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SOLAR SYSTEM

NOTES

Our Solar System is composed of:

1. The Sun

2. The Planets

3. Asteroids

4. Comets

5. Meteors

6. Natural & Artificial satellites

Remember:

How old is our Solar System?

Scientists believe its

at least 4.6 billion

years old!!!

ENERGY TRANSFERS

• Radiation - a process in which energy travels

through vacuum (without a medium)

• Conduction – a process in which energy travels

through a medium

• Convection - The transfer of heat through the

movement of particles

RADIATION FROM THE SUN

• 99.86% of the mass of the solar system

• Primary source of energy, light, and heat.

• The planets are lit because of the light we

see reflected from the Sun.

SUN’S STRUCTUREUnder the Surface

• Photosphere

• Convection zone

• Radiation zone

• Core

Above the surface:

• Sunspots

• Corona

• Solar flares

• Solar Wind

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Surface of the Sun

appears granulated:

Hot material

(light) rises

to top while

cold material

(dark) drops

down

Proof of convection

underneath surface!!!

SUN SPOTS

• temporary phenomena on the photosphere

• dark spots compared to surrounding regions

• Early astronomers like Galileo observed these to

prove the Sun rotates on an axis.

PHOTOSPHERE

• Photo in Latin means “light”

• Outer layer of the Sun

• Where the light we see comes from.

CORONA

• Latin for “crown”

• extending millions of

kilometers into space,

most easily seen

during a total solar

eclipse (moon in front)

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HELIOSCOPE

• “Helio” Greek for Sun

• “scope” optical device

• an instrument used in

observing the sun and sun spots Typically last

only minutes.

SPICULES

• Short-lived, narrow jets of gas spewed from surface

*Follows magnetic

field lines.

PROMINENCE

• Loop or arc of glowing gas ejected from the

surface.

AURORA• by the collision of

energetic charged

particles with atoms

in the atmosphere

near the poles.

• Aurora Borealis

“Northern lights”

• Aurora Australis

Southern

Hemisphere

AURORAS

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ORBITAL ROTATION

• All planets orbit the same direction around the sun

from the original spinning disk.

Making the Inner Planets - Accretion in the inner solar system:

Initially, many moon-sized planetesimals orbited the Sun. Over

the course of a hundred million years or so, they gradually

collided and coalesced, forming a few large planets in roughly

circular orbits.

REASONS THE PLANETS ARE SO

DIFFERENT

• The material closest to the Sun would have vaporized

by the Sun's heat.

• The materials with a higher melting point (metals)

could condense closer

• The materials with lower melting points (gases) were

able to condense out further

PLANET NOTES

Inner planets – small,

solid, dense materials

Outer planets –

large, mostly gas,

rings

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• Dense elements condense at higher temperatures closer to

sun, forming rocky planets.

Terrestrial Planets :

inner, rocky, denser,

smaller

Planet Density

Saturn is the only planet that is less dense than Water!

SATURN WOULD FLOAT IN WATER!

MERCURY

• Rotation Time: 58.6 Earth days

• Orbit Time: 88 Earth days

• Difficult to observe from Earth

• Thick iron core planet and thin crust

• no atmosphere

VENUS

• Rotation Time: 243 days

• Orbit Time: 224 days

• Earths' “sister”

• atmosphere is made up mostly of carbon dioxide and

Clouds are filled with sulfuric acid

• Runaway greenhouse effect – hottest planet

• Rotates backwards

• Widest volcanoes – like a pancake

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EARTH

• Rotation Time: 24 hours

• Orbit Time: 365.24 days

• the only planet known to have stable bodies of

liquid water on its current surface

• Atmosphere mostly of Nitrogen

• The world is not round. It is an oblate spheroid,

flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator

• 1 moon - Luna

MARS

• Rotation Time: 24.6 hours

• Orbit Time: 687 Earth days

• Mars is red because it is rusty

• thin atmosphere of Mars is made of mostly carbon dioxide

• Valleys and Canyons and other fluvial features suggest that the planet once had large amounts of surface water… and frozen water still at the poles

• 2 moons – Phobos & Deimos

VALLES

MARINERISOLYMPUS

MONS

Olympus Mons is about 3 times taller than Mount Everest

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Jovian Planets:outer, gas, larger,

rings, less dense

JOVIAN PLANET’S RING SYSTEMS

Jupiter

SaturnUranus

Neptune

SEEING SPOTSThe Great Red Spot The Great Dark Spot

Jupiter’s Super Storm- Great Red Spot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hJvP-3-djo

JUPITER

• Rotation Time: 10 hours

• Orbit Time: 12 Earth years

• largest planet

• Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a +300 years hurricane

• Hydrogen and Helium Thick atmosphere. Small rock and ice core

• Would have to be 70-80x as much mass to be a star.

• 67 known moons

JUPITER AND SATURN HAVE AURORAS SATURN

• Rotation Time: 11 hours

• Orbit Time: 29.46 Earth years

• Most know for the beautiful rings!

• Rings - Floating chunks of ice, rocks and dust

• Saturn has the lowest density

• Atmosphere comprises mostly of Hydrogen and Helium (lightest elements) and small rock/ice core

• Also had auroas!

• 53 known moons

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URANUS

• Rotation time: 17.6 hours

• Orbit Time: 30,685 Earth days

• Has rings

• Axis - almost parallel to the plane (98 degrees)

• Uranus is the coldest planet

• Methane gas/ice makes it blue

NEPTUNE

• Rotation Time: 16.11 hours

• Orbit Time: 165 Earth Years

• Has rings.. But actually arcs.

• 12 years for Voyager 2 to reach it

• Stormiest planet – winds up to 1,240 mph

• methane ice/gas makes it Blue

• Great Dark Spot – another storm – I <3 storms

PLUTO

• Found and called a planet in 1930

• demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006

• Does not rotate on the same orbital plane

• Hasn’t cleared it’s orbital path from debris

• Smaller than Our Moon

• Just recently have better pictures of one side

• Sometimes orbits inside Neptune

• Recent photos lead us to believe its not as old as once thought – less craters

=> Orbits of the planets all lie in

nearly the same plane (the ecliptic

plane) except Mercury (7) & Pluto

(17 ).

Mercury

7o

Pluto

17o

SOMETIMES PLUTO IS CLOSER…

Pluto- 249

year orbit

Where is

it now?

Aphelion?

?

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MOONS WORTH LOOKING AT• scientists believe that

water could exist below the surface of Europa. (Jupiter moon)

• Io (another Jupiter Moon) features over 400 active volcanoes

• Saturn’s largest moon is named Titan, it is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere.

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Solar System in a nutshell

https://youtu.be/KsF_hdjWJjo?t=1s