2. Nothing travels faster than the speed of light.
186,000 miles a second
300,000,000 meters per second
700 million miles an hour.
For scale, the distance from the Earth to the Moon is about 239,000 miles.
The distance light can travel in a year is called a "light year." The light year is one of the basic measures of distance for astronomy.
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light.

4. Distance
Because space is so vast, astronomers have a created different unit for measuring the distances in space known as an astronomical unit.
This is the distance from the Sun to the Earth.
Earth is 93million miles from Sun (150million km)
1 AU (astronomical unit)

5. AU’s Mercury .38 Venus- .72 Earth- 1.0 Mars- 1.5 Jupiter- 5.2
Saturn- 9.5
Uranus- 19.2
Neptune- 30.0
Pluto- 39.4
Scale solar system
1AU= 1m
(earth 1m away from sun)

7. General Characteristics of the Solar System
Planetary orbits and rotation
planet and satellite orbits are in a common plane
nearly all planet and satellite orbital and rotation motions are in the same direction

8. What is a planet?
The definition of planet set in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) states that in the Solar System a planet is a celestial body that:
is in orbit around the Sun,
has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape), and
has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit.

9. Nearly all planet and satellite orbital and rotation motions are in the same direction

10. General Characteristics of the Solar System
Terrestrial planets- small, composed of rock and metallic elements (metals)
Jovian planets-
large,
composed of
gases and
frozen
compounds

11. 4 Terrestrial Planets The Inner Planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Rocky and metallic
Small
No rings Very few moons

12. MERCURY closest to our Sun small, rocky planet - much like our Moon
It is covered with craters and has changed very little from when it was first formed
One side HOT: 800o F
Other side COLD: -275o C
MERCURY

13. Mercury Facts •Average Distance From Sun Astronomical Units: 0.387
Kilometers: 57,000,000
Miles: 36,000,000
Astronomical Units: 0.387
Length of Day: 58 days 15 hours 30 minutes
Length of Year: days
Average Orbital Speed
Kilometers/Second: 47.89
Miles/Second: 29.76
Number of Known Satellites: 0

15. VENUS Intense heat and volcanic activity.
Similar in structure and size to Earth
Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway "greenhouse effect."

16. VENUS Average Distance From Sun Kilometers: 108,200,000
Miles: 67,000,000
Astronomical Units: 0.723
Length of Year: days
Length of Day: 243 days
Number of Known Satellites: 0

18. EARTH Only planet known to have life Only planet not named after a
Greek/Roman god

19. Earth Average Distance From Sun Kilometers: 149,600,000
Miles: 93,000,000
Astronomical Units: 1.000
Length of Year: days
Length of Day: 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds
Volume (Earth=1): 1.000
Number of Known Satellites: 1

20. The Asteroid Belt Separates Inner and Outer planets
Asteroids left-overs from the formation of the Solar System. While some have suggested that they are the remains of a proto-planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago, the prevailing view is that asteroids are leftover rocky matter that never successfully coalesced into a planet.

21. 4 Jovian Planets The Outer Planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Gases & frozen gases
Very large
All have rings
Many moons

22. JUPITER

23. Jupiter 5th planet (1st outer planet) 9.84 hours to rotate
4,333 days to revolve
(12 earth years)
66 moons
4 Rings
Largest Planet
Atmosphere - Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Nitrogen and Methane

24. Saturn 6th planet 10.2 hours to rotate
10, 759 days to revolve (29 earth years)
62 moons
23 Rings
Atmosphere Hydrogen and Helium

25. Uranus 7th planet 17.9 hours to rotate 30,688 days to revolve 27 moons
(84 earth years)
27 moons
13 Rings
Atmosphere: Methane, Hydrogen and Helium
Tilted on its side

26. Neptune 8th planet 19 hours to rotate 60,181 days to revolve
(164.8 earth years)
13 moons
9 Rings
Methane atmosphere
gives it bluish color

27. Is Pluto a Planet? Dwarf planet
From its time of discovery in 1930 to 2006 it was considered to be the ninth planet in the solar system, but because additional objects have been discovered including Eris which is 27% more massive, the IAU reclassified Pluto and the other objects as dwarf planets. The New Horizons spacecraft was launched on January 16, 2006 and will make its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, This mission will provide an increased amount of information about this peculiar dwarf planet.
Unlike planets, dwarf planets lack the gravitational muscle to sweep up or scatter objects near their orbits. They end up orbiting the sun in zones of similar objects such as the asteroid and Kuiper belts.

31. How far is the Moon from Earth?
The moon is 30 Earth’s away

32. COMETS
A comet is an icy ball that releases gas or dust. They are often compared to dirty snowballs.

33. COMETS
Halley's Comet

34. ASTEROIDS Asteroids are rocky, airless worlds that orbit our sun
too small to be called planets
Tens of thousands of these "minor planets" are gathered in the main asteroid belt, a vast doughnut-shaped ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroids that pass close to Earth are called Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).

35. METEORIODS
Little chunks of rock and debris in space are called meteoroids.
They become meteors -- or shooting stars -- when they fall through a planet's atmosphere
Pieces that survive the journey and hit the ground are called meteorites.

36. KUIPIER BELT and OORT CLOUD
The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune -- billions of kilometers from our sun.
Oort cloud is a sphere of ice dwarfs and ice particles that surround our solar system.
Pluto and Eris are the best known of these icy worlds. There may be hundreds more of these ice dwarfs out there. The Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud are believed to be the home of comets that orbit our sun.

38. General Characteristics of the Solar System
Planetary orbits and rotation
planet and satellite orbits are in a common plane
nearly all planet and satellite orbital and rotation motions are in the same direction

39. How do we classify stars?
Size
Temperature and Color
Brightness

40. Stars have Different colors which indicate different temperatures
Temperature and color
The color of the star is dependent on the temp of the star.
Red – coolest stars
Blue – hottest stars
Order from coolest to hottest
Red, red-orange, yellow, white, blue
3000K K ,000K
Stars have Different colors
which indicate different temperatures

41. Temperature and Color

42. Size
Giants/supergiants- large and very large stars. Many of these are very far away
White dwarfs- very small stars – about the size of the Earth
Neutron stars- even smaller stars – only 20 km in diameter.
Medium sized stars- many stars this size. The size of our Sun.

43. Binary Stars are used to determine the mass of the star.
Binary star systems contain two stars that orbit around their common center of mass. Many of the stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system.
Binary Stars are used to determine the mass of the star.

44. How do we measure stars?
Parallax- the apparent change in position of an object when you look at it from different places.

45. Parallax
The closer the star is to Earth, the larger the shift will be

46. The movement would be too small to measure accurately.
Parallax
Only good for measuring stars close to us. Not farther than 1000 light years away. Why?
The movement would be too small to measure accurately.