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Transcript
The Solar System
Neptune
Saturn
Uranus
Not pictured
The dwarf
planet Eris
Jupiter
Mars
Earth
Venus
Mercury
Not pictured, the dwarf planet Ceres
Image from http://www.nineplanets.org/gif/NinePlanets.jpg
2
Image from http://www.nineplanets.org/gif/NinePlanets.jpg
3
Another perspective
Another perspective
Renamed
Eris
Image from http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/TwelvePlanets_l.jpg 4
The Inner Planets
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
5
Humans Needs?
 Oxygen (Not 100%)
 Water
 Favorable Temperature
 Daily sunlight for photosynthesis
 Favorable Atmosphere conditions (little CO2, no narcotic
gases(argon), total pressure around 1atm)
6
Characteristics of the Inner Planets
Very similar to each other
small
rocky surfaces.
Dense.
NO rings
 “Terrestrial planets” because they resemble Earth,
“terra-” means “Earth”
7
Mercury
Size- about 38% of Earth’s diameter =4878 km
Distance from sun- about 39% of
Earth’s distance=58,000,000 km
Surface- thin, hard rocky surface with plains
and craters
Atmosphere- thin with sodium and gases
8
Mercury(cont’d)
 Can’t support life (no water or oxygen, hot temps)
 Moons- none
 Rotation- 59 Earth days
 Revolution- 0.24 Earth years
 Daytime(sunlit side) temperature 430ºC Nighttime(shaded side)
temperature -190ºC
9
Mercury
10
Venus
 95% of Earth’s diameter=12,104 km
 Distance from sun- about 2/3 of Earth’s=108,000,000 km
from sun
 Surface- rocks similar to Earth
 Has volcanoes with lava flows
11
Venus (cont’d)
 Atmosphere- thick
 Mostly carbon dioxide (greenhouse effect is strong)
 Clouds partly sulfuric acid
 Atmospheric pressure is 90 times heavier than Earth’s and
would crush a human
 No water
 Harsh temperatures and atmosphere
12
Venus (cont’d)
 Sometimes called “Earth’s twin”
 Retrograde rotation- rotates “backward” from east to
west (opposite of Earth)
 Rotation=8 Earth months
 Revolution=7.5 Earth months
 Moons- None
13
Venus
14
Earth
Size- 12,756 km diameter
Distance from Sun- 150,000,000 km
Surface- Crust is a solid rocky surface,
70% is covered by water
Atmosphere- up to 100 km thick, made
up of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1%
other gases
15
Earth
Rotation takes 24 hours
Revolution takes 365.25 days
Earth has one moon
16
Earth
17
Mars
Size- 53% of Earth’s diameter, it is
6794 km
Distance from Sun- about 1.5 times
distance of Earth
228,000,000 km from sun
Surface-Rocky surface with carbonite
rocks high in iron, creating red color
Polar ice caps contain frozen water and
carbon dioxide
18
Mars
 Atmosphere- Very thin,
 Thin clouds Mostly carbon dioxide
 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure
 Ability to support life- It is possible that primitive
bacteria may have lived on Mars or may now live there
but none has been found.
 Existence of liquid water makes life on Mars a
possibility
19
Mars continued
Rotation- 1.03 Earth days
Revolution- 1.9 Earth years
Mars has largest volcano in solar
system, called Olympus Mons
Moons- 2
20
Mars
21
The Outer Planets
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto (a dwarf Planet)
22
Characteristics of The Outer Planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the
dwarf planets Pluto and Eris
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are
called “Gas Giants”
Larger than Earth
 Don’t have solid surfaces
Pluto and Eris are small and rocky, like the
terrestrial planets.
23
Characteristics of Gas Giants
Don’t have well-defined surfaces
Deep atmospheres about 75% hydrogen,
24% helium, and 1% other elements
Solid cores of rock, ice, frozen carbon
dioxide and other compounds
24
Jupiter
Size- diameter is 11 times Earth’s, It is
142,800 km
Distance from Sun- 5.2 times further than
Earth. It is 778,000,000 km
Surface and atmosphere of gas and liquid it
does not have a well-defined surface
Deep atmosphere of about 86 %
hydrogen,14 % helium, and tiny amounts of
other substances.
25
Jupiter continued
Lacks water, oxygen and
moderate temperatures.
Largest planet in solar system with
300 times the mass of Earth
Rotation- 0.41 Earth days (fastest)
Revolution- 29 Earth years
26
Jupiter continued
Moons- 67
Has dark rings
Great Red Spot is storm on Jupiter,
twice as big as Earth
27
Jupiter
28
Saturn
Size- About 9.44 times size of Earth. It is
120,540 km
Distance from sun- About 9.5 times distance
from sun as Earth. 1,427,000,000 km
Syruplike mixture of helium and hydrogen
Atmosphere of gaseous helium and hydrogen
29
Saturn continued
Lacks water, oxygen, and moderate
temperatures
Second largest planet in solar system
Rotation- 0.43 Earth days
Revolution- 29 Earth years
30
Saturn continued
Moons- 62
Low density planet, could float in
water
Prominent rings- mostly chunks of
ice and rocks
31
Saturn
32
Uranus
Size- About 4 times diameter of Earth.
It is 51,200 km
Distance from Sun- About 19 times
farther from sun than Earth. It is
2,871,000,000 km
33
Uranus continued
Surface consists of blue-green clouds made
up of tiny ice crystals of methane, and rock.
Atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen, 15%
helium and 2% methane.
34
Uranus continued
 Lacks water, oxygen, and moderate temperatures
needed to support life, NO known life
 Rotation- 0.72 Earth days, is retrograde rotation like
Venus, and rotates on side
 Revolution- 84 Earth years
 Moons-27
 Rings- 13 dark rings
35
Uranus
36
Neptune
 Size- Almost 4 times diameter of Earth. It is 49,500 km
 Distance from Sun- Almost 30 times farther from sun than
Earth. It is 4,497,000,000 km
Composition: Ice and Silicates (rock) with
about 15% hydrogen, some water, and a
little helium
37
Neptune continued
Atmosphere:hydrogen and helium
with a small amount of methane.
Lacks significant water, oxygen,
and moderate temperatures
38
Neptune continued
Rotation- 0.67 Earth days
Revolution- 165 Earth years
Visible clouds in atmosphere
Moons- 13
Rings-5
39
Neptune
40
Pluto
 Size- about 17% of diameter of Earth. It is 2200 km
 Distance from sun- more than 39 times farther than Earth.
It is 5,913,000,000 kilometers
 Rocky, icy surface is very small
 Thin atmosphere of methane gas
41
Pluto continued
 Lacks water, oxygen, and warmth needed for life. NO
known life
 Moons- 1 Charon (book), 3- Charon, Hydra and Nix
(web and NASA)
 Rotation- 6.4 Earth days
 Revolution- 248 Earth years
42
Pluto
43
The Dwarf Planets
Ceres-
new dwarf planet, it was classified as
the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt (it is
between Mars & Jupiter).
Pluto-
was classified as a planet, now
classified as a dwarf planet
Eris-
new dwarf planet, past Pluto it is an icy
body near the edge of our solar system.
44
The Dwarf Planets and their
Moons
45
Planets and Dwarf Planets compared
 Dwarf planets are smaller than planets
 Both orbit the Sun
 Both are large enough that their gravity pulls them into the shape
of a sphere
 Planets clear smaller objects out of their orbit. Dwarf planets can
not because of their weaker gravity.
 Pluto doesn’t dominate it’s orbit due to it’s small mass. Neptune
crosses into it’s orbit.
46
Meteorite vs. Meteoroid
 Meteoroid = while in space a meteorite is called a
meteoroid
 Meteorite = a small rock or rocky grain that strikes Earth’s
surface
Meteor
Sometimes called a
“Shooting Star”
When a meteorite
enters Earth’s
atmosphere, friction
causes them to
burn up, producing
a streak of light
Where do they come from?
How big are they?
 Pieces of rock that broke off other objects
 Sizes range from as small as a pebble or as big as a huge
boulder
Are they dangerous?
 Most meteoroids disintegrate before reaching the earth
by burning up in Earth’s atmosphere
 Some leave a trail that lasts several minutes
 Meteoroids that reach the earth are called meteorites.
Large ones can cause damage
Flagstaff, Arizona
 49,000 years ago
 Meteorite about 150
feet in diameter
 Weighed 650 pounds
 Energy = 2.5 million tons
of dynamite
 4000 feet wide, 650 feet
deep
 Still visible today
Barringer Meteorite Crater
What’s a “Meteor Shower”?
 Icy surface of comets heat up as they get closer to the
sun.
 Debris particles are released.
 Occur when Earth passes through the tail or debris of a
comet
Comets
 Bodies in space made up of ice, dust, small gritty
particles
 Sometimes called “dirty snowballs”
 When close to the sun, ice vaporizes, producing a
spectacular streak of gas, referred to as a “tail”
 Many in a regular orbit around the sun
Comets
Where do comets come from?
 Many ordinate in a region called the Oort cloud beyond
Pluto
 Others originate in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune
Asteroids
An irregularly
shaped rocky
object in space (like
a space potato)
May be the
shattered remains
of objects left over
from the time when
the planets were
formed
How big are asteroids?
 Larger than meteoroids
 Size ranges from 10 feet across to bigger than a
mountain
Asteroids
 Most are in a band that orbit the sun between Mars and
Jupiter (Asteroid Belt)
Large Asteroid hits Earth
65 Million Years Ago
Catastrophic
Collision
Asteroid 6 to 12
miles in diameter
Near the Yucatan
Peninsula in the Gulf
of Mexico
Large Asteroid hits Earth
65 Million Years Ago
 Collision produced an explosion = 100 trillion tons of dynamite
 Gouged out a crater about 60 miles in diameter
 How would an event like this affect Earth?
What do Scientists Think
Happened?
 Forests were wiped clean for a distance of 300 to 600
miles in all directions
 300 foot wave struck the coast of Texas
 Powerful Earthquakes
 Landslides destroyed long stretches of coastline
 Debris would cover large parts of North America
 Poisonous gases and dust spread over most of the Earth,
What do Scientists Think
Happened
 Sunlight was blocked for many months
 Temperatures plummeted to the freezing point
 Not enough sunlight for photosynthesis
 Plants died . . . Animals died
 Many animals became extinct (including many types of
dinosaurs)
The Rise and Fall of Life on
Earth
Dip around 65 Million years ago?