Our Solar System

1. Our Solar System Selena Hotchkiss

2. Mercury • Mercury comes as close to the sun as 29 million miles, and as far away as 43 million miles. • High temperatures can reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit, and low temperatures can be down to -280 degrees Fahrenheit. • Mercury, 13 time a century, passes across the face of the sun during some placement between May 8th and November 10th, called a transit. • Mercury has no atmosphere, but rather a thing exosphere made up of atoms blasted off its surface by solar wind and striking micrometeoroids. • The surface is scarred by many impact craters, and there are many lobe-shaped cliffs. • One spacecraft has visited the surface of Mercury; the Mariner 10, which surveyed 45% of the surface.

3. Venus • Venus’s atmosphere consists mainly of carbon dioxide and clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. • Thousands of volcanoes, larger than twelve miles in diameter spread across the surface of Venus. Venus has two large highland areas: Ishtar Terra, which is about the size of Australia and in the north polar region, and Aphrodite Terra, which is about about the size of South America in the southern polar region. • About 45 satellites and probes have explored Venus since 1961. • Venus’s year is about 225 Earth days long, while it’s rotation period is about 243 Earth days, making one Venus day about 117 Earth days long. • Venus’s transit period, when it crosses the sun, occurs about twice every century. • About 90% of Venus’s surface appears to be solidified basalt lava; it is believed that the entire surface was covered by volcanic activity 300 million to 500 million years ago. • Craters smaller than 0.9 to 1.2 miles in diameter don’t exist because small meteors break up in Venus’s atmosphere.

4. Earth • Earth is the only planet known to carry life. • The atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other ingredients. • Earth has a small temperature range compared to the rest of the solar system, small enough to support life. • An asteroid will it earth once every 100 million years. • Earth is covered is different geological features such as volcanoes, oceans, mountain ranges, valleys, plains, etc.

5. Mars • One day is 24 hours 39 minutes long. • A year on Mars is 687 earth days long. • The surface is red because of rust remnants, which suggests that there was once oceans because liquid water is needed for iron to rust. • Mars has two moons, Phobos and Demos. Phobos goes around Mars three times in one day. • Many spacecrafts have visited Mars and surveyed the surface, along with its polar ice caps. • The atmosphere is thin and composes mostly of carbon dioxide.

6. Jupiter • Jupiter is the first of the gas giants, and the largest planet in the solar system. • The Great Spot is a storm on Jupiter that has been going for at least centuries. • The atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. • A day on Jupiter is 10 hours. • Core is estimated to be 3500 degrees Fahrenheit while out edge is -200 degrees Fahrenheit. • Jupiter has 63 known moons. • Europa, one of its moons, contains more water than Earth. • Its gravity deflects asteroids from Earth so that Earth only gets hit once every 100 million years instead of every 10,000 years.

7. Saturn • Saturn was named after the roman god of harvest. • Saturn has a core of ice and rock and an outer layer of gas. It has no definite surface. • Saturn is 900 million miles from the sun. • Its day is 10 hours and 33 minutes. • The pressure closer to the center of Saturn squeezes gases into liquids. • It takes 29.5 Earth years to orbit the sun. • Saturn has 60 moons. • It’s moon, Titan, is thought to be like a young Earth. • Saturn’s rings are comprised of millions of small particles and the remains of a crushed moon.

8. Uranus • Uranus is 1.78 billion miles from the sun. • It takes 84 Earth years to orbit the sun. • Uranus is four times the size of Earth and has an 18 hour day. • Uranus has about 90% of Earth’s gravity and is covered in violent storms. • It has a solid core and gas body, and because of the content of its core and the pressure of the gases around it, it is believed that its core contains trillions of diamonds. • Methane is 2% of its atmosphere, which absorbs red light, thus it’s blue color. • Uranus rotates on its side, therefore it is believed that it was hit by something big. • Uranus has rings similar to Saturn’s that run north to south. • Temperatures are as low as -360 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Neptune • Neptune is 2.8 billion miles from the sun, and was the first planet to be discovered by mathematical prediction instead of observation. • Neptune is the stormiest planet in the solar system, with winds three times that of Jupiter and nine times that of Earth. • Neptune has thin dark rings similar to Uranus and Saturn, but not as noticeable. • Neptune has 13 known moons, including one named Triton that orbits it opposite of its axis. • Neptune has a magnetic field about 27 times more powerful than Earth’s, and is tipped over about 47 degrees from the rotation axis. • The Voyager 2 discovered 6 of Neptune’s moons, its dark rings, and tracked some of Neptune’s largest storms.

10. Pluto • Pluto is 3.7 billion miles from the sun, with temperatures ranging from -380 to -400 degrees Fahrenheit. • Pluto is made up of solid, permanently frozen ice because of it’s extremely low temperature range. • Pluto was demoted as a planet because it was not the most dominant body in its area, and in fact twins with it’s moon Charon, who’s gravity pulls Pluto as much as Pluto pulls it, thus it’s twined dwarf planet status. • Pluto takes 248 Earth years to orbit the sun. • A day on Pluto is 6.5 Earth days. • No manmade craft has visited Pluto yet, but the New Horizon’s spacecraft was launched in 2006 and is expected to arrive around 2015 to 2018.