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1. CHAPTER 3
THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE
PLANET EARTH

2. THE SOLAR SYSTEM
 Introduction
 It consists of eight planets and their moons,
asteroids, comets, dwarf planets, and other
assorted objects in the Kuiper belt and the Oort
cloud beyond Neptune
 The inner planets consist of the four rocky,
or terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars, while the outer planets consists of the
two gas giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, and the
two ice giant planets, Uranus, and Neptune

3. THE SOLAR SYSTEM
 Introduction
 Beyond the orbit of the last planet, Neptune, lies
two regions known as the Kuiper belt and the
Oort cloud. The Kuiper belt is the home of dwarf
planets and other small, planet-like bodies. Much
farther out, the Oort cloud is the home of the icy
comets.
 Small bodies like:
 Asteroids – are rocky or metallic objects
 Comets – are small icy bodies; have very long tail
 Meteoroids – are stony and smaller than asteroids;
most are very tiny travelling through space

4. A DAY ON EACH OF THE PLANET

10. THE PLANET EARTH
 It is the third planet from the sun
 It is the fifth largest planet in our solar
system
 Its diameter is 12,756 km in diameter
 It takes 23.93 hours to rotate on its axis
 It takes 365.26 days to orbit around the sun
 Its orbit is 149,600,00 km from the sun
 The earths tilt is what gives us the seasons
of the year
 The earth revolves around the sun at a
speed of 30km/sec.

11. THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH
1. The core – is dense ball of the elements
like iron and nickel
 The inner core is solid about 780 miles thick
 The outer core is the hottest part and is 1,370
miles thick
 The hot metals in the outer core spins around
the inner core which causes the earth’s
magnetism
2. The mantle – middle layer
 It is located above the core
 It is about 1,800 miles thick
 It makes up almost 80% of the earth’s volume

12. THE STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH
3. The crust – the earth’s surface
 It is thinner than the mantle
 It has two parts; the oceanic crust and the
continental crust
 It can be divided into seven pieces, the so called
continents
 Its movement is caused by the convection
current
 The soft part of the crust is where volcanoes
could erupt