Download Our Solar System - McEachern High School

Our Solar System
Our Solar System
Our solar system is made up of:
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The Sun, our star
Eight planets and their moons
Asteroid Belt
Kuiper Belt
Dwarf Planets, Meteors, and Comets
Inner Planets
The inner four rocky
planets closest to the
sun are called the
Terrestrial Planets
 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
Mercury
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Planet nearest the sun
Smallest planet
Has no moons or rings
About size of Earth’s moon
Venus
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Sister planet to Earth
Has no moons or rings
Hot, thick atmosphere
Brightest object in sky besides sun
and moon (looks like bright star)
Earth
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Third planet from sun
Only planet known to have life and
liquid water (resource necessary to
support life)
Atmosphere composed of Nitrogen
(78%), Oxygen (21%), and other
gases (1%).
Mars
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Fourth planet from sun
Appears as bright reddish color in
the night sky
Surface features volcanoes and
huge dust storms
Has 2 moons: Phobos and Deimos
Outer Planets
The outer planets are
called Gas Giants or
Jovian planets:
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
Jupiter
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Largest planet in solar
system
Strong magnetic field
Giant red spot
Rings have 3 parts: Halo
Ring, Main Ring, Gossamer
Ring
Saturn
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6th planet from sun
Beautiful set of rings
Largest moon, Titan
Easily visible in the night
sky
Uranus
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7th planet from sun
Has a faint ring system
Covered with clouds
Uranus spins on a horizontal axis
Neptune
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8th planet from sun
Discovered through math
Triton largest moon
Great Dark Spot thought
to be a hole, similar to
the hole in the ozone
layer on Earth
Asteroids
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Chunks of rock and metal that orbit
around the Sun; Scientists think that
they are loose material that never
formed into planets.
The Main Asteroid Belt is located
between Mars and Jupiter.
The total mass of all the asteroids
combined is less than that of the
moon.
There are 26 known asteroids larger
than 200 km across
We probably know 99% of the
asteroids larger than 100 km across.
Scientists still don’t know much about
the smaller ones (1 km across)
Comets
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Small icy bodies
Give off gas and dust
as they revolve
around the sun in
elliptical orbits