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An Overview of the Solar SystemOrbitsThe solar system consists of the Sun; the eight official planets, at least three "dwarf planets", more than 130 satellites of the planets, a large number of small bodies (the comets and asteroids), and the interplanetary medium. (There are probably also many more planetary satellites that have not yet been discovered.) The inner solar system contains the Sun, Mercury,Venus, Earth and Mars: The main asteroid belt lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet): The first thing to notice is that the solar system is mostly empty space. The planets are very small compared to the space between them. The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the Sun at one focus, though all except Mercury are very nearly circular. The orbits of the planets are all more or less in the same plane (called the ecliptic and defined by the plane of the Earth's orbit). The ecliptic is inclined only 7 degrees from the plane of the Sun's equator. The diagrams show the relative sizes of the orbits of the eight planets (plus Pluto) from a perspective somewhat above the ecliptic (hence their non-circular appearance). They all orbit in the same direction (counter-clockwise looking down from above the Sun's north pole); all but Venus, Uranus and Pluto also rotate in that same sense.
The planets By Jermaine, Devante and Bermar
In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery, the Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the eighth largest. The orbit of Mercury is the most different of the major planets, with the planet’s distance from the Sun ranging from 46,000,000 to 70,000,000 kilometers. It takes 88 days to complete an orbit. The planet rotates once about every 59 Earth days, a rotation slower than that of any other planet except Venus The first spacecraft to approach Mercury was NASA’s Mariner 10 (1974–75).] The spacecraft used the gravity of Venus to adjust its orbital velocity so that it could approach Mercury Mercury f a c t s:
The Planet Venus is the second closest planet to the sun. It is located between our Earth and Mercury. It is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system because its thick clouds create a greenhouse effect that traps in the heat of the sunlight it gets. Venus has no moons * Diameter: 12,100 km. It is about 1040km smaller in diameter than Earth * Temperature: Ranges from 900F+/- 50F (about 500°C +/- 32°C) at the surface *Distance from Earth: At its closest, Venus is 41,840,000 km away *Atmosphere: Carbon dioxide (95%), nitrogen, sulfuric acid, and traces of other elements *Surface: A rocky, dusty, waterless expanse of mountains, canyons, and plains, with a 200-mile river of hardened lava *Rotation of its axis: 243 Earth days (1 Venusian Day) *Rotation around the Sun: 225 Earth days *Magnetic Field: No Venus is called the Earth’s twinn At a glance, Venus and the Earth have many similar traits. They share almost the same size and weight, both orbit relatively close to the Sun, and contain similar amounts of several key elements, but they are very different. Venus is a dry and lifeless sphere Venus is the only planet which spins backwards, all the others move in the same direction as their orbit. This unexplained feature might be due to gravitational interactions with the Sun, which slowed the spin to its current value of 243 Earth days. Venus facts
Earth facts: • Diameter: 12,800 km. • * Atmosphere: Mainly nitrogen 78.084% Nitrogen, 20.946% Oxygen. The other small parts include Argon, Carbon Dioxide, Helium, Hydrogen, Methane. • * the Earth has one moon • * Earth Year: 365 days (rotation around the sun) • * Earth Day: 24 hours • * Surface: 71% of Earth's surface is covered in water. • * Temperature Range: -69?C to 58?C. • * Age: more than 4.5 billion years old. • * Average Distance from Sun: 149,597,870 km (93 million miles) • * Average distance from Earth to Moon: 384 000 km (238 607 miles). The Moon orbits Earth in 27.3217 days. • * Orbits the Sun: Speed of 107,870 km per hour (67,027 miles) per hour. • * Name: Comes from old English and German. • The Earth consists of a gaseous atmosphere, the hydrosphere (all water on Earth), the lithosphere, mantle, and core. Water in the form of the oceans covers approximately 70% of the earth's surface. The remaining 30% is land • The Earth is the third closest planet to the Sun. • The Earth is the only planet in our Solar System capable of supporting the human race • The first primitive life began here about 2,000 million years ago • Approximately 6, 679,493,900 people live on the planet • . • There are five contientnts: Eurasia (Europe and Asia), America (North and South Amererica), Africa, Antaractica and Australia • Earth's axis is tilted 23.45? This creates the seasons because Earth's surface changes its position relative to the Sun and hence the amount of heat delivered to the surface. • - The daily rotation of the Earth causes the day and night. • - The Earth is wider at the equator than from pole to pole
Earth facts Con't: • interesting facts: • 1. Mount Everest is the highest point on the surface.2. The largest volcano on earth is Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.3. The longest river is the Nile River in Africa is 6,695 kilometers (4,160 miles) long.4. The driest place on Earth is the Atacama Desert in Chile.5. Grand Canyon is the world's largest canyon.6. Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world by size and volume. It is located between southeast Europe and west Asia.7. The Sahara Desert in northern Africa is the world’s largest desert.8. The world’s deepest lake is Lake Baikal in the south central part of Siberia is 5,712 feet (1.7 kilometers) deep.9. Greenland is the world’s largest island. Note: Australia is a continent.10. Coldest temperature was minus 89.2 °C (-128.5?F) in Vostok, Antarctica, 1983. The highest temperature was 58°C (136.4?F) at Al'Aziziyah, Libya, on 13th September 1922. • The Only Man-made Structure Visible from Space is the Great Wall of China. It stretches over 6,000 kilometers (nearly 4,000 miles
The interior of the Earth,, is chemically divided into layers. The Earth has an outer silicate solid crust, a highly viscous mantle, a liquid outer core that is much less viscous than the mantle, and a solid inner core. The Earth’s structure
Mars is reddish in color and was named after the god of war of the ancient Romans. Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen in detail from the Earth. Mars is the fourth closest planet to the Sun and the next planet beyond the Earth. Mars has the largest canyon in the solar system. It would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago if it was on Earth. Every two years or so the Sun, Earth and Mars line up. This is called an opposition. In 2003 Earth and Mars were really close …see below… There is evidence that liquid water flowed on the surface long ago. Now all the water left on the planet is frozen in the polar ice caps or beneath the surface. The current understanding of the interior of Mars suggests that it can be modeled with a thin crust, similar to Earth's, a mantle and a core distance from the Sun227,900,000 km (141,600,000 miles Mars is About the same age as the Sun: 4.5 billion years Mars has two moons Deimos and Phobos. Both are cratered and orbit the planet in rather low orbits. Phobos is only about 3000 miles above the Martian surface and orbits in a little over 7 hours (thus it makes more than 3 orbits in a single Martian day). Deimos is a little further out and orbits in about 30 hours The red-orange appearance of the Martian surface is caused by iron oxide, more commonly known as hematite, or rust Dozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed in one manner or another before completing or even beginning their missions Mars facts
Jupiter Jupiter
Jupiter's ring is in three sections: the Main ring, a Halo that orbits closer to Jupiter, and a very wide Gossamer ring that extends far from Jupiter. •The Halo ring is a faint, wide ring that has the shape of a doughnut. It is about 22,800 wide and is about 20,000 km thick. This ring starts at 100,000 km from the center of Jupiter; the outer edge of the Halo merges into the Main ring. •The Main ring is 6,400 km wide an less than 30 km thick. This very thin ring has a mass of about 10 13 kg. The ring is about 7,000 km wide; it starts at 122,800 km from the center of Jupiter and has an abrupt outer edge 129,130 km from the center of Jupiter. Two small moons, Adrastea and Metis, orbit within the Main ring; they may be the source of the dust in this ring. •The Gossamer ring is a very faint and very wide ring. It consists of two rings, one embedded within the other. It is composed of very tiny particles, the microscopic debris from the moons, Amalthea and Thebe. The Gossamer ring starts at 129,000 km from the center of Jupiter and extends beyond the orbit of the moon Amalthea. Jupiter facts:
The Planet Jupiter is the LARGEST PLANET in our Solar System. Jupiter has at least 39 moons and they include the four largest moons: Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede. Jupiter was explored in flybys in the 1970s by NASA's Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2spacecraft, and is currently being studied by the Galileo spacecraft. In May 2002, astronomers announced an additional 11 moons for Planet Jupiter. All 11 are small bodies with diameters estimated to be between 2 and 4 kms. The moons are inclined, highly elliptical retrograde orbits with an average distance of 21 million kms. from the giant planet. The number of moons now known to orbit Jupiter are 39 and makes it the planet with the most moons.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun in our solar system. It is the second-largest planet in our solar system. It has beautiful rings that are made mostly of ice chunks (and some rock) that range in size from the size of a fingernail to the size of a car. Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium gas. Saturn is visible without using a telescope, but a low-power telescope is needed to see its rings. It was named after the Roman god Saturnus Saturn's mass is about 5.69 x 1026 kg. Although this is 95 times the mass of the Earth, the gravity on Saturn is only 1.08 times the gravity on Earth. This is because Saturn is such a large planet (and the gravitational force a planet exerts upon an object at the planet's surface is proportional to its mass and to the inverse of its radius squared). A 100 pound person would only weigh 108 pounds on Saturn. Saturn is the only planet in our Solar System that is less dense than water. Saturn would float if there were a body of water large enough! Saturn is probably best known for its system of planetary rings, which makes it the most visually remarkable object in the solar system Saturn's ring system is divided up into 7 major divisions with alphabetic designators in the order of discovery. From the innermost ring to the outermost ring the designators are D, C, B, A, F, G and E. Each major division is further subdivided into thousands of individual ringlets. The F and G rings are very thin and difficult to see while the A, B, and C rings are broad and quite visible. Between the A and B rings is a gap called the Cassini division named after Giovanni Cassini who discovered the Gap in 1676. Between the A and F rings lies the Keeler (Encke) gap. Saturn facts:
The dozens of moons orbiting Saturn vary drastically in shape, size, age and origin. Some of these moons have rocky surfaces, while others are porous, icy bodies. Many have craters, ridges and valleys, and some show evidence of tectonic activity. Some appear to have formed billions of years ago, while others appear to be pieces of a bigger, fragmented body. The most interesting one is Titan, the biggest of them all. Larger than Earth's Moon, Titan even has its own thick atmosphere -- the only natural satellite in the Solar System with such a luxury. During its four-year mission in this immense region, the Cassini spacecraft will extensively photograph many of these moons and collect data that will increase our understanding of their composition. To date, 52 moons have been officially named. In alphabetic order, they are: Aegir, Albiorix, Anthe, Atlas, Bebhionn, Bergelmir, Bestla, Calypso, Daphnis, Dione, Enceladus, Epimetheus, Erriapus, Farbauti, Fenrir, Fornjot, Greip, Hati, Helene, Hyperion, Hyrokkin, Iapetus, Ijiraq, Janus, Jarnsaxa, Kari, Kiviuq, Loge, Methone, Mimas, Mundilfari, Narvi, Paaliaq, Pallene, Pan, Pandora, Phoebe, Polydeuces, Prometheus, Rhea, Siarnaq, Skadi, Skoll, Surtur, Suttung, Tarqeq, Tarvos, Telesto, Tethys, Thrym, Titan and Ymir. Saturn's moons
Uranus facts: Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun in our solar system. The icy planet is covered with clouds and is encircled by a belt of 11 rings and 22 known moons. Uranus' blue color is caused by the methane (CH4) in its atmosphere; this molecule absorbs red light. Uranus was the first planet to be discovered in modern history . It was actually discovered by accident in 1781 by William Herschel Uranus' rotational axis is strongly tilted on its side (97.9°). Instead of rotating with its axis roughly perpendicular to the plane of its orbit (like all the other planets in our Solar System), Uranus rotates on its side (along its orbital path). This tipped rotational axis gives rise to extreme seasons on Uranus Uranus is over 19 times as far from the Sun as the Earth. Uranus is a frozen, gaseous planet with a molten core. Uranus' atmosphere consists of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane Uranus has a faint planetary ring system, composed of dark particulate matter up to ten meters in diameter. It was the second ring system to be discovered in the Solar System, after Saturn's Thirteen distinct rings are presently known, the brightest being the epsilon ring All nine known rings are visible here; the somewhat fainter, pastel lines seen between them are contributed by the computer enhancement. Six 15-second narrow-angle images were used to extract color information from the extremely dark and faint rings. Two images each in the green, clear and violet filters were added together and averaged to find the proper color differences between the rings. The final image was made from these three color averages and represents an enhanced, false-color view. The image shows that the brightest, or epsilon, ring at top is neutral in color, with the fainter eight other rings showing color differences between them. Moving down, toward Uranus, we see the delta, gamma and eta rings in shades of blue and green; the beta and alpha rings in somewhat lighter tones; and then a final set of three, known simply as the 4, 5 and 6 rings, in faint off-white tones.
Uranus' moons • Uranus has 27 known moons. Titania, the largest, is about half the size of our own moon. The moons are all made of ice and rock. Most of the moons, including Titania, Oberon, and Umbriel, seem to be "normal" moons without anything interesting; however, Miranda and Ariel seem to have had violent pasts . Most of the moons appear to be captured asteroids due to their size and orbits. • The two innermost moons of Uranus, Cordelia and Ophelia, act as shepherd moons. They have orbits on either side of the last ring, epsilon, which keeps it narrow. Scientists believe that each of the other rings have shepherds, too, but they must have been too small for the Voyager space crafts cameras to detect. • The next eight moons are Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, and Puck, all named for Shakespearian characters. Inside of Belinda's orbit is a moon. It has not been named because there is controversy over whether or not it really exists; the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the only official naming body has yet to designate it as a real moon. • Next out is Miranda. It is the smallest of Uranus' moons that is visible from the Earth. It has some of the most interesting surface features in the solar system. First, it has a cliff that is about 19 km (12 miles) high. If this were scaled to be on Earth, it would reach into the orbit of spacecraft. It also has three long, rectangular shapes, called "coronae." Scientists think that at one time the pull of the other moons warmed the interior and caused the ice in Miranda to start to rise. The coronae mark where it froze before coming to the surface. • Ariel next, is covered with complex fractures and grooves. Probably they are the result of ice seeping to the surface, then freezing and expanding. Ariel also has lava-filled valleys. The lava is made of a mixture of water and liquid ammonia • Next comes Umbriel, equal in size to Ariel, but with a bland, nondescript surface. • Next out is Titania and Oberon . Titania is the biggest moon of Uranus. It looks like a larger version of Ariel. Oberon is only a little smaller than Titania. Oberon has a crater-peppered surface of little interest. However, it does posses a mountain that is twice the height of Mt. Everest. • The next moons, Caliban, Stephano, Sycorax, Prospero, and Setebos were discovered in just the past few years by re-examining Voyager 2 images. Very little is known about them, except that they all have retrograde - they orbit in the opposite direction of the planet's spin - orbits, leading to the conclusion that they are captured asteroids rather than native to the Uranian system. Inside of Sycorax's orbit is a moon designated as Trinculo.
Neptune facts: • Neptune is circled by a system of very thin, dark rings located in clumps. These rings are are composed of small rocks and dust. They almost circular (unlike Uranus' elliptical ring system). There are three distinct rings, named Adams, Le Verrier and Galle (after the discovers of Neptune) plus a wide plateau of dust adjacent to the Le Verrier ring (this wide sheet of orbiting dust is co-orbital with the moon Galatea). These rings have been very difficult to detect because they are not uniform in thickness and density. The thicker part of the rings are called ring arcs; these are the parts of the rings that are more easily detected. The Adams ring has three prominent arcs (named Liberty, Equality and Fraternity). The gravitational pull of Neptune's moons may cause the unevenness of the rings. Some of Neptune's smaller moons may 'shepherd' the inner rings with their gravitational forces. • Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the fourth largest (by diameter). Neptune is smaller in diameter but larger in mass than Uranus. • The planet is named after the Roman god of the sea. • Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than regular observation • Neptune is about 30,775 miles (49,528 km) in diameter. This is 3.88 times the diameter of the Earth. If Neptune were hollow, it could hold almost 60 Earths. • People can not live on Neptune because it is too cold. It doesn’t have an atmosphere of oxygen which people need to breathe. It has other gases methane, hydrogen and helium which people can’t breathe
Moons of Neptune • Neptune has two large moons that are easily seen from Earth, Triton and Nereid. Voyager 2 discovered six additional moons. One of these is actually larger than Nereid, but could not be seen easily from Earth because it orbits close to Neptune. • Neptune has 13 known moons. They are composed of rock and ice. • The first four moons of Neptune, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, and Galatea, are so close to Neptune that they orbit within its ring system. Little is known about them. • The next one out, Larissa, was actually discovered in 1981, when it blocked a star. This was attributed to the ring arcs, but later was found to be the moon, being re-discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989. • Proteus is the second-largest moon in orbit around Neptune. It is so close to the planet that Earth-bound telescopes cannot see it. • Triton is next, and is one of the strangest moons in the solar system. First, it is one of only three moons in the solar system that has an atmosphere.. It is thicker than Io's, yet much thinner than Titan's. Its pressure is 1/100,000 of Earth's. • Second, Triton has a retrograde orbit, which means that it orbits the opposite way the planet spins. This is a very strong indication that Triton was captured. This in itself is not strange; both of Mars' moons were captured. What is strange is that Triton is two-thirds the size of our moon. When two bodies have a close encounter, one does not automatically capture the other, especially if it is so big. One theory is that Triton must have actually hit Neptune, bounced off the atmosphere, and gone into orbit because it lost all of its momentum. Another way this could have happened is that Triton collided with one of Neptune's moons, smashed it to bits (possibly creating the rings), and lost so much momentum that it couldn't escape Neptune's gravity. • Third, it is only 38 °C (100 °F) above absolute zero(the temperature at which all matter comes to rest). In such frigid a climate scientists did not expect to find active geysers, but they did. They spew out a gaseous form of nitrogen, which is what creates its atmosphere. • The eighth moon, Nereid, has a highly elliptical orbit that causes it to swing around Neptune at various distances.. • The last five moons were discovered near the end of 2002, and reported in the first weeks of 2003, and found throughout 2003. They have not yet been given official names by the International Astronomical Union. Very little is yet known about them.
