Transcript THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
The Solar System consists of:
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Planets
Moons
Asteroids
Comets
PLANETS
A planet is a large, round
heavenly body that orbits
a star and shines with light
reflected from the star. We
know of eight planets that
orbit the sun in our solar
system. Since 1992,
astronomers have also
discovered many planets
orbiting other stars.
World book
What are the eight planets?
HINT: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nuts
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
MERCURY
The smallest planet in the solar system and the
one nearest to the sun. Its orbit about the sun takes
88 days to complete, at a mean distance of almost
36,000,000 miles. Mercury goes around the sun
about four times while the earth is going around
once.
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VENUS
Venus is the sixth largest
planet in the solar system and
the second in distance from
the sun. Venus is the brightest
planet in the solar system and
the one that comes closest to
the earth. World Book
EARTH
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Age: At least 4 1/2 billion years
Mass: 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6.6 sextillion)
tons (6.0 sextillion metric tons).
Surface features: Highest land—Mount Everest, 29,035
feet (8,850 meters) above sea level. Lowest land—shore
of Dead Sea, about 1,310 feet (399 meters) below sea).
Temperature: Highest, 136 °F (58 °C) at Al Aziziyah,
Libya. Lowest, -128.6 °F (-89.6 °C) at Vostok Station in
Antarctica. Average surface temperature, 59 °F (15 °C).
Chemical makeup of the earth's crust (in percent of
the crust's weight): oxygen 46.6, silicon 27.7,
aluminum 8.1, iron 5.0, calcium 3.6, sodium 2.8,
potassium 2.6, magnesium 2.0, and other elements
totaling 1.6.
MARS
The Mars Odyssey probe,
shown in this illustration
orbiting Mars, found
evidence of water ice
beneath the surface of
Mars in 2002. The probe,
launched in 2001, also
analyzed the chemical
composition of the
planet's surface. World Book
MARS
• It is the fourth planet
from the sun.
• It is sometimes referred
to as the “Red Planet”
• It has a diameter of 6,794
km.
• It has a very thin
atmosphere mostly made
of carbon dioxide.
What is this planet called?
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
Its diameter is 88,846 miles (142,984
kilometers), more than 11 times that of Earth,
and about one-tenth that of the sun. It would
take more than 1,000 Earths to fill up the
volume of the giant planet. When viewed from
Earth, Jupiter appears brighter than most stars.
It is usually the second brightest planet—after
Venus.
SATURN
SATURN
•It is the sixth planet from
the sun
•It is the least dense of all
the planets.
•It has a diameter of
120,536 km.
•It radiates more energy
into space than it receives
from the sun.
URANUS
one of the larger planets in the solar system and the
seventh in distance from the sun.
URANUS
• It is the seventh planet from the sun.
• It was the first planet discovered in
modern times.
• It has a diameter of 51,118 km.
• It is composed primarily of rocks and
various ices.
NEPTUNE
Latin , related
to nebula
cloud, mist
In Neptune's outermost ring, 39,000 miles
(63,000 kilometers) from the planet, material
mysteriously clumps into three bright, dense
arcs.
NASA
NEPTUNE
• It is the eighth planet from the sun.
• It has a diameter of 49,532 km.
• It is mostly composed of various ices.
• It is blue because of its absorption of red
light by methane in the atmosphere.
What Happened to Pluto???
PLUTO
Is Pluto a planet?
Once known as the smallest, coldest, and most distant planet
from the Sun, Pluto has a dual identity, not to mention being
enshrouded in controversy since its discovery in 1930.
Pluto ????
On August 24, 2006, the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) formally downgraded
Pluto from an official planet to a dwarf planet.
According to the new rules a planet meets three
criteria:
1. it must orbit the Sun,
2. it must be big enough for gravity to squash it
into a round ball,
3. it must have cleared other things out of the way
in its orbital neighborhood.
Pluto
The latter measure knocks
out Pluto!
AND MUCH
MUCH
MORE…….
Asteroids
What is an Asteroid?
•Small rocky bodies that
have been compared to
“flying mountains”
•Ceres is the largest (@
1000 km in diameter) and
first to be discovered
Asteroids show up as
streaks on photos.
Asteroid Facts
•About 100 have a diameter
over 100 km
•Some reflect light well, others
are black as coal
•Asteroids tumble as they orbit
the sun
Examples of Asteroids
Asteroid Belt
Asteroid Belt
The asteroid
belt is located
between Mars
and Jupiter
Comets
Pieces of rocky and metallic materials
held together by frozen gases, such as
water, ammonia, methane, carbon
dioxide, and carbon monoxide.
Halley’s Comet
•In 1704 Sir Edmond Halley
hypothesized that the comets of
1456, 1532, 1607, 1682 were the
same object.
•He calculated a 75.7 year orbit
and predicted that it would return
in 1758.
•Halley died; but comet returned.
Halley’s Comet will return in
2061.
Comets are dirty ice balls!
• Nucleus
- rock & ices (mostly H2O and
CO2 [dry ice], some methane CH4 &
ammonia NH3)
• Coma is gaseous. As comet approaches
Sun ices sublime, change from solid to
gas, dust grains loosen and move away
• Tails - solar wind (steady stream of
solar particles) pushes gas away; dust
continues to orbit Sun
Meteors
• Meteors
are bright streaks of
light in the sky
longer streaks are called
meteor trails
• Meteor showers come at
certain times of the year
from the same known parts
of the sky
• The
cause of meteors is meteoroids, grains
of
matter burning up in the atmosphere. An
estimated 1000 tons falls on the Earth daily
• Material comes from asteroid collisions
and
comet tails
The projectile that exploded on
impact and produced Meteor
Crater was equivalent to the
energy of 1000 Hiroshima bombs.
20 megatons!
• Most famous crater is ‘Meteor Crater’ near
Flagstaff in Arizona. More than 1 km in
diameter and 180 m deep, it resulted from a
meteorite about 45 m across
• Dinosaur extinction is believed to have been
caused by a meteor @ 10 km across?