Download A Tour of Our Solar System

Tour of the Solar System (51)
Inner Solar System
• Sun
– Main sequence, yellow dwarf.
– All objects in solar system revolve around it.
– Makes up 99% of solar system’s matter.
– 804,000 mi across, can hold 109 Earths.
Inner Solar System (cont.)
• Mercury:
– Smallest planet.
– Many craters, similar to the moon.
– Temperature: 801- 279oF.
• Venus:
– Similar to Earth’s size and mass.
– Atmosphere of CO2 (traps heat).
– High temperatures that can melt lead.
– Rotates counter-clockwise.
Inner Solar System (cont.)
Earth
•Atmosphere is 78% N, 21% O, 1% other
gases.
– Allows just enough heat to be trapped and
stay warm enough to sustain life.
Mars
•Structures that look like river beds.
•May have once had liquid water on surface.
Space Junk
Asteroid Belt
• Chunks of rock orbiting the Sun between
Mars and Jupiter.
• May have been a planetesimal that was
torn apart by Jupiter’s gravity.
– 100,000+ asteroids.
– Most less than 1km long.
Outer (Gas) Planets
Jupiter
•Largest planet.
•Made Hydrogen and
Helium gas.
•Could have been a
star…if it were 80 times
bigger.
Outer (Gas) Planets (cont.)
Saturn
•Winds in upper atmosphere can reach
500m/s (vs. 110m/s).
•Rings made of water ice and rock.
Outer (Gas) Planets (cont.)
Uranus
– Appears blue because methane in the
atmosphere.
– Axis of rotation points at the Sun.
Outer (Gas) Planets (cont.)
Neptune
– Atmosphere of
methane, water,
helium and
hydrogen.
– Great Dark Spot:
wind storm size of
Earth, 750 miles/hr.
Dwarf Planet
Pluto
– About two thirds the size of our Moon.
– 3 Moons: the biggest (Charon) is over half the
size of Pluto.
– Orbits the Kuiper Belt.
Other Structures of the Solar
System
• Kuiper Belt: rocky/icy objects beyond
Pluto.
– Short orbit comets (orbit less than 100 years).
• Oort Cloud: rocky/icy bodies beyond the
Kuiper Belt.
– Long orbit comets (orbit more than 100 years).
Structures of the Solar System (cont.)
• Comets: made of ice/rock/dust, tails are
debris left behind that are lit up by solar
wind.
Birth of Our Moon
Collisional Ejection: Something
impacted the forming Earth and broke
off pieces and some became the
Moon.
– Collisions common in early solar
system.
– Moon has similar elements to Earth.
Mapping the Solar System (50)
Object
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Asteroid Belt
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Kuiper Belt
Comets
Position in
Solar
System
Something to
Remember
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