GG-105: An illustrated voyage through our Solar Fall, 2007 Professor Klaus Keil Office hours in POST 509B: Tuesdays and

1. GG-105: An illustrated voyage through our Solar Fall, 2007 Professor Klaus Keil Office hours in POST 509B: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

3. Our star, the Sun, showing structure in its surface (“granules”, and a major solar flare

4. Mariner 10 image of the highly cratered surface of Mercury

5. Mariner 10 close-up image of the highly-cratered surface of Mercury

6. Venus, the shrouded planet

7. Spaceship Earth, our oasis in the emptiness of space

8. Unique to Earth, plate tectonics: Formation of ocean Basins and continents

9. Violent eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980

10. Earth’s Changing Climate Carbon dioxide Ozone Hole Climate Records

11. The Moon, our neighbor in space, has large impact basins (mare) filled with black volcanic basalt flows. The crater with the pronounced ejecta rays at the bottom of the image is Tycho

12. The Apollo spacecraft over the Moon, showing the dark, basaltic mare and the light, anorthositic highlands. Planet Earth in the background.

13. The rising Earth with the Moon in the foreground

14. Apollo 11, first landing on the Moon. There is no atmosphere on the Moon, yet the flag appears to be blowing in the wind; it is supported by a rod on the top!

15. Size comparison of Earth, Mars and the Moon: Mars is “in-between” Earth and Moon in size and in many of its properties

16. The remarkable morphology of Mars: High mountains and deep valleys

17. The shield volcano Mons Olympus on Mars: The highest mountain in the Solar System

18. The first color image of the surface of Chryse Planitia on Mars obtained in 1976 by the Viking Lander. The surface soil is red, because when basalt weathers, red iron oxide forms, just like in Hawaii. The color was calibrated by the known color of the cable in the foreground on the Viking Lander. Notice the reddish, rather than blue, sky. This results from red dust blown into the thin Martian atmosphere by wind storms.

19. Possible Water on Mars: Past and Present? Ancient river valleys Recent gullies

20. Asteroid Eros, with landing site of the spacecraft NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) indicated

21. Closest image of the landing site of the NEAR spacecraft on asteroid Eros

22. Cut and polished slab of a chondritic meteorite, a fragment of a broken-up undifferentiated, primitive asteroid. White = metallic Fe,Ni; gray = silicates. Diameter of slab ~ 6 cm.

23. Cut, polished, and etched slab of an iron meteorite, a fragment of the core of a broken-up, differentiated (melted) asteroid, showing the Widmanstätten structure and a round inclusion of troilite, FeS. Longest dimension ~ 10 cm.

24. Cut, polished, and etched slab of a pallasite, a fragment from the core - mantel boundary of a broken-up, differentiated (melted) asteroid. Longest dimension ~ 8 cm.

25. Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System. The “Big Red spot” is a gigantic hurricane.

27. Jupiter’s moon Io, volcanologically the most active object in the Solar System. The unusual color is due to sulfur, ejected by volcanoes (the dark objects are volcanic calderas).

28. Saturn, the ringed planet

30. The Voyager spacecraft discovered rings within rings within rings in Saturn’s ring system

31. Saturn’s moon Mimas

32. Saturn’s moon Titan

33. The Huygens Probe of the Cassini spacecraft diving into the atmosphere of, and landing on, Saturn’s moon Titan

35. 1910 apparition of Halley’s comet