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