Download Rocky Planets Gas Giants

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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.)
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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.)