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Earth Science
An overview of the
Solar System
The Sun
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The sun is the
biggest, brightest, and
hottest object in the
solar system.
The sun is an
ordinary star.
The sun is made of
about 70% hydrogen
and 28% helium.
The Inner Planets
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Four planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
 All are small with rocky surfaces
 Sometimes called terrestrial planets
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Mercury
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Mercury is solid and
is covered with
craters.
Mercury has almost
no atmosphere
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Explains extreme temp
differences.
Mercury is the eighth
largest planet.
Venus
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Venus is the sixth largest
planet. It’s about threefourths the size of earth.
The surface is rocky and
very hot. The atmosphere
completely hides the
surface and traps the
heat.
Earth’s twin because very
similar in size and density
Atmosphere is so heavy
you would be crushed!
Surface is so hot because
of greenhouse effect.
Earth
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Earth is the fifth largest planet and the third from the sun.
Liquid covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface.
The Earth has one moon.
Unique because of it’s oceans!
Moon
Mars
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Mars is the fourth planet
from the sun.
Called the “red planet”
Axis tilted like earth =
seasons!!!
Mars has a thin
atmosphere that contains
mostly carbon dioxide.
Mars has two small
moons.
Moons of Mars
Phobos
Deimos
The Outer Planets
These planets are called the gas giants
 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are
much larger than earth and do NOT have
solid surfaces
 Strong gravity keeps gases from escaping
so they have deep atmospheres
 May have a center or core but hard to
explore because of the great pressure of
the atmospheres
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Jupiter
Jupiter’s Red Spot
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The largest planet
Diameter is 11 times
greater than the earth
The Great Red Spot, a
huge storm of swirling
gas that has lasted for
hundreds of years.
Jupiter does not have a
solid surface. The planet
is a ball of liquid
surrounded by gas.
Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has four large moons, twelve
smaller named moons and twenty-three
more recently discovered but not named
moons.
We’ll take a look at the four large Galilean
moons which were first observed by
Galileo in 1610.
Io
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Io is the fifth moon of
Jupiter. It’s the third
largest of Jupiter’s
moons.
Io has hundreds of
volcanos. Some of the
volcanoes are active.
Europa
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Europa is the sixth of
Jupiter’s moons and is
the fourth largest.
It is slightly smaller than
the Earth’s moon.
The surface strongly
resembles images of sea
ice on Earth. There may
be a liquid water sea
under the crust.
Europa is one of the five
known moons in the solar
system to have an
atmosphere.
Ganymede
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Ganymede is the
seventh and largest of
Jupiter’s known
satellites.
Ganymede has
extensive cratering
and an icy crust.
Callisto
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Callisto is the eighth of Jupiter’s known satellites
and the second largest.
Callisto has the oldest, most cratered surface of
any body yet observed in the solar system.
Saturn
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Saturn is the second largest planet and the sixth
from the sun.
Saturn is made of materials that are lighter than
water. If you could fit Saturn in a lake, it would
float!
Rings of Saturn
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Saturn’s rings are not
solid; they are composed
of small chunks of ice and
rock.
The rings are very thin.
Though they’re
250,000km or more in
diameter, they’re less
than one kilometer thick.
Has a total of five moons:
Titan,Tethys, Iapetus,
Rhea, Dione
Uranus
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Uranus is the third largest
planet and the seventh from
the sun.
Four times the diameter of the
earth
Uranus is one of the giant gas
planets.
Uranus is blue-green because
of the methane in its
atmosphere.
Tilted at 90 degree angle and
rotates from top to bottom
Has 18 total moons
Neptune
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Neptune is the fourth
largest planet and the
eighth from the sun.
Neptune is 30 times
Earth’s distance from the
sun.
Like Uranus, the methane
gives Neptune its color.
Has 8 moons; largest
being Triton
Pluto
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Pluto is the smallest
planet and usually the
farthest from the sun.
Pluto is the only
planet that has not
been visited by a
spacecraft.
Is no longer
considered a planet
Size of Planets
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What are things you notice about the
planets?