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The Planets

The Planets. Ali Nork. Planetary Revolution. Planets revolve counterclockwise around Sun Planets revolve on a common plane called the ecliptic Pluto’s orbit is tipped 17.2° Other planets tipped no more than 3.4°. Planetary Rotation. Almost all planet rotate counterclockwise, but

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The Planets

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  1. The Planets Ali Nork

  2. Planetary Revolution • Planets revolve counterclockwise around Sun • Planets revolve on a common plane called the ecliptic • Pluto’s orbit is tipped 17.2° • Other planets tipped no more than 3.4°

  3. Planetary Rotation • Almost all planet rotate counterclockwise, but • Venus rotates backwards (retrograde) • Uranus and Pluto rotate on sides w/ equator perpendicular to orbit

  4. Inner Planets • Terrestrial, or “earthlike” • Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars • Closer to sun • Small diameter/mass • Density greater than water (3-5g/cm3) • Rocky crust, dense mantle • Very dense core w/ Fe and Ni

  5. Inner planets cont’d…. • Impact craters • Few moons (actually- Mercury and Venus have no moons) • Less atmosphere • Animation here

  6. Outer Planets • Jovian planets- Jupiter-like • Gas giants- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune • Huge compared to Earth • Large mass, low density (<1.75g/cm3) • Mostly gaseous (H and He)

  7. Outer Planets cont’d…. • Have rings • Have many moons- Jupiter (63), Saturn (62), Uranus (27), Neptune (13) • Separated from terrestrial planets by the Asteroid Belt

  8. What’s Up With Pluto? • Was considered a planet for 76 years • 2006- reclassified as a dwarf planet • Mostly ice • Very small (1/20 the mass of Mercury) • Has 3 moons (Charon, Nix and Hydra) • Highly eccentric (elliptical) orbit which crosses Neptune’s

  9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TheKuiperBelt_Orbits_Pluto_Ecliptic.svghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:TheKuiperBelt_Orbits_Pluto_Ecliptic.svg

  10. Origin of the Solar System • Solar nebula model- ss formed out of an eastward rotation interstellar cloud 5 billion years ago • Dust and gas cloud (mostly H and He) • Cloud condensed due to gravity; speed of rotation increased; became flattened • Densest area in middle became the sun

  11. Disk eventually cooled; different elements and compounds condensed depending on distance from sun • Tiny grains of condensing material accumulated and collided; eventually formed planetismals (“baby planets”) • Jupiter was the first large planet to form in outer ss; probably prevented other outer planets from growing larger • Asteroid belt (interplanetary debris between Mars and Jupiter) remains b/c Jupiter’s gravity prevented it from creating a planet

  12. Planetary Formation • Terrestrial planets formed where temps were very high and metals and silicates could form solids • Jovian planets formed at lower temps where gas became ice • No planets in asteroid belt b/c Jupiter is so massive and its gravity disturbed planet formation • Larger mass enables planets to hang onto particles in rings; less impacted by solar wind (far away from sun)

  13. Planetary Satellites • Moons are natural planetary satellites that revolve around a planet • Some cool moon facts: • Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the largest one in our solar system • Saturn’s moon Titan has a mostly nitrogen atmosphere and has liquid hydrocarbon lakes; also has water ice • Mars has 2 tiny moons (Phobos and Deimos) which may be captured asteroids

  14. Ganymede

  15. Titan

  16. Phobos and Deimos

  17. Voyager I “family portrait” -Taken in 1990 after Voyager I and II left Pluto’s probit

  18. Asteroids • Rocky masses that revolve around Sun; usually between Mars and Jupiter • Debris left over by a planet that failed to from (about 2.8 AU from Sun) • Need a telescope to view them • Largest is Ceres (578 mi wide)

  19. Comets • Nucleus of ice and debris; coma is gas surrounded by nucleus

  20. Comets cont’d… • Tail points away from sun and is caused by solar wind • Long, eccentric orbit which goes outside the 9 (or 8) planets • Orbital periods can be long or short • Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1994

  21. Kuiper Belt • Located beyond planet Neptune • Home to over 700,000 icy, small objects (Pluto, Quaoar) • Sometimes objects are redirected towards the sun (disturbed by gravity of one of the gas giants)

  22. Oort Cloud • Home to many comets • Located 50,000 AU from the sun • Outer edge defines the boundary of our solar system • Members include Sedna and various comets

  23. Meteoroids • Rocky, icy fragment in space • Range in size from small sand particles to boulders • Meteor (shooting star) is light produced when enters Earth’s atmosphere due to friction • Meteorite is meteoroid that has struck Earth’s surface • May produce impact craters

  24. Meteoroids cont’d… • Meteoroids can’t be seen, but meteors can b/c of light produced • Maybe formed from impacts between asteroids • Micrometeoroids- tiny fragments that often hit Earth • Can travel at high speeds and damage spacecraft

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