Download Solar System Information

Our Solar System
All photos from Wikipedia unless otherwise stated
The Sun
The Sun
•Ultimate source of life for the planet
•Self-illuminating (lights itself) ball of gas
•Its gravity holds the planets in orbit
•Its mass makes up 99% of the solar system’s mass
•It has an atmosphere and an interior
•Diameter of the Sun is the same as 10 Jupiters lined up
side-by-side
•Sun is made of hydrogen and helium
•The Sun gets its power from nuclear fusion – (the
fusing or joining of two atoms)
The Sun
•Sunspots are darker spots on the
Sun that are cooler than the areas
around it
•Prominences are reddish loops of
gas that appear to connect sunspots
•Solar flares are explosions of gas
that occur when loops in sunspot
regions connect
http://www.kiroastro.com/images/perspective
/sun2.jpg
My Very Eager Mother Apparently Just Served Us Nine
Pizzas
http://www.kiroastro.com/images/perspective/sun1.jpg
Jupiter’s Galilean Moons
Io
•Contains many volcanoes
•Discovered by Galileo on
January 8, 1610
Europa
•Crust contains water and
ice
•Also discovered in 1610
•Slightly smaller than our
moon
•Atmosphere is made mainly
of oxygen
Ganymede
•Largest moon in the solar
system
•A saltwater ocean is
believed to exist between
layers of ice
•Discovered in 1610
•Larger than the planet
Mercury
•Has mountains, valleys,
craters, and lava flows.
Callisto
•3rd largest moon in the
solar system
•Has a cratered surface
Dwarf
Planets
Currently there are 5 dwarf
planets: Ceres, Pluto,
Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
Ceres
•Located in the asteroid belt
•Smallest identified dwarf planet, but the
largest object in the asteroid belt
•Discovered on January 1, 1801, by Giuseppe
Piazzi
•Was classified as the 8th planet for half a
century
Haumea
(with its moons)
•Discovered in 2004
•4th largest dwarf planet
•It is believed to be an ellipsoid (one axis is
twice the length of the other)
Makemake
•3rd largest dwarf planet in our solar system
•Discovered on March 31, 2005
•Before it was officially named, it was called
Easterbunny by scientists, since it was
discovered so close to Easter
Eris
•Most massive known dwarf planet in our
solar system
•Identified in January 2005
•Distance from the Sun is 96 AU, which is 96
times farther from the Sun than Earth
Meteors, Meteoroids and Meteorites
Meteoroid
A piece of debris in the solar system
that can range in size from a grain
of sand to a boulder. This is the
name it is given when it is still in
space.
Meteor
A meteoroid that has
entered the Earth’s
atmosphere. Also called a
shooting star, a falling star, or
a fireball.
Meteorite
A meteor that has
survived impact with the
Earth.
On Dasher, on Dancer,
On Comet…
•A body in the solar system made of
ice, rocks, and dust.
•Sometimes has a tail
•Orbits the Sun
•Ranges in size from a few hundred
meters to tens of kilometers
•Sometimes called dirty snowballs
•The tails can be millions of miles long,
and always points away from the Sun
•There are about 1000 known comets
in our solar system
Gravity
The more mass a body has, the
stronger its force of gravity.
The examples are the Sun and
Jupiter.
Gravity
The closer two celestial bodies are, the
more their gravitational pull affects
each other.
The example is how the moon’s gravity
causes our tides.
Gravity
Why doesn’t the Sun pull
everything into itself, if its
gravity is so great?
Gravity
Gravity
Think of a tether ball…