Download Our Solar System Mercury, the Fastest Planet

Our
Solar
System
Mercury,
the Fastest Planet
• closest planet from Sun
• Small, rocky planet
• Fastest planet – 50km/sec (88 days = 1
year)
• Temperatures 467* C to -183* C
• Very little atmosphere
Venus, Earth’s Twin
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Earth’s twin (~same size, mass,
composition, and distance from sun)
Thick atmosphere that traps heat
Hottest planet (450*C) (hot enough to melt lead)
Intense pressure
Winds faster that hurricane force winds
Day longer than year
Rotates backwards (sun rises in west, sets in
east)
Earth, the Planet with Life
• Has life
• 3rd planet from
Sun
• 5th largest planet
• Tilted axis gives
us seasons
Mars,
the Red Planet
• Red planet
• Small and rocky
• Has volcanoes, impacts, tectonics, dust
storms, polar ice caps
• Great dust storms engulf entire planet
creating giant dunes, wind streaks, wind
carved features
• Highest mountains and deepest canyons
Jupiter,
the Largest Planet
• Biggest planet
• Like a mini solar system with
63 moons and rings
• Composition resembles a small star
• Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically
active body in the solar system
• Large red spot (a hurricane)
Saturn,
the Ringed
Planet
• A gas giant with
rings
• Mostly made of hydrogen and helium
• Volume 755 times that of Earth’s
• Winds reach 500m/s (Earth’s strongest
hurricane winds are 110m/s)
• Fast winds and heat from interior cause yellow
and gold bands in atmosphere
Uranus,
the Sideways Planet
• Has some of the brightest
clouds
• 11 rings
• Blue-green color from methane gas
• 7th planet, it takes 84 years to orbit Sun
• No solid surface – a gas giant
• Liquid core
Neptune, the Windy Planet
• 8th planet – orbits Sun
in 165 years
• Farthest planet from
Sun for 20 year
period out of every
248 Earth years.
• Large dark spot (a
storm)
• Has rings like all the
gas giants
Pluto,
the Icy Dwarf Planet
• Small, cold dwarf planet (It is
not a planet anymore. Scientist
changed the classification of planets. Pluto
did not change.)
• Takes 248 years to orbit Sun
• 2/3’s the diameter of Earth’s Moon
• Rocky core surrounded by water ice
• Pluto and its moon Charon share the same
orbit
Asteroids
• Rocky fragments
• Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
• Millions from ¼ size of the moon to less
than a kilometer across
• Mars’s moons may be captured asteroids
Meteroids
• Bits of material hurling through space
• Meteors or “shooting stars” are these
materials as they fall through Earth’s
atmosphere. Air friction causes them to
heat up and shine like stars.
• Meteorites are when these bits of
materials reach the earth’s surface.
Comets
• Dirty ice leftovers
• The tails always point away from the
Sun.
The solar wind blows the particles that make
up the tail away.