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The Sun The SUN is 109 times larger than Earth. If it were the size of a skyscraper, Earth would be the size of a person. Storms can be seen on its surface. It produces big explosions of energy called solar flares. solar flare sun spots solar wind Mercury • Mercury is the second smallest planet in are solar system. • It rotates the fastest around the sun. • Mercury gets very cold since it has no atmosphere. Venus The surface of Venus is mostly silicate rock. Venus has many volcanoes. The temperature goes to 484 degrees-- HOT! Venus is boiling during the day. Venus has many craters (by comets). Venus is one of the brightest objects in our sky. Earth Earth and The Moon Welcome to Planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is water. The planet has a relatively thin atmosphere composed mostly of nitrogen and oxygen Mars •Mars is very bright, which makes it easy to spot in the night sky. It was named after the Roman god of war because its reddish color reminded the people of blood. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system! Mars Land Rover ASTEROID BELT The Asteroid Belt An asteroid is a big lump of rock or metal. Asteroids are smaller than the 8 planets in the Solar System. Most asteroids are between Mars and Jupiter in an area called the Asteroid Belt. Just like the planets, the asteroid belt moves around the Sun. The biggest asteroid in the asteroid belt is called Ceres which is about 1000 km long - the same length as the UK. Most asteroids can be found in the Asteroid Belt, which is located between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun. Asteroids range in size from Ceres, which has a diameter of about 1000 km, down to the size of pebbles. Jupiter Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so big that over 1,000 planets the size of Earth could fit into it! It has over 60 moons and 2 rings. JUPITER The “Great Red Spot” Is actually a huge Storm system! Here are a few of Jupiter’s moons. Jupiter’s Red Spot Saturn Titan is a moon of Saturn that may have some Conditions necessary for life! The picture on the left shows an artist’s drawing of how Titan might have looked when the Cassini-Huygen’s probe dropped into its atmosphere in Dec., 2004. • Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, is the second largest planet in our solar system. • It is often called the ringed planet because many rings of dust and rocks surround it. • Saturn also has over 30 moons. Uranus URANUS Uranus gets its blue-green color from methane gas. Uranus is a very unusual planet because it sits on its side with north and south poles sticking out the sides. It rotates around this axis, making it look like a ball rolling around in a circle around the Sun. Neptune Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, is a very cold place. • Occasionally, Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit. • Its bluish color comes from its atmosphere of methane gas. PLUTO • Pluto’ s largest moon Charon, is half the size of Pluto. • Since 2000 astronomers realized that Pluto is not like all eight planets. • Pluto is actually smaller than one of Neptune’ s moon Triton. Pluto Some scientists believe that Pluto once was one of Neptune’s moons, and that it pulled out away from Neptune and made its own orbit. Clearest view to date Of Pluto and Charon. Comets Comets are sometimes called dirty snowballs or "icy mudballs". They are a mixture of ices (both water and frozen gases) and dust that for some reason didn't get incorporated into planets when the solar system was formed. This makes them very interesting as samples of the early history of the solar system. METEOROIDS • Meteoroids are small pieces of stone or metal traveling in space. • Most meteoroids are no bigger than a pebble. • Large meteoroids are believed to come from the asteroid belt . SO WHAT IS A METEORITE? • A meteorite is a natural object from space that survives passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands on the Earth's surface. In other words, a meteorite is something you can hold in your hand, unlike a meteor (shooting star), which burns up in the atmosphere. The fall of a meteorite is almost always a very spectacular affair, so that there is a bright fireball, sonic booms, a dust trail and, if the meteorite was big enough, an impact crater. Meteorites The largest single meteorite found in the United States is the fifteen ton Willamette (Oregon) iron meteorite found in 1902. Large meteorites that crashed onto the Earth long ago made craters like those found on the Moon. The Barringer Meteorite Crater near Winslow, Arizona is believed to have been formed about 49,000 years ago by the impact of a 300,000 ton meteorite. The Hoba iron meteorite is the largest single meteorite known. Its present weight is estimated at 66 tons. Comets Comet tails are made of dust and electrically charged gasses called ions. The tail made of dust is left behind in the comet's orbit in such a manner that it often forms a curved tail. • • • • Chunks of ice, dust, rock. Comets are millions of kilometers long. 100,000 comets orbit the sun. It’s light is reflecting sun light. THE FINAL FRONTIER •