Transcript The Solar System

The Solar System
Terrestrial Planets
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Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars
Relatively small
Composed of rock
Have few or no moons
Mercury
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Small, rocky planet
Almost no atmosphere
One day = 58.65 Earth days, and almost an
entire Mercurian year (88 days)
Heavily cratered surface similar to that of our
Moon
Fastest planet in our Solar System
No moon
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Mercury was named
after Mercury, the
mythical Roman winged
messenger because of
its speed
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Mercury is the second-smallest planet in our
Solar System, it is only slightly larger than
Earth’s Moon
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There are no seasons on Mercury as
Mercury’s axis has no tilt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LajFhNUlXqA
Venus
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The hottest planet in the Solar System
Venus is covered with fast-moving sulfuric
acid clouds which trap heat from the sun.
The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide
Venus rotates very slowly, so a day there
takes 243 Earth days
Venus has no moons
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Venus is
named for the
Roman
goddess of
love
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Venus has a retrograde orbit, which means
that it rotates in the opposite direction of
Earth and most of the other planets
From Venus, the Sun would rise in the west
and set in the East (opposite of Earth)
No one knows why Venus has this unusual
rotation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFVxWfVtoo
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Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system
It has a very thick atmosphere, and its cloud cover
traps the heat of the Sun giving Venus temperatures
of 480ºC
Earth
Mars
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Mars is known as “the red planet”
The surface of Mars is dry, rocky, and mostly
covered with iron-rich dust
The north and south poles are covered by ice caps
composed of frozen carbon dioxide and water
One day on Mars takes 1.03 Earth days, or 24.6
hours
One year on Mars takes 687 Earth days
Mars has a very thin atmosphere that lacks oxygen
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Mars is
named for
the
Roman
god of war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwzGmgMu_lc
Phobos and Deimos
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Mars has two tiny moons that were probably former
asteroids that were pulled into Mars’ orbit
Phobos (“fear”) is 22.2 km across and Deimos
(“terror”) is only 12.6 km across
Both moons are heavily cratered
Phobus
Deimos
Jovian Planets
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Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
Huge and gaseous
These planets all have rings
These planets all have many moons
Jupiter
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The largest planet in the Solar System; it is so big
that all of the other planets in the Solar System
could fit inside of it
Composed mostly of gas
Radiates twice as much heat as it absorbs from the
Sun
One day on Jupiter takes only 9.8 Earth hours, but it
takes 11.86 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun
once
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Jupiter was named after the main Roman
god, Jupiter
Jupiter’s Red Spot
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The Great Red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has
been raging for centuries
It is about 28,000 km long and 14,000 km wide –
three Earths could fit inside it
It is the biggest storm in the Solar System
Part of the reason that the storm never goes away is
that it never passes over land – on Earth hurricanes
lose much of their force as they move over the land
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Jupiter does have rings, but they are very
faint
The rings are composed of tiny rock
fragments and dust
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Jupiter has four main moons, and dozens of
smaller ones – there are 60 known moons so
far
Io
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Io is large, rocky and volcanically active
It’s volcanoes spew molten sulfur – making
the planet very colourful
Io is very close in size to our Moon
Europa
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Europa is large,
dense and icy
Frozen sulfuric acid
has been found on
its surface
Europa’s diameter is
3,138 km smaller
than our Moon’s
diameter
Ganymede
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Ganymede is Jupiter’s largest moon and it is
scarred with many craters
Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar
System – it is even larger than Mercury and
Pluto
Callisto
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Callisto is a large, icy, dark-coloured outer
moon
It is roughly the size of Mercury
Callisto has the largest known impact crater
in the Solar System, Valhalla
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5
6pxa9lpvo
Saturn
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Saturn’s beautiful rings are made mostly of
ice chunks and range in size from the size of
a fingernail to the size of a car
Each day on Saturn takes 10.2 Earth hours,
while a year on Saturn takes 29.46 Earth
years
The average temperature on Saturn is
-185ºC
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Saturn is named after the
Roman god of agriculture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56pxa9lpvo
Saturn’s Rings
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9D9CzwPQU
Saturn’s main rings are actually composed of tens of
thousands of narrow ringlets
Two small moons known as shepherd satellites orbit
on either side of the rings – their gravitational effect
gently guides the particles back to their ring
formation
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Saturn has
18 named
moons,
although 33
had been
discovered as
of August
2004
Titan
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs0gVwvDxww
Titan is Saturn’s biggest moon, and the
second largest moon in the Solar System
Titan has a thick, mostly nitrogen atmosphere
Uranus
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Uranus is a huge icy planet covered with
clouds and encircled by a belt of 11 rings
Uranus’ blue colour comes from methane in
its atmosphere which absorbs red light
A day on Uranus takes 17.9 Earth hours,
while a year takes 84.07 Earth years
Uranus has 18 moons
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Uranus was originally named Georgium Sidus (“the
Georgian planet”), in 1781 by William Herschel, to
honour King George III of England
The name was later changed to Uranus for the
ancient mythological god of the sky, Ouranos
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Uranus’ rotational axis is strongly tilted on its
side, 97.9º; thus Uranus rotates on its side
giving it extreme seasons
Uranus’ Rings
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Uranus has eleven faint rings which are
composed of rocks and dust
Neptune
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Neptune is a frigid planet with a hazy atmosphere
and the strongest winds in the Solar System
Neptune was the first planet whose existence was
predicted mathematically, due to its orbit and the
orbit of the other planets
One day on Neptune is 19.1 Earth hours; however it
takes almost 165 Earth years for one year on
Neptune
Neptune has three main moons, plus five smaller
ones
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Neptune is
named for the
Roman god of
the seas
Neptune’s Rings
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Neptune is circled by a series of thin, dark
rings composed small rocks and dust
The rings are named after the discoverers of
Neptune
Neptune’s Dark Spot
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The Great Dark Spot on Neptune is a hurricane the
size of Earth
The shape, size and location of the Dark Spot
changes over time
Voyager 2 measured the winds to be 2,400
kilometers per hour
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Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Distance
from Sun
in A.U.
0.39
0.72
1
1.5
5.2
9.5
19.2
30.1
Period of
revolution
around
Sun
88
days
224.7
days
365.3
days
687
days
11.86
years
29.46
years
84
years
165 years
Rotation
period
59
days
243
days
24
hours
24.5
hours
9.9
hours
10.2
hours
17
hours
16 hours
Moons
0
0
1
2
16
15
18
8
Rings
no
no
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
The End