Solar System

Inner Planets Terrestrial planets – The four closest planets to the sun. (The rock planets) - Mercury - Venus - Earth - Mars

Mercury Closest to the sun Thin atmosphere (craters) Temperature range (427°C to -173°C)

MERCURY

Venus Second closest planet to the sun Earth’s twin Day (243) is longer than its year (225) Very dense atmosphere of Carbon Dioxide 90 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth Hot surface (464°C) Tilt 177° Retrograde motion

Earth

Mars Fourth planet from the sun Atmospheric pressure to low for water to exist, however frozen at poles Temperatures 20°C at poles, -130°C at poles Olympus Mons (600/24) Valles Marineris (u.s.)

MARS

Outer Planets Jovian planets (The Gaseous planets) – The four farthest planets from the sun. Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

Jupiter The largest of the planets Orbits every 12 years Rotates faster than any planet – 9 hours 50 minutes 92 % of planet is Hydrogen & Helium

THE GREAT RED SPOT (2 times the size of earth) 540km/hr

Saturn Second largest planet in our solar system Rings of ice and rock Orbital period 29.5 years Rotates every 10 hours and 30 minutes 30+ moons - (Titan – largest, half size of Earth) - (Europa – possible life) Least dense planet (would float in your bath tub.)

Uranus Rotates with axis pointed towards sun Discovered in 1781, first since ancient times 24+ moons, 11 thin rings Atmosphere contain mainly hydrogen and helium and some methane Difficult to study because of distance

URANUS AND RINGS

Neptune Was predicted before it was even found due to variations in Uranus orbit Thought to be made up of hydrogen, helium and methane Has white clouds of frozen methane Has strongest winds 1000km/hr (great dark spot)

Neptune gets its blue color from methane gas

Pluto (Not a Planet?) Orbits every 250 years Made of frozen methane, rock and ice Possibly a moon of Neptune that was pulled away into its own orbit

Other Objects Kuiper Belt – A group of icy bodies that orbit the sun beyond Neptune Dwarf Planets - Pluto - Quaoar - Sedna - Zena

Moon Natural Satellite = Moons Artificial Satellite = Sputnik (1958) Apollo program sent 6 spacecraft to the moon between 1969 and 1972 Formation 4 billion years ago A Mars sized object collided with Earth sending debris in orbit around the Earth

Moon Rotation 27.3 days Revolution (around Earth) 27.3 days

Lunar Eclipse When the Moon is eclipsed by the Earth The sun is 400 times farther away from the Earth than the moon is The sun is 400 times larger than the moon Therefore, they appear as the same size in the sky!

Solar Eclipse When the Sun is eclipsed by the moon Next total eclipse in the U.S.A. 2017

Asteroids Small “rocky” objects that revolve around the sun (name means “starlike bodies”) also minor planets or planetoids Move in highly elliptic orbits between the inner and outer planets

Asteroid Belt

Meteors Meteoroids-small rocky bodies moving throughout the solar system Meteors-when a meteoroid enters the Earths atmosphere Meteorites-when a meteoroid falls to the Earth’s surface

Meteor Showers Leonids (November) Perseids (August)

Comets Small bodies of Ice, rock, and dust that orbit the sun and gives off gas and dust in the form of a tail as it passes close to the sun.

Sun Composition – Hydrogen and Helium Sunspots – A dark area of the photosphere of the sun that is cooler than the surrounding areas Solar Flares – An explosive release of energy that comes from the sun Auroras – colored light produced by charged particles from the solar wind and from the magnetosphere.

MILKY WAY GALAXY WHICH OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS LOCATED. CONTAINS 100 BILLION STARS. SPIRAL GALAXY CLOSEST NEIGHBOR : MEGELLANIC CLOUDS (IRREGULAR GALAXIES) 150,000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY