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What’s in our Solar System?

What’s in our Solar System?. The Star Powering our Solar System: The Sun. Composition: Hydrogen 92.1% Helium 7.8% Oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, neon, iron, silicon, magnesium, and sulfur Rotation Period:25.38 Earth days Named after: Greek: Helios Roman: Sol

sebastian-rowland
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What’s in our Solar System?

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  1. What’s in our Solar System?

  2. The Star Powering our Solar System: The Sun • Composition: • Hydrogen 92.1% • Helium 7.8% • Oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, neon, iron, silicon, magnesium, and sulfur • Rotation Period:25.38 Earth days • Named after: • Greek: Helios • Roman: Sol • Surface Temperature: 5800°K • Core Temperature: 15,600,000°K • Age: 4.6 billion years old • Contains 99.8% of the mass of the solar system

  3. The Planets

  4. Mercury AUs from sun: 0.38 Temperature range:-173 to 427°C Named after: Roman god who was the messenger of the gods Mercury is heavily cratered.

  5. Mercury • Atmosphere Composition: Helium 42%Sodium 42%Oxygen 15% • Length of Day: 58.7 Earth days • Length of Year: 87.96 Earth days • # of Moons: 0 • Rings?: No

  6. Venus • AUs from sun: 0.72 • Temperature range: 462°C • Named after: Roman goddess of love and beauty Distinguishing Features: • Sulfuric acid clouds • Retrograde rotation

  7. Venus • Atmosphere Composition: Carbon dioxide 96% Nitrogen 3% • Length of Day: 243 Earth days • Length of Year: 224.68 Earth Days • # of Moons: 0 • Rings?: No

  8. Earth • AUs from sun: 1.00 • km from sun:149,600,000 • Temperature range: -88 to 58°C • Named after: Old English goddess Gaia also known as Mother Earth Distinguishing Features: • Only planet known to support life • Water exists as solid, liquid, and gas

  9. Earth • Atmosphere Composition: • Nitrogen 77% • Oxygen 21% • Other 2% • Length of Day: 24 hours • Length of Year: 365.26 days • # of Moons: 1-Moon • Rings?: No

  10. Astronomical Unit (AU) • An astronomical unit (AU for short) is the average distance between the earth and the sun which equals 149,597,870 kilometers.

  11. Mars • AUs from sun: 1.52 • Temperature range: -87 to -5°C • Named after: Roman god who was the god of war • Distinguishing Features: • covered with iron-rich dust which makes it look red • largest volcano in the solar system named Olympus Mons

  12. Mars • Atmosphere Composition: • CO2 95.32% • Nitrogen 2.7% • Argon 1.6% • Oxygen, carbon monoxide, water, neon, krypton, zenon, ozone • Length of Day: 24.6 Earth hours • Length of Year: 686.98 Earth days • # of Moons: 2 – Phobos and Deimos • Rings?: No

  13. Jupiter • AUs from sun: 5.20 • Temperature: -148°C • Named after: Roman king of the gods • Distinguishing Features: • covered with bands across its latitudes • great red spot that is a giant continuous storm

  14. Jupiter • Atmosphere Composition: • Hydrogen 90% • Helium 10% • Length of Day: 9.84 Earth hours • Length of Year: 11.862 Earth years • # of Moons: 63 • lo • Europa • Ganymede • Callisto • Rings?: Yes

  15. Saturn • AUs from sun: 9.54 • Temperature range: -178°C • Named after: Roman god who was Jupiter’s father • Distinguishing Features: • beautiful rings • Would float in water

  16. Saturn • Atmosphere Composition: • Hydrogen 97% • Helium 3% • Length of Day: 10.2 Earth hours • Length of Year: 29.456 Earth years • # of Moons:33 - Titan • Rings?: Yes

  17. Uranus • AUs from sun: 19.218 • Temperature range: -216°C • Named after: Earliest known supreme god who was son and mate of Gaia and father of Saturn • Distinguishing Features: • Horizontal axis • Retrograde rotation

  18. Uranus • Atmosphere Composition: • Hydrogen 83% • Helium 15% • Methane 2% • Length of Day: 17.9 Earth hours • Length of Year: 84.07 Earth years • # of Moons: 27 • Rings?: Yes

  19. Neptune • AUs from sun: 30.06 • km from sun: 4,504,000,000 • Temperature: -214°C • Named after: Roman god of the sea • Distinguishing Features: • blue planet • high winds.

  20. Neptune • Atmosphere Composition: • Hydrogen 85% • Helium 13% • Methane 2% • Length of Day: 19.1 Earth hours • Length of Year: 164.81 Earth years • # of Moons: 13 - Triton • Rings?: Yes

  21. The Dwarf Planets

  22. Pluto • AUs from sun: 39.5 • Temperature range: -233 to -223°C • Named after: Roman god of the underworld • Distinguishing Features: • Pluto has a more elliptical orbit than circular, so that at times Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune

  23. Pluto • Atmosphere Composition: • Methane • Nitrogen • Length of Day: 6.39 Earth days • Length of Year: 247.7 Earth years • # of Moons: 3 - Charon • Rings?: No

  24. Eris Eris is the Greek goddess of discord and strife. She stirs up jealousy and envy to cause fighting and anger among men. • Discovered January 5, 2005 by Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz • Diameter 1,490 miles (2,400 km), 5% larger than Pluto • Distance from Sun: 96 AU • Closes point to Sun: 37.9 AU • Orbital period: 557.8 years • Surface temperature: -405°F (-243°C) • Surface composition: Methane ice (Pluto-like) • Moon: Dysnomia, about 190 miles (305 km) across

  25. Discovered: January 1, 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi • Located in the asteroid belt • Diameter 950 km • Contains approximately 1/3 of the asteroid’s belt mass • Named for Roman goddess of the harvest and motherly love • Distance from sun: 2.544 AU – 2.987 AU • Surface temperature: -38°C Ceres

  26. Other Solar System Objects

  27. Comets A comet is a small, fragile, irregular shaped body of icy water and gases, and dust. Comets have highly elliptical orbits around the sun. Parts • Nucleus – center of comet made of mostly ice, gases, and dust • Coma – dense cloud of water, carbon dioxide, and neutral gases that sublime from the nucleus • Hydrogen cloud • Dust tail – smoke sized dust particles that are driven off the nucleus by escaping gases • Ion tail – plasma laced with rays and streamers caused by interactions with solar wind Famous comets: • Halley • Hale-Bopp

  28. Asteroids • Small, metallic objects that orbit the sun but are too small to be considered planets. They range in size from 1000 kilometers to pebble sized. • There is a main belt of asteroids in orbit around the sun between Mars and Jupiter called the asteroid belt.

  29. Meteors & Meteoroids • A meteor is also known as a shooting star. It is a meteoroid that has entered earth’s atmosphere that lights up as it burns due to friction with the air in earth’s atmosphere. • A meteoroid is a rock in space. • A meteorite is a part of a meteoroid that survives entering earth’s atmosphere.

  30. The Kuiper Belt • A disk shaped region past the orbit of Neptune containing many small icy bodies considered the source of short period comets.

  31. Oort Cloud • The oort cloud is an immense spherical cloud surrounding our solar system. The oort cloud extends about 3 light years from the sun. This is considered the end of our sun’s gravitational influence.

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