Download Introduction to the Solar System

ESCI 110: Solar System
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Exercise 1
Introduction to the Solar System
Introduction
One of the challenges you face as a student in an introductory earth science class is to keep a sense of
perspective about the earth as a system. It’s very easy to get lost in the details of various topics we will address,
and loose sight of why these details are important and how various earth systems are interrelated.
In this exercise we will consider the earth as just one among a number of objects in our solar system.
Objectives
Upon completion of this exercise, you should be able to:
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Distinguish the categories of objects in the solar system, including a star, planets, moons, comets,
asteroids and meteorites
Name the planets in order of their distance from the sun
Appreciate the size of the earth relative to the scale of the solar system and the sizes of the other planets
Materials
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One balloon
Play Dough or modeling clay
Metric ruler
Metric measuring tape
Brain in operational mode (preferably your own!)
Background Information
All of the following objects are part of the solar system. Make sure you can distinguish them for exam
purposes:
Star: An object so massive that nuclear fusion is triggered in its interior, and thus it shines.
Planet: Too small trigger nuclear fusion, these relatively large objects orbit a star.
Moon: Solid objects that orbit planets.
Asteroid: Small bodies of rock and/or metal that have their own orbit around the sun.
Comets: Small bodies made predominantly of ice rather than rock and metal.
Meteorites: Remnants of small bodies that fall to earth.
Pre-Questions: To be answered before you come to class. Read pages 626-628, 649,& 665.
1. What is the name of the star that’s closest to the earth? ____________________
2. Which planet is closest in size to the earth? ___________________
3. Based on their size, the planets fall into two groups. Which planets are similar in size to the earth,
and thus considered Terrestrial planets? ________________________________________________
a. Which is the largest of the Terrestrial planets, and what is its diameter? ________________________
b. Which planets can be grouped with Jupiter into the Jovian planets? ___________________________
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c. Which is the smallest of the Jovian planets and what is its diameter? ___________________________
d. The smallest Jovian planet is how many times larger than the largest terrestrial planet?____________
4. The sun is _______ times larger than Earth?
5. Which group of planets is closer to the sun, the terrestrial planets or the Jovian planets? _________________
6. What feature of the solar system separates the terrestrial planets from the jovian planets?
____________________________________________________________________________
7. Pluto was recently demoted from its standing as a planet and was reclassified as a ‘dwarf planet’. Why did
astronomers demote Pluto to dwarf planet status? __________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
8. When and how did the maria areas on the Moon’s surface form? (p.631) _____________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
In-Class Activity
The table below includes the basic data you will need to complete this exercise:
Table 1.1 Solar System Data Table
Name
The Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
The Moon*
Diameter
Distance from Sun
(in km)
(in millions of km)
1,400,000
0
4,878
58
12,104
108
12,756
150
6,794
228
143,884
778
120,536
1427
51,118
2870
50,530
4497
2,445
5900
3,475
150
Relative Mass
(Earth = 1)
* The Moon is 0.348 million kilometers from the Earth
Data from Tarbuck & Lutgens, 1996, Earth, 5th Edition
*The asteroid belt is about 258 million miles from the sun.
.056
.82
1.00
.108
317.87
95.14
14.56
17.21
.0002
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Directions:
For this exercise we will construct a scale model of the solar system. In a scale model, the size is reduced while
accurately maintaining the relative proportions of all of the features included in the model.
For our solar system, we will use a scale of 10,000 kilometers (approximately 6,200 miles) = 1 mm.
Roughly 25 mm = 1 inch, so this is quite a dramatic conversion in scale.
Start with the sun, and determine its diameter in the scale model. Set up your scale conversion formula
like this:
Sun’s diameter = 1,400,000 km X 1 mm
10,000 km = _________________
*Note: The zeroes cancel out so you can also set up the problem as:
140 km x 1mm
1km
When you set the problem up this way, the kilometers cancel out, and the answer comes out in millimeters.
Now blow up your balloon until the diameter matches that in the scale model, and tie it off.
Now go through and calculate the diameters of the Moon and the planets as they will be in our scale
model. Fill in the answers in the blanks below, and, as always, be sure to write down the units of measurement
for each one. You should round off each diameter to the nearest tenth of a millimeter, because we can’t
possibly make our models any more accurately than that.
Scale Diameters
Mercury ______________
Saturn ______________
Venus ______________
Uranus ______________
Earth ______________
Neptune ______________
Mars ______________
Jupiter ______________
The Moon ______________
When you have completed these calculations, use the Play Dough or modeling clay you will be making a model
of 1 planet. Ask your instructor which planet you are to model.
The next step is to convert the distance of each planet from the sun into a scale distance that we can use in our
model. The best way to do this is by using scientific notation. Let’s use Mercury as an example:
Mercury’s distance from the sun = 58 x 106 km X 1 mm
104 km = _______________
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*Another way to set up this problem:
58x102 x 1mm (because 106  104 = 102)
1km
Now fill in the blanks for the distances to the planets from the sun. Show your answers in millimeters and
meters.
Scale Distances from the Sun
Mercury _____________ mm _____________ m
Saturn ______________ mm _____________ m
Venus ______________ mm _____________ m
Uranus ______________ mm _____________ m
Earth ______________ mm _____________ m
Neptune _____________ mm _____________ m
Mars ______________ mm _____________ m
The Moon ______________ mm _____________ m
Jupiter ______________ mm _____________ m
We will now use the tape measure to lay out our scale model of the solar system. Answer the questions
below based on this model.
Follow-up Questions
8. Are the planets evenly spaced as you proceed outward from the Sun? _____
What pattern do you see in the spacing of the planets?
a. Terrestrial planets? _____________________________________________________
b. Jovian planets? _________________________________________________________
c. Write a brief statement summarizing the overall spacing of the planets.
_______________________________________________________________
9. “Mass is a measure of the quantity of matter an object contains. The masses of the planets are listed on the
table in relation to the mass of the Earth” –
Tarbuck, Lutgens, Pinzke, Applications in Earth Science.
a. Which planet is the most massive in the Solar System? ___________________________
b. How many more times massive is it than Earth? _________________________________
c. Which planet is the least massive (Excluding Pluto) ______________________________
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10. The gravitational attraction of a planet is directly related to its mass. Which planet exerts the greatest pull of
gravity? Explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
11. Your weight is a function of the gravitational attraction of an object on your mass. On which planet
(excluding Pluto) would you weigh the least? Explain.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
12. The Moon orbits the earth at an average distance of .348 million kilometers. What is the distance between
the earth and the Moon for our scale model (use the scale that you used at the beginning of the lab)? (show
work in space below)
Distance from the Moon to the Sun x 1mm
104 km
a. Scale distance between earth and Moon: ___________
b. Place the earth and the Moon at their correct distance for our model, and compare the distance between the
earth and Moon to the distance between the earth and Mars. How many times farther away is Mars in
comparison to the Moon?
____________
c. What can you conclude about the difficulty of landing astronauts on Mars compared to the Apollo mission
when astronauts landed on the Moon?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________