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The Inner Planets

The Inner Planets. Mercury. Small Weak gravitational force No atmosphere Many craters. Caloris Basin - one giant crater (1000 miles in diameter) Many cliffs and peaks  evidence of tectonic activity Mean surface temp  442.5 K, ranges from 100 K to 700 K.

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The Inner Planets

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  1. The Inner Planets

  2. Mercury

  3. Small • Weak gravitational force • No atmosphere • Many craters

  4. Caloris Basin - one giant crater (1000 miles in diameter) • Many cliffs and peaks evidence of tectonic activity • Mean surface temp  442.5 K, ranges from 100 K to 700 K

  5. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/Keplers_Laws_fullscreen.movhttp://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/Keplers_Laws_fullscreen.mov

  6. Venus Earth’s sister planet

  7. Covered with an opaque layer of highly reflective clouds of sulfuric acid • Surface temperatures high enough to melt lead.

  8. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky

  9. Orbits every 224.7 Earth days • Rotation is slow and retrograde, 243-day period • Time from one sunrise to the next is 117 Earth days

  10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VenusAnimation.ogg

  11. Radius is 95% of Earth's, and the density similar to Earth's, 80% • Liquid metal core similar to the Earth's

  12. Atmosphere • Thick, high pressure (90 atm) • Density 50 times greater than on Earth! • Made of CO2, N, with sulfuric acid clouds • Strong greenhouse effect

  13. Surface • 450°C (850°F) hot!! everywhere, always, including night time • Dry, dusty rocks, no water • May have had water in the past • Orange light, (atmosphere reflects mostly blue light)

  14. Phases of Venus

  15. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukPGqz4e_TY&feature=related

  16. Mars

  17. most ``earthlike'' • 1/2 size of Earth • 24h 37m day • thin atmosphere of 95% CO2 • much colder than Earth -- 187o K to 244o K (-123o F to -20o F ) • atmospheric pressure 0.7% of Earth's (equivalent to 100,000 ft altitude on Earth)

  18. tilted 25o ---> seasons • dust storms originally thought to be bands of vegetation ad irrigation canals built by Martians!

  19. http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/16067/Orson_Welles__War_Of_The_Worlds_Pt_2_7/http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/16067/Orson_Welles__War_Of_The_Worlds_Pt_2_7/

  20. clouds, sediment layers, canyons, landslides, sand dunes, enormous young volcanos as tall as 78,000 ft (flyby 1 and flyby 2)

  21. dry riverbeds (in older regions), evidence that liquid water once flowed • no water in liquid state now, all water frozen in ice caps/permafrost

  22. The "Red Planet”  iron oxide • Two moons, Phobos Deimos

  23. Surface features similar to Earth and the Moon

  24. Atmosphere • Carbon dioxide 95.32% • Nitrogen 2.7% • Argon 1.6% • Oxygen 0.13%

  25. Ice caps

  26. First fly-by • Mariner 3 (1965)

  27. http://www.hulu.com/watch/63307/cosmos-blues-for-a-red-planethttp://www.hulu.com/watch/63307/cosmos-blues-for-a-red-planet

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