OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

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OUR SOLAR SYSTEM ITS PLANETS!
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Solar System to Scale
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Planets to Scale
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The Inner Planets

• Inner Planets- Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
• Called Terrestrial planets (Earthlike)
• These planets have a rocky crust, denser mantle,
  and very dense core

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MERCURY
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VENUS
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EARTH
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MARS
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The Grand Canyon of Mars Valles Marineras
Its length is the distance from NY to
California! Its widest point is the distance
from NY to Georgia!
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Mars sure looks a lot like Arizona, eh?
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The Outer Planets

• Outer Planets- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
  and Pluto
• Called Jovian planets (Jupiter-like)
• These planets are much larger, more gaseous, and
  less dense than the inner planets

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JUPITER
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The Moons of Jupiter
Calisto
Io
Europa
Ganymede
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SATURN
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"Saturn's diminutive moon, Mimas, poses as the
Death Star - the planet-destroying space station
from the movie Star Wars - in an image recently
captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft
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URANUS
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NEPTUNE
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PLUTO The Planet of NO More!

• Pluto is not dense enough to be terrestrial, or
  large enough to be Jovian
• However, because of its location, it is
  considered an Outer Planet, but IS NOT a Jovian
  Planet

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The 10th Planet!

• The new planet is the most distant object ever
  seen in orbit around the sun, even more distant
  than Sedna, the planetoid discovered almost 2
  years ago.
• It is almost 10 billion miles from the sun and
  more than 3 times more distant than the next
  closest planet, Pluto and takes more than twice
  as long to orbit the sun as Pluto.

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• CHRONOLOGY OF SOLAR SYSTEM DISCOVERY
• Sun
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus 19th century, by telescope
• Neptune 19th century, predicted by
  calculations based on Newtons Law, and by
  telescope
• Pluto 20th century, predicted by accident, then
  by telescope observation

17th century, visual observation
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Data on the planets is located in your Earth
Science Reference Tables, page 15
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Comets, Asteroids, and Meteoroids
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COMETS

• masses of rock, dust, ice and gases that revolve
  around the sun in their own orbits
• orbits are usually very eccentric (stretched
  out), which means that one complete orbit of the
  sun may take many years
• Ex. Halleys Comet is only viewable on Earth
  every 76 years! It will next appear in the year
  2062!

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Comet Hyakutake 
Comet Hale-Bopp
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Tails get longer the closer the comet gets to the
Sun.
Comet Tails always point away from the Sun. Gas
(Ion) tails point straight away from the Sun.
Dust tails curves toward the orbital path.
Orbit of Comet
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ION TAIL
ION TAIL
DUST TAIL
DUST TAIL
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The orbit of Haleys Comet is highly eccentric,
and therefore the comet can only be seen on Earth
every 72 years!
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ASTEROIDS

• solid chunks of rock floating in space
• Most asteroids are found in a nearly circular
  orbit between Mars and Jupiter, revolving in the
  same direction as the planets
• Asteroid belt
• Most asteroids a less than 1 meter long!

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METEROIDS

• fragments of rocks or ice traveling through space
• Occasionally, these fragments may get pulled into
  Earths atmosphere by its gravity
• As the meteoroid shoots through the atmosphere,
  friction causes heat to build up and the
  meteoroid begins to glow
• This is now called a METEOR (shooting star)

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METEROIDS

• Sometimes many meteoroids enter our atmosphere at
  one time, this is called a meteor shower
• If the meteor survives its trip through the
  atmosphere and hits Earths surface, it is then
  called a meteorite
• Impact craters are potholes in the Earths
  crust caused by meteorites hitting the ground
  with great speed and force
• Ex. the Barringer Crater in Arizona (1,300m wide,
  200m deep).

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