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My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies
° Our solar system is comprised of the sun, 9 planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets
° Our sun is one of 200 billion stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy
° The Milky Way galaxy is one of 200 billion galaxies that make up the universe
° The planets are divided into 2 groups: inner and outer
The inner planets are smalland terrestrial (earth-like, rocky)
heavily cratered, resembling our moon
59 days to rotate88 days to revolve
(2 revolutions = 3 rotations)
largest temperature range700 °F to -300 °F
° no moons ° about the size of earth’s moon ° may be the remnant core of a
planet
° our nearest neighbor ° almost the same size as earth
(sister planet)
inhospitable
° 97 % of the atmosphere is CO2 runaway Greenhouse Effect
900+ °F (hottest planet)
° air pressure 90 times that of earth
° sulfuric acid in the atmosphere give it a yellow tint
retrograde (clockwise) rotation
3 brightest object in our sky
polar ice caps of CO2 and water which get larger and smaller with the
seasons
the surface has an orange color due to iron oxidizing (rust)
several bits of evidence which suggest water: channels, river beds,
ice caps
Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system (300 miles in diameter and 17 miles high)
almost the same size as Arizona
2 moons: Phobos and Deimos
Asteroid beltrocky objects orbiting the sun between the
inner and outer planets
they generally look like a potato
The Outer Planets
The Outer Planets: huge, Jovian (Jupiter-like), gaseous, moons, and
rings
And pluto
largest planetGreat Red spot (2-3 times the size of
earth)
Europa (moon) may have ocean under its ice crust
Io (moon) has atmosphere and active volcanoes
less dense than water
Uranus retrograde rotation (backwards)
axis of rotation is nearly 90° may be due to a collision with
Miranda (moon)
Great Dark Spot comes and goes
not Jovianis now considered a dwarf planet
consists of ice and rockCharon may be its double planet
(half the size of Pluto)sunlight takes 6 hours to reach itmost eccentric orbit (closer than
Neptune from 1979-1999)travels in a tilted orbital plane