OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

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OUR SOLAR SYSTEM ITS PLANETS!
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Solar System to Scale
No longer a planet
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Planets to Scale
No longer a planet
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Planetary Orbits
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All planets in almost circular (elliptical)
orbits around the sun, in approx. the same plane
(ecliptic).
Orbits generally inclined by no more than 3.4o
Mercury
Venus
Exceptions Mercury (7o) Pluto (17.2o)
Mars
Sense of revolution counter-clockwise
Earth
Jupiter
Sense of rotation counter-clockwise (with
exception of Venus, Uranus, and Pluto)
Pluto
Uranus
Saturn
Neptune
(Distances and times reproduced to scale)
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Planetary Orbits and Rotation
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Tipped over by more than 900
Mercury and Pluto Unusually highly inclined
orbits
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Two Kinds of Planets
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Planets of our solar system can be divided into
two very different kinds
Terrestrial (earthlike) planets Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars
Jovian (Jupiter-like) planets Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune
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The Inner Planets

• Inner Planets- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
• Called Terrestrial planets (Earthlike)
• These planets have a rocky crust, denser mantle,
  and very dense core

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MERCURY
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• Smallest Planet
• If one could stand on the scorching surface of
  Mercury when it
• is at its closest point to the sun, the sun
  would appear almost
• three times as large as it does when viewed
  from Earth.
• Temperatures on during the day reach 800
  degrees Fahrenheit
• (430 degrees Celsius).
• Because the planet has no atmosphere to retain
  that heat,
• nighttime temperatures on the surface can drop
  to -280 degrees
• Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius).

SURFACE OF MERCURY
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VENUS
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VOLCANO ON VENUS
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• Called the Earths twin- similar in size, mass,
  density, composition, and
• distance from the sun.
• Venus is covered by a thick, rapidly spinning
  atmosphere, creating a
• scorched world with temperatures hot enough
  to melt lead in three minutes
• and a surface pressure 90 times that of
  Earth.
• Because of its proximity to Earth and the way
  its clouds reflect sunlight,
• Venus appears to be the brightest planet in
  the sky.

CLOUDS OF VENUS
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EARTH
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Early Earth

• Earth began forming 4.6 bya
• For a few hundred million years Earth was very
  hot and constantly bombarded from space
• At this point there was no liquid water, life was
  impossible
• About 3,900,000,000 yrs ago, Earth was solidified
  enough and cool enough for liquid water

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Conditions on Early Earth

• Oldest existing earth materials 4.1 billion
  years old
• Oldest rocks 3.9 billion years old
• 1st atmosphere N2, H2, CO and CO2 no O2 or
  ozone, high UV radiation and winds (present
  oxygen is created by life)
• Faint Early Sun perhaps 30 per cent less bright
• Transition to atmosphere containing oxygen
• between 3.5 1.5 billion years ago

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• Once thought to be very Earthlike.
• Surface has been changed by volcanism,
  impacts from other bodies, movements
• of its crust, and atmospheric effects such
  as dust storms.

MARS
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• Extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as
  much as 600
• kilometers across, and delves as much as 8
  kilometers deep.
• The Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800
  kilometers long, 30
• kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep.

The Grand Canyon of Mars Valles Marineras
Its length is the distance from NY to
California! Its widest point is the distance
from NY to Georgia!
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• Martian tectonics, differs from Earth's.
  Instead of sliding plates that grind against each
  other or spread apart in the seafloors, Martian
  tectonics is
• vertical, with hot lava pushing upwards through
  the crust to the surface.
• Olympus Mons is 16.7 miles
• high.

Is three times the height of Mt.
Everest
Mauna Kea is 33,476 feet (10.2 km) tall taller
than Everest, but only about 40 the height of
Olympus Mons
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Mars sure looks a lot like a desert, eh?
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Millions of years ago, Mars may have hosted
rivers and lakes.
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The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit
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• The residual ice cap of Mars' south pole (in
  white)
• tops the smooth layered deposits that overlie
  the
• cratered southern highlands.
• It has polar ice caps that grow and recede with
  the
• change of seasons areas of layered soils near
  the
• Martian poles suggest that the planet's
  climate has
• changed more than once, perhaps caused by a
• regular change in the planet's orbit.

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ASTEROIDS

• solid chunks of rock floating in space
• Most asteroids are found in a nearly circular
  orbit between Mars and Jupiter, revolving in the
  same direction as the planets
• Asteroid belt
• Most asteroids a less than 1 meter long!

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Space Debris
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In addition to planets, small bodies orbit the
sun
Asteroids, comets, meteoroids
Asteroid Eros, imaged by the NEAR spacecraft
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Asteroids

• Asteroids and comets are considered remnants from
  the giant cloud of gas and dust that condensed to
  create the sun, planets, and moons some 4.5
  billion years ago.
• Today, most asteroids orbit the sun in a tightly
  packed belt located between Mars and Jupiter.
• Comets are relegated to either a cloud or belt on
  the solar system fringe. Gravitational tugs,
  orbital collisions, and interstellar jostles
  occasionally perturb an asteroid or comet onto a
  wayward path.

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Asteroids

• Though too small to earn the distinction of
  planet, asteroids and comets strike huge fear in
  the human mind.
• At some point in the future, one of the chunky
  rocks or icy mud balls will slam into Earth and
  alter the course of history.
• Such an impact 65 million years ago is widely
  believed to have killed off the dinosaurs.

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This image shows ejected material that was
propelled into space when NASA's Deep Impact
probe collided with comet Tempel 1 at 152 a.m.
ET on July 4, 2005. It was taken by the
spacecraft's medium-resolution camera 16 seconds
after impact.
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One of the youngest and best-preserved impact
craters on Earth,Meteor Crater formed about
50,000 years ago when a 100-foot-wide meteor
weighing 100,000 tons slammed into the Arizona
desert at an estimated 12 miles a second. The
resulting explosion exceeded the combined force
of today's nuclear arsenals and created a
0.7-mile-wide, 650-foot-deep crater.
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The round shape of Ceres, the largest object in
the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,
suggests that its interior is layered like
Earth's. First classified as an asteroid, Ceres
was recently also labeled a dwarf planet. It has
a diameter of about 590 miles and it contains
about a third of the asteroid belt's total mass.
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Asteroids

• 2004 FH is the center dot being followed by the
  sequence the object that flashes by during the
  clip is an artificial satellite.

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The Asteroid Belt
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Most asteroids orbit the sun in a wide zone
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Mars
Jupiter
Pluto
Uranus
Saturn
Neptune
(Distances and times reproduced to scale)
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The Outer Planets

• Outer Planets- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
  and Pluto
• Called Jovian planets (Jupiter-like)
• These planets are much larger, more gaseous, and
  less dense than the inner planets

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The Jovian Planets
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Much larger in mass and size than terrestrial
planets
Much lower average density
All have rings (not only Saturn!)
Mostly gas no solid surface
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• The most massive planet in our solar system
• Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system.
  
• Jupiter resembles a star in composition. In
  fact, if it had been about eighty
• times more massive, it would have become a
  star rather than a planet.

• Has the
• Great Red Spot
• that was discovered
• by Galileo. It is
• believed to be a
• hurricane-like storm
• that has lasted over
• 300 years.
• Intensity of redness
• will vary.

RED SPOT
JUPITER
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RED SPOT
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Fragments of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 struck
Jupiter in July 1994, leaving the impacts visible
in this ultraviolet image. The spots appear dark
because of the large quantities of dust, which
absorbs sunlight, being deposited in the planet's
stratosphere.
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The 63 Moons of Jupiter
The Four Galilean Moons
Calisto
Io
Europa
Ganymede
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IO
The innermost of Galilean moons turned out to be
one of the most exotic objects in the solar
system. About the size of the earth's moon, Io is
covered with volcanoes, many of which are
currently active. The material expelled in the
volcanic eruptions may contain compounds of
Sulfur which take on a variety of colors and
could account for its mottled, "pizza-like"
appearance.
VOLCANIC ERUPTION
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EUROPA- SMOOTHES OBJECT IN SOLAR SYSTEM
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CALLISTO Notable Features Most cratered body
in the solar system Craters with concentric
rings around them o Valhalla the
largest crater (diameter 1900 miles) with
rings Lack of mountains around the
craters
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Ganymede
Largest of Jupiter's moons and the largest
satellite in the solar system. It is larger in
diameter than Mercury but only about half its
mass.
CRATER CHAIN
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SATURN

• Saturn is the second largest planet in our
  solar system
• It is 95 times larger than the Earth.
• The sixth planet from the sun
• it takes Saturn about 29.5 years to orbit the
  sun one time.
• Least dense object in our Solar System. Its
  density is less than
• that of water.

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• CLOSE UP SATURNS RINGS
• There are thousands of rings made of
• up billions of particles of ice and rock.
• The particles range in size from a
• grain of sugar to the size of a house.
• The rings are believe to be pieces of
• comets, asteroids or shattered moons
• that broke up before they reached
• the planet.
• Each ring orbits at a different speed
• around the planet.
• Information from NASA's Cassini
• mission will help reveal how they
• formed, how they maintain their orbit

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"Saturn's diminutive moon, Mimas, poses as the
Death Star - the planet-destroying space station
from the movie Star Wars - in an image recently
captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft
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Titan

• Discovered by Huygens in 1655
• Titan is the largest moon orbiting
• Saturn, and the second largest
• moon in the Solar System.
• It is bigger in diameter than both the
• planets Mercury and Pluto.
• It contains an atmosphere far
• thicker than even that of the Earth.

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• Has the brightest clouds in the outer solar
  system
• 11 rings.
• The first planet found with the aid of a
  telescope, Uranus
• was discovered in 1781 by astronomer
  William Herschel.
• The seventh planet from the sun is so distant
  that it takes 84
• years to complete one orbit.
• Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane
  gas.
  
  
• Off-Kilter Planet
• Uranus's rotation axis is nearly horizontal, the
  planet has been knocked on its side.
• 900 tilt may be the result of a collision with a
  planet-size body early in Uranus's history
• While magnetic fields are in alignment with a
  planet's rotation, Uranus's magnetic field is
  tipped over

URANUS
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URANUS
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URANUS


This image shows Uranus in the infrared
spectrum, which reveals the detailed cloud
patterns in the atmosphere of the planet.
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11 Rings of Uranus
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• Uranus has 27 moons
• The five large moons are
• - Titania is the largest moon it
• is covered with small
• craters, a few large craters,
• and very rough rocks.
• - Ariel is the brightest moon
• and has canyons and valleys
• as well as a lot of craters.
• - Umbriel is very dark.
• Umbriel and Oberon have
• old heavily cratered
• surfaces.
• - Miranda has a very unique
• surface. It has huge
• canyons as deep as 12
• miles, terraced
• layers and a mix of young

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• Neptune's Great Dark Spot taken in 1989
• from Voyager 2.
• The Great Dark Spot was a rotating storm
• system similar in size to Jupiter's Great
• Red Spot. Other theory Great Dark Spot"
• is a hole in the methane cloud deck, similar
• to the ozone hole experienced on Earth.
• Winds near the spot were measured up to
• 1,500 miles an hour (2,400 kilometers an
• hour)the strongest recorded on any
• planet.
• When the Hubble Space Telescope viewed
• Neptune in 1994, the storm system had
• vanished and another dark spot had
• cropped up in the planet's northern
• hemisphere.
  

NEPTUNE
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13 Moons of Neptune

• Triton- largest moon
• slightly smaller than Earth's moon
• active volcanoes which erupt like geysers and
  eject nitrogen frost over the surface.
• The other moons of Neptune are Nereid, Proteus,
  Larissa, Despina,
• Galatea, Thalassa, and Naiad. These moons are
  much smaller than Triton
• and, except for Nereid, were not discovered
  until the Voyager spacecraft
• flew by them in 1989.

Proteus
Triton
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Rings of Neptune

• The 1989 Voyager 2 mission to Neptune confirmed
  the existence of the planet's faint ring system.
• The outermost ring, Adams, contains three
  prominent arcs named Liberty, Equality, and
  Fraternity.
• In this 591-second Voyager 2 exposure, bright
  stars dot the cosmos around the rings.

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PLUTO The Planet of NO More!

• Pluto is not dense enough to be terrestrial, or
  large enough to be Jovian
• However, because of its location, it is
  considered an Outer Planet, but IS NOT a Jovian
  Planet. IT IS CONSIDERED A DWARF PLANET.

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The 10th Planet!

• The new planet is the most distant object ever
  seen in orbit around the sun, even more distant
  than Sedna, the planetoid discovered almost 2
  years ago.
• It is almost 10 billion miles from the sun and
  more than 3 times more distant than the next
  closest planet, Pluto and takes more than twice
  as long to orbit the sun as Pluto.

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• CHRONOLOGY OF SOLAR SYSTEM DISCOVERY
• Sun
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus 19th century, by telescope
• Neptune 19th century, predicted by
  calculations based on Newtons Law, and by
  telescope
• Pluto 20th century, predicted by accident, then
  by telescope observation

17th century, visual observation
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Data on the planets is located in your Earth
Science Reference Tables, page 15
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Comets and Meteoroids
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COMETS

• masses of rock, dust, ice and gases that revolve
  around the sun in their own orbits
• orbits are usually very eccentric (stretched
  out), which means that one complete orbit of the
  sun may take many years
• Ex. Halleys Comet is only viewable on Earth
  every 76 years! It will next appear in the year
  2062!

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Comet Hyakutake 
Comet Hale-Bopp
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Tails get longer the closer the comet gets to the
Sun.
Comet Tails always point away from the Sun. Gas
(Ion) tails point straight away from the Sun.
Dust tails curves toward the orbital path.
Orbit of Comet
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Comets
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Icy nucleus, which evaporates and gets blown into
space by solar wind pressure.
Mostly objects in highly elliptical orbits,
occasionally coming close to the sun.
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ION TAIL
ION TAIL
DUST TAIL
DUST TAIL
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The orbit of Haleys Comet is highly eccentric,
and therefore the comet can only be seen on Earth
every 72 years!
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Meteoroids
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Small (mm mm sized) dust grains throughout the
solar system
If they collide with Earth, they evaporate in the
atmosphere.
Visible as streaks of light (shooting stars)
meteors.
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METEROIDS

• fragments of rocks or ice traveling through space
• Occasionally, these fragments may get pulled into
  Earths atmosphere by its gravity
• As the meteoroid shoots through the atmosphere,
  friction causes heat to build up and the
  meteoroid begins to glow
• This is now called a METEOR (shooting star)

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METEROIDS

• Sometimes many meteoroids enter our atmosphere at
  one time, this is called a meteor shower
• If the meteor survives its trip through the
  atmosphere and hits Earths surface, it is then
  called a meteorite
• Impact craters are potholes in the Earths
  crust caused by meteorites hitting the ground
  with great speed and force
• Ex. the Barringer Crater in Arizona (1,300m wide,
  200m deep).

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Comet and Shooting star

• Nakamura-Nishimura-Machholz comet with shooting
  star.