Transcript Boardworks Space Physics W8

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Introducing the Solar System
The Solar System is made up
of various celestial objects:
 the Sun
 the planets
 moons
 asteroids
 comets.
How do these objects interact?
The Sun is a star – a massive ball of hot glowing gas.
It has the strongest gravitational field in the Solar System.
All the other celestial bodies orbit around it.
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Labelling the planets
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Is Pluto a planet?
In 2006, the International
Astronomical Union
defined a planet as:
“a celestial object that
orbits the Sun, has enough
mass to be spherical, and
has cleared the area
around its orbit of objects.”
This photograph shows Pluto and its moon, Charon. Pluto’s
orbit is surrounded by smaller objects that have not been
cleared by its gravitational field.
Pluto and the other ‘smaller’ planet-like objects such as Eris
and Ceres have now been reclassified as Dwarf Planets.
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Relative size of the Universe
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What is a light year?
The distances between stars, and even between objects in
our solar system, are huge. It is cumbersome to use m or km.
Distance:
To Sun
To nearest star (Proxima Centauri)
Diameter of Milky Way
To Andromeda galaxy
km
light years
light
1.50 × 108
8.3 minutes
4.0 × 1013
4.2
9.5 × 1017
100,000
2.4 × 1019 2,500,000
Alternative measurements for distance are used
instead: the most common is the light year.
1 light year is the distance that light travels in one year.
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Data on the Solar System
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Solar System quiz
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