Science Handbook

Our Solar Systems

Composed by Ms. Fika

Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it
by gravity – the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune; dwarf planets such as Pluto; dozens of moons; and millions of
asteroids, comets, and meteoroids. The Sun is located at the center of the
solar system, around which the other planets revolve.

Celestial bodies are generally classified into three categories:

1. Planets:
A celestial body is classified as a planet if it meets the following
criteria:
 It orbits the Sun.
 Its orbit is free from the presence of other celestial bodies or
obstacles.
 It has a round or nearly round physical shape.
2. Dwarf planets
A celestial body is considered a dwarf planet if it satisfies the following
conditions:
 It orbits the Sun.
 It has a round or nearly round physical shape.
  It is not a satellite of another planet.
 Its orbit is not crowded with other celestial bodies.
3. Other small objects in the solar system
Besides planets, the Sun, and satellites, there are several other celestial
bodies in the solar system that play a secondary role. These include
asteroids, comets, trans-Neptunian objects, and other small bodies.

MERCURY: THE CLOSEST PLANET TO THE SUN

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and the smallest planet in the solar
system — it is only a little larger than Earth's moon. Mercury zips around the
sun in only 88 days and because it is so close to our star (about two-fifths the
distance between Earth and the sun).

Mercury experiences dramatic changes in its day and night

temperatures. Mercury temperatures can reach a scorching 840 F (450 C) in
the day, which is hot enough to melt lead. Meanwhile, on the night side,
temperatures drop to minus 290 F (minus 180 C).

MERCURY FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye

- Named for the messenger of the Roman gods

- Diameter: 3,031 miles (4,878 km)

- Orbit: 88 Earth days

- Day: 58.6 Earth days

- Number of moons: 0
Mercury's atmosphere is very thin and primarily composed of oxygen, sodium,
hydrogen, helium and potassium. Because the atmosphere is so thin it cannot
incoming meteors, its surface is therefore pockmarked with craters, just like
our moon.

Over its four-year mission, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft revealed

incredible discoveries that challenged astronomers' expectations. Among
those findings was the discovery of water ice and frozen organic compounds
at Mercury's north pole and that volcanism played a major role in shaping the
planet's surface.

VENUS: EARTH'S SOLAR SYSTEM TWIN

Venus is the second planet from the sun and is the hottest planet in the solar
system. Its thick atmosphere is extremely toxic and composed of sulfuric acid
clouds, the planet is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect.

VENUS FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye

- Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty

- Diameter: 7,521 miles (12,104 km)

- Orbit: 225 Earth days

- Day: 241 Earth days

- Number of moons: 0

The average temperature on Venus' surface is 900 F (465 C). At 92 bar, the
pressure at the surface would crush and kill you. And oddly, Venus spins
slowly from east to west, the opposite direction of most of the other planets.
Venus is sometimes referred to as Earth's twin as they are similar in size and
radar images beneath its atmosphere reveal numerous mountains and
volcanoes. But beyond that, the planets could not be more different.

The Greeks believed Venus was two different objects — one in the morning
sky and another in the evening. Because it is often brighter than any other
object in the sky, Venus has generated many UFO reports.

EARTH: OUR HOME PLANET, FILLED WITH LIFE

Earth, our home planet, is the third planet from the sun. It is a water world with
two-thirds of the planet covered by water. Earth's atmosphere is rich in
nitrogen and oxygen and it is the only world known to harbor life.

EARTH FACTS
- Name originates from "Die Erde," the German word for "the ground."

- Diameter: 7,926 miles (12,760 km)

- Orbit: 365.24 days

- Day: 23 hours, 56 minutes

- Number of moons: 1

Earth rotates on its axis at 1,532 feet per second (467 meters per second) —
slightly more than 1,000 mph (1,600 kph) — at the equator. The planet zips
around the sun at more than 18 miles per second (29 km per second).
 MARS: THE SOLAR SYSTEM'S RED PLANET

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is a cold, desert-like planet covered
in iron oxide dust that gives the planet its signature red hue. Mars shares
similarities with Earth: It is rocky, has mountains, valleys and canyons, and
storm systems ranging from localized tornado-like dust devils to planet-
engulfing dust storms.

Substantial scientific evidence suggests that Mars at one point billions of

years ago was a much warmer, wetter world, rivers and maybe even oceans
existed. Although Mars' atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist on the
surface for any length of time, remnants of that wetter Mars still exist today.
Sheets of water ice the size of California lie beneath Mars' surface, and at
both poles are ice caps made in part of frozen water.

MARS FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye

- Named for the Roman god of war

- Diameter: 4,217 miles (6,787 km)

- Day: Just more than one Earth day (24 hours, 37 minutes)

- Number of moons: 2

Scientists also think ancient Mars would have had the conditions to support
life like bacteria and other microbes. Hope that signs of this past life — and
the possibility of even current lifeforms — may exist on the Red Planet has
driven numerous Mars missions and the Red Planet is now one of the most
explored planets in the solar system.

THE ASTEROID BELT

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt. Asteroids are minor planets,
and according to NASA there are approximately between 1.1 and 1.9 million
asteroids in the main asteroid belt larger than 0.6 miles (1 km) in diameter and
millions more smaller asteroids.

The dwarf planet Ceres, about 590 miles (950 km) in diameter, resides here.
A number of asteroids have orbits that take them closer into the solar system
that sometimes lead them to collide with Earth or the other inner planets.

JUPITER: THE LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet in the solar
system. The gas giant is more than twice as massive as all the other planets
combined, according to NASA.

JUPITER FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye

- Named for the ruler of the Roman gods

- Diameter: 86,881 miles (139,822 km)

- Orbit: 11.9 Earth years

- Day: 9.8 Earth hours

- Number of moons: 79 (53 confirmed, 26 provisional)

Its swirling clouds are colorful due to different types of trace gases including
ammonia ice, ammonium hydrosulfide crystals as well as water ice and
vapor.

A famous feature in its swirling clouds is Jupiter's Great Red Spot, a giant
storm more than 10,000 miles wide, first observed in 1831 by amateur
astronomer Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. It has raged at more than 400 mph for
the last 150 years, at least.

Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and with 75 moons, including the largest
moon in the solar system, Ganymede.

SATURN: THE RINGED JEWEL OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and is famous for its large and
distinct ring system. Though Saturn is not the only planet in the solar system
with rings.

SATURN FACTS
- Discovery: Known to the ancient Greeks and visible to the naked eye

- Named for Roman god of agriculture

- Diameter: 74,900 miles (120,500 km)

- Orbit: 29.5 Earth years

- Day: About 10.5 Earth hours

- Number of moons: 82 (53 confirmed, 29 provisional)

DID YOU KNOW?

If you put Saturn in a bathtub it would float as Saturn has an average density that is less
than water. You'd just need to find a bathtub big enough…

When polymath Galileo Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he
thought it was an object with three parts: a planet and two large moons on
either side. Not knowing he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped
astronomer entered a small drawing — a symbol with one large circle and two
smaller ones — in his notebook, as a noun in a sentence describing his
discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they
were rings.

The rings are made of ice and rock and scientists are not yet sure how they
formed. The gaseous planet is mostly hydrogen and helium and
has numerous moons.

URANUS: THE TILTED, SIDEWAYS PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun and is a bit of an oddball.It has
clouds made of hydrogen sulfide, the same chemical that makes rotten eggs
smell so foul. It rotates from east to west like Venus. But unlike Venus or any
other planet, its equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit — it basically orbits
on its side.

URANUS FACTS
- Discovery: 1781 by William Herschel (was originally thought to be a star)

- Named for the personification of heaven in ancient myth

- Diameter: 31,763 miles (51,120 km)

- Orbit: 84 Earth years

- Day: 18 Earth hours

- Number of moons: 27

Astronomers believe an object twice the size of Earth collided with Uranus
roughly 4 billion years ago, causing Uranus to tilt. That tilt causes extreme
seasons that last 20-plus years, and the sun beats down on one pole or the
other for 84 Earth-years at a time.

The collision is also thought to have knocked rock and ice into Uranus' orbit.
These later became some of the planet's 27 moons. Methane in Uranus'
atmosphere gives the planet its blue-green tint. It also has 13 sets of faint
rings.

Uranus holds the record for the coldest temperature ever measured in the
solar system — minus 371.56 degrees F (minus 224.2 degrees C). The
average temperature of Uranus is minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit (-195
degrees Celsius).
 NEPTUNE: A GIANT, STORMY BLUE PLANET

Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun and is on average the coldest
planet in the solar system. The average temperature of Neptune at the top of
the clouds is minus 346 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 210 degrees Celsius).

NEPTUNE FACTS
- Discovery: 1846

- Named for the Roman god of water

- Diameter: 30,775 miles (49,530 km)

- Orbit: 165 Earth years

- Day: 19 Earth hours

- Number of moons: 14

Neptune is approximately the same size as Uranus and is known for its
supersonic strong winds. The planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun
as Earth.

Neptune was the first planet predicted to exist by using math, rather than
being visually detected. Irregularities in the orbit of Uranus led French
astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest some other planet might be exerting a
gravitational tug. German astronomer Johann Galle used calculations to help
find Neptune in a telescope. Neptune is about 17 times as massive as Earth
and has a rocky core.
 TRANS-NEPTUNIAN REGION
Astronomers had long suspected that a band of icy material known as the
Kuiper Belt existed past the orbit of Neptune extending from about 30 to 55
times the distance of Earth to the sun, and from the last decade of the 20th
century up to now, they have found more than a thousand of such objects.
Scientists estimate the Kuiper Belt is likely home to hundreds of thousands of
icy bodies larger than 60 miles (100 km) wide, as well as an estimated trillion
or more comets.

Pluto, now considered a dwarf planet, dwells in the Kuiper Belt. It is not alone
— recent additions include Makemake, Haumea and Eris. Another Kuiper Belt
object dubbed Quaoar is probably massive enough to be considered a dwarf
planet, but it has not been classified as such yet. Sedna, which is about three-
fourths the size of Pluto, is the first dwarf planet discovered in the Oort Cloud.
NASA's New Horizons mission performed history's first flyby of the Pluto
system on July 14, 2015.

PLUTO: ONCE A PLANET, NOW A DWARF PLANET

Pluto was once the ninth planet from the sun and is unlike any other planet in
the solar system.

PLUTO FACTS
- Discovery: 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh

- Named for the Roman god of the underworld, Hades

- Diameter: 1,430 miles (2,301 km)

 - Orbit: 248 Earth years

- Day: 6.4 Earth days

- Number of moons: 5

It is smaller than Earth's moon; its orbit is highly elliptical, falling inside
Neptune's orbit at some points and far beyond it at others; and Pluto's orbit
doesn't fall on the same plane as all the other planets — instead, it orbits
17.1 degrees above or below.

It is smaller than Earth's moon; its orbit is highly elliptical, falling inside
Neptune's orbit at some points and far beyond it at others; and Pluto's orbit
doesn't fall on the same plane as all the other planets — instead, it orbits 17.1
degrees above or below, taking 288 years to complete a single orbit according
to ESA.

From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had been the eighth planet from the sun.
Then, on Feb. 11, 1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again became
the solar system's most distant planet — until it was redefined as a dwarf
planet. It's a cold, rocky world with a tenuous atmosphere.

Scientists thought it might be nothing more than a hunk of rock on the

outskirts of the solar system. But when NASA's New Horizons mission
performed history's first flyby of the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, it
transformed scientists' view of Pluto.

Pluto is a very active ice world that's covered in glaciers, mountains of ice
water, icy dunes and possibly even cryovolcanoes that erupt icy lava made of
water, methane or ammonia.