The solar system

1. A Summery by Heidi Frank The solar system

2. Sol – The Sun The sun creates energy by fusing hydrogen into helium. With a mass of 2 x 10 ^ 30 kg, the sun has a very high gravity. High internal pressure keeps the star from collapsing on itself. The high pressure in the sun keeps it extremely hot, too hot remain in the gaseous phase. Most of the sun is plasma, a state where the electrons are no longer bound to any one atom. Most of the light that the sun emits in the visible spectrum is actually lime-green, but because of all the other visible light the sun gives off, the interference makes the sun appear white or yellow to our eyes.

3. Other Solar Features Sunspots are seen as black in pictures because they are slightly cooler than the space around them. The spots are the result of convection currents from the sun’s interior. Like boiling water, the places closest to the surface are the coolest. Solar flares are short-lived storms in the sun’s magnetic field which is why they follow curved paths. They usually occur near sunspots and shoot spurts of x-rays and charged particles.

4. Mercury – The Messenger Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, roughly five percent the mass of earth. It has very little atmosphere to keep heat from the sun in or out and thus, is very cold at night and very hot during the day. It’s day is about three Earth-months long and orbits the sun once every nine Earth-months, making it the fastest orbit in the solar system.

5. Venus – Goddess of Love Nearly the same size and density as the Earth Venus has a thick, heavy atmosphere of carbon monoxide with acid rain. With an atmospheric pressure ninety times that of Earth’s, anyone standing on the surface would be smothered if the extreme heat didn’t kill them first. The thick clouds surrounding Venus lock heat from the sun in, making its surface even hotter than Mercury. There are few craters which suggests that Venus may have some volcanic activity. There are also mountains that hare covered with volcanic lava flow patterns. The high amount of carbon monoxide also suggests fairly recent volcanic eruptions. (within the last 100 million years) Venus turns extremely slowly, it takes nearly an entire Venusian year for one revolution on its axis. It also turns in the opposite direction of the earth. It’s slow rotation also creates little wind or weather.

6. Earth The Earth has an atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and oxygen with a strong Coriolis effect to create wind and weather. Liquid water oceans that cover roughly three-fourths of the planet and is frozen in ice caps at the poles. A magnetic field keeps out most of the sun’s deadly radiation. The magnetic field is caused by the earth’s iron core that rotates. The field works like a shield deflecting gamma-rays away from the earth. The surface of the Earth is constantly being changed by plate tectonics. Along plate boundaries, the Earth’s crust melts into the mantle or magma bubbles up to create new crust.

7. The Home World • Earth is probably best known for being the only planet with known life. • Whether or not any of this life is intelligent is still being debated. *Sigh*

8. Mars – God of War • Mars is Composed of Frozen carbon dioxide at the poles, iron oxide or rust that gives Mars it’s reddish-orange color, and hematite, a silvery stone. Both rust and hematite require water to form and is our best evidence for water having been on Mars at one time. • Mars’s atmosphere is mostly made of carbon dioxide, but there is very little of that so there is hardly enough to keep much heat in. Mars is quite cold and experiences wind and dust storms. • Features of note: Olympus Mons: largest volcano in the solar system, higher than mount Everest and covers an area larger than the state of Arizona. Pictured left. VallesMarineris: a deep valley larger and deeper than the grand canyon

9. Mars in Popular Culture • Aliens! A favorite subject for science-fiction writers. Since mankind’s first decent look at the planet, Mars has been a point of speculation for scientists and a setting for favorite space movies. Always we wonder, could there be life on Mars? And if there is, do we really want to meet them? Are we seeing rock formations or creatures from another world? The best we can hope for is that no life we find wants to suck out our brains.

10. The Asteroid Belt The asteroid belt, which falls between mars and Jupiter, is made of chunks of rock and metal. They orbit the sun in the same direction as the planets. We can observe them from the sunlight they reflect, and some even have small moons. Contrary to the Star Wars series, asteroids are spread far apart. One does not need Jedi powers to dodge them, just a clean windshield and power steering.

11. Jupiter – King of the Gods Jupiter is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. It is over three-hundred times the mass of earth and, like all the gas giants, has no solid surface that we could ever reach without being crushed by the atmospheric pressure. Jupiter has a very strong Coriolis effect and its stripes of color are caused by the circulation cells and varying temperatures of the clouds. Its large red spot is really a storm that has been going for as long as we’ve been able to observe Jupiter.

12. Moons of Jupiter Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and has a surface of water ice. Some parts are heavily cratered, others are hardly cratered at all. The un-cratered parts argue for the existence of a liquid ocean underneath that occasionally bubbles up, repaving the surface. Callisto is the 3rd largest moon in solar system and is heavily cratered. It is also covered by ice and a dark powder; thought to be debris left behind when the ice sublimates. Callisto has no evidence of volcanic or tectonic activity so it probably lacks internal heat. • Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. Its volcanoes erupt basalt lava, sulfur and sulfur dioxide. It is roughly the size of our moon with an unusually elliptical orbit. Io gets its interior power through a process called tidal heating. Jupiter’s gravity pulls at its moon as it orbits and creates friction inside Io. • Europa is covered by water ice. It has tidal heating similar to Io, but weaker because its further from Jupiter. It is also covered with double-ridged cracks, which are suspected to have been caused by the ice cracking and water coming up to the surface.

13. Saturn – God of the Harvest Saturn is most famous for its beautiful rings, first viewed by Galileo. The rings are made of many rocks and particles of dust that all orbit Saturn together. It has at least sixty moons. Saturn has a low density and would float in water if there was and ocean large enough to put it in.

14. Saturn’s most unusual feature is probably the hexagon that is around both of its poles. Scientists have wondered how such a shape could occur on a spherical planet, but recent studies have shown that, when spun quickly, water begins to take on geometric shapes.

15. Saturn’s Moons Titan is, by far, Saturn’s largest moon. With an atmosphere of argon, methane, ethane, and other hydrogen compounds give Titan an appreciable greenhouse effect but it’s surface temperature remains well below freezing. The complex chemistry of Titan’s atmosphere may produce a number of organic chemicals. So Titan is another place in the solar system that my support life, as long as it can stand the frigid termperatures.

16. Uranus – God of the Sky Uranus is composed of hydrogen, helium, and hydrogen compounds like water, ammonia, and methane. Methane is what gives it its pale blue-green color. Uranus has more than two dozen moons with a set of thin rings. All of its moons are named after characters of William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope stories. One of Uranus’s unusual features is the tilt of its axis. Uranus and its system of moons rotate at a nearly 90 degree angle to its orbit. Making it look rather like a bicycle wheel, riding around the sun.

17. Neptune – the Sea God Neptune is similar in color and composition to Uranus, except a darker blue. Neptune is more massive than Uranus, but has a smaller volume. It also has a very thin set of rings, not visible in most pictures, and a blue spot, similar to Jupiter’s Red Spot.

18. Triton Triton is Neptune’s largest moon and scientists think it may have been an asteroid that was captured by Neptune’s gravity, though for an asteroid, it’s unusually spherical. It also orbits Neptune in the opposite direction that the planet rotates, which is also unusual. And it spits nitrogen gas from what look like geysers on the surface. Triton is the coldest world in the solar system because of the amount of sunlight it reflects. It has numerous craters from impacts and some regions show evidence of volcanoes.

19. Sources • “The Cosmic Perspective” by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit • www.schneiderism.com/mercury-in-retrograde/ • www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269891,00.html • southerncandee.wordpress.com • birdsbybaranoff.com/images/2735-painted-bunti • www.ruggedelegantliving.com/a/003792.html • www.thegalaxyguide.com/galaxy/mars/index.html • www.mahalo.com/answers/science-and-mathematic... • parabook.wordpress.com/2009/05/page/6/ • www.techchee.com/.../ • www.lisisoft.com/tools/planet-questions.html • cassini3d.com/ • palscience.com/.../ • www.brothersoft.com/planet-uranus-3d-screensa... • crudelyinterrupted.wordpress.com/.../ • www.dailygalaxy.com/.../04/mars_venus_extr.html • www.exploreinfo.net/G8/project8B2kent/Venus.jpg • www.luminousnuminous.com/blog/ • astronomy.neatherd.org/Sunspots.htm • jcconwell.wordpress.com • www.wwu.edu/depts/skywise/jupiter.html • www.redorbit.com/.../91/index.html • cosmicdiary.org • natsci.parkland.edu/.../sstour.html • www.sciblog.info/2010/04/saturns-strange-hexa... • arstechnica.com/science/news/2008/03/an-ocean • www.biocrawler.com/.../91/&sort=name&order=desc

20. The End