Download THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
The Solar System
The Sun
What does the Sun do for
planet?
1.Energy
from the sun heats up Earth’s
water.
2.Plants use the Sun’s energy to make
food.
3.The Sun’s heat helps to make the wind.
4.The Sun’s energy powers the water
cycle.
PLANETS
A planet is a large, round
heavenly body made of rock
or gas that moves around a
star. We know of eight
planets that orbit the sun in
our solar system. Since 1992,
astronomers have also
discovered many planets
orbiting other stars.
What are the eight planets?
HINT: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
MERCURY
•Mercury is the smallest planet
in the solar system and the one
nearest to the sun.
• Its orbit around the sun takes
88 days to complete.
•It takes Mercury 59 Earth
days to rotate completely on
its axis.
More about Mercury
• Mercury
has very little
atmosphere. Because of this,
Mercury is either very hot or
extremely cold.
•A day on Mercury can be as
hot as 800 degrees Fahrenheit.
At night, Mercury’s
temperature can fall as low as
-300 degrees Fahrenheit.
How much would I weigh on
Mercury?
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Mass(the amount of material in an object)-does not
change.
Weight- does change with the amount of gravity on a
planet or the moon.
The larger a planet is, the stronger its pull of gravity.
Because of Mercury’s smaller size and lower mass, it
has less gravity.
When a planet has less gravity, you would weigh less.
To find out what you would weigh on Mercury,
multiply your weight by 0.378
VENUS
Venus is the sixth largest
planet in the solar
system and the second in
distance from the sun.
Venus is the brightest
planet in the solar
system and the one that
comes closest to the
earth.
More about Venus
 Venus
is the hottest planet in the Solar
System.
 Venus’s thick atmosphere traps heat.
This is called the “greenhouse effect”.
 Even though Mercury is closer to the
Sun, Venus is hotter because of its
atmosphere.
How much would I weigh on
Venus?
 Venus
is very similar in size and mass to
Earth. Because of this, our weight would
not be very different.
 To find out what you would weigh on
Venus, multiply your weight x 0.907
EARTH
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Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
Earth has one moon. The moon does not make its
own light, it reflects light from the Sun.
Our planet is different from all the other planets
because it has life on it.
Earth has two features that allow living things to
survive: Atmosphere and water.
It takes the Earth 365 ¼ days to revolve around the
Sun.
It takes Earth 24 hours to rotate one complete time
on its axis.
MARS
•Mars is known as the
Red Planet because of its
rust-colored surface.
•Mars takes 687 Earth
days to revolve around
the Sun.
•Mars rotates on its axis
completely in 25 hours.
•Mars has less gravity
than Earth.
•To find your weight on
Mars, multiply your
weight x 0.4
More about Mars
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The temperature on Mars varies from -207
degrees F at the winter pole to almost 80
degrees F on the day side during summer.
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Mars and Earth both have at lest one moon.
The Four Inner Planets (Rocky
Planets)
Earth
Mercury
Mars
Venus
The Inner Planets
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Inner Planets
Study Jam
What separates the 4 Inner
Planets from the other planets?
The Asteroid Belt
An asteroid is a rocky body in space which
may be only a few hundred feet wide or it
may be several hundred miles wide.
 They are considered to be debris left over
from the formation of the Solar System.
 Many asteroids orbit the Sun between the
planets Mars and Jupiter.
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This is the asteroid Ida with its tiny moon Dactyl to the right.
The image was taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft in 1993.
The Jovian Planets (Gas
Giants)
Uranus
Jupiter
Saturn
Neptune
Jupiter
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Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.
It takes Jupiter only 10 hours to rotate completely
on its axis.
It takes Jupiter 4,331 Earth days to complete its
orbit around the Sun.
Its diameter is 88,846 miles , more than 11 times
that of Earth, and about one-tenth that of the sun.
It would take more than 1,000 Earths to fill up the
volume of the giant planet.
Jupiter has the strongest gravitational pull because
it is so massive. Do you think you would weigh
more or less on Jupiter?
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
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The Great Red Spot is a
huge storm like a
hurricane on Earth.
It is enormous (three
Earths would fit within
its boundaries) and it
has persisted for at
least the 400 years that
humans have observed
it through telescopes.
Saturn
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Saturn is the 2nd largest
planet in our Solar
System.
Saturn is well known for
its rings. They are made of
pieces of rock and ice.
Some pieces are as tiny as
dust, other chunks are as
big as houses.
It takes Saturn 11 hours to
rotate completely on its
axis.
Saturn completes its
revolution around the Sun
every 10,747 Earth days.
Uranus
Most often, a planet stands upright
on its axis. Uranus is different. It is
tilted on its side.
It takes Uranus 17 hours to rotate
completely on its axis.
It takes Uranus 30,589 Earth days to
revolve around the Sun. Uranus has
many moons.
Neptune
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Neptune is the smallest of
the Gas Giants.
Neptune is the coldest of
the planets with an
average temperature of 375 degrees Fahrenheit
Neptune rotates on its
axis completely in about
19 hours.
It takes Neptune almost
165 years to orbit the Sun!
That is the longest of any
of the planets.
Let’s compare some of the inner
planets to the Gas Giants!
 Planet
Comparison
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Outer Planets Study Jam
Rotation, Revolution, & Orbit
When a planet
, it turns on it’s
axis. (spins)
 Planets
around the Sun. A
is one trip around the Sun.
 The path of a planet as it travels around
the Sun is it’s
.
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Earth's rotation & revolution
Stars and Galaxies
A star is a huge ball of very hot gases
that gives off light, heat, and other
energy.
There are many other stars much bigger
than our sun. Why does the Sun look so
much bigger to us than the other stars?
Light travels to the Earth from the Sun in 8
minutes. Light from the nearest star takes
over 4 years to reach us!
Constellations
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A constellation is a group of stars that
forms a pattern in the sky.
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Constellation Brainpop
Our Galaxy
We live in the Milky Way Galaxy.
A galaxy is a huge system, or group, of
stars held together by gravity.
The universe is made up of all the
matter and energy there is. This
includes all galaxies, stars, planets, and
moons. The size of the universe is
UNKNOWN!