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THE SOLAR SYSTEM BENJAMIN G. MUIZ

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The purpose of this module is provide information on our solar system. Planets will be broken down by location and contain specific data as well as a fact sheet with all pertinent information required for the quiz. Navigation can be accomplished following the spaceship icon either forward or backwards. Good luck on your journey through space!

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Inner Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Asteroid Belt Ceres Asteroid Belt Outer Planets Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

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INNER PLANETS Mercury Venus Earth Mars The four inner or terrestrial planets have dense, rocky compositions, few or no moons, and no ring systems. They are composed largely of refractory minerals, such as the silicates, which form their crusts and mantles, and metals such as iron and nickel, which form their cores. Three of the four inner planets (Venus, Earth and Mars) have atmospheres substantial enough to generate weather; all have impact craters and tectonic surface features such as rift valleys and volcanoes.

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MERCURY Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. For every two orbits of the Sun, Mercury completes three rotations about its axis and up until 1965 it was thought that the same side of Mercury constantly faced the Sun Thirteen times a century Mercury can be observed from Earth passing across the face of the Sun in an event called a transit, the next will occur on the 9th May 2016. Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System: One of five planets visible with the naked eye a, Mercury is just 4,879 Kilometres across its equator, compared with 12,742 Kilometres for the Earth.

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VENUS Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the second largest terrestrial planet and is sometimes referred to as the Earths sister planet due the their similar size and mass. A day on Venus lasts longer than a year: It takes 243 Earth days to rotate once on its axis. The planets orbit around the Sun takes 225 Earth days, compared to the Earths 365. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system: The average surface temperature is 462 C.

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EARTH Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is the largest of the terrestrial planets. Unlike the other planets in the solar system that are named after classic deities the Earths name comes from the Anglo-Saxon word erda which means ground or soil. There is only one natural satellite of the planet Earth: As a percentage of the size of the body it orbits, the Moon is the largest satellite of any planet in our solar system. In real terms, however, it is only the fifth largest natural satellite.

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MARS Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. Named after the Roman god of war, and often described as the Red Planet due to its reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere composed primarily of carbon dioxide. Mars is home to the tallest mountain in the solar system. Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21km high and 600km in diameter.

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ASTEROID GROUPS Ceres Asteroid Belt Asteroids are small Solar System bodies composed mainly of refractory rocky and metallic minerals, with some ice. The asteroid belt occupies the orbit between Mars and Jupiter, between 2.3 and 3.3 AU from the Sun. It is thought to be remnants from the Solar System's formation that failed to coalesce because of the gravitational interference of Jupiter. Asteroids range in size from hundreds of kilometers across to microscopic. All asteroids except the largest, Ceres, are classified as small Solar System bodies. The asteroid belt contains tens of thousands, possibly millions, of objects over one kilometer in diameter. Despite this, the total mass of the asteroid belt is unlikely to be more than a thousandth of that of Earth. The asteroid belt is very sparsely populated; spacecraft routinely pass through without incident. Asteroids with diameters between 10 and 104 m are called meteoroids.

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CERES Ceres is the closest dwarf planet to the Sun and is located in the asteroid belt making it the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. Ceres is the smallest of the bodies current classified as dwarf planets. Ceres was the first object considered to be an asteroid: Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered and named Ceres in early 1801. Though he classified it as a planet, Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet which accounts for nearly 1/3 of the asteroid belts mass.

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ASTEROID BELT The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. The main asteroid belt is very sparsely populated and the distribution of asteroids within it is not uniform. The asteroid material is so thinly distributed that numerous unmanned spacecraft have traversed it without incident.

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OUTER PLANETS Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune The outer region of the Solar System is home to the gas giants and their large moons. Many short-period comets, including the centaurs, also orbit in this region. Due to their greater distance from the Sun, the solid objects in the outer Solar System contain a higher proportion of volatiles, such as water, ammonia and methane, than the rocky denizens of the inner Solar System because the colder temperatures allow these compounds to remain solid.

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JUPITER The planet Jupiter is the fifth planet out from the Sun. It is two and a half times more massive than all the other planets in the solar system combined. It is made primarily of gases and is therefore known as a gas giant. Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system: Only the Sun, Moon and Venus are brighter. It is one of five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth. The Great Red Spot is a huge storm on Jupiter: It has raged for at least 350 years. It is so large that three Earths could fit inside it.

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SATURN Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the most distant that can be sees with the naked eye. It is best known for its fabulous rings. They were discovered in 1610 by the astronomer Galileo Galilei. Saturn has 150 moons and smaller moonlets: All are frozen worlds. The largest moons are Titan and Rhea. Enceladus appears to have an ocean below its frozen surface. Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen: It exists in layers that get denser farther into the planet. Eventually, deep inside, the hydrogen becomes metallic. At the core lies a hot interior.

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URANUS Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its not visible to the naked eye, and became the first planet discovered with the use of a telescope. Uranus is tipped over on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees. With minimum atmospheric temperature of -224C Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system. Uranus has two sets of rings of very thin set of dark colored rings.

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NEPTUNE Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and is the most distant planet from the Sun. Neptune was not known to the ancients: It is not visible to the naked eye and was first observed in 1846. Neptune has 14 moons: The most interesting one is Triton, a frozen world that is spewing nitrogen ice and dust particles out from below its surface. Neptune is the smallest of the ice giants.

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QUIZ This quiz will test your knowledge of the planets and asteroids of the solar system. All information required to pass this quiz can be derived from the previous sections.

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# 1: WHICH IS THE LARGEST PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM?

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CORRECT

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TRY AGAIN

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# 2: WHICH PLANET IS THE 4 TH FROM THE SUN?

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CORRECT

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KEEP PRACTICING

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# 3: WHICH PLANET NAME IS DERIVED FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON WORD ERDA?

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CORRECT

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MORE WORK IS NEEDED

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# 4: WHICH PLANET WAS FIRST OBSERVED IN 1846?

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CORRECT

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YOULL FIND A WAY

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THE END Thank you for taking the time to learn about our solar system. I hope you enjoyed the journey. Here are some additional resources you may like to look at in order to learn more about our universe. NASA Space Facts National Geographic Ted Talk: The Real Future of Space Exploration

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EXTRA INFORMATION * This page is used to demonstrate graphical aspects that did not go well with the rest of the presentation.