Download File

Parts of the Solar System
Earth Science
Mr. Cloud
The Nebular Hypothesis
Nebular Hypothesis
• A young solar nebula collapses under the force
of gravity
• The nebula flattens and becomes warmer near
its center causing nuclear fusion to begin.
• Remnants from the formation of the sun begin to
coalesce and form planetesimals
• Matter with higher density remains in close
proximity to the sun forming the terrestrial
planets
• Low density gases move further away forming
gas giants.
Parts of the Solar System
•
•
•
•
•
Planets
Asteroids
Moons
Comets
Meteoroids
Large
Small
Planets
• There are eight planets that independently
orbit the sun
• Generally spherical in shape
• Over one thousand planets have been
found revolving around stars other than
our sun!
Mars (Terrestrial)
Hey its one of the
Mars Rovers!
Jupiter (Jovian)
Saturn
Aurora that surround the
south pole of Saturn
Asteroids
• Is a solid rocky and/or metallic body that
independently orbits the sun
• Irregular shape with no atmosphere
• Large percentage orbit between Mars and
Jupiter
• Much smaller than planets (100-1000 km
in diameter
Asteroid Vesta
- Located between Mars and Jupiter
- NASA Dawn Spacecraft
40 mi wide crater on the surface of Vesta
Moons
• Is a body that orbits a planet or an asteroid as
those objects orbit the sun
• 100 known moons in our solar system
Ganymede (Largest moon of
Jupiter)
Io (innermost moon of Jupiter)
Europa
Comets
• Can be compared to a “dirty snowball”
• Mainly composed of solids that easily change to gases
when heated
• They are largely ices of substances such as water and
methane mixed with rocky or metallic solids
• 1-100 km in diameter
• When comets get near the sun, their ices turn to gas
• Some solids are released forming spectacular tails
visible in the Earth’s sky
• Comet Close Approach to Mars: October 19, 2014
Coma
Comet Hale-Bopp
(1995)
Meteoroids
• Very small solid fragments
• Most are the size of a dime or sand grain
• When meteoroids burn up as they pass
through Earth’s atmosphere, they are
called meteors
• If they survive the trip and land on Earth’s
surface they are called meteorites
• Can form impact craters
Mr. Cloud
attempting to Lift a
15 ton Meteorite!
Meteorite- Holsinger (Meteor
Crater, AZ)
Barringer Crater (Arizona)