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THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Chapter 30
I. PLANET MOTION – 30.1
A. Models of the Solar System
1. Geocentric model
a.
Please Define Geocentric Model:
Earth-centered model of the Solar
System.
b. What does “Planasthai” mean?
To wander, and our word Planet comes from
this meaning.
c. Who proposed this Geocentric Model?
The Greek philosopher Ptolemy.
d. Geocentric modifications
1.) What were the Problems associated with
this Geocentric Model?
The Planets in our Solar System periodically appeared
to move in a retrograde motion or move backwards as
compared to the background of distant stars.
2. Heliocentric model
a. Please Define Heliocentric Model:
Sun-centered model of the Solar System.
b. Who proposed this Heliocentric Model?
Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish astronomer in 1543.
c. Galileo
1.) What did Galileo discover?
a.) The Italian astronomer, Galileo Galilei,
discovered evidence to support Copernicus’
heliocentric model, by observing that Venus had phases like
the Moon and these phases could only be explained if Venus
orbited the Sun and passed between Earth and the Sun.
b.
Galileo also discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter;
Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa.
B. Understanding the Solar System
1. What did Johannes Kepler discover?
a. Planets move around the Sun in ellipses rather than
in perfect spheres.
b.
Kepler also found that the planets are located at different
orbital distances relative to the Sun.
2. Classifying the planets
a. What are Terrestrial Planets?
Planets are similar to Earth in size, structure, and
composition. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and
Mars.
b. What are Jovian Planets?
The giant planets like Jupiter which is composed mostly of
gas. They are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
c. What are Inner Planets?
Planets that are classified by location. The Inner Planets
would be the planets between the Sun and the Asteroid
belt. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
d. What are Outer Planets?
Planets between the Asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt.
They are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, and
Sedna.
e. What are Superior Planets?
Planets between the Earth and the Sun. They are Mercury,
and Venus.
f. What are Inferior Planets?
Planets that are beyond Earth’s orbit. They are Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris, and Sedna.
3. Origin of the solar system
a. Objects in the our Solar System as viewed from
the North Star move in which direction?
Counterclockwise around the Sun.
C. Other Solar Systems
1. Please Define Extrasolar planets:
Planets in orbit around stars other than the Sun.
2. As of April 2014, how many Extrasolar planets
exist? About 1000.
II. THE INNER PLANETS – 30.2
A. Planets Near the Sun
1. Mercury
a. Please Describe Mercury:
Mercury is second smallest planet in our Solar System,
Pluto is the smallest. Mercury revolves around the Sun in
88 days.
b. What is Mercury’s Interior like?
Mercury has a large inner iron core surrounded by solid
rock.
c. Mercury’s surface
1. What is Mercury’s surface like?
Mercury is covered with deep craters and steep cliffs
up to 3 km high.
d. Is there an atmosphere around Mercury?
Mercury has no atmosphere because of its proximity to the
Sun. The temperature on Mercury ranges from 430oC to
-170oC.
2. Venus
a. Please Describe Venus:
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun. It is
blanketed with a thick dense atmosphere, 92 times more
thick than Earth’s atmosphere. Its atmosphere is mostly
CO2 and its surface has mountains, valleys, and inactive
volcanoes.
b. Why is Venus sometimes referred as Earth’s
Sister Planet?
Venus has almost the same mass and size as planet Earth.
c. The greenhouse effect
1.) What gas in Venus’ atmosphere cause
the planet to be so hot? Carbon dioxide.
2.) What is the temperature on the surface
of Venus? Between 450oC and 475oC.
3. Earth
a. Please Describe Earth:
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the
temperatures on Earth allow water to exist as a solid,
liquid, and gas on its surface. Its atmosphere is
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace of other gases.
b. What is Earth’s average temperature?
Earth’s average temperature is 15oC.
c. What does Ozone or O3 in Earth’s
atmosphere protect us from?
From the intense ultraviolet rays from the Sun.
d. Life on Earth
4. Mars
a. Please Describe Mars:
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is called the
“Red” planet because of the presence of iron oxide
minerals in its rock.
b. What is Mars’ axis tilt?
Mars rotates on a tilted axis at an angle of 25o.
c. What is Mars’ average temperature?
Mars’ average temperature is -60oC.
d. Mars’s atmosphere
Mars’ has a very thin atmosphere, composed mostly of
CO2, nitrogen, argon, oxygen, and water vapor. The surface
temperature of Mars ranges from -140oC to 20oC.
e. Martian moons
1. What are the two moons of Mars?
a.)
b.)
Phobos which means fear, is the closest moon
and is heavily cratered.
Deimos which means panic, is the farthest moon
and is also heavily cratered.
f. Was Mars once wet?
Surface features like gullies and layered sediments suggest
evidence that liquid water was once present on Mars.
B. NASA on Mars
1. What is the valley of Mars called?
The “Valles Mariners” is so large that it could stretch
from San Francisco to New York City if on Earth.
2. What is Olympus Mons?
An extinct Volcano that is largest known volcano in our
Solar System. This volcano is over three times higher than
Mount Everest.
Olympus Mons
3. The Viking probes
4. Global Surveyor, Pathfinder, and Odyssey
a. What did they find in Mars’ crust?
They showed that water is frozen within
Mars’s crust and is in the form of permafrost.
5. Mars Exploration Rover mission
a. What did this Rover mission find?
The found round concretions of hematite deposits and
scientists speculate that this concretions were made in
standing water on the surface of Mars.
C. Martian Meteorites
III. THE OUTER PLANETS – 30.3
A. Planets Far from the Sun
1. Jupiter
a. Please Describe Jupiter:
Jupiter is the fifth planet and the largest planet
from the Sun and contains more mass than twice the mass
of all of the other planets combined. It is composed of
about 90% hydrogen, 10% helium, and a trace of ammonia,
methane, and water vapor.
Jupiter
b. The Voyager probes and Galileo
c. Jupiter’s Moons
1. How many moons does Jupiter have?
Jupiter has 63 known moons. Many are small, rocky
bodies that could be captured asteroids.
2. Please Describe Ganymede:
Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar system.
Ganymede is larger than Mercury or Pluto. This moon is
composed of ice and rock.
3. Please Describe Io:
Io is the closest moon to Jupiter. Because of this, Io
experiences a constant tug-of-war between the gravities of
Jupiter and Europa. This heats up Io’s interior and causes it
to be the most volcanically active object in our Solar
System. Io’s surface looks like a Pizza.
4. Please Describe Europa:
Scientists believe that Europa has subsurface oceans of
liquid water. They even believe that Europa could hold
more than twice the amount of water that Earth’s oceans
hold.
5. Please Describe Callisto:
Callisto is a little smaller than Ganymede. Callisto is
cratered throughout its entire surface and has a series of
concentric rings.
2. Saturn
a. Please Describe Saturn:
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second
largest planet. It has the lowest density and composed
mostly of hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of
methane, ammonia, and water vapor.
b. Saturn’s rings
1. What is the composition of the rings?
Saturn’s rings are made of particles of water-ice, and
small rocks.
2. How thick are the rings?
The rings are less than 3 kilometers thick.
3. How wide are the rings?
They are 280,000 kilometers wide.
4. What caused the rings?
The rings resulted from a collision that caused a moon to
break apart long ago.
c. Cassini-Huygens
1. How many moons does Saturn have?
Saturn has at least 60 moons.
2. Describe Saturn’s largest moon Titan:
Titan has methane lakes and hydrocarbon sand dunes.
3. Uranus
a. Please Describe Uranus:
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun and is four
times larger in diameter than Earth and it has 27 moons
with a thin ring system. It is composed of 83% hydrogen,
15% helium, 2% methane, and other trace gases.
4. Neptune
a. Please Describe Neptune:
Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun. Its atmosphere contains
3% methane. Neptune has a rocky core surrounded by an icy mantle
and layer of liquid metallic hydrogen at the surface. Neptune has a
faint ring system and has at least 13 moons.
b. Describe Neptune’s Largest moon Triton:
Triton is the largest moon of Neptune with a diameter of
2,700 km and a thin atmosphere composed mostly of
nitrogen. The Voyager 2 detected nitrogen geysers
erupting on Triton.
B. Dwarf Planets
1. Please Define Dwarf Planets:
Nearly-spherical object in orbit around the Sun that is
not a satellite, and has not cleared the debris in its orbit.
2. Pluto, Eris, and Ceres
a. Describe Pluto:
Discovered in 1930, Pluto has a diameter of 2,300 km, a
thin atmosphere, and a surface of solid, icy rock. Pluto has
three moons called Charon, Nix, and Hydra.
b. Describe Eris:
Eris, discovered in 2005, is about 2,400 km in diameter and
has one moon. Eris orbits the Sun about once every 557
Earth years.
c. Describe Ceres:
Ceres with a diameter of 940 km is found in the Asteroid
belt and takes 4.6 Earth years to orbit the Sun. It is located
between Mars and Jupiter.
C. Comets and Other Objects
1. Please Describe a Comet:
A comet is composed of dust and rock particles, frozen
water, methane, and ammonia. They originate in the
Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud.
2. Asteroids
a. Please Describe the Asteroids:
Rocky object formed from material similar to that of
the planets, orbiting the Sun. Most asteroids are found
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
3. Meteoroids
a. Please Describe Meteoroids:
Sand to boulder sized rocky object orbiting the Sun.
4. Sedna
a. Please Describe Sedna:
Distant planetoid, smaller than Pluto, larger than
comets, with a very elliptical orbit.
IV. LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM – 30.4
A. Life As We Know It
1. Exotic life on Earth
B. Can life exist on other worlds?
1. Please Define Extraterrestrial life:
Life beyond Earth, object of the search by exobiologists.
Extraterrestrial life
C.
D.
E.
V.
Mars
Europa
Titan
Chapter 30 Review
A.
Please do Check Concepts 36-44 on page 978 in your Text.
B.
Please do Standardized Test Practice 1-8 on page 980 in your Text.