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The Solar System Terrestrial Planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars Relatively small Composed of rock Have few or no moons Mercury Small, rocky planet Almost no atmosphere One day = 58.65 Earth days, and almost an entire Mercurian year (88 days) Heavily cratered surface similar to that of our Moon Fastest planet in our Solar System No moon Mercury was named after Mercury, the mythical Roman winged messenger because of its speed Mercury is the second-smallest planet in our Solar System, it is only slightly larger than Earth’s Moon There are no seasons on Mercury as Mercury’s axis has no tilt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LajFhNUlXqA Venus The hottest planet in the Solar System Venus is covered with fast-moving sulfuric acid clouds which trap heat from the sun. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide Venus rotates very slowly, so a day there takes 243 Earth days Venus has no moons Venus is named for the Roman goddess of love Venus has a retrograde orbit, which means that it rotates in the opposite direction of Earth and most of the other planets From Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the East (opposite of Earth) No one knows why Venus has this unusual rotation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFVxWfVtoo Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system It has a very thick atmosphere, and its cloud cover traps the heat of the Sun giving Venus temperatures of 480ºC Earth Mars Mars is known as “the red planet” The surface of Mars is dry, rocky, and mostly covered with iron-rich dust The north and south poles are covered by ice caps composed of frozen carbon dioxide and water One day on Mars takes 1.03 Earth days, or 24.6 hours One year on Mars takes 687 Earth days Mars has a very thin atmosphere that lacks oxygen Mars is named for the Roman god of war http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwzGmgMu_lc Phobos and Deimos Mars has two tiny moons that were probably former asteroids that were pulled into Mars’ orbit Phobos (“fear”) is 22.2 km across and Deimos (“terror”) is only 12.6 km across Both moons are heavily cratered Phobus Deimos Jovian Planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune Huge and gaseous These planets all have rings These planets all have many moons Jupiter The largest planet in the Solar System; it is so big that all of the other planets in the Solar System could fit inside of it Composed mostly of gas Radiates twice as much heat as it absorbs from the Sun One day on Jupiter takes only 9.8 Earth hours, but it takes 11.86 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun once Jupiter was named after the main Roman god, Jupiter Jupiter’s Red Spot The Great Red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been raging for centuries It is about 28,000 km long and 14,000 km wide – three Earths could fit inside it It is the biggest storm in the Solar System Part of the reason that the storm never goes away is that it never passes over land – on Earth hurricanes lose much of their force as they move over the land Jupiter does have rings, but they are very faint The rings are composed of tiny rock fragments and dust Jupiter has four main moons, and dozens of smaller ones – there are 60 known moons so far Io Io is large, rocky and volcanically active It’s volcanoes spew molten sulfur – making the planet very colourful Io is very close in size to our Moon Europa Europa is large, dense and icy Frozen sulfuric acid has been found on its surface Europa’s diameter is 3,138 km smaller than our Moon’s diameter Ganymede Ganymede is Jupiter’s largest moon and it is scarred with many craters Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System – it is even larger than Mercury and Pluto Callisto Callisto is a large, icy, dark-coloured outer moon It is roughly the size of Mercury Callisto has the largest known impact crater in the Solar System, Valhalla http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5 6pxa9lpvo Saturn Saturn’s beautiful rings are made mostly of ice chunks and range in size from the size of a fingernail to the size of a car Each day on Saturn takes 10.2 Earth hours, while a year on Saturn takes 29.46 Earth years The average temperature on Saturn is -185ºC Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56pxa9lpvo Saturn’s Rings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9D9CzwPQU Saturn’s main rings are actually composed of tens of thousands of narrow ringlets Two small moons known as shepherd satellites orbit on either side of the rings – their gravitational effect gently guides the particles back to their ring formation Saturn has 18 named moons, although 33 had been discovered as of August 2004 Titan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs0gVwvDxww Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon, and the second largest moon in the Solar System Titan has a thick, mostly nitrogen atmosphere Uranus Uranus is a huge icy planet covered with clouds and encircled by a belt of 11 rings Uranus’ blue colour comes from methane in its atmosphere which absorbs red light A day on Uranus takes 17.9 Earth hours, while a year takes 84.07 Earth years Uranus has 18 moons Uranus was originally named Georgium Sidus (“the Georgian planet”), in 1781 by William Herschel, to honour King George III of England The name was later changed to Uranus for the ancient mythological god of the sky, Ouranos Uranus’ rotational axis is strongly tilted on its side, 97.9º; thus Uranus rotates on its side giving it extreme seasons Uranus’ Rings Uranus has eleven faint rings which are composed of rocks and dust Neptune Neptune is a frigid planet with a hazy atmosphere and the strongest winds in the Solar System Neptune was the first planet whose existence was predicted mathematically, due to its orbit and the orbit of the other planets One day on Neptune is 19.1 Earth hours; however it takes almost 165 Earth years for one year on Neptune Neptune has three main moons, plus five smaller ones Neptune is named for the Roman god of the seas Neptune’s Rings Neptune is circled by a series of thin, dark rings composed small rocks and dust The rings are named after the discoverers of Neptune Neptune’s Dark Spot The Great Dark Spot on Neptune is a hurricane the size of Earth The shape, size and location of the Dark Spot changes over time Voyager 2 measured the winds to be 2,400 kilometers per hour Please Copy This Down Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Distance from Sun in A.U. 0.39 0.72 1 1.5 5.2 9.5 19.2 30.1 Period of revolution around Sun 88 days 224.7 days 365.3 days 687 days 11.86 years 29.46 years 84 years 165 years Rotation period 59 days 243 days 24 hours 24.5 hours 9.9 hours 10.2 hours 17 hours 16 hours Moons 0 0 1 2 16 15 18 8 Rings no no no no yes yes yes yes The End