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Name _____________________________________________________________ Comparison of Rocky Planets and Gas Giants (modified from a graphic organizer found at Amazing Space) Using the Solar System Fact Sheet, compare and contrast rocky planets and the gas giants. Rocky Planets Gas Giants Composition (of what are the rocky planets made) Composition (of what are gas giants made) List the rocky planets List the gas giants a. c. a. c. b. d. b. d. Can a spacecraft land on the rocky planets? Can a spacecraft land on the gas giants? Type of atmosphere (thick, thin, thick to very thick, etc.) Type of atmosphere (thick, thin, thick to very thick, etc.) Where found in Solar System (near to Sun or far away) Where found in Solar System (near to Sun, or far away) Temperature range of planets (lowest to highest) Temperatures of range planets (lowest to highest) Are the rocky planets larger or smaller compared to gas giants? Are the gas giants larger or smaller compared to rocky planets? Number of moons (many or from few to none) Number of moons (many or from few to none) Comparing Reflecting and Refracting Telescopes Refracting Telescopes The purpose of a refracting telescope is to collect light from distant objects. All refracting telescopes are the same. It works just like a magnifying glass. It is made up of lenses. As light passes through the lens, it is refracted (this means the light is bent). It has two lenses. The first is the primary lens. This is located in the front of the telescope. The light is refracted until it hits the second lens. This is the eyepiece. This is where you look. You can see the object at which your telescope is pointed. The light waves travel they hit the primary lens. The primary lens refracts the light to the eyepiece. If someone looks into the eyepiece, a lens magnifies the image. History of the Refracting Telescope Hans Lippershey, designed the lens for the first refracting telescope in 1608. Galileo Galilee made the first refracting telescope used to study space in 1609. He used it to discover four of the moons orbiting Jupiter. He used it draw a map the surface of the Moon. He could see objects 20 times smaller than the human eye could using his telescope. A problem with refractors is chromatic aberration (the image has a rainbow around the edges of an object). Using the proper lenses take care of the problem. Another problem is that the size of the lens. It can’t be very large. This limits the power of the telescope. Reflector Telescopes A reflector use curved mirrors instead of lenses. A large curved mirror reflects the light to make an image. Light travels into the telescope’s tube. It reflects off the large mirror. The light hits a secondary mirror. It reflects the light into the eyepiece. The lens in the eyepiece magnifies the image. It is easier to see dim objects with a reflecting telescope. Large reflectors can see objects that are more than a million time fainter that what you can see with just your eye. Because the reflector uses mirrors, the images are sharp and clear. History of the Reflecting Telescope Isaac Newton made the first reflector in 1688. Scientists soon learned that reflectors give them the best images. This is because mirrors could be made larger than lenses. The reflecting telescope is still used today. There are many different types of reflecting telescopes. The key difference between the different designs is the location of the secondary mirror. Cassegrain Reflector Schmidt-Cassegrain Reflector With this information, complete the graphic organizer on the next page. Comparing Reflecting and Refracting Telescopes Using the information about refracting and reflecting telescopes, complete the chart below. Refractors Reflectors Lens or mirror? Lens or mirror? What happens to light in telescope. What happens to light in telescope. Who made the first refractor? Who made the first reflector? Who first used the refractor to study space? Are mirrors better than lenses? List two problems with refractors. List to different types of reflecting telescopes. a. a. b. b. Asteroid, Comet, or Meteor? Place an “X” in the appropriate boxes to indicate characteristics of asteroids, comets, and meteors. Asteroid Made of ice, dust, and gas. Appears as a streak in the sky. Made of rock and/or metal. Orbits the Sun. Often called “shooting stars.” Sometimes called a “dirty snowball.” Orbits between Mars and Jupiter. Found in the Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt. Comet Meteor Comparison of Comets and Asteroids (modified from a graphic organizer found at Amazing Space) Using the Solar System Fact Sheet, compare and contrast comets and asteroids. Comets Asteroids Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, December 28, 2005 (Source: Astronomy Picture of the Day, March 30, 2007) Composition (What it’s made of) Composition (What it’s made of) Where are they found in the Solar System? Where are they found in the Solar System? Can it be seen without a telescope? Can it be seen without a telescope? Distance from Sun Average distance from Sun Estimated number Estimated number What Comets Are Made Of Emily Sohn Science News for Kids July 25, 2007 Astronomers are watching a comet break into pieces, practically before their eyes. Their observations, reported by scientists at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., are giving surprising insight into the structure of these space objects. Comets are fairly small (about 12 miles across or less) balls of ice, rock, and dust that make long, noncircular orbits around the Sun. When a comet gets near the Sun, the star's heat melts some of it, creating what looks like a tail. At this stage, it looks somewhat like a tadpole. When the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 broke apart in June 2006, it produced at least 68 chunks, including this large piece, called Fragment B. H. Weaver/JHUAPL, M. Mutchler and Z. Levay/STScI, NASA, ESA Comets sometimes burst into pieces when the Sun's heat turns their ice into water vapor. By studying these chunks, astronomers can compare the material at the center of a comet with material at its surface. The scientists expected that a comet's center would look different from its surface. That's because comets probably formed at the same time as the solar system, so the material at the center has probably remained unchanged for just as long. The surface material, on the other hand, is changed by the Sun's radiation. For the new study, the Johns Hopkins team observed the breakup of a comet called 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 (SW3). The comet orbits the Sun every 5.34 years. In 1995, SW3 split into at least five chunks. In June 2006, it passed within a relatively close 11.7 million kilometers (7.3 million miles) of Earth. Around that time, it disintegrated even more. Scientists counted 68 fragments. The two largest chunks are called B and C. Each is several hundred meters wide. The scientists studied both chunks using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility and the Keck II telescope, both on Hawaii's Mauna Kea. The researchers found that B and C have nearly identical compositions, with the same proportions of substances such as water and carbon dioxide. Those results suggest that comets have maintained more of their original form than scientists had expected. "We were really lucky" that the comet came close enough for astronomers to make observations soon after a breakup, says lead researcher Neil Dello Russo. Because this was the first study of its kind, the scientists don't yet know whether all comets are the same, inside and out.—Emily Sohn Describe comets (of what are they made, size, etc.) __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Solar System Fact Sheet The Rocky Planets Planet Rocky Distance Revolution Rotation Diameter Moons or Gas from (year) (day) Sun (Earth (Earth (millions days or hours or of mi) years) days) Rings Temperature Atmosphere (mi) Mercury Rocky 36 88 days 59 days 3,100 0 No -300o F. to 800 o F. Very, very thin Venus Rocky 67 225 days 243 Days 7,500 0 No 900 o F. CO2 No o Earth Mars Rocky Rocky 93 141 365 days (1 year) 23 hrs 56 min 7,900 687 Days 24 hrs 40 min 4,300 1 2 No Very thick -125 F. to 125o F. Nitrogen Oxygen -125o F. to 32o F. CO2 Thick Very thin The Gas Giants Planet Rocky Distance Revolution Rotation Diameter Moons or Gas Jupiter Saturn Uranus Gas Giant from (year) (day) Sun (Earth (Earth (millions days or hours or of mi) years) days) 484 12 years 9 hrs 50 min Gas Giant 886 Gas Giant 1,800 29 years 84 years Rings Temperature Atmosphere (mi) 88,500 9 hrs 40 min 65,000 17 hrs 34 min 31,000 63+ 63+ Yes faint Yes -235o F. Hydrogen Helium Very Thick o -288 F. Hydrogen Helium Very Thick 27 Yes faint -360o F. Hydrogen Helium Methane Very Thick Neptune Gas Giant 2,800 165 years 15 hrs 10 min 30,000 13 Yes faint -360o F. Hydrogen Helium Methane Very Thick Asteroids Composition Locations Distance from (what they’re Sun (millions of made of) miles) Irregular rocky bodies Most found between orbit of Mars & Jupiter 167,000,000 to 418,000,000 Number Size Range Two Largest Over 150,000 330 mi to around 100 yards Vesta – 330 mi Pallas – 300 mi (Note – Asteroids cannot be seen without a telescope.) Meteoroids/Meteors/Meteorites Where They Come Size Range From Most come from the Asteroid Belt. Few come from particles left from comets when Earth crosses their path. Definition of a Definition of a Meteor Meteoroid Grain of sand to less than 100 meters. Can be iron or rocky. Grain or rock that is travelling in space. Definition of a Meteorite Grain or rock that has entered the atmosphere (sometimes called “shooting” or “falling” star.) A meteor that is large enough to survive the trip through the atmosphere and hit the Earth’s surface. Comets Composition (what Location of Comets they’re made of) Water ice, dry ice, ammonia ice, dirt, and rocks. Sometimes called “dirty snowballs” or “icy mudballs.” Distance from Sun Number Parts of a Comet (miles) Found in the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. (Oort Cloud named after Jan Oort who proposed its existence [hasn’t been confirmed].) 4,000,000,000 to 6,000,000,000,000 (one light year) Over Nucleus – The “dirty 1,000,000,000,000 snowball.” Coma – Dense cloud of vaporized ices and dirt that surrounds Nucleus. Tail – Gases and other particles blown off the comet by the Solar Wind (particles from the Sun). Always points away from the Sun. (Note – Some comets can be seen without a telescope; a telescope is needed to see most comets.)