Download Our Solar System

Our Solar System
The Solar System
• Our solar system is located in the
Milky Way Galaxy.
• It is made up of planets, moons,
asteroids, meteoroids and comets.
The Sun
The Sun
Sunspots
•The sun is a star.
•It is the largest object in our solar
system.
Solar eclipse
•The sun is 4.5 billion years old.
•It’s surface temperature is 27
million degrees.
Mercury
Mercury
Cratered surface
Mariner 10
visited Mercury
• It is the closest planet to the
sun, but not the hottest.
• It’s surface is heavily
cratered from meteoroids and
asteroids crashing into it.
• The surface temperature on
the dark side of Mercury is
–300 degrees F.
Venus
Venus
Views from
different satellites.
• Named for the goddess of love
and beauty.
• Earth’s sister planet- similar
in size, mass, density, and
volume.
• There are 243 Earth days to 1
Venus day.
• The surface temperature is
900 degrees F. , making it the
hottest planet in our system.
Earth
Earth
Horn of Africa
North America
Earth & moon
• Earth is 4.5 billion years old.
• Seventy percent of the Earth is
covered in water.
• The Earth’s atmosphere keeps
the temperatures steady.
• As far as we know, it is the
only planet with life.
Mars
Mars
Polar ice cap
• Known as “The Red Planet”.
• Average surface temperature
is –67 degrees F.
• Mars has permanent ice caps
on both poles.
• Olympus Mons- largest
mountain in our solar
system.
Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter’s ring
Four moons
• It’s the largest planet in our
solar system.
• It is a gas planet- it doesn’t have
a solid surface.
• The Great Red Spot is a
complex storm moving in a
counter-clockwise direction.
• Jupiter’s moon, Io, has
exploding volcanoes on it.
Saturn
Saturn
Rings in false color
Saturn and moons
• Saturn has the most moons of
all the planets.
• It’s rings are made up of
water ice and rocky particles
with icy coatings.
• Saturn is easily visible at night
from Earth.
• One Earth day on Saturn is
10 hours, 40 minutes.
Uranus
Uranus
Uranus’ ring
Uranus and moons
• Uranus is 1.78 billion miles
from the sun.
• It is made mostly of rock and
ice.
• It lies on its side, possibly the
result from a collision with a
planet sized body.
Neptune
Neptune
Great Dark Spot
• Neptune orbits the sun every
165 years.
• It can be seen from Earth with
binoculars.
• Near the Great Dark Spot,
winds blow up to 1,200 miles
an hour.
• It’s moon, Triton, is the coldest
object in the solar system.
Pluto
Pluto
Pluto and moon
Comparison of
US to Pluto and
it’s moon
• Pluto is the smallest and coldest
planet, temperatures get as low as
–235 degrees C.
• It is the only planet not visited by
any space craft.
• It is 3,666 million miles from the
sun.
• Not much is know about Pluto.
Earth’s Moon
Moon
View of Earth
from the moon
•The moon is 225,000 miles
from the Earth.
•It has no water, air, or living
things.
•The moon‘s surface is
covered by thousands of bowlshaped craters.
•Man stepped on the moon on
July 20, 1969.
Seeing Our
Solar System
• Asteroids- very small worlds that
circle the sun mainly in an asteroid
belt between Mars and Jupiter
• Comets- a frozen ball of ice a few
miles wide, covered by a layer of
black dust
Seeing Our
Solar System
• Meteoroids- small pieces of
metal or rock from asteroids or
comets
• Meteors- are meteoroids that
have entered the Earth’s
atmosphere
Stars
Galaxies
Milky Way- our solar system is located here
Sources
• Information
– Solarviews.com
– Our Solar System-by Seymour Simon
• Pictures
– Solarviews.com
– Bo.cnr.it/universo2000/images/solar_s
ystem.jpg