Our Solar System

The Solar System

• Our solar system is located in the

Milky Way Galaxy.

• It is made up of planets, moons, asteroids, meteoroids and comets.

The Sun

•The sun is a star.

•It is the largest object in our solar system.

•The sun is 4.5 billion years old.

•It’s surface temperature is 27 million degrees.

Sunspots

Solar eclipse

The Sun

Mercury

Mercury• It is the closest planet to the

sun, but not the hottest.• It’s surface is heavily

cratered from meteoroids and asteroids crashing into it.

• The surface temperature on the dark side of Mercury is

–300 degrees F.

Mariner 10visited Mercury

Cratered surface

Venus

Venus• Named for the goddess of love

and beauty.• Earth’s sister planet- similar

in size, mass, density, and volume.

• There are 243 Earth days to 1 Venus day.

• The surface temperature is 900 degrees F. , making it the hottest planet in our system.Views from

different satellites.

Earth

Earth• Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

• Seventy percent of the Earth is covered in water.

• The Earth’s atmosphere keeps the temperatures steady.

• As far as we know, it is the only planet with life.

Horn of Africa

North America

Earth & moon

Mars

Mars• Known as “The Red Planet”.

• Average surface temperature is –67 degrees F.

• Mars has permanent ice caps on both poles.

• Olympus Mons- largest mountain in our solar system.

Polar ice cap

Jupiter

Jupiter• It’s the largest planet in our

solar system.

• It is a gas planet- it doesn’t have a solid surface.

• The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction.

• Jupiter’s moon, Io, has exploding volcanoes on it.

Jupiter’s ring

Four moons

Saturn

Saturn• Saturn has the most moons of

all the planets.• It’s rings are made up of

water ice and rocky particles with icy coatings.

• Saturn is easily visible at night from Earth.

• One Earth day on Saturn is 10 hours, 40 minutes.

Rings in false color

Saturn and moons

Uranus

Uranus• Uranus is 1.78 billion miles

from the sun.

• It is made mostly of rock and ice.

• It lies on its side, possibly the result from a collision with a planet sized body.

Uranus’ ring

Uranus and moons

Neptune

Neptune• Neptune orbits the sun every

165 years.

• It can be seen from Earth with binoculars.

• Near the Great Dark Spot, winds blow up to 1,200 miles an hour.

• It’s moon, Triton, is the coldest object in the solar system.Great Dark Spot

Pluto

Pluto• Pluto is the smallest and coldest

planet, temperatures get as low as –235 degrees C.

• It is the only planet not visited by any space craft.

• It is 3,666 million miles from the sun.

• Not much is know about Pluto.

Pluto and moon

Comparison ofUS to Pluto andit’s moon

Earth’s Moon

Moon

View of Earth from the moon

•The moon is 225,000 miles from the Earth.•It has no water, air, or living things.•The moon‘s surface is covered by thousands of bowl-shaped craters.•Man stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Seeing Our Solar System

• Asteroids- very small worlds that circle the sun mainly in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

• Comets- a frozen ball of ice a few miles wide, covered by a layer of black dust

Seeing Our Solar System

• Meteoroids- small pieces of metal or rock from asteroids or comets

• Meteors- are meteoroids that have entered the Earth’s atmosphere

Stars

Galaxies

Milky Way- our solar system is located here

Sources• Information

– Solarviews.com

– Our Solar System-by Seymour Simon

• Pictures

– Solarviews.com

– Bo.cnr.it/universo2000/images/solar_system.jpg