The Solar System

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The Solar System
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Vocabulary

• Scale
• Astronomical Unit (AU)
• Diameter
• Model
• Proportion
• Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
  Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

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Each Planet Has a Set of Unique Characteristics!
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Mercury

• Closest Planet to the Sun
• Almost no Atmosphere
• During the day temperature can rise to over 750
  degrees F!
• At night, temperature can drop to an
  unbelievable -300 degrees F!

A Day On Mercury
taken by the Mariner 10 spacecraft during its
approach on 29 March 1974.
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Venus

• It is the brightest object in the sky except for
  the Sun and the Moon
• Venus probably once had large amounts of water
  like Earth but it all boiled away.
• Now quite dry.
• Earth would have suffered the same fate had it
  been just a little closer to the Sun..

The Phases Of Venus
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Earth

• It was not until the twentieth century that we
  had maps of the entire planet.
• Pictures of the planet taken from space are an
  enormous help in weather prediction and
  especially in tracking and predicting hurricanes

View of the Stars
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Mars

• Mars is the god of War.
• The planet probably got this name due to its red
  color
• The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4
  in 1965
• Has Ice caps at the end of each pole!

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Jupiter

• A gas planet-no solid surfaces
• Has 60 moons and Rings!
• The Great Red Spot has been seen by Earthly
  observers for more than 300 years, it is the size
  of 2 Earths!

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Saturn

• Galileo was the first to observe it with a
  telescope in 1610
• Though they look continuous from the Earth, the
  rings are actually composed of innumerable small
  particles each in an independent orbit. They
  range in size from a centimeter or so to several
  meters. A few kilometer-sized objects are also
  likely.

Taken by the Hubble Telescope in 2004
Watch Saturns Moons orbiting
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Uranus

• "YOOR a nus"  , not "your anus" or "urine us".
• Uranus, the first planet discovered in modern
  times, was discovered by William Herschel while
  systematically searching the sky with his
  telescope on March 13, 1781
• 90 Degree TILT!

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Neptune

• Because Pluto's orbit is so eccentric, it
  sometimes crosses the orbit of Neptune making
  Neptune the most distant planet from the Sun for
  a few years
• Neptune has been visited by only one spacecraft,
  Voyager 2 on Aug 25 1989. Much of we know about
  Neptune comes from this single encounter

Scooter with Spots!
Hubble Telescope Animation
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Pluto

• Pluto has not yet been visited by a spacecraft.
  Even the Hubble Space Telescope can resolve only
  the largest features on its surface
• A "planet" is
• (a) is in orbit around the Sun
• (b) has sufficient mass
• (c) has cleared the neighborhood around its
  orbit.
• A "dwarf planet"
• (a) is in orbit around the Sun
• (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to
  overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a
  hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape
• (c) has not cleared the neighborhood around its
  orbit
• (d) is not a satellite.

Pluto seen in Chicago! (5 Years ago)
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Interactive Sites

• NASA Interactive
• Apples for the Teacher
• Javidir
• Class Zone!

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Scaled Pictures
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How do the planets tilts affect them?
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• This image of our galaxy, the Milky Way, was
  taken with NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer
  (COBE)'s Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment
  (DIRBE), one of three COBE scientific
  instruments.
• Released in April 1990.