1. The Solar System Inner and Outer Planets
Along with some other stuff floating around out there

2. The Inner Planets
The inner planets are referred to as the Terrestrial or Rocky planets
All inner planets have a dense, rocky composition and are composed of minerals with high melting points
All have cores made of iron or nickel
All have impact craters and tectonic surface features such as volcanoes

3. The Inner Planets: MERCURY
Smallest Planet
Closest to the Sun
Many Craters
Resembles our
Moon
No atmosphere
Extreme temp
fluctuations

4. The Inner Planets: VENUS
Atmosphere made of mostly carbon dioxide
Runaway Greenhouse effect
Higher temperatures than Mercury
Surface has active volcanoes
Size and mass are
similar the Earths

5. The Inner Planets: EARTH
Only planet with liquid water.
Roughly 70% of the surface is water.
The only planet where temperatures allow water to exist as a solid, liquid, and gas.
Atmosphere is mostly nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%).

6. The Inner Planets: MARS
Mars is red due to the iron oxide in the rocks on the surface.
Polar ice caps are mostly frozen water and carbon dioxide.
Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system.
Thinner atmosphere than Earth’s. Mostly carbon dioxide.

7. Asteroid Belt Asteroids are also called minor planets
Mostly empty space because the asteroids are spread over such a large volume.
Located in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter
The dwarf planet Ceres is located in the asteroid belt

8. The Outer Planets
The outer planets are referred to as the Gas Giants or Jovian Planets. Uranus and Neptune are sometimes called the Ice Giants
All have ring systems
Either made up of hydrogen & helium (Jupiter and Saturn) or ice (Uranus and Neptune)
Have many moons

9. The Outer Planets: JUPITER
Largest planet in our solar system
Composed mostly of hydrogen and helium
Has 63 moons
The Great Red Spot is an active storm
The Galilean Moons: Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto

10. The Outer Planets: SATURN
Composed mostly of hydrogen
The ring system is mostly composed of ice particles
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and is the only moon that has a substanial atmosphere
Galileo was the first to discover Saturn’s rings, but he didn’t know what they were

11. The Outer Planets: URANUS
Has the bluish-green color due to methane in the atmosphere
Has a higher proportion of ices such as methane, ammonia, and water than Jupiter and Saturn
The axis tilt at 98° so that one pole always faces the sun

12. The Outer Planets: NEPTUNE
Only planet found by mathematical prediction rather than observation
Similar composition to Uranus
Active and visible weather patterns
Like all Gas Giants, Neptune has a faint ring system

13. PLUTO: What is it?
Pluto is classified as a plutoid-not a planet or dwarf planet
Largest member of the Kuiper Belt
Composed primarily of rock and ice
1/5 the mass of Earth’s moon

14. The Kuiper Belt Extends beyond the orbit of Neptune
Similar to the asteroid belt, except it’s much larger
The Kuiper Belt was founded in 1992

15. What Exactly Is A Planet?
The International Astronomical Union decided that planets and other bodies in our Solar System, except satellites, be defined into three distinct categories in the following way:
(1) A "planet"1 is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
(2) A "dwarf planet" is a celestial body that: (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape2, (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.
(3) All other objects except satellites orbiting the Sun shall be referred to collectively as "Small Solar System Bodies".

16. Comets
A comet is composed of dust and rock particles mixed with frozen water, methane, and ammonia.
A large proportion of comets lie in the Oort Cloud-outside the orbit of Pluto. Objects in the Oort Cloud are only loosely bound and are easily dislodged and sometimes sent into the inner solar system.

17. Structure Of A Comet
When a comet is away from the sun it looks very similar to an asteroid.
As a comet approaches the sun the comet begins to change.
Ices of water, methane, and ammonia begin to vaporize because of the heat from the Sun.
Dust and bits of rock are also released.
The vaporized gases and released dust form a bright cloud called the coma around the nucleus.
Solar wind pushes on the gases and dust in the coma causing particles to form a tail that always points away from the Sun.

18. Comet Components
Comet Hale-Bopp that was at its brightest in April Notice that there are different parts to Hale-Bopp’s tail.

19. Meteoroids, Meteors, and Meteorites
A meteoroid is a solid body, moving in space, that is smaller than an asteroid and at least as large as a speck of dust.
A meteor is a meteoroid that has entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
A meteorite is a meteor that strikes Earth because it was too large to burn up in the atmosphere.