The Solar System

1
The Solar System

• Part III

2
Pluto

• once considered the ninth planet
• most famous dwarf planet
• smaller than a planet but massive enough for its
  own gravity to give it a round shape
• it is not the largest dwarf planet

3
Comets

• often referred to as dirty snowballs
• composed of ice, rock, and gas.
• They travel in a long, elliptical orbit
• most spectacular feature of a comet is its long
  dust tail, which can stretch for millions of
  kilometres.

4
Periodicity as it relates to comets

• In the 1700s, British astronomer Edmond Halley
  was searching records and realized that a bright
  comet was visible every 76 years or so.

5
Asteroid, Meteor and Meteorite

• Asteroids are small bodies that are believed to
  be leftover remains of the formation of the solar
  system.
• Asteroids range from the size of sand grains up
  to about 1000 km across
• Most asteroids orbit the Sun in a band between
  Mars and Jupiter

6
Asteroid, Meteor and Meteorite

• Meteoroids are pieces of rock floating through
  space.
• Meteors are meteoroids that burn up as they enter
  Earths atmosphere at high speed
• Meteorites are meteors are large enough to
  survive passing through the atmosphere, and they
  reach Earths surface.

Impact sites
7
Canadian contributions and partnerships to space
research and exploration

• the Canadarm 1
• on the space shuttle

8
Canadian contributions and partnerships to space
research and exploration

• the International Space Station (Canadarm 2)

9
Canadian contributions and partnerships to space
research and exploration

• The newest development is the robotic manipulator
  officially named Dextre (for dexterous), a
  two-armed robot that attaches to the end of
  Canadarm 2.

10
Canadian Astronauts

• Roberta Bondar First Canadian female Astronaut
• Marc Garneau First Canadian Astronaut
• Chris Hadfield First Canadian Space walk

11
Space Technology

• Rockets
• Much of the body of a rocket is filled with
  explosive fuels that combine to create thrust

12
Space Technology

• Space Suits
• A space suit acts as a small spaceship
• communications system,
• a cooling
• Pressure system

13
Space Technology

• Orbiting Satellites
• electronic devices put in orbit around Earth to
  relay information
• Communication satellites are placed in
  geosynchronous orbit.

14
Space Technology

• Probes
• Probes are designed to travel millions of
  kilometres, carrying scientific instruments to
  analyze distant objects in space.

Voyager 1 Went to Jupiter and Saturn
15
Space Technology

• Rovers
• Sending human explorers on long space journeys to
  distant, dangerous planets is not a practical
  idea.
• Robotic space explorers offer a better option.

Spirit and Opportunity Went to Mars
16
Space Technology

• Optical telescopes
• Optical telescopes use lenses to gather and focus
  light to provide a magnified view.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
a wide-field high resolution CCD mosaic of 36
CCDs
17
Space Technology

• Reflecting telescopes use a series of mirrors to
  collect light and project the image to an
  eyepiece lens

Hubble space telescope
Very clear outside Earths Atmoshere
18
Space Technology

• Radio telescopes
• Collect wavelengths that are longer than those of
  light
• Reveal characteristics of celestial objects that
  could not be studied using optical telescopes

Very Large Array Radio Telescope
baseline of 36 km
19
Space Technology

• adaptive optics
• technology used to improve the performance of
  optical systems by reducing the effects of
  rapidly changing optical distortion.

• Spectroscopy
• Study of the absorption and emission of light and
  other radiation by matter, as related to the
  dependence of these processes on the wavelength
  of the radiation