Download Planet Highlights

Solar System
Highlights
The Sun
• 1 Million times the
size of Earth
• Our ONLY star in
this solar system
• Fueled by the
Nuclear Fusion of
Hydrogen and
Helium
Mercury
Mercury
Mercury
• Highest Density
• Thinnest Atmosphere
• Highest Temperature and
Greatest Temperature Range
• Messenger will fly by in 2011
• Surface is similar to the moon,
very cratered, old
Venus
Venus
• It’s day is longer than its year
• Still volcanically active and
covered with large lava flows
• It has no moons
• Atmosphere is mostly Carbon
Dioxide, which causes a large
Greenhouse Effect, raising its
temperature
Venus: Earth’s Twin
• Similar in size
• Similar density
• Young, volcanically active
surface
• Probably used to have water
that boiled away
Mars
Exploration of Mars
• Has been explored more than any
other planet:
– Mariner 4 visited for the first time in
1965
– Landers include Mars 2, Viking,
Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity
– 3 orbiters are currently in orbit
We have learned a lot about the surface
of Mars as a result
Surface of Mars
• Largest Mountain/Volcano in Solar
System: Olympus Mons
Surface of Mars
• Rocky
• Evidence of erosion
possibly by liquid
water: Dry river
beds and canyons
• Volcanoes and lava
flows
• Red Planet
Largest Canyon in solar
system
• Would
stretch
from New
York to
Los
Angeles
on earth
Moons of Mars
• 2 Moons
–Phobos
Deimos
Other Mars Facts
• Very thin atmosphere
• Permanent polar ice caps made of
water and carbon dioxide
Asteroid Belt
• The region between Mars and Jupiter
contains irregularly shaped rocky
objects called asteroids.
Asteroids
• Asteroids are probably left over
material from a planet that never
formed.
• They range in size from 1000 km to
the size of a pebble.
• There are 26 large ones and
millions of smaller ones, although
most of the asteroid belt is empty
space.
Jupiter
• Gas Giant: No solid surface, it’s gases
just get more dense.
• Under the gases is a liquid metallic core
(at high temperatures and pressures the
hydrogen becomes a liquid with ionized
protons and electrons that conduct
electricity like a metal)
• Made mostly of Hydrogen and Helium
• Rocky core 10-15 times the mass of
earth
Jupiter
• Lots of
images from
Hubble
• Flyby in 1973
by Pioneer,
Voyager
• Orbited for 8
years by
Galileo
Jupiter Facts
• Has the Great Red Spot- giant storm
in its gases
• Has faint rings
• Has 63 moons, 4 very large onesEuropa may have liquid water
• Was hit by a comet in 1994
• So big all of the other planets would
fit inside it (diameter is 11 times that
of earth)
Saturn
• Gas Giant containing a gas surface
of mostly Hydrogen and Helium, a
liquid hydrogen metal outer core,
and a rocky inner core
• Has large, prominent rings with
spaces between them
• Cassini is orbiting since 2004
• Voyager and Pioneer visited
• 34 moons
Saturn
• Saturn
has such
a low
density it
would
float in
water!
Titan- Saturn’s Moon
• Larger than Mercury and Pluto
• Second largest moon in solar
system
• Has a planet-like atmosphere
• Has places on it that look like
liquid-filled lakes (probably not
water)
Titan
• We sent Cassini THROUGH
Saturn’s rings to orbit Titan.
Then we dropped Huygens
onto the surface of Titan. It
landed with the help of 3
parachutes to slow it down
from 12,000 mph
• Found mud, rock, and liquid
Uranus
• Gas Giant: It’s atmosphere has
Hydrogen and Helium, but it’s
interior is rocky and icy.
• Only visited once by Voyager
• Rotates on it’s side with its south
pole facing the sun
• 11 rings
• 27 moons
Uranus
Neptune
• Sometimes its orbit crosses that of
Pluto, making it farther away from
the sun than Pluto
• Visited only once by Voyager
• Gas Giant with a Gas surface of
hydrogen and helium, and then a
rocky, icy core
• 13 Moons and faint rings
Neptune
Pluto
• Smaller than 7 moons in the solar
system and is now a dwarf planet
• Very eccentric orbit, so it crosses
with Neptune
• New Horizons, launched in 2006,
should flyby in 2015
• 3 moons, one almost as big as Pluto;
“Double Planet”
Pluto
Kuiper Belt
• Region beyond
Neptune with small,
icy objects that are the
source of comets
• Dwarf planets &
planetoids such as
Sedna, Eris, Haumea,
Pluto and Makemake
are located here
Oort Cloud
• a spherical cloud of small rocky and
icy bodies thought to orbit the sun
beyond the orbit of Pluto and up to
1.5 light years from the sun, and to be
the source of comets. Its existence
was proposed by J. H. Oort
Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt?
Comets
• Dirty Snowballs
• Tails always point away from the Sun
because of Solar Wind
• Made of Ice and Rock that Sublimates as
it gets close to the Sun
• Long elliptical orbits from the Oort Cloud
and Kuiper Belt
• Tails (coma)are made of gas and dust
particles
Satellites
• Orbit Earth
and relay
information
around the
world.
Moons
Sometimes called
natural satellites
because they orbit
planets.
(Remember that
planets orbit the
sun.)
International Space Station ISS
The International
Space Station is an
orbiting laboratory and
construction site that
uses the scientific
expertise of 16 nations
to maintain a
permanent human
outpost in space.
Floats 240 miles
above Earth's surface.
The Hubble Space Telescope
• The Hubble Space Telescope
is a space telescope that was
launched into low Earth orbit
in 1990, and remains in
operation. With a 2.4-meter
mirror, Hubble's four main
instruments observe in the
near ultraviolet, visible, and
near infrared spectra outside
of Earth’s atmosphere. The
telescope is named after the
astronomer Edwin Hubble.
Space Probes
• Travel to places
in distance
space where
humans can not
visit.
• Mars Rovers
were a type of
space probe that
examined the
surface of mars.