the inner planets mercury closest planet to the sun surface has many craters and looks like the moon...
TRANSCRIPT
The Inner Planets
Mercury
• Closest planet to the sun• Surface has many craters and looks like the moon• Cliffs that may have formed from the iron rich core to
cool and contract causing the crust to shrink • Very little gravity• Gases that could form an atmosphere easily escape • Thin atmosphere made of sodium, potassium,
helium, and hydrogen • 450* C during day, -170* at night
Venus
• 2nd planet from the sun• Similar size and mass of the earth• Atmosphere has 90 x the pressure then
the earth • Made up of mostly carbon dioxide • Clouds contain droplets of sulfuric acid,
give them a yellowish look.• Solar energy is trapped by atmosphere,
temp. can reach 470* C
Earth
• 3rd Planet from the sun • Average distance from the sun is 150 million
kilometers. (93 million Miles) • Surface temp. of earth allows water to exist in all
three states (solids, liquids, and gas)• • Ozone, ( O3) exists in the layer of the
atmosphere known as the stratosphere• Ozone protects life from the ultraviolet radiation
Mars
• The fourth planet from the sun • Red planet because of the iron oxide in the
rocks • Contains the largest volcano in the solar system
(Olympus Mons)• Large rift, zones have formed in the Martian
Crust• Has two polar ice caps that change in size
– Northern pole – Water ice– South Pole – Frozen carbon dioxide
• Mars is 55 million Km at the closest point to the earth (34,182,722 miles)
• Would take 3 years to get to mars • Two moons – Phobos and Deimos• Long channels in the surface – Flowing water• Atmosphere is made up of Carbon Dioxide,
nitrogen, argon– Much thinner then ours
Outer Planets
Jupiter
• 5th planet from the sun
• Largest planet Has a faint ring around it
• Composed of mostly gases and liquid hydrogen, helium and some ammonia, methane and water vapor
• Great Red Spot (large hurricane)
• 28 moons– Four largest, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and
Callisto– Gallileo discovered them in 1610– Volcanoes continually erupt on Io– Ocean of liquid water is hypothesized to exist
under the ice crust of Europa
Saturn
• Sixth planet from the sun
• Ringed planet
• Second largest
• Has the lowest density, so low that the planet would float on water
• Gaseous planet
• Atmosphere composed of hydrogen and helium
• Has several broad rings made of ice and rocks
• At least 30 moons orbit Saturn, the largest being Titan
• The environment on Titan might be similar to the environment on earth before oxygen became a major atmospheric gas
Uranus
• Seventh planet from the sun
• 21 moons and additional satellites
• Has a system of thin, dark rings
• Atmosphere is composed of hydrogen, helium, and some methane gives the planet a distinctive bluish green color
• Axis of rotation is tilted on its side
Neptune
• Is the 8th planet from the sun most of the time
• Methane in its atmosphere give neptune its blue green color
• Outer layer changes from gas to a slushlike layer (melted ice) towards the interior
• Towards the interior, this slushy material is thought to change into a solid
• Has a great dark spot
• Winds in the gaseous portion exceed speeds of 2400 km per hour
• Eight moons – Triton is the most unique– Has a great geyser that shoot gaseous
nitrogen into space
• Also has rings that are thin in some places and thick in other places
Pluto
• Is the farthest from the sun then any other planets during most of its orbit
• Dense atmosphere, only outer planet with a solid rocky surface
• Some people feel that Pluto was a moon that escaped from its orbit around Neptune
• Only moon – Charon (considered the double planet)
Sedna
• 10 planet from the sun • It is twice as far from the sun as any other solar
system object and three times farther than Pluto or Neptune.
• the orbit of Sedna is extreme elliptical • it takes 10,500 years to circle the sun. • On 15 March 2004, Sedna was discovered• the surface temperature is about 400 degrees
below zero Farenheit • Sedna is at most about 1800 km in diameter
