1. Our Solar System Part 2

2. URANUS Gas giant = NO solid surface
Only planet that rotates on its side
Has faint rings
Diameter - 31,518 miles (50,724 km)
It orbits the Sun every 84 Earth years.
Uranus' moon Ariel (white dot) and its shadow (black dot) were caught crossing the face of Uranus in this Hubble Space Telescope image.
Gas giant = NO solid surface
Seventh planet from the sun (1.8 billion miles or AU)
Rotates east to west
27 moons
An OUTER planet

3. NEPTUNE Gas giant = NO solid surface Has 6 rings
13 moons (named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology)
Eighth planet from the sun 2.8 billion miles or AU
An OUTER planet.
Diameter - 30,599 miles (49,244 km)
It orbits the Sun in Earth years.

4. PLUTO Now known as a “Dwarf Planet”
Smaller than Earth’s moon
Solid, rocky and icy
3.7 billion miles or AU away from the Sun
Its thin atmosphere expands as it gets closer to the Sun and collapses as it moves farther away.
Diameter – 1,485 miles (2,390 km)
It orbits the Sun in Earth years.

5. Earth’s Moon It is the Earth’s satellite
It is 239 thousand miles or AU away from Earth
Takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth.
More than 100 spacecraft have been launched to explore the moon
The only celestial body visited by humans (there have been 12)

6. Asteroids Pieces of rock.
Made of minerals similar to those that formed rocky planets and moons
Most orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter

7. Comet Ison was disintegrated by the sun in Nov. 2013
COMETS
Lovejoy
From Jadwin, Mo. on Nov. 13, 2013.
Warm up as they get closer to the sun and develops an atmosphere or a coma
Travel in an elliptical orbit
Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust
Appear to glow
Halley’s Comet
Comet Ison was disintegrated by the sun in Nov. 2013
Hale-Bopp visible in Hawaii (8/97)
Lovejoy is visible in the night sky

8. STARS
Scientists believe they began as huge clouds of gas and dust or a nebula.
A group of stars that form a pattern is a CONSTELLATION.
Scientist infer there are 100 billion stars in the universe.

9. GALAXIES Made of: Stars, gas and dust.
Shapes are: Spiral, Barred spiral, Elliptical and Irregular
Our Milky Way is a Barred spiral galaxy.
You can’t see the entire Milky Way from Earth because Earth is INSIDE the Milky Way.

10. 4 Types of Galaxies
Spiral - a galaxy in which the stars and gas clouds are concentrated mainly in one or more spiral arms
Barred spiral - a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars
Elliptical - a generally elliptical shape that has no apparent internal structure or spiral arms
Irregular - a galaxy that does NOT have a distinct regular shape

11. The End