculina, Huberta
Ulla, Hilda, Schubart, Aegis, Gorgoneion, and Minerva
Justitia, Peneius, Daphne, Griseldis, Hermione, Hertha
And the list just grows and keeps on going furtha’

Trojans are objects that follow on a bigger body’s tracks
And every planet’s got ‘em; Mercury’s the only one that lacks
The main one’s Jupiter, the Greeks and Trojans with Hildas inside
Where they’re pulled into formations at the points L4 and L5
Hektor, Skamandrios, Orus, Leucus, Polymele, Agamemnon
Mentor, Paris, Patroclus, Menoetius, Deiphobus, it goes on

NEOs are classed by orbit ‘round Earth, where they are
Atiras in, Amors out, Atens/Apollos cross close or far
ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim, Ganymed, Nyx, Moshup, Squannit, Apophis, Eros
Ra-Shalom, Cruithne, Duende, YORP, Dimorphos, Didymos
Ryugu, Bennu, Itokawa, Toutatis, Geographos
Others like Braille, Eureka, Icarus are in the space of Mars
There’s active asteroids, like comets, how they got stuff spraying off
But closer than Jupiter; Elst-Pizarro, Phaethon, Scheila, Gault

Centaurs among the giants, unstable asteroid-comet things
Chiron’s activity and Chariklo, both big ones with some rings
Typhon, Echidna, Schwassmann-Wachmann, Thereus, and Asbolus
Hylonome, Echeclus, and Okyrhoe, Hidalgo, Pholus

Damocloids, like Damocles, orbit like comets with no tail
Around the place, temporary satellites circle something and bail
There’s quasi satellites like Zoozve that cycle another’s trail
There could exist some Vulcanoids, we keep on searching, no avail

The Asteroid Belt and surroundings’ multifarious in scale
To label every single one of them is for another tale

[CHORUS 2]

Even if there’s no water (no water)
Even if there’s no moon or atmosphere
So we can take our time (time)
To search around, up and down, till we have every orbit clear

[JUPITER]

(The sky is no longer the limit)
Fifth and fattest Jupiter, baddest, with monstrous mass
Got the others twice surpassed, can’t be outclassed
Oblate’s its shape, from the fastest rotation rate, it inflates
Its clouds and atmosphere make gassy bands all swirly and straight

Crushing gravity; near the belt, its locality 
Grabs trojans at Lagrangian points and messes with both belts with brutality
Rings hard to mark, shrinking red spot, cyclones twist with spirality
Magnetic field’s the strongest and that’s just reality

Io’s crust is rich in sulfur and volcanoes, lava lakes
And Europa’s ocean’s under all the ice covered in scrapes
And there’s Ganymede’s magnetic field, above all it’s most large
And Callisto bears the remnants of some billion crater scars

Adrastea, Amalthea, Metis, Thebe, and Themisto
Leda, Ersa, Carpo, Mneme, and Eupheme, Valetudo
And Lysithea, Himalia, and Elara, Pandia
And Harpalyke, Orthosie and Praxidike and Dia
Iocaste and Euanthe and Thelxinoe, Chaldene
And Ananke, Philophrosyne, and Pasithee, Cyllene
Herse, Sponde, Thyone, Hermippe, Carme, and Erinome
Kallichore and Kale, Aitne, Kore, and Eurydome
Hegemone, Taygete, Euporie, Arche, Kalyke
Sinope and Callirhoe, Pasiphae, and Helike
Autonoe, Isonoe, Eukelade, Aoede
Megaclite and Eirene, 40 others floating freely

[SATURN]

Sixth is Saturn, second largest, and to mention it’s a must:
Its wide and flashy set of rings of water ice and rocks and dust
Particles as big as mountains, small as sand
The stormy polar hexagon; something we don’t understand

Less dense than water but don’t expect it to sail
Its speedy twirl, lack of bulk means its flattening prevails
Every ~30 years, some Great White Spot comes surfin’ ‘round the block
They just keep on finding moons like it’s never gonna stop

Mimas is a cratered egg, Enceladus is cryovolcanic
Tethys’ valley, Rhea’s oxygen, Dione’s chasmata span it
Titan’s thick and orange atmosphere, methane lakes at the poles
And Iapetus’ two-sided, its ridge nearly rounds the whole
And Hyperion and Phoebe are some massive cold potatoes
And the countless clumps and moonlets, but we’ll probably never name most

There’s Aegaeon, and Pallene, and Pandora, Pan, and Daphnis
And Methone and Helene, Albiorix, Skoll, and Atlas
Polydeuces, Mundilfari, Thrymr, Janus, Epimetheus
Suttungr and Farbauti, Gridr, Eggther, and Prometheus
Thiazzi, Greip, and Surtur, Angrboda, and Telesto
And Hyrrokkin and Bergelmir and Jarnsaxa and Calypso
Fornjot, Bebhionn, Beli, Bestla, Gerd, Alvaldi, Aegir, Narvi
Anthe, Tarvos, Erriapus, Loge, Tarqeq, Ymir, Kari
Hati, Skathi, Skrymir, Fenrir, Gunnlod, Geirrod, Kiviuq, Siarnaq
Ijiraq and Paaliaq and 211 keep on rockin’

[URANUS]

Cold-hearted, seventh, Uranus / Ur-Anus, either one
Its sideways axis makes some crazy seasons orbiting the Sun
This reverse-rotating ice giant pushes unaided sight
Its dark and spindly rings, askew, are pretty slight

The methane turquoise atmosphere’s more uniform, but it’s still got some tricks
Coldest record, second’s the average as perspective here conflicts
Magnetosphere’s lopsidedness whirls a waving corkscrew tail
Further missions here are yet to be entailed

Miranda’s got some cracks and cliffs and Ariel’s the brightest
Umbriel’s the darkest with a crown fluorescent white; it’s
Titania that’s the largest, Oberon is filled with rayed pits
and Uranus has 24 more moons on the list:

Desdemona, Rosalind, Belinda, Cupid, and Caliban, Cressida
Bianca, Juliet, Margaret, Ferdinand, Portia, and Puck, and Perdita
Cordelia, Ophelia, Mab, and Sycorax, Setebos, Stephano
Both recent ones without a name, Francisco, Trinculo, Prospero
Each of these but two are named from characters in Shakespeare
And many more could still be found in Uranus’ hill sphere

[NEPTUNE]

The eighth one, after Uranus, is windy, wild Neptune
The furthest from the sun, it’s dark and really hard to get to
Not as blue as you remember but it also isn’t white
And below the methane skies, it might rain diamonds down inside

Voyager 2’s the only probe that had the planet’s destination
Where it picked up Neptune’s winds of supersonic circulation
Colder average than on Uranus, a misinterpretation
And some 16 moons, and maybe more, surrounding its location

(Triton’s geysers)
Halimede and there’s Psamathe, Despina, Galatea
And Nereid and Hippocamp, Naiad, Laomedeia
S/2021 N 1 and Proteus, Larissa
And S/2002 N 5, Sao, Neso, Thalassa

[PLUTO]

(Shoutout to my Pluto fans)
Yeah, Pluto
You may not agree with me
To share a view so differently

Ninth was Pluto, but it’s controversial
Since the IAU’s rejection from the planetary circle
They said it didn’t match up to their guidelines
With its 2006 relegation to the sidelines

Wonky little snowball, nitrogen and tholins
With shifting atmospheric condensation when it’s frozen
Geology’s constantly transforming modestly
Through all the mockery, planet or not, it’s an oddity

Charon’s its partner, half size, in-sync
While Nix, Styx, Kerberos, and Hydra tumble like an ice rink
Putting Pluto here shouldn’t surprise y’all
But hopefully it’ll someday get its reprisal

[CHORUS 3]

Even if there’s no water (no water)
Even if there’s no moon or atmosphere (no atmosphere)
So we can take our time (take our time (time))
To search around, up and down, till we have every orbit clear

[TNOS]

(Even if there’s no-)
The Kuiper Belt
Past Neptune, isolated
A disc of volatile icy bodies
Where discovery’s awaited

Split up into classes: classical -
Your “cubewanos,” non-resonant; they’re rhythmic radicals
Resonant - orbital ratio with Neptune; relation
Plutinos, twotinos, and more assorted number combinations

Pluto’s here, too
Sometimes passes Neptune
Arawn stays in Pluto’s view
Our boy’s built up quite the crew:
Orcus and Vanth oppose,
Paha, Hiisi, and Lempo
Huya and Ixion
Achlys’ hidden moon, and so on

Haumea’s stretched wide
With some dusty rings aside
Four-hour-long days go by
Where Namaka and Hi’iaka reside

Makemake’s made
Up of frozen methane
Shiny, bright, and bald
“MK2” - its moon is c-c-called

Quaoar in the same field
Far-out, wispy rings revealed
Weirdly wobbly eggy bod
Orbited by Weywot

Salacia, Actaea - dark like shadows
Varuna is super narrow
Máni is lumpy and bruised
Chaos might look like it’s fused

Varda, Ilmarë, Mors-Somnus
Deucalion, Rhadamanthus
Sila-Nunam, Ceto-Phorcys
Albion, Taowu, Praamzius
Arrokoth, ǂKá̦gára, ǃHãunu
Logos-Zoe, Borasisi-Pabu
And Ritona, Clete, Altjira
Teharonhiawako-Sawiskera 
Manwë-Thorondor, “Drac,” Otrera
Mbabamwanawaresa

The scattered disc, dynamic, under Neptune’s force
Super loopy and oblique, hundreds of years to run their course

Gonggong - a large, slow, brown glob of water ice
Iffy atmosphere, Xiangliu’s its natural satellite

Eris’ orbit’s immense
Smaller than Pluto but dense
Intense white, refreshing glacier cells
Where Dysnomia dwells

“DeeDee,” “Buffy,” and Dziewanna
“Farout,” “FarFarOut,” and Aya
Chiminigagua, Gǃòʼé ǃHú, and Gǃkúnǁʼhòmdímà

For the extremes, there ain’t many of these
But orbits stretch at the seams, computed by our machines
Like Alicanto, “Ammonite,” Leleākūhonua, “Biden,”
Sedna orbits like a slingshot, secluded and widened

[COMETS]

Throughout the system, there’s comets
“Dirty snowballs,” frozen composites (take our time)
All around, dark, orbit erratically
Most stay, but some interlope nomadically

At close approach, they release gas as they warm up
Making a coma, where gas and ice trails erupt (AAAAAAAAAAAA)
Lots of comets end up having all the same names
Named after who or what had their findings proclaimed

Halley, Hartley, Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake, Encke
Borrelly, Tempel 1, Holmes, Wild, West, Ikeya-Seki
Bernardinelli-Bernstein, Lovejoy, McNaught, PanSTARRS, NEOWISE
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, ISON, Shoemaker-Levy 9

Though ‘Oumuamua and Borisov have extrasolar fame
Most think that comets come from the Kuipers and past its domain
Out past the heliosphere
Only guesses here
The vast, icy Hills and Oort clouds are the system’s frontier
(AAA-AAA-AAA-AAA-AAAHH)

[CHORUS 4]

Even if there’s no water (no water)
Even if there’s no moon or atmosphere (no atmosphere)
So we can take our time (take our time)
To search around, up and down, till we have every orbit clear (till we have every orbit clear)

[CHORUS 5]

Even if there’s no water
Even if there’s no moon or atmosphere
So we can take our time
To search around, up and down, till we have every orbit clear (take our time)