Solar System Benchmark Review

1. Solar System Benchmark Review

2. Our Solar System • 8 planets make up our solar system: • 4 Inner Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars • 4 Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune • Inner Planet: Solid and Terrestrial or rocky • Outer Planet: Large and Gaseous • Between the inner and outer planets lies the Asteroid Belt • Located between Mars and Jupiter • Every celestial body in our solar system orbits around a star; The Sun

4. The Sun: • Center of our solar system • Layers: • Corona – Largest layer; Extends millions of km in space • - only visible during a Total solar eclipse • - releases charged particles called solar wind. • Photosphere – The surface of the Sun. Gives off the Sun’s light. • Chromosphere – very thin layer above the photosphere.

5. The Sun • Sunspot: Temporary dark areas on the surface of the Sun; Cooler than their surroundings. • Prominences: Huge arching gas columns; Caused by Sun’s magnetic fields. • Solar Flares: Violent eruptions near a sunspot. • Coronal Mass Ejection (CME): Large amounts of high-charged solar wind particles ejected from the corona. • Causes disruption in radio signals • Causes Auroras

6. Comets, Meteors and Asteroids • Comet: • -composed of dust and rock particles mixed with frozen H2O, CH4, and NH3 • -Known for its coma and tail. • - Has elliptical orbit around the Sun • Meteors: • - Meteoroid: Small pieces of dust and rock from a comet or asteroid • - Meteors:Meteoroids that burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere • - Meteorite: Meteoroids that strikes Earth’s surface. • Asteroids: • -Piece of rock similar to material that formed the planets. • -Most asteroids are located between Mars and Jupiter, forming the Asteroid Belt

7. Asteroids Comet Meteorite

8. Galaxies!!

9. Galaxies • A large group of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity is a Galaxy. • There are millions of galaxies • Each galaxy may contain as many as one trillion stars • Stars and galaxies are separated by huge distances- light year (distance light travels in one year). • Our solar system is in the Milky Way Galaxy • 3 Types of Galaxies • Spiral – have spiral arms that wind outward from the center. Our galaxy is spiral. • Elliptical – large 3D; Many are football shaped. • Irregular – have many different shapes and smaller than other galaxies

10. Spiral Elliptical Irregular

11. How we view space

12. Reflecting Telescope A reflecting telescope uses a precisely curved mirror instead of a lens to collect light. The mirror is concave, thicker towards the edges. The mirror, which is usually curved in shape, focuses the incoming light instead of a glass lens. This increases the telescope’s light sensitivity, so dimmer objects can be seen.

13. Refracting Telescope Refracting telescopes have two convex lenses. The objective lens (the lens of the telescope where light is received) concentrates the star light to a point called the focus. This is the place where the star can be seen or photographed

14. Radio Telescope Radio telescopes are used to detect radio waves from space that pass freely through the atmosphere. This means that they are useful day or night, and in most weather conditions.

15. VLA- Very LargeArray (of radio telescopes)

16. Arecibo

17. Spectroscope A spectroscope breaks down light from a star to help determine its composition (what it is made of). For example; N (Nitrogen) would show more green color.

18. Space Probes

19. Hubble Space Telescope