Download Outer Solar System

Outer Solar
System
Outer Solar System
Planets

Outer solar system is dominated entirely by
the four Jovian planets, but is populated by
billions of small icy objects

Giant gas planets – Jupiter, Saturn
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Jupiter dominate inner solar system
Giant ice planets – Uranus, Neptune

Neptune dominates the outer solar system
Outer Solar System
Oort Cloud

Distant distribution of icy objects left over from the
collalpse of the solar nebula into the planetary disk
and Sun

Proposed by Ernst Opik in 1932 and reintroduced in
the 1950s by Jan Oort to account for the resupply of
the high-inclinaiton, eccentric orbit comets over the
life of the solar system
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We see new comets on a regular basis
Extends from the planetary disk to several thousand
AU

Beyond the Sun's heliosphere, but inside it gravitational
influence
Outer Solar System
Outer Solar System
Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO)

A broad family of cometary objects orbiting
the Sun beyond Neptune

Named because of the influence of Neptune
on the small bodies in the outer solar system
Outer Solar System
Outer Solar System
Scattered Disk Objects (SDO)

A subset of the TNOs that are scattered by
Neptune
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Orbital eccentricities ranging as high as 0.8
Inclinations as high as 40°
Perihelia greater than 30 AU

Believed to be the result of gravitational
"scattering" by the Jovian planets

Continue to be perturbed by Neptune
Outer Solar System
Outer Solar System
Kuiper Belt

A region containing
cometary objects
extending beyond
Neptune

Proposed by Gerald
Kuiper to account for the
discontinuity between
Neptune and the comet
population
Outer Solar System
Outer Solar System
Comets

Comets are the ice planetesimals that generally
populate the outer solar system

Composed of ices (water, carbon dioxide, methane,
ammonia) and dust (graphite, metals, oxides, silicates)

Dark in color - some of the darkest objects in the solar
system

Undergo heating and transformation if their perihelion
brings them 1-2 AU from the Sun
Outer Solar System
Plutinos

Large comets with the same semimajor axis
as Pluto

Differ in eccentricity and inclination
Exist at the 3:2 stabilizing resonance with
Neptune

Twotinos are located in 2:1 resonance position
with Neptune
Outer Solar System
Centaurs

Comet-like asteroids located between Jupiter
and Neptune

Caught in transition orbits moving towards or
away from the Sun due to Jupiter's and
Neptune's gravitational influence

Also influenced by the gravity and motion of
Saturn and Uranus
Outer Solar System
End