planets
TRANSCRIPT
The Planets
A Quick Tour, With Lots of Pictures!
We are here!
Started about 4.6 billion years ago Gravity starts to pull it into a disc. Sun forms at the middle Planets pull together in orbits “Wind” from the sun blows out most of what's
left. You’ve got a solar system! (100 million years or
so)
Start With Swirling Gas & Dust
The Sun Holds the solar system together
(gravity!)
Contains over 99% of the solar system's mass (“stuff”)
Runs on nuclear fusion
Has solar flares, coronal mass ejections
Core: 27 million degreesSurface: 10,000 degreesCorona: 3.5 million degrees
Solar eruption, 12/31/2012See the video at:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/solar-ballet2.html
Comparing the Planets
How far apart are they? See:http://www.northern-stars.com/solar_system_distance_scal.htm
Mercury
Closest planet to the sun (29-43 million miles)
Hot on one side (800 degrees), cold on the other (-290 degrees)
Slightly larger than our moon
Almost no atmosphere, but there is ice!
1 day there = 58.7 earth days
1 year there = 88 earth days
50 lb kid here = 19 lbs there
Venus HOT! 880 degrees
“Super dense atmosphere: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfuric acid.
Just a little smaller than Earth.
Spins backwards! The sun rises in the west, sets in east
50 lb kid on Earth = 45.5 lbs there.
One year there = 243 days here
One day there = 117 days here
Landers last about 2 hours--then the atmosphere destroys them!
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-venus-mercury.html
Double Vortex
Looks like two hurricanes right next to each other!
Located at Venus' north pole
Venus' Transit of 2012
http://player.vimeo.com/video/43696319
Earth: You know this place!
About 93 million miles from the sun
Our atmosphere and magnetic field keep us safe from solar wind, radiation, etc.
1 year = 365.25 days
1 day = 23.93 hours
We've got a moon!
How we got the moon (maybe)
“Giant impactor theory”
Mars Averages 143 million miles from the Sun
About ½ as large as Earth
Thin atmosphere, very cold!
“Rusty,” surface makes it look red
Two moons (captured asteroids?)
Craters, volcanoes, ice (used to have rivers/oceans?)
Lots of rovers/landers: Curiosity is the most recent
Cool stuff on Mars
Olympus Mons (the largest volcano in the solar system!)
Vallis Marinaris
Giant canyon
2500 miles long, 310 miles wide, 4 miles deep
10 times longer3 times deeperthan the Grand Canyon!
Thought to have been made by “rift faults,” possibly deepened by flowing water.
Polar Ice Caps
Jupiter
• The largest planet: 1300 times larger than earth!
• About 480 million miles from the sun
• First of the gas giants—mostly hydrogen & helium (may have a solid core)
• Intense weather! Red spot = 300 year-old storm!
• 63 moons
• Very thin rings
• 1 year=almost 12 earth years
• 1 day = about 10 hours
• 50 pound kid would weigh 125 pounds!
Comet impact (1994)
Saturn
• Second largest planet
• About 885 million miles from the sun
• Rings! Made mostly of ice, 3/5 mile thick.
• Comets, asteroids & broken-up moons
• 53 moons
•
Rings: Close up
Uranus
• “Tipped over” in its orbit (hit by a planet?)
• About 1.8 billion miles from sun
• 63 times larger than earth
• Blue because of methane gas
• Pretty cold: -357 degrees!
• 50 lb kid = 45 lbs on Uranus
• 27 moons, very thin rings
Neptune
• About 2.8 billion miles from the sun
• Also blue from methane
• 1 year = 164 years
• 1 day = 16 hours
• COLD: -353 degrees
• 50 lb kid = 57 lbs
Great Dark Spots
• Storms, like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
• Don't last as long as the GRS
What about Pluto?
Dwarf Planets
Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea.
Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea
Don't quite make it as full “planets
May be over 100!
More Infohttp://solarsystem.nasa.gov