Download Overview of our Solar System 1112 notes

8/30/2012
Objectives
Overview of our Solar
System
What is included in our solar
system family?
Early Astronomers
• To identify what is
included in our solar
system
• To describe what
different parts of our
solar system have in
common
• To describe what
makes the different
parts of the solar
system different
Geocentric Model
• The first astronomers
in 600 BC made
accurate observations
of space
• Ptolemy
• Earth is the
center of the
solar system
• Everything
revolved around
the Earth
• Stars are farther away
than planets
• Stars appeared
smaller than planets
• Stars were always
there, planets were
not
Heliocentric Model
• Copernicus
• Sun is the
center of the
solar system
• All planets
revolve around
the sun
• Current Model
The Sun
• At the center of our solar
system
• Contains 98.5% of all of the
mass of the solar system
• The first thing formed in our
solar system
• The largest and only star in our
solar system
• Provides almost all of the
energy used in the solar system
• Earth only gets 0.000000001%
of the sun’s total energy
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Planets
• Planets were made after the
sun started forming
• Planets are smaller than the sun
• Planets must be:
• Spheres
• Elliptical Orbit the sun
• “Clear their neighborhood” or have
no matter in their orbital path
• We have 8 planets
Other members of the
Solar system
• Dwarf Planet:
Pluto
• Moon: Orbits a
planet
• Comets: Rocks
& metals held
together by
frozen gases
Other Members of the
Solar System
• Asteroids: “Flying
Mountains” or large
rocks
• Meteors: “Shooting
stars” or small rocks
that burn up in our
atmosphere
• Meteorite: “Shooting
stars” that hit Earth
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