THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The Solar System consists of: Planets Moons Asteroids Comets Star

PLANETS A planet is a large, round heavenly body that orbits a star and shines with light reflected from the star. We know of eight planets that orbit the sun in our solar system. Since 1992, astronomers have also discovered many planets orbiting other stars. World book

What are the eight planets? HINT: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nectarines Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Inner Planets Outer Planets

Inner Planets Inner/Before the asteroid belt: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars Inner Planets are small and rocky. They are warmer than the outer planets and they do not have rings. Earth is the only planet that can sustain life. It is able to do this because it has an atmosphere, water, and it is a good distance from the sun. NEXT…

Asteroid Belt Asteroids are small rocky objects that orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Outer Planets Outer: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune These planets consist mainly of gas, have multiple rings and moons.

MERCURY   The smallest planet in the solar system, after Pluto, and the one nearest to the sun. Its orbit about the sun takes 88 days to complete, at a mean distance of almost 36,000,000 miles. Mercury goes around the sun about four times while the earth is going around once.

VENUS  Venus is the sixth largest planet in the solar system and the second in distance from the sun. Venus is the brightest planet in the solar system and the one that comes closest to the earth.

EARTH Age: At least 4 1/2 billion years Mass: 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6.6 sextillion) tons (6.0 sextillion metric tons). Surface features: Highest land—Mount Everest, 29,035 feet (8,850 meters) above sea level. Lowest land—shore of Dead Sea, about 1,310 feet (399 meters) below sea). Temperature: Highest, 136 °F (58 °C) at Al Aziziyah, Libya. Lowest, -128.6 °F (-89.6 °C) at Vostok Station in Antarctica. Average surface temperature, 59 °F (15 °C).

MARS The Mars Odyssey probe, shown in this illustration orbiting Mars, found evidence of water ice beneath the surface of Mars in 2002. The probe, launched in 2001, also analyzed the chemical composition of the planet's surface.

What is this planet called? Jupiter

Jupiter Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Its diameter is 88,846 miles (142,984 kilometers), more than 11 times that of Earth, and about one-tenth that of the sun. It would take more than 1,000 Earths to fill up the volume of the giant planet. It is usually the second brightest planet—after Venus. Jupiter is made up of swirling gases. The huge red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been raging for hundreds of years.

SATURN Sixth planet from the sun Made up of swirling gases Has the largest system of rings that are made of tiny bits of ice and rock

URANUS Seventh planet from the sun Looks green because of the green gas in its atmosphere Also has rings, but fewer than Saturn

NEPTUNE Is made of frozen gas, rock, and water In it’s outermost ring (39,000 miles from the planet) material mysteriously clumps into 3 bright, dense arcs.

What About Pluto? Is Pluto a Planet? For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the International Astronomical Union 1. It needs to be in orbit around the Sun. 2. It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape. 3. It needs to have "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit. –

Cleared It’s Orbit What does "cleared its neighborhood" mean? As planets form, they become the dominant gravitational body in their orbit in the Solar System. As they interact with other, smaller objects, they either consume them, or sling them away with their gravity. Other planets have captured the objects orbiting them.

Does Pluto Qualify? Does Pluto orbit around the sun? YES 2. Does it have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape? 3. Has Pluto "cleared the neighborhood" of its orbit? NO –

Pluto Here's the rule breaker. Pluto is not a planet because it has not captured the objects in its orbit. Any object that doesn't meet this 3rd criteria is considered a dwarf planet. And so, Pluto is a dwarf planet. There are still many objects with similar size and mass to Pluto jostling around in its orbit (some are even bigger than Pluto). Until Pluto crashes into many of them and gains mass, it will remain a dwarf planet.

Ceres and Eris suffer from the same problem they are just an icy masses called ‘dwarf planets’.

Kuiper (KY per) Belt In 1992, astronomers started to discover smaller objects beyond Pluto. This area is now called the Kuiper Belt. These objects are large than asteroids and comets but smaller than real planets. Pluto and the larger ones have been renamed “Dwarf Planets”.

Kupier Belt

Comets Comets are small, orbiting bodies made of dust, ice, and frozen gases.

Meteors Meteors are chunks of matter that enter Earth’s Atmosphere

Galaxies A group of between 1 million and 1 trillion stars Our sun and solar system are part of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Constellations A group of stars that ancient people thought formed a picture in the sky. Named for animals, heroes, or other characters in ancient tales

Moon The moon rotates on its axis and revolves around the earth. When the moon looks like a full circle it is called a full moon. This happens once every 29 1/2 days