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TheSolarSystem
1star
98planets
63(major)moons
asteroids,comets,meteoroids
Earth
Earth is the only known habitable planet in the
universe. It is about 12,700 km in diameter its
mass, 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
kilograms about 4.55 billion years old. Earths
moon is the third largest in the Solar System,
after Ganymede and Titan.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar
System. Its mass is approximately 317 times
the mass of Earth, yet it is 1,317 times the
volume of Earth. Jupiter's atmosphere is made
of about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium by
volume. Jupiter has the most moons of any
planet in the Solar System-63 to be exact. The
four main moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede
and Callisto.
ThedistancestoplanetsareknownfromKeplersLaws
distances
(oncecalibratedwithradarrangingtoVenus)
Howareplanetsizesdetermined?
Measureangularsizeonsky,
Thenusegeometry..
Massesdeterminedthroughobservingthegravitationaleffectofthe
Masses
planetonsomenearbyobject(moons,nearbyplanets,satellites)
Densitydividemassbyvolume
Density
Planetsorbitthe
suncounter
clockwiseasseen
fromtheNorth
CelestialPole.
Allplanetsare
inthesameorbital
planeEXCEPT
Mercuryand
Pluto.
TerrestrialPlanets
Mercury,Venus,Earth
andMars
ClosetoSun
Smallmasses,radii
Rocky,solidsurfaces
Highdensities
Slowrotation
Weakmagneticfield
Norings
Fewmoons
JovianPlanets
Jupiter,Saturn,
Uranus,andNeptune
FarfromSun
Largemassesandradii
Gaseoussurface
Lowdensities
Fastrotation
Strongmagneticfield
Manyrings
Manymoons
Asteroidsizesrangefrom100mtoabout1000km
Asteroidsizes
Theyarecomposedofcarbon
orironandotherrocky
iron
material.
TheAsteroidbeltisagroupof
rocksthatappeartohavenever
joinedtomakeaplanet.Whydo
wethinkthis?
Toolittlemasstobeaplanet
Asteriodshavedifferentchemical
compositions
ItsallJupitersfault..
Knownasteroidimpactsites