Our Solar System

 

Our Solar System

Journal

Can you name the 8 planets in our Solar System?  This includes Earth…

Do you know any ways to remember all 8?

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Galaxies

Our sun is 1 of trillions of stars in the universe. Stars are found in groups held together by gravity.

A huge group of stars is called a galaxy.

Our entire universe is made up of thousands of galaxies.

The images below show you how small we are compared to the entire universe.

The Milky Way

Our Solar System is part of the “Milky Way” galaxy.

The Inner Planets
(Terrestrial Planets)

Spinning Planets

Period of Rotation: amount of time that an object takes to rotate once. (1 Day)

Period of Revolution: time it takes an object to revolve around the sun once. (1 year)

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Mercury

On Mercury you weigh only 38% of what you weigh on Earth.

Fastest orbiting planet

Planet nearest to the sun

One side of the planet can be 800 degrees Fahrenheit when the other can be -280 degree Fahrenheit at the same time.

Venus

ØOn Venus you weigh only 91% of what you weigh on Earth.

ØVenus has 90 times the pressure of Earth

ØVenus has volcanoes like Earth

ØRotates in the opposite direction of Earth.

ØOne time there were oceans before they boiled away.

Earth

Ø23 hours and 56 min=1 Earth day (rotation)

Ø365 days =1 Earth year (revolution)

ØEarth is warm enough to keep most of its water from freezing and cold enough to keep it’s water from boiling

ØTemperature is between –13 degrees Celsius and 37 degrees Celsius

Mars

q  Air Pressure on Mars is the same as 30 km above the Earth’s surface

q  Mars is in the form of ice.

q  Evidence that water was there at one time

q  Volcanic history like Earth.

q   It has the tallest mount of the planets (Olympus Mons) 3x’s size of Mt. Everest.

Jupiter

Largest planet in the Solar System

Has a Great Red Spot from a storm system that is more than 400 years old (It is larger than Earth!)

9 hours and 54 min=1 Jupiter day (shortest day)

Pressure is so great it would crush a spaceship.

Saturn

2nd Largest planet in the Solar System

95 times more massive than earth.

Saturn has the largest rings of any planet, the rings are made of icy particles.

Most moons of any planet.

Uranus

Discovered in 1781

Uranus appears blue-green in color

It’s axis of rotation is tilted 90 degrees

Moons are named after Shakespearean plays and formed from other broken moons.

Neptune

Ø Discovered in 1846

Ø Neptune has visual belts of clouds

Ø Interior releases thermal energy to its outer layers.

Ø Use to be the 8th planet after Pluto until 1999.

What Keeps Our Planets & Other Objects In Space In Orbit??

GRAVITY & INERTIA

GRAVITY & INERTIA

Gravity – A force that pulls all objects toward each other.

Inertia – The tendency of an object to stay either at rest or in motion along a straight path

GRAVITY & INERTIA

If inertia was stronger than gravity then objects would stay on their straight path & fly off into space.

COMETS

ASTEROIDS METEOROIDS