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Planet Highlights
Mercury
Mercury
Mercury
• Highest Density
• Thinnest Atmosphere
• Highest Temperature and
Greatest Temperature Range
• Messenger will fly by in 2011
• Surface is similar to the moon,
very cratered, old
Venus
Venus
• It’s day is longer than its year
• Still volcanically active and
covered with large lava flows
• It has no moons
• Atmosphere is mostly Carbon
Dioxide, which causes a large
Greenhouse Effect, raising its
temperature
Venus: Earth’s Twin
• Similar in size
• Similar density
• Young, volcanically active
surface
• Probably used to have water
that boiled away
Mars
Exploration of Mars
• Has been explored more than any
other planet:
– Mariner 4 visited for the first time in
1965
– Landers include Mars 2, Viking,
Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity
– 3 orbiters are currently in orbit
We have learned a lot about the surface
of Mars as a result
Surface of Mars
• Largest Mountain/Volcano in Solar
System: Olympus Mons
Surface of Mars
• Rocky
• Evidence of erosion
possibly by liquid
water: Dry river
beds and canyons
• Volcanoes and lava
flows
• Red Planet
Largest Canyon in solar
system
• Would
stretch
from New
York to
Los
Angeles
on earth
Moons of Mars
• 2 Moons
–Phobos
Deimos
Other Mars Facts
• Very thin atmosphere
• Permanent polar ice caps made of
water and carbon dioxide
Asteroid Belt
• The region between Mars and Jupiter
contains irregularly shaped rocky
objects called asteroids.
Asteroids
• Asteroids are probably left over
material from a planet that never
formed.
• They range in size from 1000 km to
the size of a pebble.
• There are 26 large ones and
millions of smaller ones, although
most of the asteroid belt is empty
space.
Jupiter
• Gas Giant: No solid surface, it’s gases
just get more dense.
• Under the gases is a liquid metallic core
(at high temperatures and pressures the
hydrogen becomes a liquid with ionized
protons and electrons that conduct
electricity like a metal)
• Made mostly of Hydrogen and Helium
• Rocky core 10-15 times the mass of
earth
Jupiter
• Lots of
images from
Hubble
• Flyby in 1973
by Pioneer,
Voyager
• Orbited for 8
years by
Galileo
Jupiter Facts
• Has the Great Red Spot- giant storm
in its gases
• Has faint rings
• Has 63 moons, 4 very large ones
• Was hit by a comet in 1994
• So big all of the other planets would
fit inside it (diameter is 11 times that
of earth)
Saturn
• Gas Giant containing a gas surface
of mostly Hydrogen and Helium, a
liquid hydrogen metal outer core,
and a rocky inner core
• Has large, prominent rings with
spaces between them
• Cassini is orbiting since 2004
• Voyager and Pioneer visited
• 34 moons
Saturn
• Saturn
has such
a low
density it
would
float in
water!
Titan- Saturn’s Moon
• Larger than Mercury and Pluto
• Second largest moon in solar
system
• Has a planet-like atmosphere
• Has places on it that look like
liquid-filled lakes (probably not
water)
Titan
• We sent Cassini THROUGH
Saturn’s rings to orbit Titan.
Then we dropped Huygens
onto the surface of Titan. It
landed with the help of 3
parachutes to slow it down
from 12,000 mph
• Found mud, rock, and liquid
Uranus
• Gas Giant: It’s atmosphere has
Hydrogen and Helium, but it’s
interior is rocky and icy.
• Only visited once by Voyager
• Rotates on it’s side with its south
pole facing the sun
• 11 rings
• 27 moons
Uranus
Neptune
• Sometimes its orbit crosses that of
Pluto, making it farther away from
the sun than Pluto
• Visited only once by Voyager
• Gas Giant with a Gas surface of
hydrogen and helium, and then a
rocky, icy core
• 13 Moons and faint rings
Neptune
Pluto
• Smaller than 7 moons in the solar
system and is now a dwarf planet
• Very eccentric orbit, so it crosses
with Neptune
• New Horizons, launched in 2006,
should flyby in 2015
• 3 moons, one almost as big as Pluto;
“Double Planet”
Pluto
Kuiper Belt
• Region beyond Neptune with
small, icy objects that are the
source of comets
• Sedna and other small planetoids
are located here