The Solar SystemCarver Road Middle School

See body of Powerpoint for image sources

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Relative Sizes of the Planets, plus Pluto

Image from http://www.nineplanets.org/gif/NinePlanets.jpg

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Not pictured, the dwarf planet Ceres

Not picturedThe dwarf planet Eris

Jupiter

SaturnUranus

Neptune

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Image from http://www.nineplanets.org/gif/NinePlanets.jpg

Clean picture comparing relative sizes

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Another perspective

Image from http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/TwelvePlanets_l.jpg

Another perspectiveRenamed Eris

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The Inner Planets• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth

• Mars

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Characteristics of the Inner Planets

• They are 4 planets closest to the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Located inside Asteroid Belt

• Very similar to each other, they are small and have rocky surfaces. They are dense. Do NOT have rings

• Often called “terrestrial planets” because they resemble Earth, “terra-” means “Earth”

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Mercury• Size- about 38% of Earth’s diameter it is 4878 km

• Distance from sun- about 39% of Earth’s distance it is 58,000,000 km

• Surface- thin, hard rocky surface covered with many plains and craters

• Atmosphere- very thin, some sodium and other gases

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Mercury(cont’d)• Ability to support life- none, there is NOT

any sign of life on Mercury, lack of water and oxygen along with hot temperatures make life unlikely

• Moons- none• Rotation- 59 Earth days• Revolution- .24 Earth years• Daytime(sunlit side) temperature 430ºC

Nighttime(shaded side) temperature -190ºC

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Mercury

Image on left from http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/BrowseTheSolarSystem/gifs/mercury2.gif

Image on right from http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/images/browse/mercury/mercury1.jpg

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Venus• Size- slightly smaller than Earth

95% of Earth’s diameter, it is 12,104 km

• Distance from sun- about 2/3 of Earth’s, it is 108,000,000 km from sun

• Surface- covered with rock similar to some parts of Earth, has volcanoes with lava flows and strange domes

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Venus (cont’d)• Atmosphere- Very thick and cloudy,

mostly carbon dioxide, clouds partly sulfuric acid

• Atmospheric pressure is 90 times heavier than Earth’s and would crush a human

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Venus (cont’d)• Atmosphere continued- Mostly carbon

dioxide so greenhouse effect is strong• Has clouds of sulfuric acid

• Ability to support life- Life does NOT appear to exist on Venus, lack of water along with harsh temperatures and atmosphere make life on Venus unlikely

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Venus (cont’d)• Sometimes called “Earth’s twin” or

“Earth’s sister planet” due to similarity• Retrograde rotation- rotates “backward”

from east to west (opposite of Earth)• Rotates very slowly, one rotation takes

about 8 Earth months and one revolution around sun takes about 7.5 Earth months (One day is longer than one year)

• Moons- None

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Venus

Phases of Venus Image from http://www.spacestationinfo.com/images/venus-phase1.gif

Image on left from http://rocksfromspace.open.ac.uk/images/venus.jpg

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Earth• Size- 12,756 km diameter

• Distance from Sun- 150,000,000 km

• Surface- Crust is a solid rocky surface, 70% is covered by water

• Atmosphere- up to 100 km thick, made up of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% other gases

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Earth• Ability to Support Life- Life does

exist on Earth. Gaseous oxygen, liquid water and moderate temperatures are hospitable for life on Earth

• Rotation takes 24 hours• Revolution takes 365.25 days• Earth has one moon

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Earth

Image on left from http://www.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/2005/earth12.jpg

Image on right from http://z.about.com/d/space/1/7/c/e/earth_moon.jpg

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Mars• Size- 53% of Earth’s diameter, it is

6794 km• Distance from Sun- about 1.5 times

distance of EarthIt is 228,000,000 km from sun

• Surface-Rocky surface with carbonite rocks high in iron, creating red color Polar ice caps contain frozen water and carbon dioxide

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Mars• Atmosphere- Very thin, with thin clouds

Mostly carbon dioxide, only 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure

• Ability to support life- It is possible that primitive bacteria may have lived on Mars or may now live there but none has been found. Existence of liquid water makes life on Mars a possibility

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Mars continued• Has polar ice caps of frozen water and frozen

carbon dioxide• Rotation- 1.03 Earth days• Revolution- 1.9 Earth years• Mars has largest volcano in solar system,

called Olympus Mons• Moons- 2 Phobos and Deimos

Image of Phobos from http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/221818main_PIA10368-516.jpg

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Mars

Image on left from http://www.lunarplanner.com/Images/Mars2003/Mars.jpg

Image on right from http://www.spacetoday.org/images/Mars/MarsRovers2003/MarsRover2003_1.jpg

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The Outer Planets• Jupiter

• Saturn• Uranus pronounced “YOOR-a-nus” see

• Neptune

• Pluto (a dwarf Planet)

http://www.nineplanets.org/say/uranus.au

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Characteristics of The Outer Planets

• These are the planets outside of the Asteroid Belt, they are: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris

• Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are called “Gas Giants” . They are much larger than Earth and do not have solid surfaces

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Characteristics of The Outer Planets

• Pluto and Eris are small and rocky, like the terrestrial planets.

• The gas giants do not have well-defined surfaces but have deep atmospheres that are typically about 75% hydrogen, 24% helium, and 1% other elements

• Gas giants likely have solid cores of rock, ice, frozen carbon dioxide and other compounds

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Jupiter• Size- diameter is 11 times Earth’s, It is

142,800 km• Distance from Sun- 5.2 times further than

Earth. It is 778,000,000 km• Surface and atmosphere of gas and liquid it

does not have a well-defined surface • Has a deep atmosphere of about 86 %

hydrogen,14 % helium, and tiny amounts of methane, ammonia, phosphine, water, acetylene, ethane, germanium, and carbon monoxide.

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Jupiter continued• Ability to support life- Lacks

water, oxygen and moderate temperatures needed to support life. NO known life

• Largest planet in solar system with 300 times the mass of Earth

• Rotation- .41 Earth days (fastest)• Revolution- 29 Earth years

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Jupiter continued• Moons- 17 (book), 63 (web), 16 that

are 10 km or larger and many smaller ones(NASA), Europa may have water

• Has dark rings• Great Red Spot is storm on Jupiter,

twice as big as Earth

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Jupiter

Image on left from http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/images/browse/jupiter/jupiter.jpg

Image on right from http://www.spacetoday.org/images/SolSys/Jupiter/JupiterBelowIo2001.jpg

Jupiter and moon Io

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Saturn• Size- About 9.44 times size of Earth. It is

120,540 km• Distance from sun- About 9.5 times distance

from sun as Earth. 1,427,000,000 km• Surface and atmosphere of a gas giant, it

does not have a well-defined surface but has syruplike mixture of helium and hydrogen and a thick atmosphere of gaseous helium and hydrogen

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Saturn continued• Ability to support life- Lacks water,

oxygen, and moderate temperatures needed to support life

• Second largest planet in solar system• Rotation- 0.43 Earth days• Revolution- 29 Earth years

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Saturn continued• Moons- 19 (book), 34 (Web), 25 that

are 10 km or larger plus additional smaller ones (NASA)

• Low density planet, could float in water

• Prominent rings- diameter of 250,000 km or more but only about 1 kilometer thick, mostly chunks of ice and rocks

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Saturn

Image on right from http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/cyberspace/planets/saturn/images/saturns_ring_plane.jpg

Image on left fromhttp://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/images/full/saturn/saturn.jpg

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Uranus• pronounced “YOOR-a-nus”• Size- About 4 times diameter of Earth.

It is 51,200 km• Distance from Sun- About 19 times

farther from sun than Earth. It is 2,871,000,000 km

• Surface and atmosphere of a gas giant, it does not have a well-defined surface,

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Uranus continued• the surface of Uranus consists of blue-

green clouds made up of tiny ice crystals of methane, and rock. The crystals of methane have frozen out of the planet's atmosphere.

• Uranus' atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane.

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Uranus continued• Ability to support life- Lacks water,

oxygen, and moderate temperatures needed to support life, NO known life

• Rotation- 0.72 Earth days, is retrograde rotation like Venus, and rotates on side

• Revolution- 84 Earth years• Moons- 18 (book), 27 (Web), 21named

moons (NASA)• Rings- 11 dark rings

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Uranus

Image on left from http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/uranus.jpg

Image on right from http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/139938main_uranus_ring.jpg

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Neptune• Size- Almost 4 times diameter of Earth.

It is 49,500 km• Distance from Sun- Almost 30 times

farther from sun than Earth. It is 4,497,000,000 km

• Surface and atmosphere of a gas giant, it does not have a well-defined surface

• Neptune's composition is probably similar to Uranus': various "ices" and Silicates (rock) with about 15% hydrogen, some water, and a little helium

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Neptune continued• Atmosphere is mostly hydrogen

and helium with a small amount of methane.

• Ability to support life- Lacks significant water, oxygen, and moderate temperatures needed to support life. NO known life.

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Neptune continued• Rotation- 0.67 Earth days

• Revolution- 165 Earth years

• Visible clouds in atmosphere

• Moons- 8 (book), 13 (web), 11 (NASA)

• 3 Very dark rings, 1 very faint ring

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Neptune

Image on left from http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/n/e/neptune/neptune.jpg

Image on right from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Neptune-visible.jpg

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Pluto• Size- about 17% of diameter of Earth. It

is 2200 km

• Distance from sun- more than 39 times farther than Earth. It is 5,913,000,000 kilometers

• Rocky, icy surface is very small

• Thin atmosphere of methane gas

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Pluto continued• Ability to support life- Lacks water,

oxygen, and warmth needed for life

NO known life

• Moons- 1 Charon (book), 3- Charon, Hydra and Nix (web and NASA)

• Rotation- 6.4 Earth days

• Revolution- 248 Earth years

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Pluto

Image on left from http://www.crh.noaa.gov/Image/fsd/astro/Pluto1.jpgImage on right from http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/Pluto1.jpg

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The Dwarf Planets• Ceres- new dwarf planet, it was classified

as the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt (it is between Mars & Jupiter). Say sir’eez

• Pluto- was classified as a planet, now classified as a dwarf planet

• Eris- new dwarf planet, past Pluto it is an icy body near the edge of our solar system. Say ee’ris

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The Dwarf Planets and their Moons

Image from http://www.windows.ucar.edu/our_solar_system/dwarf_planets/images/dwarf_planet_sizes_sm.jpg

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Planets and Dwarf Planets compared

• Dwarf planets are smaller than planets

• Both orbit the Sun

• Both are large enough that their gravity pulls them into the shape of a sphere

• Planets clear smaller objects out of their orbit. Dwarf planets can not because of their weaker gravity

Information from http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/our_solar_system/dwarf_planets/dwarf_planets.html

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Additional Sources

• http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/our_solar_system/dwarf_planets/dwarf_planets.html

• http://www.pantheon.org/miscellaneous/pronunciations.html• http://www.nasa.gov• http://www.nineplanets.org