Download The Solar System

The Solar System
Read the inner planet WS
Inner Planets WS
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1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
5. all
6.Earth
7. Venus
8. Mars
9.Earth. Mars
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10. Venus & Earth
11. Mercury
12. Venus
13. Mars, Earth
14. Mars
15.The 4 inner planets
with rocky surfaces
• 16.clockwise “backward”
rotation
• 17. atmosphere traps in
heat warming the planet
Our solar system has 8 planets!
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos!
Vulcanoid Belt
• A belt of rocky objects between the sun
and Mercury.
• We do not know with certainty that it exists
because it is so close to the sun that glare
would make small objects difficult to
observe.
Planets
• 4 major criteria are required to be called a planet:
– a large body that shines by reflecting sunlight
– revolves in a stable orbit around the sun
– large enough that its own gravity pulls it into a round shape
– Must be dominant enough to clear the area around it
Terms to know!
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AU: distance from the Earth to the sun
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Greenhouse Effect:
– Atmosphere traps in heat like a blanket.
– Thicker atmosphere = greater GH effect=like a thinker blanket
– Stabilizes temperature
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Rotation:
– Spinning
– Determines a Day
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Revolution -orbit
– Revolving around a star
– Determines a year
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Satellite
– Moons
– Any object that orbits a planet!
Inner / Terrestrial Planets
• Which ones are the inner planets?
Inner Planets
• Which ones are the inner planets?
– Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
• Inner planets are also called terrestrial planets.
Why?
Inner Planets
• Which ones are the inner planets?
– Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
• Inner planets are also called terrestrial
planets. Why?
– They are made mainly of rock and iron-nickel
compounds
Generally smaller in size
Only 2 of the inner planets are inferior.
What are the 2 inferior planets?
• Inferior planets –
– Most are between Sun and Earth
– If closer to the sun, it shows phases like the moon!
Superior Planets
• Superior planets –
– further from the Sun than Earth
– always appear full (no phases like the moon)
– What are the superior planets?
• Mars, Jupiter, Saturn , Uranus & Neptune
Superior – Always Full
Inferior
PHASES
The Inner Planets
Also called terrestrial planets
•Closest to the sun
•Many craters with little erosion
•Made of the dense metals iron & nickel
•Has almost no atmosphere,
•very hot during the day (430 C)
•very cold at night (-170 C)
•Little Greenhouse effect
•Has a Magnetic Field
•Hard to collect data from Mercury
•Mariner 10 (1970s) MESSANGER (now)
Mercury
Mercury
• Considered an extreme planet
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Smallest
Densest
oldest
largest daily variations in surface temperature
least explored.
0.39 AU
Venus - Earth’s Twin Planet
•similar in:
• size
•mass
•composition
•distance from the sun
• 0.72 AU
Why don’t we live on
Venus?
•no oceans, has volcanoes
Here is what is different:
•thick clouds that spin rapidly and trap heat on
the surface GREENHOUSE EFFECT
•Mostly CO2
•Hottest surface of all! (460C)
•air pressure 90 x greater than Earth
What else is different?
•Retrograde Rotation:
•CLOCKWISE!
•Sun rises in the WEST!
•Day is 8 months long
•Revolution:
•Venus’ day is longer than it’s year
•7.5 earth months
•71% water
•Only planet known to have life
Earth: Goldilocks!
Just Right.
•Nitrogen & Oxygen, CO2 and H2O
•Nitrogen is used in plants to make
protein
•Magnetosphere
•Protects from solar flares
•Magnetic Field
•Produced by liquid outer core
1 AU
•Small rocky and red
•iron oxide, or rust.
Mars
•Ice at the poles. Mostly Water & SOME Dry ice!
•Used to have liquid water, or ice below the surface.
•Largest Volcano in the Solar System
•Olympus Mons
•Largest Canyon
•Valles Marineris -From NY to LA
•Has 2 moons- Phobos and Deimos
•Rotation: almost the same as Earth
•Revolution:687 days in an Martian year
•Atmosphere: mostly of carbon dioxide.
•Strong Winds
•1% the pressure of Earth
•Thin atmosphere: 20C to -140C
1.5 AU
Mars
• There are currently
several probes and
satellites around Mars
and rovers on Mars
• planned mission to
send humans to Mars
within the next 30
years.
– Funding was cut 
Asteroid belt
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Asteroid belt
• between Mars & Jupiter
• thousands of rock fragments
that orbit around the sun
• Too small to be spherical or
clear a path
• Largest asteroids have been
reclassified; now called Dwarf
planets
– Ceres!
Read the Outer Planet WS
answers
1. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
2. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
3. Doesn’t clear its path (other
objects in its orbit), not a planet,
small and rocky
10.The 4 large outer planets. No
solid surface, but a solid core.
Diagram order:
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Mercury
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Venus
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Earth
6. Jupiter
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Mars
7. Ice and rock
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Jupiter
8. Uranus orbit was a bit off, so
must have been influenced by an
unseen planet. Predicted!
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Saturn
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Uranus
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Neptune
4. Large gravity
5. The sun! (too cold, not nuclear
fusion)
9. Does not clear its path
Outer planets
• Which planets are included in the outer
planets?
Outer planets
• Which planets are included in the outer
planets?
– Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Outer planets
Jovian Gas Planets
• Which planets are
included in the outer
planets?
– Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune
• Made up mostly of frozen
hydrogen and helium
• Atmospheres can be
made of thick layers of
methane and ammonia
• Atmosphere:
– A frozen & liquid “gas” planet
• H and He are not gasses here
Jupiter
– Great Red Spot:
• an ongoing storm “hurricane”
• Larger than Earth
– Pressure is 30 million times greater
• Largest planet
– 2x mass of all other planets together
– Solid core of iron
• Rotation: Day = 9.9 hours
• Revolution: Year= ~12 Earth yrs
• Satellites: 63 moons
– Europa might have life under the ice.
5.2 AU
•Another gas planet
•Size- 2nd largest
•smaller than Jupiter
Saturn
•larger diameter because of rings
•Hundreds of Rings
•chunks of ice and rocks orbiting
•only planet with a density < water
•In a huge bathtub what would happen?
•Satellites- at least 61 moons!
•largest moon- Titan
•Larger than Mercury!
•atmosphere like early Earth's
9.5 AU
Saturn’s Rings
Hubble telescope picture of auroras
occurring on Saturn
Outer planets
– What does this tell you about Saturn?
•Gas Planet
•Twice as far from the Sun as Saturn
Uranus
•4x Bigger than earth.
•27 moons
•Rotation: day = 17 hours
•Revolution: year = 84 Earth days
•Has rings (dark colored)
•Appears blue
•methane gas in its atmosphere
•Axis tilted at a 90° angle, rotating
from top to bottom, cosmic collision?
19.2 AU
Rotation Angles
• Look at Uranus!
• Rotates on its side!
• Looks like its rolling, not spinning like a top.
Centaurs
• Orbiting between Jupiter & Neptune
• 9 discovered so far
• Unstable orbits; astronomers believe that
they are refugees from the Kuiper Belt
• Some may become comets
•Discovered by mathematical prediction!
•Atmosphere:
•blue -traces of methane gas
Neptune
•Nitrogen ice
•Clouds and storms
Winds exceed 1000 Km/hr
Spots – hurricanes
•13 moons
•Triton -Coldest in solar system= -200C
•Retrograde rotation like Venus!
•Must have been captured by Neptune’s
gravity.
•Rotation: 16 hours
•Revolution: 164 years to orbit the sun!
30 AU
Kuiper Belt
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Kuiper Belt
• This disk-shaped
• icy debris
• 4.5 to 7.5 billion km from sun
• Pluto & most dwarf planets
• 800 objects discovered so far
Dwarf Planets
• New classification occurred in 2006
 Orbits around the sun (not a moon)
 pulled into a sphere
X Does NOT clear the neighborhood of its orbit
Dwarf Planets
• There are 5 dwarf
planets known so far:
– asteroid belt:
• Ceres
– Kuiper belt
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Pluto
Eris
Makemake
Haumea
Oort Cloud
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spherical cloud surrounding our Solar System.
outer edge of our solar system
comets that streak by the Earth come from it
Sedna –
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farthest known object in our solar system
in the oort cloud
¾ size of Pluto,
freezing cold (-400 F)
orbit =10,500 years to go around the Sun!!!!
Comets
• ice and dust
• Least changed objects since
the formation of the solar
system
• 5 parts: nucleus, coma,
hydrogen cloud, dust tail and
ion tail
• Only visible when near the sun
• Halley’s comet –
– visible every 76 years.
– Next time we will see it is
2062.
Meteorites
• Meteoroid- chunk of rock and ice debris in space
• Meteor- the light given off when it enters into Earth’s
atmosphere (shooting star)
• Meteorite- impacts the surface (makes craters)
Meteorite - Arizona
Exoplanets
• What does the word exo mean?
Exoplanets
• What does the word exo mean?
• What is an exoplanet?
Exoplanets
• What does the word exo mean?
• What is an exoplanet?
– A planet outside of our solar system
– There have been about 528 discovered so far
– Some are “goldilocks” planets that may be a
lot like Earth.
Brown Dwarfs
• Failed stars: too big to
be a planet, not big
enough to have
nuclear fusion