The solar system is made up of the eight planets and it also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets and dust and gas.
- Mercury is the planet closest to the sun ,but the smallest planet in the solar system.
- Mercury goes around the sun so quickly it lasts only 88 days.
- Mercury composition is made of approximately 70% metals and 30% silicate material.
- The atmosphere contains small amounts of hydrogen, helium, and oxygen.
VENUS
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Uranus
- it takes Uranus 84 earth days to orbit the sun.
- a collision may have caused the unusual tilt of Uranus the mass of Uranus is about 14.5 times the mass of earth.
- Uranus is often referred to as the "ice giant".
- it only has 13 presently known rings
- is the second dense planet in the solar system and its the coldest planets in our solar system. and Voyager 2 is the only space craft to have flown by it.
- the composition is 82.5% hydrogen ,15.2% helium ,2.3 methane
- uranus rotates on its axis once every 17 hours and 14 min.
EARTH
- Earth is the third planet from the sun.
- The largest of the solar systems four terrestrial planets
- Also the only astronomical object known to harbor life
- Earth's crust is made up of several elements that are:
- The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen,oxygen and other gases that surround Earth.
MARS
- Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest planet planet in the solar system.
- Mars size is 2,106 mi
- The dust that covers the surface of mars is fine like talcum powder. Beneath the layer of dust, the martian crust consists mostly of volcanic basalt rock.
- Mars atmosphere is less than 1% of earths, so it does not protect the planet from the sun's radiation nor does it do much to retain heat at the surface,
- It consists of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and the remainder is trace amounts of oxygen, water vapor, and other gases
Jupiter
- Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in the solar system.
- its a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the sun, but two and a half times that of all the others planets in the solar system combined.
- Jupiter's composition is more of a mystery than anything else.
- The accepted theory holds that it consists of a dense core made of a mixture of elements, the core is thought to be surrounded by a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen and helium then the outer layer is to be dominated by molecular hydrogen.
- The atmosphere its mostly made of molecular hydrogen and helium in roughly solar proportions; other chemical compounds are present only in small amounts and include methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water.
- Jupiter size is 43,441 mi
Saturn
- Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second-largest in the solar system.
- Its a gas giant with an average radius about nine times that of earth.
- Saturn size is 36,184
- Saturn's composition is primarily that of simple molecules such as hydrogen and helium, but there is also ice of ammonia, ice of methane and water ice.
- Saturn is made up predominantly of hydrogen, which it captured in the early stages of its formation. Nitrogen and Oxygen also mix within the atmosphere.
Neptune
- Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the sun in the solar system.
- Its the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third-largest by mass.
- among the giant planets in the solar system, Neptune is the most dense.
- Neptune size is 15,299 mi
- Atmospheric composition: Neptune's atmosphere is composed up of many gases. these gases include hydrogen, helium, and methane. some of the minor gases include trace amounts of hydrogen Deuteride and ethane.
- Pluto is a dwarf planet in the kuiper belt. It was the first kuiper belt object to be discovered. Pluto, once considered the ninth and most distant planet from the sun, is now the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system.
- This group decided that Pluto was not really a planet because of its size and location in space. so Pluto and objects like it are now called dwarf planets.
- Pluto is also called "Plutoid". A Plutoid is a dwarf planet that is farther out in space than the planet Neptune,
THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS
- The solar nebula (gas) contracted, cooled and condensed into dust sized particles that accreted (stuck together as the result of collisions) into protoplanets (asteroid sized bodies) and then larger planets
- the young solar nebula begins to collapse because of gravity.
- as the solar nebula rotates, it flattens and becomes warmer near its center