Transcript The Planets in our Solar System

The Planets in our Solar System
The Planets
 Do you know a saying to remember the planets in order?
 My Very Eager Mother Just Severed Us Nine Pizzas
 Do you know the planets in order?
 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
 Pluto (dwarf planet)
Solar System Data
Pluto
2,300
What do you know about the
planets?
Planet Sizes Relative to Each Other
Inner Planets
 Characteristics of the inner planets:
 “Terrestrial Planets”
 Rocky
 Dense (about five times denser than water)
 Metal cores (iron)
 Thin atmosphere
 The inner planets:
 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
Mercury
 Inner most planet
 Terrestrial planet
 “Iron Dwarf ” for having a large iron core
and being only 38% the size of Earth
 Thin Atmosphere: Some Hydrogen,
Helium, Oxygen
 Composition: Iron Core, Silicate
Surface
 Iron core is about the size of Earth’s moon
 Hundreds of craters
 Sunlight Strength: 450-1040% of
Earth’s
 Highest and lowest surface temps:
427°C to -173 °C
Venus
 Second planet from the Sun
 Terrestrial planet
 “Sister Planet” roughly the same size and mass as
Earth’s
 Thick Atmosphere: 96% Carbon
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Dioxide
Surface pressure 92 times greater than
Earth’s
Clouds made of sulfuric acid
Composition: Nickel-iron Core, Silicate
mantle, rocky crust
Lots of volcanic features, but not active.
Sunlight Strength: 190% (cloud tops),
5% (surface) of Earth’s
Surface Temp: 464° C
Earth
 Third planet from the Sun
 Terrestrial planet
 200km Thick Atmosphere: 78%
Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1%
argon
 Composition: Nickel-iron Core
(inner core: solid & outer core:
liquid), Olivine mantle
(composed from oxygen,
magnesium and silicon), rocky
crust
 One moon
Mars
 Fourth planet from the Sun
 Terrestrial planet
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“Red Dwarf ”
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Once covered with water
 Surface Pressure: 0.007 equivalent to the cruising
altitude of a plane
 Atmosphere: 95% Carbon Dioxide, 2.7%
Nitrogen, 1.6% Argon, and 0.7% other gases
 Composition: Iron and iron sulfide core, olivine
and iron oxide mantle, rocky crust
 Craters in the south, volcanic features in the north
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Lack of craters in the north suggest a much younger region
covered by lava flows.
 Sunlight Strength: 36-52% of Earth’s
 Surface Temp: -50°C to -123° C
The Outer Planets
 Characteristics of the outer planets:
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“Jovian Planets”
Composed of mostly gases and ices
No solid surface
May have a solid core
Most have rings
Thick Tumultuous atmospheres - rapid winds, large storms
 The outer planets:
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
 Pluto (dwarf planet)
Jupiter
 Fifth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Goliath planet”
 Five main rings
 Atmosphere: 90% Hydrogen and 10% Helium
 Three separate clouds layers of ammonia ice,
ammonium hydrosulfide ice, and water ice.
 The atmosphere blends seamlessly with the outer
core.
 Composition: Liquid molecular hydrogen and helium
outer mantle, liquid metallic hydrogen inner mantle,
and ice and rock core
 Core pressure is about 100 million atmospheres
 A very powerful magnetic field that extends all the
way to Saturn’s Orbit.
 Sunlight Strength: 3-4% of Earth’s
Saturn
 Sixth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Ringed Giant”
 Seven main rings
 Atmosphere: 96% Hydrogen and 4% Helium
 Clouds on Saturn the same as Jupiter’s but
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can twice a deep as Jupiter’s.
Composition: Liquid hydrogen (outer
mantle), Liquid metallic hydrogen (inner
mantle), ice (outer core) and rock (inner
core)
Most oblate planet with visible bulges at the
equator
Sunlight strength: 1% of Earth’s
Powerful magnetic field (600 times that of
Earth’s)
Uranus
 Seventh planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Blue Giant”
 Eleven thin rings
 Atmosphere: 83% Hydrogen, 15% Helium and 2%
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Methane
Only one cloud layer of methane has been detected.
Below this layer it is believed to have clouds similar to
Saturn and Jupiter
Composition: Liquid hydrogen and other elements
(outer mantle), slushy layer of icy compounds of water,
methane, and ammonia (inner mantle), and an icy &
rocky (core)
Red light is absorbed by methane, which is why this
planet is blue-green in color
Sunlight strength: 1% of Earth’s
Powerful magnetic field (50 times that of Earth’s)
Axial inclination of 97.8° (sideways compared to other
planets)
Neptune
 Eighth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
“Blue Colossus”
 Five main rings
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 Atmosphere: 79% Hydrogen, 18% Helium and 3%
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Methane
Dynamic atmosphere with a main clouds of methane
ice crystals.
Composition: Hydrogen and other elements mixed
into an icy liquid (outer mantle), slushy mixture rich
in water, methane, and ammonia (inner mantle), and
an icy & rocky (core)
Orbit is almost perfectly circular
Sunlight strength: 0.1% of Earth’s
 Visually the sun would be 900 times fainter than how we
see it on Earth
 Axial inclination of 97.8° (sideways compared to other
planets)
Poor Pluto
 What have you heard about Pluto?
 Why is it different than the other planets?
 Why is it now technically not a planet?
Pluto
 Little is know, but best guess is that 70%
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of the planet is rock and ice makes up the
other 30% of the planet.
The picture to the right is the highest
resolution picture of Pluto known at this
time.
67% of the diameter of the moon.
Elongated and inclined orbit different
than the other planets
Member of the Kuiper Belt
 Kuiper belt is a belt of icy planet building
leftovers
 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
launched in early 2006 is expected to
reach Pluto in 2015.