Download Types of Planetary System

Types of Planetary System
All planetary systems consist of material orbiting a star. This material can
range in size from grains of dust to large gaseous planets. It is held in
place by the gravity of the star.
Hot Jupiter Systems: These systems have a
very large planet like Jupiter in our own Solar
System but orbiting extremely close to the
parent star. This makes the planet very hot.
More than 100 of these systems have been
discovered in our Galaxy. They are discovered
by detecting the ‘wobble’ of the star which is
caused by the gravitational pull of the planet
as it orbits.
A hot-Jupiter orbiting
the star 51 Peg: only
0.05 AU
Dusty Disk Systems: These systems have
a ring of dust and comets around the star in
very wide orbits. In the Vega system the
outer edge of the ring is about 140 AU from
the star. Any planets would be found in
orbits nearer the star such as the
Neptune-like planet in orbit
around Vega.
Orbit of Neptune-like
planet around the
star Vega: 65 AU
Jupiter-like
planet
51 Peg
Neptune-like
planet
1 Astronomical Unit
(AU) is equal to the
distance between the
Earth and the Sun.
Pluto
Vega
Neptune
Earth
Sun
40 AU
30 AU
1 AU
Orbits of Earth,
Neptune and Pluto
around the Sun
The Goldilocks zone: For life as we understand
it to exist in another planetary system
there needs to be a rocky planet in a
similar orbit to that of the Earth. Here
it is the right temperature for there to
be liquid water - not too hot and not
too cold.
Our Solar System: The four large planets in
our Solar System (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Neptune) are quite far from the Sun, our
star. This leaves room for small rocky planets
.
(Mercury,
Venus, Earth and Mars) in smaller
orbits. There are also asteroids and
dust orbiting between the
planets, and comets orbiting
in a very large disk beyond
Neptune. Pluto is part of this
disk.
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