The Solar System

Version 1.0

Created by Vincent Sapone

Student Activity

• Name as many objects as you can in the Solar System?

• Name the planets in order?

Planet Comparison

Planetary Mnemonic

• Mary’s Violet Eyes Made John Stay up Nights Pondering

• My very eager mother just stole us nine pizzas.

• Why is the former better than the latter?

Pluto was Demoted?

American Astronomical Society

• Keep Pluto as a planet. • Make Charon a planet.• Make Ceres the largest

asteroid a planet and Xena.

• In addition, there are a number of objects at the outer edge of the solar system that could qualify.

Planetary Criteria of IAU

• Must orbit the sun• Must have sufficient mass

to make itself round.• Must clear the orbit around

it.

• Does Pluto meet any of these?

American Astronomical Society

Class Debate: Is Pluto a Planet?

• Astronomers still do not agree.• Some want to increase the number of planets

and others want to keep planets “special”.

• We will have a class debate on this.• This will occur in a few weeks after we have

studied our solar system and astronomy.

Solar System Breakdown

• The Sun• Mercury• Venus• Earth• Mars• Jupiter• Saturn• Uranus

• Neptune• Pluto• Satellites• Asteroids• Comets• Kuiper Belt

Terrestrial vs Jovian

• The first four planets in our solar system share man similarities with one another.

• The outer planets, with the exception of Pluto, also share many similarities with one another.

Fact Check

Name the terrestrial and jovian planets.

Planet Comparison

Terrestrial

• Mercury• Venus• Earth• Mars

Jovian

• Jupiter• Saturn• Uranus• Neptune

Inner / Outer Activity

Inner• Density High or Low?• Volume High or Low?• Atmosphere thick or thin?• Mass high or low?• Rotation fast or slow?• Revolution fast or slow?• Basic composition?

Outer• Density High or Low?• Volume High or Low?• Atmosphere thick or thin?• Mass high or low?• Rotation fast or slow?• Revolution fast or slow?• Basic composition?

Inner / Outer Comparison

Inner• Rocky materials, iron, oxygen,

aluminum, silicon magnesium• High average density

~5.5g/cm^3• Small diameters (earth is

largest)• Rotate slowly (earth fastest• Revolve quickly: otherwise

pulled into the sun.• Thin or no atmosphere. • Few or no moons.

Outer• Mainly composed of gases:

hydrogen, helium, methane.• Thick atmospheres: so thick

gases can be liquid in the core• Low average density ~

1g/cm^3.• Rotate quickly, Revolve slowly• Lots of moons.

Question

• Why do we say Earth has a small atmosphere?

• Earth has a MSP of 1013mb but venus has one of 92,000 mb almost 100x the pressure of Earth’s? Does it really have a small atmosphere?

Answer

• Remember how small the earth’s atmosphere is.

• Reference: “How big is the earth ppt”.

Planetary Types HW Question

• If a planet were found at a distance of A.U. what do you suppose it would be like?

• If a planet were found at AU, what do you suppose it would be like?

The Sun

The Sun Questi ons

• What are the dark spots?

• Sunspots. Why do they appear darker?

• They appear darker because they are cooler.

• In actuality they are very hot but the rest of the surface is much hotter so they appear dark.

June 9th 2002 Solar Prominence

Sun X-Ray (GOES SXI (10/19/01-11/04/01)

Mariner 10 Mercury

Mercury Mariner 10 Question

• What do you notice about Mercury?

• Like our moon….

• Mercury is heavily cratered.

• How about an atmosphere?

Mercury Homework Question

• Mercury is the closest Planet to the sun.

• It gets extremely hot during the day (about 800°F ) and cold at night.

• How is it possible that ice could survive on Mercury—even during the day?

Scarp on Mercury (Mariner 10)

Some 2 km high!

This one 500 km long

Relief 1km

Cuts across Rameau crater with a D of 50 km

Scarp on Mercury Is called Rupes (Latin for Cliff)

Scarp on Mercury

How did the Scarp Form?

• Scientists believe that when Mercury cooled early in its history is contracted.

• This contraction fractured or buckled the surface.

Video of Mercury’s Surface

Venus

Venus Observation

• Venus is the brightest planet.

• All we see are clouds (thick atmosphere).

• We use radar to map its surface.

• In addition we landed a craft on it.

Earth the Blue Planet

Earth the Blue Planet

Mars The Red Planet

Mars Topography

Mars Homework Question

• Mars has the highest elevated point in the solar system at 88,500 feet.

• What is this object and what is its name?

Martian Ice Caps (are they shrinking?)

Global Warming on Mars?

Marti an Moons

Phobos (Fear) Diemos (Panic)

Martian Moons

Phobos• Closest moon to planet in

the SS (< than 6000 km)• Our moon 384,400 km• Cratered Surface• Striated surface from Large

impact crater that almost shattered the moon

Deimos• One of smallest known

moons in the SS• Cratered surface• Shallow craters due to

partial filling.

Captured asteroids? Some scientists say yes but their low density suggests that the are not purely rocks but a mixture of ice and rock.

King Jupiter the Jovian Giant!

Jupiter from Voyager 1

What do you notice about Jupiter?

• It appears banded or striped.

• There is a big red spot on it.

LS9 Comet Impact (1994)

• Desktop/jup.flv

Saturn

Why Galileo didn’t see Saturn’s rings

Mimas --2006 Cassinni—(Deathstar?)

Deathstar vs Mimas

Mimas

• Heavily cratered surface• Herschel: Largest crater (D=80 mi; Depth: 6mi,

Rim Height: 3 mi, Center Peak: 4 mi

• There are fracture lines on opposite side.• Thus the Herchel impact almost broke the

moon to pieces as evidence• Few Spole craters, scientists unsure why.

Planetary Activity

• Using a table of planetary data:

• Add the masses of all the planets together.

• Compare them to the sun.

• How many time more massive is the sun?

Review: What you should know

• Planets in order from sun• Difference between terrestrial and gaseous.– Description of their basic properties

• Very Basic information about each planet.• How the Solar System is thought have formed.

– Evidences for and Against

Moons vs Planets

Moon Maria

• Why does the far side of the moon have less maria (dark dried up lava)?

• Shouldn’t it have more since the side facing us was protected from impacts by the earth?

Moon Maria Answer

• One reason may be that the far side maria has been covered by later impacts whereas the near side was shielded by its synchronous rotation and revolution around the earth.