Our Solar System - Team Pink Lincoln Middle...

Our Solar System

Rick Varner

Goddard Space Flight Center

Greenbelt , MD

If the Earth was the size of a pea…

SunEarth

50

The Sun would be a beach ball

Yankee Stadium, NYC

Earth

Sun

Pluto

4 kilo

Nearest

Star

Our

Solar System

New York City, USA Tokyo,

Japan

If Pluto’s orbit fit into a tea cup, then the Milky Way would cover North America

Goals for Scale Activity:You will understand the relative

distances between the Sun, planets,

and small objects in the Solar

System.

Objective: To create a model

demonstrating the scale distances

of the Solar System using

astronomical units that have been

converted into a scale.For Practice: we will use astronomical units that have been converted into a 10

What is an

Astronomical Unit?

astronomical: as·tro·nom·i·cal

\ˌas-trə-ˈnä-mi-kəl\

Adjective, 1556

1 : of or relating to astronomy

<astronomical observations>

2: enormously or inconceivably large or great

<astronomical numbers>

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

What is an

Astronomical Unit?

unit: unit

\ˈyü-nət\

noun, 1570

a determinate quantity (as of length, time,

heat, or value) adopted as a standard of

measurement: as a: an amount of work used in

education in calculating student credits

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

What is an

Astronomical Unit?

150,000,000 km = 1AU

Sun 0.0 x 10cm =

Mercury 0.4 x 10cm =

Venus 0.7 x 10cm =

Earth 1.0 x 10cm =

Mars 1.5 x 10cm =

Ceres &

Asteroid belt 2.8 x 10cm =

Solar System Scale in

Object A.U. Centimeters

AU = the distance FROM THE SUN

Remember to measure from the Sun each time!

Jupiter 5.0 x 10cm =

Saturn 10.0 x 10cm =

Uranus 19.0 x 10cm =

Neptune 30.0 x 10cm =

Pluto 39.0 x 10cm =

Haumea 50.0 x 10cm =

Makemake 53.0 x 10cm =

Eris 97.5 x 10cm =

Solar System Scale in

Object A.U. Centimeters

AU = the distance FROM THE SUN

Planet AU Scale Cm Scale

Sun 0.0 AU _________cm

Mercury 0.4 AU _________cm

Venus 0.7 AU _________cm

Earth 1.0 AU _________cm

Mars 1.5 AU _________cm

Asteroids 2.8 AU _________cmJupiter 5.0 AU _________cm

Saturn 10.0 AU _________cm

Uranus 19.0 AU _________cm

Neptune 30.0 AU _________cm

Pluto 39.0 AU _________cm

047

10152850

100190300390

THE SUN

Sun

0.0 AU

Gravity: 28 times the earth! 100lbs = 2,800lbs

Light travels 186,000 miles per second

8 min 20 sec to reach the earth

MERCURY

Mercury has very

little atmosphere to

stop impacts, thus

has many craters.

The atmosphere

contains helium,

hydrogen, oxygen,

sodium, calcium,

potassium and water

vapor.Gravity 0.4 times the earth!

100lbs = 40lbs

Mercury

0.4 AU

Rotation (Day):

58.6 Earth days

Revolution (Year):

88.0 Earth days

Sunny side may reach 750 to 800 degrees F

Nighttime temperature plummets to nearly

-330 degrees F

VENUSVenus' thick, toxic

atmosphere traps

heat in a runaway

"greenhouse effect."

Venus has a thick,

poisonous

atmosphere of carbon

dioxide and sulfuric

acid. Thick clouds

hide a surface

covered with lava

flows, quake faults

and impact craters.

Gravity 0.9 times the earth!

100lbs = 90lbs

Venus

0.7 AU

243 Earth days

(spins backwards

compared to most

other planets)

Rotation (Day)

Revolution(Year) 224.7 Earth days

Sulfur deposits give

yellow tone to planet

Earth

1.0 AU

100lbs = 100lbs

Rotation (Day)

1 day (24 hrs)

Revolution(Year)

365 Earth days

Atmosphere consists of 78%

nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1%

other ingredients.

Moon

Rotation (Day)

27.32 Earth days

Revolution(Year)

27.32 Earth days


100lbs = 17lbs

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Currently orbiting and returning HD data

Apollo Moon

Program

MARSMars’s atmosphere is too thin

for liquid water to exist for long

on the surface.

It is composed primarily of

carbon dioxide with small

amounts of other gases. The six

most common components of

the atmosphere are:･Carbon

Dioxide (CO2): 95.32%･Nitrogen

(N2): 2.7%･Argon (Ar): 1.6%･Oxygen (O2): 0.13%･Water

(H2O): 0.03%･Neon (Ne):

0.00025 %

Surface: desert

like, red sand,

rusty rock

Mars

1.5 AU

Rotation (Day) 24.6

Earth hours

Revolution(Year)

686.980 Earth days


100lbs = 40lbs

Average

Temperature:

-125 to 23 °F

• Mars Odyssey orbiter, the longest-serving of six

spacecraft now studying Mars infrared mapping of

Martian minerals (2001)

• NASA is participating in a mission of the European

Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency called

Mars Express, which has been exploring the

atmosphere and surface of Mars from polar orbit

since arriving at the red planet in 2003.

• January 2004, two robotic geologists named Spirit

and Opportunity landed on opposite sides of the red

planet.

• NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched in

August, 2005, carries the most powerful camera ever

flown on a planetary exploration mission for homing

in on details of Martian terrain with extraordinary

clarity.

• During 2008, Phoenix landed farther north than

any previous mission, at a latitude equivalent to

that of northern Alaska. It brought back images

of water ice on the surface and the possibility

that Mars has winter-like snows.

• Twice as long and three times as heavy as the

Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity,

the Mars Science Laboratory will collect Martian

soil and rock samples and analyze them for

organic compounds and environmental

conditions that could have supported microbial

life now or in the past.

ASTEROID BELT

• located between Mars and Jupiter

• roughly 2 - 4 AU from the Sun

Largest

Asteroid:

Ceres

2.8 AU

Asteroid Belt

Largest of the asteroids,

redefined as a “dwarf planet”in 2006

All of the

asteroids

make up less

material than

the Moon

Dawn mission to

reach Vesta

in July 2011

JUPITER

Jupiter’s atmosphere

is about 90%

hydrogen and 10%

with traces of

methane, water,

ammonia and "rock".

This is very close to

the composition of a

star.

63 moons

23 more

discovered in

2003!

Jupiter

5.0 AU

Rotation (Day) 9.8

Earth hours

Revolution(Year)

11.9 Earth Years

Gravity 2.5 times the earth! 100lbs = 250lbs

The Great Red Spot is a hurricane

like storm twice as big as the earth

and around three Earth diameters

across.

SATURNThe atmosphere on

Saturn is primarily

composed of hydrogen,

with small amounts of

helium and methane.

Saturn is the only planet

in our solar system that

is less dense than water.

Saturn is well known for

its beautiful ring system,

which are composed of

millions of particles and

large chunks of ice and

snow.

Saturn

10.0 AU

Rotation (Day) 10.23

Earth hours

Revolution(Year)

29.5 Earth Years


Spins so fast, it flattens out a little at

the poles. Winds 1,100 mph!

URANUSThe atmosphere of Uranus is


helium, and methane.

The methane in the

atmosphere absorbs red light,

giving the planet a blue-green

color.

Uranus is considered unusual

because the planet is tipped

on its side. The poles actually

point towards the Sun.

Uranus has rings that are composed of fine dust, rocks,

and ice boulders. The rings are very faint and were

discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus.

Uranus

19.0 AU

Rotation (Day)

17.3 Earth hours

Revolution(Year)

84 Earth Years


It rolls around its orbit &

spins backward like Venus!

NEPTUNENeptune is a gas planet,


helium, methane, with traces

of ammonia and water.

The blue color of the planet is

due to the absorption of red

light by methane in the

atmosphere.

The only spacecraft ever to

visit Neptune was the

Voyager 2 in 1989.

Rotation (Day) 18

Earth hours

Revolution(Year)

164.83 Earth Years


Scientists believe the winds on Neptune

blow at 1,200 mph!

Neptune

30.0 AU

Trans-Neptunian Objects

orbiting in the Kuiper Belt

7.5 to 9.3 Billion Miles from the Sun!

In the 1950’s, Jan Oort & Gerard Kuiper presented the

idea that this material exists.

Proven in the 1980’s!

Criteria for a dwarf planet• The International Astronomical Union

decided in 2006 that a new system of

classification was needed to describe

Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres, the

first dwarf planets.

• Unlike planets, dwarf planets lack the

gravitational strength to sweep up or

scatter objects near their orbits. They

end up orbiting the sun in zones of

similar objects such as the asteroid and

Kuiper belts.

PLUTO: a dwarf planet

PLUTO

CHARON

Recently, redefined as a “dwarf

planet”

New Horizons will visit Pluto in 2015

(launched in 2006)http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html

The smallest, coldest, and most

distant planet from the Sun

Pluto

39.0 AU

Rotation (Day)

6.39 Earth Days

Revolution(Year)

247.7 Earth Years


50.0AU

Haumea

50.0 AU

Haumea: a dwarf planet

Haumea rotates like a

football end over end.

Discovered

in 2003

with 2

moons

discovered

in 2005.

53.0 AU

Makemake

53.0 AU

Makemake: a dwarf planet

Discovered in

2005

A fuzzy color image of

Makemake (NASA)

Makemake is located in the Kuiper Belt,

a region outside the orbit of Neptune.

Astronomers believe it is slightly smaller

than Pluto. It takes 310 Earth years for

this dwarf planet to make one orbit

around our Sun.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?IM_ID=10804

Dysnomia -

(moon of Eris)

Eris

Eris: a dwarf planet

Using Hubble data calculated

Eris to be 27% more massive

than Pluto.

97.5 AU

Image Credit: W. M. Keck Observatory Discovered in 2003

http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/video_c

ategory/solar%20system/saturn/

http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/ninepla

nets.html#toc

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/contacts.html

http://mars.sgi.com/worlds/CyberMarz/planets.html

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