solar system sun, planets, minor planets, asteroids, comets, meteors and lots of space
TRANSCRIPT
Solar SystemSolar System
Sun, Planets, Minor Planets, Asteroids, Comets, Meteors and
Lots of Space
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080206.html
But first…
• What you do affect the people around you, and some students want to participate in this class– If you want to talk, please
leave the room. Do not stand in a doorway.
– If you want to text your friends, please leave the room.
• Please be considerate of the other students in the class.– If you want to listen to
music, please do so somewhere else. You may be using headphones, but we still can hear.
– If you want to use your computer for anything other than note taking, please go somewhere else.
Visible From Earth
• Sun• Moon• 5 Planets• Stars• Satellites and ISS• Constellations• 3 Galaxies
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0710/Early-Bird-Special.jpg
December 4, 1997
Galaxies
• Large Magellanic Cloud
• Small Magellanic Cloud
• Andromeda Galaxy (found in the Constellation Andromda
http://domeofthesky.com/clicks/images/and.gif
Andromeda Galaxy2.2 million light years away
~13,200,000,000,000,000,000 miles13 quintillion miles
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/andeep.jpg
Polaris
• Within 1º of our polar north
• Not always the “north star”
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/C_SPRING/URSAS.HTM
Procession
• Wobble like a top• Completes the wobble
every ~26,000 years• Other “north stars,
Thuban in Draco and Vega in Lyra
• However, they are no where near 1º of our polar north
http://stardate.org/images/gallery/d_procession.jpg
Constellations
• Star patterns in sky• Acts like state lines in
a road map• Stars appear to be on a
dome – cannot judge distance
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/8616/circumpolar.html
Zodiac Constellations
• The plane of our solar system lies in these constellations
• The plane of our Galaxy is different
• Right now, for example, Saturn can be found in the constellation Leo
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/IU/ISTAT/astross/activities/sky_coord2.gif
Sun
• Medium yellow star• ~10 billion life span• Primarily hydrogen
with some helium• Converts ~8 tons of
matter per second to energy
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030223.html http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051005.html
April’s Planetary Show
• Jupiter rises in the east about 1 hour before the sun
• Saturn just after sunset in Leo’s lower left
• Mercury upper left just after the sun sets
• Mars in Cancer, high in the southern skies
• Venus – the brightest – is high in the south west sky after sunset
Mercury
• Only seen just after sunset or just before sunrise
• Smallest planet• Most heavily cratered
body
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080319.html
Venus
• Earth’s Twin (about the same size
• Hottest planet (runaway greenhouse gases) average 480ºC (850ºF)
• Sulfuric clouds• Pressure ~ 100 feet
under water
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060110.html http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050903.html
Mars
• About ¼ the size of Earth
• Not enough gravity to maintain a thicker atmosphere
• Average temperature is -61ºC (-81ºF)– Earth’s average is 15ºC
(59ºF)
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/usgsmars.gif
Jupiter
• Largest planet (1300 Earths would fit inside!!!
• 2.5x the gravity than on Earth
• Jupiter radiates more energy into space than it receives from the Sun
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0212/jupiterIo_cassini_full.jpg
Jupiter’s Galilean Moons
Developed by Barbara J. Shaw http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00343
Jupiter’s Galilean Moons
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/niel/astro1/slideshows/class41/010-jupiter-galilean-moons.jpg
Size in Relationship to Jupiter
http://www.carinasoft.com/voyager4/info/images/ThreeMoonsOnJupiter.jpg
+2+1-1-2
Can you place each moon in orbit around Jupiter?
http://www.ox.ac.uk/images/maincolumn/257_Jupiter_from_Cassini.jpg
Saturn
• Galileo described Saturn with ears
• Although all the gas giants have rings, only the Saturn rings are visible (but VERY thin ~30 feet!)
• Density of Saturn is so light, it would float in water
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070407.htmlhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1398
Uranus and Neptune
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection/pr2006047b/ http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0406/nep2002_hst1pan_full.jpg
Asteroid Belt
• Between Mars and Jupiter
• Estimated 376,537 asteroids
• 1/1000th of the mass of the Earth
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040619.html
Kuiper Belt
• Beyond the orbit of Neptune (~30 to 55AU)
• Pluto/Charon and Eras are the largest bodies known in this region
• 20-200 times more mass than Asteroid Belt
1. ↑ The MPC Orbit (MPCORB) Database.2. ↑ Carl D. Murray and Stanley F. Dermott (1999). Solar System Dynamics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0 521 57295.93. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Outersolarsystem_objectpositions_labels_comp.png#filelinks
Oort Cloud
• Outer reaches of our solar system from Kuiper Belt to ~50,000AU!
• Billions of comets
http://astro.berkeley.edu/~conor/ay250/pluto.html
Moon
• Most familiar object in the sky
• Even preschoolers recognize pictures of the moon
• However, students struggle to explain the phases
http://www.afreshhorizon.co.uk/moon_phases.htm
Stopped by a cop
• He said, “Do you know how fast you are going?”
• I replied, “That, sir, is relative…”
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0007/startrails_aat.jpg
How Fast?
• I was driving 55 miles per hour, but…
http://www.zenconsulting.net/jasonkehr/images/T1000.jpg
How Fast?
• The Earth, at the equator, rotating on it’s axis– 1,040 miles per hour
– In Portland, roughly 520 mile per hour
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/bluemarble_apollo17_big.jpg
How Fast?
• The Earth revolving around the sun– 67,000 miles per hour
http://www.ecology.com/archived-links/earths-orbit/index_files/earthorbit.gif
How Fast?
• The Sun revolving around the Milky Way Galaxy– 486,000 miles per hour
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011004.html
How Fast?
• The Milky Way Galaxy moving with the local cluster towards the constellation Hydra– 1,340,000 miles per
hour
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap020123.html
How Fast?
• So, Officer, it is all relative, and 55 is insignificant!– I still got the ticket
http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/graphics/light.jpg