Our Solar System

Our solar system in order from the sun

1. Mercury2. Venus3. Earth4. Mars5. Asteroid Belt6. Jupiter7. Saturn8. Uranus9. Neptune10.Kuiper Belt (Pluto goes

here)11.Oort Cloud

PlanetsAn object in orbit around a star, which

dominates the mass of its orbital zone.

The Terrestrial Planets: have a rocky crust, a denser mantle, and a very dense core.

MercuryVenusEarthMars

Mercury – 1st• 1 solar orbit takes

88 days.• Daytime temps

reach 400 ̊C, nighttime temps reach -200 ̊C.

• Mercury’s orbit is an average of 57,909,100 km.

• Mercury’s average radius is 2440 km.

Venus – 2nd• Atmosphere is

made clouds of CO2

and sulfuric acid; it is very warm (482 ̊C) due to the greenhouse effect.

• Covered in lava, faults, and volcanoes.

• Orbit is an average of 108,208,930 km.

• Average radius is 6052 km

Earth: 3rd• Has water in

all three forms: vapor, liquid, and ice.

• Orbit is an average of 149,598,261 km.

• Earth’s radius is an average of 6371 km.

Mars: 4th• Has polar ice

caps made mainly of CO2

• 27 ̊C during the day, -125 ̊C at night.

• Orbit is an average of 227,939,100 km.

• Radius is an average of 3396 km.

Asteroid Belt• Asteroid: Solid

rock masses floating in space

• Asteroid Belt: Zone of multiple asteroids between Mars and Jupiter

• No one asteroid dominates the orbital zone, Ceres is the biggest known asteroid in the belt.

The Jovian PlanetsThe Jovian Planets are:

JupiterSaturnUranusNeptune

They are all built the same way:1. a solid rock core2. a liquid mantle3. an outer gas layer (what you are looking

at is clouds of gas, not the surface of the planet)

4. a ring system5. give off more heat than they receive from

the Sun.

Jupiter: 5th• Takes 11.9 years

to orbit the sun• Surface is made

of alternating light/dark bands of gas, with the light rising and the dark falling.

• Jupiter’s orbit is an average of 778,547,200 km.

• Jupiter’s radius is an average of 71,492 km.

Saturn: 6th• Takes 29.7 years

to orbit the sun.• Known for its

rings, which are made of rock and ice.

• Saturn’s orbit is an average of 1,433,449,370 km.

• Saturn’s average radius is 60,268 km.

Uranus: 7th • It takes 84 years to

orbit the sun.• -200 ̊C everywhere

on the planet.• Uranus’s average

orbit is 2,876,679,082 km.

• Uranus’s average radius is 25,559 km.

• Its magnetic field is off its axis, and its south pole is pointed directly at the sun.

Neptune: 8th

• The farthest planet, taking 165 years to orbit the sun.

• It gives off 2.7 times more heat than it receives.

• Fastest wind in the solar system, 2200 km/hr

• Neptune’s average orbit is 4,503,443,661 km.

• Neptune’s average radius is 24,764 km.

• The sun is set at one foci of the ellipse and empty space is at the other.

• Point of orbit furthest from the Sun is called the aphelion.

• Point of orbit closest to the Sun is called the perihelion.

• Speed of any orbiting body will change, fastest at the perihelion and slowest at the aphelion.

OrbitsAll orbits are elliptical, NOT circular.

Kepler’s Laws Planetary Motion

1st The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the Sun at one of the two foci.

2nd A line joining a planet and the Sun will sweep out equal areas in equal intervals of time.

3rd The square of the orbital period of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis of its orbit.

Kuiper Belt• Kuiper Belt: Area of objects from about 30 AU

(the orbit of Neptune) to 50 AU from the sun.

• Characteristics:

• Smaller icy objects (water, methane, & ammonia).

• No object is the dominant mass of the orbit.

• Hard to see and identify because of their size and the amount of light.

• Examples: Pluto, Charon (Pluto's “moon”), Haumea, Makemake, UB313, and perhaps some short period comets.

Oort Cloud• Outer most area of our solar system

50,000AU to 100,000AU distance from the sun.

•Characteristics: An inner disk-shaped cloud of icy objects and an outer, spherical cloud.

•Example: Sedna, Halley’s Comet, other long period comets.

Meteors, Meteoroids, & Meteorites

•Meteoroids: any rock or ice fragment traveling in space.

•Meteor: is the light made when a meteoroid passes through our atmosphere.

•Meteorite is any piece of a meteoroid that survives its trip through the atmosphere and hits our surface.

Comets• A Comet is a mass of rock, ice,

dust, and frozen gas that orbits the Sun.

• It usually has a highly elliptical orbit.

• When the comet gets close to the Sun, the frozen gas melts and boils, producing the appearance of a “tail”

• The tail is caused by solar wind flying past the body of the comet. (This means the comet can fly through space tail-first).