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Planets
- 1. The Planets A QuickTour, With Lots of Pictures!
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- 3. Start With SwirlingGas & Dust Started about 4.6 billion years ago Gravity starts to pull it into a disc. Sun forms at the middle Planets pull together in orbits “Wind” from the sun blows out most of what's left. You’ve got a solar system! (100 million years or so)
- 4. The Sun Holds the solar system together (gravity!) Contains over 99% of the solar system's mass (“stuff”) Runs on nuclear fusion Has solar flares, coronal mass ejections Core: 27 million degrees Surface: 10,000 degrees Corona: 3.5 million degrees
- 5. Solar eruption, 12/31/2012 See the video at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/solar-ballet2.html
- 6. Comparing the Planets Howfar apart are they? See: http://www.northern-stars.com/solar_system_distance_scal.htm
- 7. Mercury Closest planet to the sun (29-43 million miles) Hot on one side (800 degrees), cold on the other (-290 degrees) Slightly larger than our moon Almost no atmosphere, but there is ice! 1 day there = 58.7 earth days 1 year there = 88 earth days 50 lb kid here = 19 lbs there
- 9. Venus HOT! 880 degrees “Super dense atmosphere: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, sulfuric acid. Just a little smaller than Earth. Spins backwards! The sun rises in the west, sets in east 50 lb kid on Earth = 45.5 lbs there. One year there = 243 days here One day there = 117 days here Landers last about 2 hours--then the atmosphere destroys them! http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-venus-m
- 10. Double Vortex Looks like two hurricanes right next to each other! Located at Venus' north pole
- 11. Venus' Transit of2012 http://player.vimeo.com/video/43696319
- 12. Earth: You knowthis place! About 93 million miles from the sun Our atmosphere and magnetic field keep us safe from solar wind, radiation, etc. 1 year = 365.25 days 1 day = 23.93 hours We've got a moon!
- 13. How we gotthe moon (maybe) “Giant impactor theory”
- 14. Mars Averages 143 million miles from the Sun About ½ as large as Earth Thin atmosphere, very cold! “Rusty,” surface makes it look red Two moons (captured asteroids?) Craters, volcanoes, ice (used to have rivers/oceans?) Lots of rovers/landers: Curiosity is the most recent
- 15. Cool stuff onMars Olympus Mons (the largest volcano in the solar system!)
- 16. Vallis Marinaris Giant canyon 2500 miles long, 310 miles wide, 4 miles deep 10 times longer 3 times deeper than the Grand Canyon! Thought to have been made by “rift faults,” possibly deepened by flowing water.
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- 18. Jupiter • The largestplanet: 1300 times larger than earth! • About 480 million miles from the sun • First of the gas giants—mostly hydrogen & helium (may have a solid core) • Intense weather! Red spot = 300 year-old storm! • 63 moons • Very thin rings • 1 year=almost 12 earth years • 1 day = about 10 hours • 50 pound kid would weigh 125 pounds!
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- 20. Saturn • Second largestplanet • About 885 million miles from the sun • Rings! Made mostly of ice, 3/5 mile thick. • Comets, asteroids & broken-up moons • 53 moons •
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- 22. Uranus • “Tipped over”in its orbit (hit by a planet?) • About 1.8 billion miles from sun • 63 times larger than earth • Blue because of methane gas • Pretty cold: -357 degrees! • 50 lb kid = 45 lbs on Uranus • 27 moons, very thin rings
- 23. Neptune • About 2.8billion miles from the sun • Also blue from methane • 1 year = 164 years • 1 day = 16 hours • COLD: -353 degrees • 50 lb kid = 57 lbs
- 24. Great Dark Spots •Storms, like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot • Don't last as long as the GRS
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- 26. Dwarf Planets Ceres, Pluto,Eris, Makemake and Haumea Don't quite make it as full “planets May Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. be over 100!
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