Our Solar System

(An Introductory Tour)

Solar System Formation

ThankstoMaryOshana

Our Favorite Star

The Terrestrial Planets

• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth

• Mars

Mercury

Venus - Clouds

Venus - Surface

Venus from Clementine

Venus Transits the Sun

Earth

Mars

Valles Marineris

Olympus Mons

The Asteroid Belt

Eros – an Asteroid

The Gas Giants

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

Jupiter

Great Red Spot

Jupiter’s Rings – dust

Jupiter’s Rings and Small Moons

Jupiter’s Big Moons (Galileo)

Jupiter’s Magnetic Field

Jupiter’s X-ray Auroras

Saturn

Fly Around Saturn

Saturn’s Rings – mostly ice

Spokes in the Rings

Titan – a moon of Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto – a dwarf planet

• Pluto is weird.

• It’s not very big, and its orbit is very strange.

• It’s not a gas giant – it seems to be made of rock and ice.

• Maybe it was captured by Neptune.

• Some astronomers say it isn’t really a planet.

Pluto (seen from Charon)

How Big is Pluto ?

WHAT’S OUT THEREBEYONDPLUTO ??

Trans-Neptune Objects (TNOs)

Thanks to Marty Mulroe

Eris – a dwarf planet(formerly 2003 UB313)

Eris and Dysnomia

Thanks to Marty Mulroe

Sedna (Nov 2003)

Oort Cloud = Comets

Orbit of a Comet

Comet

Tail of a Comet