The Solar System

Our Solar SystemIn order

1. Mercury

2. Venus

3. Earth

4. Mars

5. Asteroid Belt

6. Jupiter

7. Saturn

8. Uranus

9. Neptune

10. Kuiper Belt

11. Oort Cloud

Terrestrial Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars

1. All have a rocky crust, a denser mantle, and a very dense core

The Jovian Planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

1. A solid rock core

2. A liquid mantle

3. An outer gas layer

4. A ring system

Mercury: Closest to the Sun 1 solar orbit takes 88 days Rotates on axis every 58.6

days Temperatures range from

425 degrees C to -150 degrees C

Venus: The 2nd Planet Atmosphere is made of sulfuric

acid clouds and CO2

Surface is covered in faults, lava, and volcanoes

Temperatures in excess of

480 degrees C

Mars: 4th from the Sun Has polar ice caps made

mainly of CO2

27 degrees C during the day

-125 degrees C at night

Orbits the sun every 637 days

Jupiter: The 5th Planet Takes 11.9 years to orbit the

sun

Surface is made of alternating light/dark bands of gas

Saturn: The 6th Planet 29.7 years to orbit the sun

Known for its rings, which are made of rock and ice

Uranus: The 7th Planet Takes 84 years to orbit

the sun

-200 degrees C

Neptune: The 8th Planet 165 years to orbit the sun

Gives off 2.7 times more

heat than it receives

Fastest wind in the solar system (2200 km/hr)

Asteroid Belt Asteroid: Solid rock

masses floating in space

Asteroid Belt: Zone of multiple asteroids between Mars and Jupiter

Kuiper Belt Area of objects from the orbit of Neptune (30.1 AU) to

50 Au from the sun

Smaller objects, hard to see and identify (size & light)

The Oort Cloud Outer most area of our solar

system

50,000AU to 100,000AU distance from the sun

Spherical cloud of comets

Comets A mass of rock, gas, and

dust that orbits the sun

Usually has a highly elliptical orbit

Tail is caused by solar wind flying past the body of the comet

Meteors, Meteoroids, & Meteorites

Meteoroids are any rock or ice fragment traveling in space

A meteor is the light made when a meteoroid passes through our atmosphere

A meteorite is any piece of a meteoroid that survives its trip through the atmosphere and hits our surface