Download A Tour of our Solar System

A Tour of our Solar System
From the “middle” out.
SOL
Our Sun
Our Sun is a star.
It’s would take 109 Earths to get across
the Sun.
It has a mass that makes up 99.8% of
the entire mass of the solar system.
It produces 28 G’s of gravity at its
surface.
It is made mostly of hydrogen.
SOL
As time goes on, the
hydrogen of the Sun
slowly becomes heavier
elements.
The energy of the Sun’s
fusion is balanced with its
immense gravity.
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Based on current
calculations, the Sun still
has about 5 to 7 billion
years of hydrogen left.
Bigger elements are
harder to fuse so once it
has used up the hydrogen
the star will die.
SOL
When the Sun dies, it will
become a red giant and
expand.
Then it will blow up and
become a new nebula.
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The Sun has magnetic
storms on it called
sunspots.
They fluctuate in a pattern
and are believed to be
caused by the convection
currents in the star.
SOL
There are huge
explosions on the
Sun called solar
flares.
They release
huge amounts of
radiation and can
disrupt electrical
instruments on
Earth.
SOL
There
will be a
total
solar
eclipse
this
year on
August
21.
SOL
There will be a
total solar
eclipse this year
on August 21.
https://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/images/
Inner Planets
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Inner Planets
All are made mostly of rock.
3 have atmospheres.
Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet,
but not the hottest because it
has virtually no atmosphere
that doesn’t hold heat well.
It is the smallest true planet
and has a very short year of
88 days.
Venus
Venus is the hottest planet
due to its thick atmosphere of
greenhouse gases.
It is very similar in size to
Earth, but it has no moons.
It is so cloudy that we cannot
see its surface directly.
Venus
Venus is the hottest planet
due to its thick atmosphere of
greenhouse gases.
It is very similar in size to
Earth, but it has no moons.
It is so cloudy that we cannot
see its surface directly.
Earth
We’re on Earth.
We’ve been studying Earth
for a few months.
You should know a lot about
Earth.
Luna
Earth’s moon.
It’s tidally locked so one face
is always pointed at us.
That’s because the heavy
material coalesced on the
side being pulled by gravity.
Luna
The back side wasn’t
imaged until the Soviet
Union sent a probe around
the moon in 1959.
Mars
Mars is smaller than
Earth, has no
magnetic field, and
has an extremely thin
atmosphere.
Mars had water on its
surface in the past.
Mars
Mars has two small
moons.
It has polar ice caps.
It has seasons.
It has probes
operating on its
surface as we speak.
Mars
In the early 1900’s,
people believed Mars
was covered in canals
and that there may be
a vast alien civilization
living on it.
Better telescopes
eventually deflated
that idea.
Mars
It’s not the only time
people were confused
by low resolution.
Mars
It’s not the only time
people were confused
by low resolution.
Asteroid Belt
Asteroid Belt
One hypothesis about the
asteroid belt is that it was
a layer of the disc that
made the solar system
that just didn’t have
enough mass to coalesce
into a planet.
Asteroid Belt
An asteroid is any rock
between the size of a
piece of dust and many
hundreds of miles across
orbiting the Sun. Unlike
plantoids or planets, they
are not round because
they don’t have enough
gravity.
Asteroid Belt
NASA and other space
agencies have
identified over 500,000
asteroids in the last 30
years. Most of them in
the asteroid belt and
most of them fairly
small.
Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is
actually very sparse
with many thousands
of miles between each
large asteroid.
Scientists are
interested in finding all
of them to watch for
those that might move
and hit the Earth.
Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is
actually very sparse
with many thousands
of miles between each
large asteroid.
Scientists are
interested in finding all
of them to watch for
those that might move
and hit the Earth.
Asteroid Belt
The most recent serious asteroid event was the Chelyabinsk Event in Russia in
2013. Once an asteroid enters our atmosphere it is called a meteor.
Outer Planets
The outer planets are
classified together
because they are…
-
Large
Made mostly of
gas
Jupiter
The largest of any
planet, Jupiter is made
mostly of gas.
However, it is so large
and has so much
gravity that the center
is likely metallic in
nature.
Jupiter
The red spot on Jupiter
is a massive storm that
has been going for
hundreds of years.
Jupiter
The red spot on Jupiter
is a massive storm that
has been going for
hundreds of years.
It is larger than our
planet.
Jupiter
Jupiter has very small
rings.
Jupiter
Earth
has
one
moon
…
How
many
does
Jupiter
have?
Jupiter
Jupiter
has 63
moons!
Jupiter
Jupiter has 63 moons!
Jupiter
Jupiter has 63 moons!
Saturn
Saturn is similar to
Jupiter in makeup.
Mostly gas with a likely
metallic core.
Saturn
Saturn is similar
to Jupiter in
makeup.
Mostly gas with a
likely metallic
core.
Saturn
It has a total of 60
moons.
Saturn
Saturn's rings are made
mostly of dust and rocks the
size of a baseball or smaller.
There has been a lot of study
done to understand why they
exist. The jury is still out, but
there are ideas about gravity
and Saturn’s magnetic field.
Uranus
Uranus is the
coldest planet
with very faint
rings of its
own.
It is also a gas
planet
although it is
more slush
than gas.
Uranus
It has 27
moons.
Uranus
Uranus is the only planet which does not
rotate on the same axis as the ecliptic.
It is believed to be off kilter due to multiple
impacts from asteroids during the formation
of the solar system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
TQiDAlyAmMQ
Neptune
Neptune is the last gas giant. It
has a storm on it like Jupiter, but
much harder to see.
Like Uranus, it is more of a slush
planet than a gas planet.
Neptune
Neptune has 14
moons.
Only one of them is
big enough to be a
sphere. Triton is
the only moon in
our solar system
that orbits
backwards.
Pluto
Pluto was only just
visited 2 years ago
and we are still
studying and
receiving the data
that was sent
back.
Pluto
Pluto isn’t
considered a
planet because it
is small enough to
fall into a class of
objects now called
planetoids or
plutoids.
Pluto
Pluto has 5
moons.
Only Charon is big
enough to be
roughly spherical.
Kuiper Belt
Kuiper Belt
Discovered in 1992, this is
a region full of planetoids
like Pluto and small icy
bodies.
Kuiper Belt
Studying the orbits of
objects in the Kuiper
Belt has led
astronomers to
believe there a 9th
planet that is around
10 Earth’s in size out
there with an orbit
that may carry it into
the Oort Cloud.
Oort Cloud
The Oort cloud is a sphere
that surrounds the solar
system.
It is believed to be the
remaining material that did
not coalesce during the
formation of the Solar
System.
Oort Cloud
The Oort cloud is made
mostly of frozen balls of ice,
methane, and other gases.
Occasionally one of these
will fall in towards the sun.
Oort Cloud
When a piece of the Oort
cloud or Kuiper belt falls
towards the Sun, it
becomes a comet as the
material it’s made of
sublimates away.
Comparing the
size of the
planets by putting
them at the same
distance to us as
the Moon.