Transcript The Inner Planets

The Inner Planets
Mercury
• Closest planet to the sun
• Surface has many craters and looks like the
moon
• Cliffs that may have formed from the iron rich
core to cool and contract causing the crust to
shrink
• Very little gravity
• Gases that could form an atmosphere easily
escape
• Thin atmosphere made of sodium, potassium,
helium, and hydrogen
• 450* C during day, -170* at night
Venus
• 2nd planet from the sun
• Similar size and mass of the earth
• Atmosphere has 90 x the pressure then
the earth
• Made up of mostly carbon dioxide
• Clouds contain droplets of sulfuric acid,
give them a yellowish look.
• Solar energy is trapped by atmosphere,
temp. can reach 470* C
Earth
• 3rd Planet from the sun
• Average distance from the sun is 150 million
kilometers. (93 million Miles)
• Surface temp. of earth allows water to exist in all
three states (solids, liquids, and gas)
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Ozone, ( O3) exists in the layer of the
atmosphere known as the stratosphere
• Ozone protects life from the ultraviolet radiation
Mars
• The fourth planet from the sun
• Red planet because of the iron oxide in the
rocks
• Contains the largest volcano in the solar system
(Olympus Mons)
• Large rift, zones have formed in the Martian
Crust
• Has two polar ice caps that change in size
– Northern pole – Water ice
– South Pole – Frozen carbon dioxide
• Mars is 55 million Km at the closest point to the
earth (34,182,722 miles)
• Would take 3 years to get to mars
• Two moons – Phobos and Deimos
• Long channels in the surface – Flowing water
• Atmosphere is made up of Carbon Dioxide,
nitrogen, argon
– Much thinner then ours
Outer Planets
Jupiter
• 5th planet from the sun
• Largest planet Has a faint ring around it
• Composed of mostly gases and liquid
hydrogen, helium and some ammonia,
methane and water vapor
• Great Red Spot (large hurricane)
• 28 moons
– Four largest, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and
Callisto
– Gallileo discovered them in 1610
– Volcanoes continually erupt on Io
– Ocean of liquid water is hypothesized to exist
under the ice crust of Europa
Saturn
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Sixth planet from the sun
Ringed planet
Second largest
Has the lowest density, so low that the
planet would float on water
• Gaseous planet
• Atmosphere composed of hydrogen and
helium
• Has several broad rings made of ice and
rocks
• At least 30 moons orbit Saturn, the largest
being Titan
• The environment on Titan might be
similar to the environment on earth before
oxygen became a major atmospheric gas
Uranus
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Seventh planet from the sun
21 moons and additional satellites
Has a system of thin, dark rings
Atmosphere is composed of hydrogen,
helium, and some methane gives the
planet a distinctive bluish green color
• Axis of rotation is tilted on its side
Neptune
• Is the 8th planet from the sun most of the
time
• Methane in its atmosphere give neptune
its blue green color
• Outer layer changes from gas to a
slushlike layer (melted ice) towards the
interior
• Towards the interior, this slushy material is
thought to change into a solid
• Has a great dark spot
• Winds in the gaseous portion exceed
speeds of 2400 km per hour
• Eight moons – Triton is the most unique
– Has a great geyser that shoot gaseous
nitrogen into space
• Also has rings that are thin in some places
and thick in other places
Pluto
• Is the farthest from the sun then any other
planets during most of its orbit
• Dense atmosphere, only outer planet with
a solid rocky surface
• Some people feel that Pluto was a moon
that escaped from its orbit around Neptune
• Only moon – Charon (considered the
double planet)
Sedna
• 10 planet from the sun
• It is twice as far from the sun as any other solar
system object and three times farther than Pluto
or Neptune.
• the orbit of Sedna is extreme elliptical
• it takes 10,500 years to circle the sun.
• On 15 March 2004, Sedna was discovered
• the surface temperature is about 400 degrees
below zero Farenheit
• Sedna is at most about 1800 km in diameter