My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies
°Our solar system is comprised of the sun, 9 planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets °Our sun is one of 200 billion stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy °The Milky Way galaxy is one of 200 billion galaxies that make up the universe
° The planets are divided into 2 groups: inner and outer
The inner planets are small and terrestrial (earth-like, rocky)
Mercury
heavily cratered, resembling our moon
trace atmosphere
59 days to rotate 88 days to revolve (2 revolutions = 3 rotations)
largest temperature range 700 °F to -300 °F
° no moons ° about the size of earth’s moon ° may be the remnant core of a planet
Venus
° our nearest neighbor ° almost the same size as earth (sister planet)
inhospitable ° 97 % of the atmosphere is CO2 runaway Greenhouse Effect 900+ °F (hottest planet) ° air pressure 90 times that of earth ° sulfuric acid in the atmosphere give it a yellow tint
retrograde (clockwise) rotation
no moons
3 brightest object in our sky
Mars
polar ice caps of CO2 and water which get larger and smaller with the seasons
the surface has an orange color due to iron oxidizing (rust)
several bits of evidence which suggest water: channels, river beds, ice caps
Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system (300 miles in diameter and 17 miles high)
almost the same size as Arizona
2 moons: Phobos and Deimos
Asteroid belt rocky objects orbiting the sun between the inner and outer planets
they generally look like a potato
The Outer Planets
The Outer Planets: huge, Jovian (Jupiter- like), gaseous, moons, and rings And pluto
Jupiter
largest planet Great Red spot (2-3 times the size of earth)
Europa (moon) may have ocean under its ice crust
Io (moon) has atmosphere and active volcanoes
Saturn
less dense than water
1,000+ rings
Uranus retrograde rotation (backwards)
axis of rotation is nearly 90° may be due to a collision with Miranda (moon)
Neptune
Great Dark Spot comes and goes
Pluto & Charon
not Jovian is now considered a dwarf planet consists of ice and rock Charon may be its double planet (half the size of Pluto) sunlight takes 6 hours to reach it most eccentric orbit (closer than Neptune from ) travels in a tilted orbital plane