THE SOLAR SYSTEM

a brief introduction

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• All eight planets, excluding Pluto
• The sun
• Our asteroid belt
• The Kuiper belt
• Halley's comet

MERCURY

• 58.65 earth days equal one Mercury day
• A Mercury year is 0.24 of a year on Earth
• Mercury has no moons.
• The distance between the sun and Mercury is 57,910,000 km, or 0.387 A.U.
• Due to Mercury's small size, it has little gravity and almost no atmosphere.

MERCURY

• Mercury is the closest to the sun, yet it is not the hottest planet.
• The hottest planet in the solar system is Venus, covered in the next slide.
• Since Pluto became a dwarf, Mercury has been the smallest planet.

venus

• One day on Venus is 243 Earth days.
• A Venus year 0.62 Earth years.
• Venus has no moons.
• Venus is 108,200,000 km from the sun.
• That distance is 0.723 A.U.

VENUS

• Venus has the highest average surface temp. of any planet.
• Venus is covered in craters and lava fields.
• The features of Venus's landscape are hidden by its thick atmosphere.
• Venus's atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid clouds.

HOME SWEET HOME: earth

• Earth takes 23 hours, 54 min. to rotate.
• Our year is used as the baseline for other planets.
• Earth, as I would hope you know, has one moon.
• Earth is 149,600,000 km from the Sun.
• That distance is what we call an Astronomical Unit.

MORE ON EARTH

• Earth is the only known planet supporting life.
• Earth is the fourth smallest planet in the solar system.
• Planet Earth is covered with about 70% water.
• The next most massive planet after Earth is Neptune, and there is a huge difference.
• Neptune is seventeen times the mass of Earth!

MARS

• A Martian day lasts 24 hours and 36 minutes.
• One year on Mars equals 1.88 Earth years.
• Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos.
• Mars is 227,940,000 km from the Sun.
• That distance is 1.524 A.U.

mars

• Mars was the Roman god of war.
• In mythology, Mars's sons Deimos and Phobos were the gods of terror and fear.
• The names of the Martian moons aren't a coincidence.
• Mars appears red because of the iron oxide in its rusty soil.
• Mars has a very thin atmosphere.

THE ASTEROID BELT

• A ring of irregularly shaped rock stretches around the sun.
• That ring is the asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter.
• It is thought that the asteroid belt is what's left of a broken planet.
• The belt has an asteroid so large, it was formerly a dwarf planet.
• That asteroid is named Ceres, and it is now back to asteroid status.

JUPITER

• A day on Jupiter lasts 9.8 hours.
• A year on Jupiter lasts 12 years.
• Jupiter has a total of 63 moons.
• Jupiter is 778,330,000 km from the sun.
• That's 5.203 A.U.

Jupiter

• Jupiter has the most moons of any planet we know of.
• Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
• Jupiter also sports a huge red spot which looks like a bruise.
• This spot is really a giant storm raging in Jupiter's southern hemisphere.
• Jupiter may have a core about the size of Earth and a half.

Untitled Slide

• A Saturnian day lasts 10.67 hours.
• A Saturnian year lasts 29.5 years.
• Saturn has 62 moons, just less than Jupiter.
• Saturn is 1,424,600,000 km from the sun.
• That's equal to 9.523 A.U.

saturn

• Saturn's rings are mostly made of ice, dust, and rock.
• Saturn is the second biggest planet in the solar system.
• Saturn is not the only planet with rings.
• Neptune and Jupiter both have less noticeable ring systems.
• Uranus has rings, too!

URANUS

• A day on Uranus lasts 17.24 hours.
• It takes 84 years for Uranus to revolve around the sun.
• Uranus has 27 moons.
• Uranus is 2,873,550,000 km from the sun.
• That's 19.208 A.U.

Uranus

• Uranus has a ring system, just like Saturn.
• Uranus, interestingly, rotates on a horizontally tilted axis.
• If you're in the right place and time, a night on Uranus can last nearly 40 years.
• This is because its odd axis angle screws with its day and night cycle.
• I'm holding back a variety of hilarious Uranus jokes for the sake of science.

neptune

• A Neptunian day lasts 17.24 hours.
• Neptune's year is 165 Earth years long.
• Neptune has 13 moons.
• Neptune is 4,501,000,000 km from the sun.
• That equals 30.087 A.U.

NEPTUNE

• Neptune has a Great Dark Spot similar to the red storm on Jupiter.
• Neptune's internal composition is mostly methane ice.
• Neptune has the closest gravity level to Earth in the solar system.
• Neptune's gravity is 17% stronger than Earth's.

the kuiper belt

• The Kuiper Belt is a trans-Neptunian belt of icy space objects.
• There are trillions of objects in the Kuiper Belt.
• The outer edge of the Kuiper Belt lies around 55 A.U.
• In comparison to the rocky asteroid belt, the majority of KBOs are made of ice.

halley's comet

• Halley's comet was a comet in our solar system named after Edmund Halley.
• Halley's comet returns to the near end of its loop every 76 years.
• The comet's orbit can get closer to the sun than Venus.
• The orbit also can reach farther than Neptune.

WHY I DIDN't include pluto

• If something has been officially classified in science, it makes sense to comply.
• Planets are supposed to dominate their orbits. Pluto isn't big enough to clear a path.
• Pluto doesn't have a somewhat regular orbit like other planets.
• Pluto's lopsided elliptical orbit crosses Neptune's orbit, further showing it does not dominate its own.
• Pluto's moon Charon is almost as big as the planet itself.

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