Download Our Solar System!!! - Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Our Solar System!!!
Solar System scaled to accurate size, not distance from the Sun.
The Order of the Solar System
Although not to scale, this diagram shows where all the objects
in our Solar System are located in relation to the Sun.
Neptune
Kuiper Belt and
Oort Cloud of
Comets
Uranus
Saturn
Comet
Mars
Earth
Asteroid
Belt
Venus
Eris
Pluto
Jupiter
Sun
Milky
Way
Moon
Mercury
Ceres
The Sun – The One Star in Our
Solar System
Solar Flares and Sunspots
Solar flares (bottom right) are large
explosions in the sun’s atmosphere.
Sunspots are temporary areas of reduced temperature on
the surface of the sun. Because they’re cooler than the
rest of the surface, they appear darker. Sunspots are
caused by magnetism.
The Inner “Rocky” Planets
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
The Outer “Gas Giants”
Jupiter
Uranus
Saturn
Neptune
Mercury – Closest Planet to the Sun
Smallest planet in Solar System. Very thin
atmosphere. Heavily cratered. No moon.
Venus – Hottest Planet in Solar System
Very thick atmosphere. No Moon.
The Magellan Probe (left) used radar to make images
of Venus’ surface. There are many craters, active
volcanoes and solidified lava fields.
The Magellan Probe was
launched from the Space
Shuttle Atlantis in 1989 and
operated until 1994 when it
was deliberately sent into
Venus’ atmosphere and
disintegrated.
Earth – The Living Planet!!!
Earth’s Companion - The Moon
Heavily cratered. Very dry. Small ice deposits at poles.
No atmosphere. The only other world people have visited.
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon during the Apollo
11 mission in 1969!
Earthrise from Apollo 8, taken in
December 1968
Mars – The Red Planet
A very cold, dry desert. Thin atmosphere. Scientists have
explored a great deal of this planet with robots.
Mars Rovers and Landers Past and Present
Sojourner (1996-1998)
Phoenix Lander (2008)
Twin rovers Spirit (Below) and Opportunity (2004-Present)
Mars Science Laboratory - AKA Curiosity (Launch in 2011)
The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter mapped the
surface of the red planet.
Mars Global Surveyor (1996-2006)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005 –
Present)
Features of Mars
Olympus Mons – The largest volcano
in our solar system. Now believed to be
extinct, it is nearly three times taller than
Mt. Everest and covers an area roughly
the size of Arizona.
Victoria Crater – Impact
crater nearly half a mile
wide. Visited by mars
rover Opportunity in 2006.
Valles
Marineris –
The largest
canyon in the
solar system,
to walk from
one side to
another
would be like
walking from
Los Angeles
to New York.
Phobos and Deimos - Moons of
Mars or Captured Asteroids?
These tiny moons are most likely asteroids, captured by Mars’ gravity.
Phobos, the larger of the two, is only around 7 miles wide, while Deimos
is barely 4. Phobos (left) is destined to impact on the surface of Mars
while Deimos will eventually escape the planet’s gravity and fly away.
The Asteroid Belt
Asteroids are small rocky objects of various shapes and sizes that orbit
the sun. Most of them are found in an area between Mars and Jupiter
called the Main Asteroid Belt.
Ceres – Asteroid or Dwarf
Planet?
Below: Dwarf planet
Ceres (bottom left), the
largest object in the
asteroid belt, compared
to the Earth, and Moon.
Some Famous Asteroids
Ida – 19.5
miles long.
Has a small
satellite.
Mathilde
Gaspra
Eros 10
miles
long
Itokawa
Dactyl4600 ft.
wide.
Steins
Vesta – at roughly 330 miles
across, the largest asteroid in the
asteroid belt.
Lutetia
Jupiter – The Largest Planet in the Solar System
So big that all the other planets and moons can fit inside. Has 63 known moons.
One of four planets that has a ring. Famous for it’s great red spot – a large storm
that has been active for at least 400 years.
Storms of the Solar System
Venus Double Vortex
Hexagon of Saturn
Hurricanes and Typhoons
on Earth
Methane “Rain” Cloud on
Saturn’s Moon Titan
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
Neptune’s Blue Spot
Moons of Jupiter
Io – Moon with
active volcanoes
Europa – Icy moon
with an ocean?
Liquid water could exist under the icy crust
of Jupiter’s moon Europa. If water is there,
could life be there also?
Possible layer
of liquid water.
Moons of Jupiter
Ganymede – The
Solar System’s
largest moon
Callisto – Heavily
cratered moon
Ganymede (bottom left) is the solar system’s largest moon. It
is larger than the planet Mercury and all five dwarf planets.
Here it is compared to the Earth and our Moon.
Saturn – “The Ring Planet”
Has as many as 69 moons. The rings are
made of small bits of ice.
Titan - Saturn’s Largest Moon
Moon with Atmosphere
Thick cloud cover obscures
our view of Titan’s surface.
The Cassini-Huygens probe
(below) found that the
atmosphere is mostly
nitrogen gas. Though
Earth’s atmosphere is
mostly nitrogen also, there is
no oxygen in Titan’s
atmosphere.
Like Earth, but Very
Different
Cassini-Huygens was able to map out the surface of
Titan through the haze. Some features on Titan
appear similar to Earth, but in fact are very different.
The surface (bottom left) resembles a rocky desert,
but the average temperature is a bitterly cold -290 ° F.
It has volcanoes like Sotra Facula (right), but they
may erupt water instead of lava. Titan has large
lakes, but instead of water, they are filled with liquid
methane, a gas on earth. Ligeia Mare (bottom
middle) is about the size of Lake Superior (bottom
right). On Titan it rains liquid methane as well.
Enceladus – Moon with Geysers
The presence of salt water
geysers on Saturn’s moon
Enceladus leads many scientists
to believe there may be an
underground ocean inside this tiny
world. If so, it may be a place
where life can exist.
Uranus – The Tilted Planet
Has 27 moons and 13 rings. First planet confirmed with the use of a telescope.
Scientists aren’t
exactly sure why
Uranus is tilted
on its side. It
may have been
the result of a
collision with an
Earth-sized
object .
Miranda – The broken moon.
Miranda’s cracked appearance was
once thought to have been caused by
a collision. The moon was shattered,
then gravity reassembled it. Now
scientists believe that the patchwork
surface was actually the result of
volcanic activity caused by Uranus’
gravitational pull on Miranda.
Below: Miranda’s Verona Rupes – At over
three miles high, it is the Solar System’s tallest
cliff.
Neptune – The Blue Planet
Windiest planet in the Solar System, can sustain
winds of over 1300 mph. Famous blue spot is a
storm. Has 13 moons and thin, broken rings.
Triton - Moon with Nitrogen Volcanoes
Scientists believe
Neptune’s largest moon,
Triton, was a Kuiper belt
object, like Pluto, that was
captured by Neptune’s
gravity. Triton actually
orbits Neptune backwards
as it slows down. The
pressure Neptune’s
gravity exerts on Triton is
tearing the moon apart
from the inside. Nitrogen
gas from the interior is
forced through the
surface, ejecting black
plumes of dust. Waterammonia volcanoes are
also present. Eventually,
Neptune’s gravity will
break Triton apart from
within.
Beyond Neptune
The Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud lie past the orbit of
Neptune. Dwarf Planets like Pluto and Eris are located in
the Kuiper Belt, along with perhaps billions of comets and
other icy bodies. Past the Kuiper belt lies the Oort Cloud,
where possibly billions more comets and icy bodies exist.
Pluto – The First Dwarf Planet
Has two moons – Hydra and Nix
Launched in 2006, New Horizons
is scheduled to arrive at Pluto in
2015. It should provide the first
detailed images of Pluto. The
dwarf planet is so distant that the
blurry image at right, taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope, is the
most detailed view we have so
far.
Charon – Moon of Pluto or Dwarf Planet?
Hubble Space Telescope image of Charon
Above: Artist’s conception of Pluto
and its moons. Because of Charon’s
large size (about half the size of
Pluto) it doesn’t actually orbit its
companion. Rather, they circle each
other. This has led many to call them
a binary or dual dwarf planet.
The Five Dwarf Planets
Comets – “Dirty Snowballs”
Mostly found in the Kuiper Belt and Oort
Cloud.
The Stardust mission collected dust
from Comet Wild 2 (above) and
brought it back to Earth for study.
The Deep Impact probe
colliding with Comet Tempel 1.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was
captured and broken into over 20
pieces (below) by Jupiter’s immense
gravity. The fragments collided with the
planet from July 16-22, 1994.
Scientists believe that Jupiter’s
gravity protects the inner planets
from impacts. Rogue comets and
asteroids often hit Jupiter
instead. The dark impact site
below is the size of planet Earth.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Impacting with Jupiter!
Comet
Tail
Comets
usually have
two tails. The
red tail is
mostly dust
while the blue
tail is made of
gas.
Sedna – Oort Cloud Object?
Artist impression
of Sedna, a
Dwarf Planet
Candidate. It may
be part of the
Oort Cloud, the
farthest known
bodies in our
solar system.
Beyond the Oort Cloud
Over 500 planets have
been discovered orbiting
stars other than our Sun.
These are called extrasolar planets.
At left: Artist’s conception
of 51 Pegasi b, the first
extra-solar planet
discovered orbiting a sunlike star. Nicknamed
Bellerophon, it is called a
“Hot Jupiter” because it is
a gas giant orbiting very
close to its parent star.
Goldilocks Planet?
The red dwarf star
Gliese 581 may have as
many as three planets
orbiting in its habitable
or “Goldilocks” zone,
where it’s not too hot or
too cold for liquid water
to exist, but “just right.”
If liquid water is present
on one or more of these
planets, might life be
there as well?
Artist impression of
Gliese 581 g, a
possible earth-like
planet. Red dwarf
star Gliese 581 is in
the background.
Artist Credit –
Lynette Cook
Our Galaxy, the Milky Way!
There may be
more than
200 billion
stars in our
Milky Way.
The Sun is
just one of
them. How
many earthlike planets
could there
be in our
galaxy alone?
Beyond the Milky Way!
This ultra deep field photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
(right) does not show billions of stars, but rather billions of galaxies!
Recommended Websites
Ames Research Center – www.arc.nasa.gov
Astronomy Magazine – www.astronomy.com
European Space Agency – www.esa.int
Goddard Space Flight Center – www.gsfc.nasa.gov
Johnson Space Center –
www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html
Keck Observatory – www.keckobservatory.org
Kennedy Space Center – www.ksc.nasa.gov
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – http://jpl.nasa.gov
NASA Photojournal – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County – www.nhm.org
•Photos courtesy of
NASA/JPL unless
otherwise noted.