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Parts of the Solar System Earth Science Mr. Cloud The Nebular Hypothesis Nebular Hypothesis • A young solar nebula collapses under the force of gravity • The nebula flattens and becomes warmer near its center causing nuclear fusion to begin. • Remnants from the formation of the sun begin to coalesce and form planetesimals • Matter with higher density remains in close proximity to the sun forming the terrestrial planets • Low density gases move further away forming gas giants. Parts of the Solar System • • • • • Planets Asteroids Moons Comets Meteoroids Large Small Planets • There are eight planets that independently orbit the sun • Generally spherical in shape • Over one thousand planets have been found revolving around stars other than our sun! Mars (Terrestrial) Hey its one of the Mars Rovers! Jupiter (Jovian) Saturn Aurora that surround the south pole of Saturn Asteroids • Is a solid rocky and/or metallic body that independently orbits the sun • Irregular shape with no atmosphere • Large percentage orbit between Mars and Jupiter • Much smaller than planets (100-1000 km in diameter Asteroid Vesta - Located between Mars and Jupiter - NASA Dawn Spacecraft 40 mi wide crater on the surface of Vesta Moons • Is a body that orbits a planet or an asteroid as those objects orbit the sun • 100 known moons in our solar system Ganymede (Largest moon of Jupiter) Io (innermost moon of Jupiter) Europa Comets • Can be compared to a “dirty snowball” • Mainly composed of solids that easily change to gases when heated • They are largely ices of substances such as water and methane mixed with rocky or metallic solids • 1-100 km in diameter • When comets get near the sun, their ices turn to gas • Some solids are released forming spectacular tails visible in the Earth’s sky • Comet Close Approach to Mars: October 19, 2014 Coma Comet Hale-Bopp (1995) Meteoroids • Very small solid fragments • Most are the size of a dime or sand grain • When meteoroids burn up as they pass through Earth’s atmosphere, they are called meteors • If they survive the trip and land on Earth’s surface they are called meteorites • Can form impact craters Mr. Cloud attempting to Lift a 15 ton Meteorite! Meteorite- Holsinger (Meteor Crater, AZ) Barringer Crater (Arizona)