Our Solar System

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Our Solar System
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The Sun our very own star

• The Sun is the center of our solar system
• The word solar means of the sun
• Our sun is a medium-sized star
• Our sun is medium-hot, and yellow

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The Sun dominates the Solar System
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The Inner Planets
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Terrestrial Planets

• Mercury, Venus, Earth Mars
• Earth-Like Rocky Planets
• Largest is Earth
• Only in the inner solar system (0.4 to 1.5 AU)
• Rocky Planets small, dense and rocky
• Solid Surfaces
• Mostly Silicates and Iron
• High Density (rock metal)
• Earth, Venus, Mars have atmospheres

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Spinning Planets

• Period of Rotation amount of time that an object
  takes to rotate once. (1 Day)
• Period of Revolution time it takes an object to
  revolve around the sun once. (1 year)
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v97Ob0xR0Ut8feature
  related

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Mercury

• On Mercury you weigh only 38 of what you weigh
  on Earth.
• Fastest orbiting planet
• Planet nearest to the sun
• One side of the planet can be 800 degrees
  Fahrenheit when the other can be -280 degree
  Fahrenheit at the same time.
• Orbit Period 88 days
• Rotation Period 59 days

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Mercury

• The planet Mercury is the closest of the planets
  to the Sun, but it is not the hottest.
• The surface of the planet Mercury is covered with
  craters. These craters have been created by eons
  of accidental encounters with asteroids and
  comets. This is because it does not have an
  atmosphere.
• Mercury is just a little bit larger than Earth's
  moon. The surface of Mercury that faces the Sun
  can reach about 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On the
  other hand, the temperature on the nighttime side
  can plummet to almost -300 degrees Fahrenheit.
  This is because Mercury has little to no
  atmosphere to help regulate temperature.

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Venus

• On Venus you weigh only 91 of what you weigh on
  Earth.
• Venus has 90 times the pressure of Earth and its
  the hottest planet.
• Venus has volcanoes like Earth
• Rotates in the opposite direction of Earth.
• One time there were oceans before they boiled
  away.
• Orbit Period 224 days
• Rotation Period 242 days

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Venus

• Venus rotates in a prograde rotation. The sun
  comes up in the west and sets in the east.
• Venus is the hottest planet because of its
  extremely thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
• Venus is know as Earths twin.
• Venus has no moons.

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Earth

• 23 hours and 56 min1 Earth day (rotation)
• 365 days 1 Earth year (revolution)
• Earth is warm enough to keep most of its water
  from freezing and cold enough to keep its water
  from boiling
• Temperature is between 13 degrees Celsius and 37
  degrees Celsius

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Earth

• Earth is the only planet know to have life forms.
• Earth has one natural satellite, the moon.
• The ground you're walking on is recycled. Earth's
  rock cycle transforms igneous rocks to
  sedimentary rocks to metamorphic rocks and back
  again.
• The oceans cover some 70 percent of Earth's
  surface, yet humans have only explored about 5
  percent, meaning 95 percent of the planet's vast
  seas have never been seen.

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Mars

• Air Pressure on Mars is the same as 30 km above
  the Earths surface
• Mars is in the form of ice.
• Evidence that water was there at one time
• Volcanic history like Earth.
• It has the tallest mount of the planets (Olympus
  Mons) 3xs size of Mt. Everest.
• Orbital Period 687 days
• Rotation Period 24. 6 hours

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Mars

• Mars red color is due to iron oxide, also known
  as rust, and has the consistency of talcum
  powder. Literally, the metallic rocks on Mars are
  rusting.
• No human could survive the low pressure of Mars.
  If you went to Mars without an appropriate space
  suit, the oxygen in your blood would literally
  turn into bubbles, causing immediate death.
• Mars has an enormous canyon named Valles
  Marineris (Mariner Valley) which is an astounding
  2,500 miles long and four miles deep. As long as
  the continental United States, this gigantic
  canyon was likely formed by the tectonic
  cracking of Mars crust and is the longest
  known crevice in the solar system.
• Although it is much colder on Mars than on Earth,
  the similar tilt of Earths and Mars axes means
  they have similar seasons. Like Earth's, Mars
  north and south polar caps shrink in the summer
  and grow in the winter. In addition, a day on
  Mars is 24 hours 37 minutesnearly the same as
  Earths. No other planet shares such similar
  characteristics with Earth.

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Outer Planets
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The Jovian Planets or Gas Giants

• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus Neptune
• Largest Planets at least 15 times mass of Earth.
• Only in the outer solar system (5 to 30 AU)
• No solid surfaces (mostly atmosphere)
• Low density
• Gas Giants (Jupiter Saturn)
• Thick H/He atmosphere, liquid hydrogen mantle,
  ice core
• Ice Giants (Uranus Neptune)
• Ice/rock core mantle, thin H/He atmosphere

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Jupiter

• Largest planet in the Solar System
• Has a Great Red Spot from a storm system that is
  more than 400 years old
• Pressure is so great it would crush a spaceship.
• Orbit Period 12 years
• 9 hours and 54 min1 Jupiter day (shortest day)

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Jupiter

• Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar
  system.
• Jupiter has many storms raging on the surface,
  most notably the big red spot which is the
  largest hurricane in our Solar System. It's been
  raging for over three hundred years.
• Jupiter has many moons circling around it. Four
  of these moons are bigger than Pluto.
• Jupiter also has a number of rings similar to
  that of Saturn but much less noticeable.

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Saturn

• 2nd Largest planet in the Solar System
• 95 times more massive than earth.
• Saturn has the largest rings of any planet, the
  rings are made of icy particles.
• Most moons of any planets ( 47 known)
• Orbit Period 12 years
• Rotation Period 10 hours

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Saturn

• Many astronomers consider Saturn the most
  beautiful planet in the solar system because of
  its stunning rings. In fact, Saturns nickname is
  the jewel of the solar system.
• Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar
  system, and if there were a body of water large
  enough to hold Saturn, the planet would float.
• Saturn rotates so fast (6,200 miles per hour)
  that the planet bulges at its equator and its
  poles are flat. It is the flattest (oblate)
  planet in the solar system.
• Because Saturn spins on a tilt, it has seasons.
  Summer on Saturn lasts about eight Earth years.

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Uranus

• Discovered in 1781
• Uranus appears blue-green in color
• Its axis of rotation is tilted 90 degrees
• Moons are named after Shakespearean plays and
  formed from other broken moons.
• Orbit Period 84 years
• Rotation Period 17 hours

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Uranus

• Uranus spins lying on its side (like a barrel),
  this is perhaps due to a large collision early in
  its formation.
• Uranuss atmosphere is mostly hydrogen but it
  also contains large amounts of a gas called
  methane. Methane absorbs red light and scatters
  blue light so a blue-green methane haze hides the
  interior of the planet from view.
• It has only been visited one time- It has 27
  moons- It can be seen without a telescope or
  binoculars.

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Neptune

• Discovered in 1846
• The atmosphere appears blue and is marked by
  large dark blue storms
• Neptune has visual belts of clouds
• It has a system of 5 rings and at least 13 moons
• Orbit Period 165 years
• Rotation Period 16 hours

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Neptune

• Neptune suffers the most violent weather in our
  Solar System.
• Storms have been spotted swirling around its
  surface and freezing winds that blow about ten
  times faster than hurricanes on Earth make it the
  windiest planet.
• Neptune is a large, water planet with a blue
  hydrogen-methane atmosphere and faint rings.
• Neptune is covered in thin wispy white clouds
  which stretch out around the planet.

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Pluto

• Discovered 1930
• Mystery Planet
• Farthest from the sun
• Recently changed from a being considered a planet
  to a dwarf planet.
• Orbit Period 248 years
• Rotation Period 6.4 days

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Is Pluto a Planet?

• What to consider?
• Size?
• Shape?
• Orbit?
• What is it made of?

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IAU Definition of a Planet

• In 2006, the International Astronomical Union
  (IAU) came up with the following definition of a
  planet
• orbits the Sun
• has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to
  overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a
  hydrostatic equilibrium shape (i.e., it is
  spherical),
• has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit,
• is not a satellite

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IAU Definition of a Dwarf Planet

• In 2006, the International Astronomical Union
  (IAU) came up with the following definition of a
  dwarf planet
• orbits the Sun
• has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to
  overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a
  hydrostatic equilibrium shape (i.e., it is
  spherical),
• has not cleared the neighborhood around its
  orbit,
• is not a satellite

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21st Century Solar System
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If you traveled on a shuttle thats going 28,000
mph it would take

• Saturn 3.6yr
• Uranus 7.3yr
• Neptune 11.4yr
• Pluto 15.1yr

• Mercury 52d
• Venus 100d
• Mars 210d
• Jupiter 1.9yr

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Dwarf Planets

• A dwarf planet is a celestial body massive enough
  to be spherical, in orbit around the Sun, which
  are not satellites. The crucial factor dividing a
  planet from a dwarf planet is that a planet must
  have succeeded in clearing the area of its orbit
  from debris and other objects, whereas a dwarf
  planet has not.

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Dwarf Planets
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Io
Mercury
Europa
Moon
Triton
Titan
Ganymede
Callisto
Pluto
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Kuiper Belt

• Class of icy bodies orbiting beyond Neptune.
• Found only in the outer Solar System (gt30AU)
• Densities of 1.2 to 2 g/cc (mostly ices)
• Examples
• Pluto Eris (icy dwarf planets)
• Kuiper Belt Objects (30-50AU)
• Charon, Plutos large moon
• Sedna Quaor distant large icy bodies

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Kuiper Belt
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The Giant Moons

• Moon any natural satellite orbiting a planet or
  dwarf planet
• Giant Moons
• Earth The Moon (Luna)
• Jupiter Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto
• Saturn Titan
• Neptune Triton
• Many smaller moons, both rocky icy.
• Only Mercury Venus have no moons.

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The Giant Moons
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The Leftovers (small bodies)

• Asteroids
• Made of rock metal (density 2-3 g/cc)
• Sizes Few 100km to large boulders
• Most are found in the Main Belt (2.1-3.2 AU)
• Meteoroids
• Bits of rock and metal
• Sizes grains of sand to boulders
• Comets
• Composite rock ice dirty snowballs
• Long tails of gas dust are swept off them when
  they pass near the Sun.

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Asteroids
951 Gaspra
243 Ida
253 Mathilde
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Comets

• A comet is an icy small Solar System body that,
  when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible
  coma (a thin, fuzzy, temporary atmosphere) and
  sometimes also a tail. Comets are often referred
  to as "dirty snowballs." They are left over from
  the formation of stars and planets billions of
  years ago. Before zipping around the Sun with
  their characteristic big tails, comets that we
  see in our solar system start out as big chunks
  of rock and ice just floating around in something
  called the Oort Cloud. When the gravity from a
  large passing body, like a star, becomes strong
  enough, some large chunks of ice get pulled away
  from the cloud and head toward the Sun. As that
  ball of ice gets close enough to the Sun, its
  heat begins to melt some of the ice that makes up
  the comet. The melted ice becomes a gaseous tail
  that extends away from the source of the heat (in
  this case, the Sun). The tail is pushed out by
  the Sun's solar wind.

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Comet P/Halley
Comet P/Wilt
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Comet
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Meteoroid, Meteorite and Meteor

• A meteoroid is a small rock or particle of debris
  in our solar system. They range in size from dust
  to around 10 metres in diameter (larger objects
  are usually referred to as asteroids).
• A meteoroid that burns up as it passes through
  the Earths atmosphere is known as a meteor. If
  youve ever looked up at the sky at night and
  seen a streak of light or shooting star what
  you are actually seeing is a meteor.
• A meteoroid that survives falling through the
  Earths atmosphere and colliding with the Earths
  surface is known as a meteorite.

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