The Solar System

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The Solar System
Funding support for outreach programs provided by
the Utah State Legislature and the Utah State
Board of Education
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Commonly Confused Terms

• Solar System
• Our star (Sun) and everything that orbits around
  it (planets, asteroids, comets, etc.)
  
• Galaxy
• Huge collection of stars bound together by
  gravity (the Sun is 1 star among 100-400 billion
  stars in the Milky Way galaxy)
  
• Universe
• Everything (100 billion galaxies)

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What objects make up theSolar System?
The following tour shows objects in the solar
system ordered by mass.
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Sun
Has about 99.86 of the MASS in the solar sys
tem
Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a
project of international cooperation between ESA
and NASA.
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Sunspots
Credit Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
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Jupiter
has about 0.1 of the MASS in the solar syste
m
Everything else together has only about 0.04 o
f the MASS
in the solar system
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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Jupiter
Composition 86 Hydrogen 13 Helium
Jupiter has many objects in orbit around it
(current count 63)
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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Jupiter
Most satellites orbit far away from Jupiter and
are probably captured asteroids
Credit University of Hawaii, Institute for
Astronomy
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Saturn
Composition 90 Hydrogen 9 Helium
Credit NASA, ESA and E. Karkoschka (Univesity of
Arizona)
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Neptune
Neptune has 8 known moons
Largest moon Triton is in a retrograde orbit
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Uranus
Composition 83 Hydrogen 15 Helium
Uranus has an axial tilt of 98
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Earth
Temperature and pressure allow water to exist as
a liquid at the surface
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Venus
Venus has 82 of the mass of Earth and is covered
with white clouds of sulfuric acid
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Venus
Surface Temperature 864 F
Credit NASA/NSSDC
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Mars
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Mars
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mercury
Although it is smaller in size than Ganymede and
Titan, Mercury has more mass of both of these
moons combined.
Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory/ Carnegie Institution of Washi
ngton
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MoonsSeven moons have more mass than Pluto
Ganymede (Jupiter) Titan (Saturn) Callisto (Jupi
ter) Io (Jupiter) Moon (Earth) Europa (Jupiter)

Triton (Neptune)
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Eris
Eris is the largest dwarf planet in the Solar
System. Eris has 1.27 times the mass of Pluto.
Credit NASA ,ESA , and M. Brown (California
Institute of Technology)
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Pluto
Pluto, the second largest dwarf planet, is one of
the largest objects in a belt of objects that
orbit the Sun beyond Neptune.
Credit Allen Stern (Southwest Research
Institute), Mark Buie (Lowell Observatory), NASA
and ESA
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The Kuiper Belt
Thousands of icy objects orbit the Sun beyond
Neptune in a region commonly called the Kuiper
Belt.
______
Pluto Orbit
________
Neptune Orbit
Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory
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Dysnomia
Eris
Makemake
Haumea
Credit NASA, ESA, and A. Field (STScI)
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Comets
NASA/NSSDC/W. Liller
Astronomers think that many comets originate in
the Kuiper Belt
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Asteroids
Eros
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech