Transcript The Solar System

Mercury
Project by: John Isaac
And Jazmine Carey
Choir Academy of Harlem
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Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Mercury
The planet Mercury is very difficult to study from the Earth
because it is always so close to the Sun. Even at elongation, it is never
more than 28 degrees from the Sun in our sky. It is the second smallest
planet (it was believed to be the smallest until the discovery that Pluto is
actually much smaller than originally thought), and also the fastest in its
orbit since it is the innermost planet. In fact, the name Mercury derives
from its speed in moving around its orbit.
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Venus
In the last 30 years we have learned a great deal about our
"sister" planet, and we now know that almost nothing on Venus is like
that on the Earth. Much of the previous misconception can be traced to
the difficulty of observing Venus because it is always covered with a thick
cloud layer. In the past 3 decades astronomers have learned how to peer
through that cloud layer and unlock many of the secrets of this nearby
but previously not well known planet.
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Earth
The Earth is certainly the most familiar planet, though it has only been a
few hundred years since we fully realized it was a planet. We begin our
study of objects in the Solar System with the Earth because it is
interesting in its own right, and it provides a test of many observing
techniques that we wish to use for other objects in the Solar System.
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Mars
Mars, the "Red Planet", is named after the Roman god of war because it
commonly appears with a reddish tinge when viewed in our sky. It has
always held a fascination for those interested in the possibility of life on
other planets. In 1895 a professor of astronomy, Samual Leland Phelps,
wrote in a book called World Making that with a new 40 inch telescope
being built by the University of Chicago
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Jupiter
The planet Jupiter is shown in the adjacent Hubble Space Telescope
true-color image (Ref). Jupiter is by far the largest of the planets. It is
more than twice as massive as all other planets combined; if it had been
only about 100 times more massive at birth (not so much by astronomical
standards) it would have become a star instead of a planet. Then the
Solar System might be a double star system instead of a single star with
a planetary system.
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Saturn
Saturn, the second most massive planet, and the most distant planet
known to the ancients, is one of the most beautiful sites in the Solar
System, as witnessed by the adjacent image. The most striking
feature of Saturn is the spectacular ring system. Although this
feature is no longer unique, since we now know that all the Gas
Giant planets have rings, the rings of Saturn are much more
elaborate than those of any of the other planets.
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Uranus
Uranus is largely hydrogen and helium, but (like Neptune) contains
higher proportions of heavy elements than Jupiter or Saturn, and is
covered with clouds. Our only direct spacecraft observation of
Uranus came from Voyager 2 in 1986.
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Neptune
Neptune is the eighth planet from the
Sun and the fourth largest (by
diameter). Neptune is smaller in
diameter but larger in mass than
Uranus
Neptune has been visited by only one spacecraft,
Voyager 2 on Aug 25 1989.
Neptune's composition is probably similar to
Uranus': various "ices" and rock with about 15%
hydrogen and a little helium
Pluto
Pluto (planet), ninth planet from
the Sun and outermost known
member of the solar system. Pluto
was discovered as the result of a
telescopic search inaugurated in
1905by American astronomer
Percival Lowell, Pluto revolves
about the Sun once in 247.7 Earth
years at an average distance of
5.9 billion km (3.67 billion mi)
from the Sun. Pluto is about 2,320
km (1,440 mi) in diameter, about
two-thirds the size of Earth's
moon.