Download Our Solar System

Our Solar System
By Jeannie Sawyer
Fair Use Guidelines

Certain materials are included under the
fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright
Law and have been prepared according
to the educational fair use guidelines.
Objectives
The students will know what a solar system
is.
 The students will have an understanding on
how the Solar system was formed.
 They will know how big the solar system is.
 They will discover how the solar system is
arranged.

What is the Solar
System?
The solar system
consists of:
 One central star, the
Sun
 Nine Planets:
Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto

How is our solar system set
up?
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It is set up into two
parts:
The inner system, those
closest to the sun;
contain Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars.
The outer system
contains Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto.
The inner planets are
separated from the
outer planets by the
Asteroid belt
How did the solar system form?
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The planets, asteroids and
comets in the solar system are
loose particles left over from
the formation of the sun.
Gas and dust in the disc
spiraled gradually in to the
center, where it accumulated
to form the Sun.
These dust particles stuck
together to make clumps, then
clumps stuck together to make
rocks, then rocks collided to
make planets.
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The sun is the collapsed core
of an interstellar gas cloud,
and the planets, asteroids and
comets are small lumps of dust
which stayed in orbit instead
of spiraling into the Sun.
The inner planets formed first
and were dragged by the
spiraling gas, which is why they
are closest to the sun.
The outer planets have rocky
cores, but their outer layers
are made up hydrogen and
other gases.
What is the asteroid
belt?
The asteroid belt is a zone between the
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orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
 It is believed that the asteroids in the
asteroid belt never formed a planet
because of the gravity of nearby Jupiter
kept pulling them apart.
 Today, millions of asteroids probably
inhabit the asteroid belt, with many more
scattered throughout the solar system.
Where do comets come
from?
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Comets are solar system
leftovers: they are often
described as “dirty
snowballs,” lumps of frozen
gas and dust.
Comets are almost invisible,
except when they are near the
sun’s heat.
Comets become visible when
ice changed into gas by the
sun’s heat.
The gas carries dust, and this
dust forms the comet’s head
and tail.
Meteor showers sometimes
occur when the Earth passes
through a comet’s orbit.
How big is the solar
system?
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There are no physical
boundaries in space.
The solar system from the
Sun out to Pluto which is the
farthest planet orbiting it, is
measured in astronomical
units of length.
One astronomical unit
equals the distance from
Earth to the Sun: 93 million
miles.
Clip
Can you see any planets with
the “naked eye”?
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The ancient
civilizations were
able to discover
Mercury, Venus,
Mars, Jupiter, and
Saturn by unaided
eye.
Uranus, Neptune,
and Pluto were all
discovered using a
telescope.
Can the Hubble Space Telescope take
pictures of all the planets in our solar
system?
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Mercury and Earth are
the only two planets
that the Hubble Space
Telescope has not
observed for
astronomical purposes.
Mercury is too close to
the Sun, which is too
bright for the Hubble to
look at.
Can you view the solar system?
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You don’t need your own
Voyager to see the solar
system.
You can see much of it from
your own back yard.
You can look at the stars,
planets, and more out there
by eye, binoculars, or
telescope, inexpensively
Refer to Sky & Telescope or
another magazine for date
positions or check several
Web sites that show
planetary positions, and the
sky is the limit to your
watching.
Activity: Size and Distances of
Planets
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Have the student work in pairs; talk about the planet
distances and sizes compared to a scale model.
The distances to the planets and the sizes of the planets
are shown on the same scale, which is 1 inch = 12,000
miles. At this scale, Jupiter is 1,111 yards from the Sun
and is represented by a soccer ball of diameter about
7.33 inches. Pluto is 4.73 miles away, and thus cannot
be shown in a typical school yard, but its size can be
represented by a small BB. At this scale, the Sun is
represented as a 6-ft diameter medicine ball, and the
star Betelgeuse (in constellation Orion) would be a ball
about 1 mile in diameter.
Saturn is 1.2 miles away, Uranus is 1.7 miles away,
Neptune is 4.73 miles. Bonus question-how far is
Betelgeuse?
Bibliography
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/StarChild/shad
ow/solar_solarsystem_level1/activity
 http://www.tcsn.net/afiner/soar.htm
 http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/trading.cgi
 http://www.nasm.edu.ceps/SIMAGES/lesson.
html
 http://www.anu.edu.au/Physics/nineplanets/
see.html
 http://www.tcsn.net/afiner/solar.htm
 http://tes.asu.edu/EDUCATION/activities/93_
94guide/cg93_94_solar_syst_scale.html
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