SOLAR SYSTEM

BY JANVI, EMILY, SOFIA M., MARIIA

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 02 03

Introduction History
… Planets

04 05 06

Regions of the Comets, and Other

Space Exploration
Solar System Phenomena
01 INTRODUCTION
 Introduction
● 8 planets and our Sun
● 5 dwarf planets
● Hundreds of moons
● Thousands of comets
● A million asteroids
● Located in the Milky Way
● The solar system orbits the centre of the galaxy at
about 515,000 mph
● It takes about 230 million years to complete a full
orbit around the galactic center.
02 HISTORY
 History
● Formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a dense cloud of interstellar gas and dust.
● The cloud collapsed possibly due to a shockwave of a near exploding star
(supernova)
● When this star collapsed it formed a solar nebula which is a spinning disk of
material.
● At the centre, gravity pulled more and more material in
● Eventually, the pressure was so great that hydrogen atoms began to combine and
form helium releasing a huge amount of energy. With this our Sun was born.
 History
● Matter farther out in the disk also began clumping together. These clumps
smashed into one another forming larger and larger objects.
● Some grew big enough for their gravity to shape them into a sphere, becoming
planets, dwarf planets and large moons.
● In other cases, planets did not form which led to the formation of the asteroid
belt. The asteroid belt is made of pieces of the early solar system that could
never come together into a planet.
● Other remaining small pieces became asteroids, comets, meteoroids and small
irregular moons.
03 PLANETS
What exactly are they?
 -A planet is a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.

It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood,

the Sun).

How can you tell the

difference between a
planet and a dwarf
It must be big enough to have enough gravity to planet?
force it into a spherical shape.

It must be big enough that its gravity has

cleared away any other objects of a similar size
near its orbit around the Sun.
Terrestrial
/ Rocky
planets

Gas
Giants
 What’s the story behind
Uranus’ moons names?

Moons
A moon is a celestial object that orbits a
planet or a smaller object.
= natural satellites 1 moon
2 moons

- 293 moons, orbiting planets in the solar

system 14 moons

- All planets, except Mercury and Venus

have moons
-
27 moons

More than 470 moons, orbiting smaller

object (“small-body satellites”)

Formed from gas and dust left from the time 92 moons

of formation of the solar system 145 moons

Image source: Universe Today

Terrestrial Planets
 MERCURY
★ Being the closest planet to the sun day temperatures can
reach highs of 800°F (430°C).
★ Surprisingly Mercury's surface temperatures are both
extremely hot and cold.’
★ Mercury is the fastest planet, zipping around the Sun
every 88 Earth days.

VENUS
★ Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and Earth's closest planetary
neighbor.
★ Due to its thick atmosphere traps heat in runaway greenhouse effect,
hence making it the hottest planet in our solar system, with
temperatures hot enough to melt lead.
 EARTH
★ Earth, our home planet, is a world unlike any other. The third
planet from the sun.
★ Earth is composed of four main layers, starting with an
inner core at the planet's center, enveloped by the outer
core, mantle, and crust.

MARS
★ It is frequently called the "Red Planet" because iron minerals in the Martian dirt
oxidize, or rust, causing the surface to look red.
★ NASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer,
with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago.
Gas Giants
 JUPITER
★ Jupiter also known as the failed star, due to its massive size is the largest
planet in our star system.
★ Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm that has been observed for over
three centuries. More than 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) across, it rotates
counterclockwise.

SATURN
★ Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun, and the second largest in
the solar system. It’s surrounded by beautiful rings.
★ Earlier, Jupiter was known as the planet with the most moons,
but in the recent discovery over 62 new moons were found
orbiting Saturn.
 URANUS
Uranus is one of two ice giants in the outer solar system (the other
is Neptune). Most (80% or more) of the planet's mass is made up of
a hot dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane, and ammonia
– above a small rocky core.

NEPTUNE
★ Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune’s atmosphere consists mostly of
hydrogen and helium, but it also has methane that absorbs red
light,giving it a deep blue hue.
★ Beneath the atmosphere lies an ocean of water, ammonia, and
methane, squeezed by intense pressures into a semi-solid state
Introducing the Dwarf Planets
Pluto was long considered our Second brightest
solar system’s ninth planet. object in the kuiper
belt.

One of the largest known One of the fastest rotating Only dwarf planet
dwarf planet in our star large objects in our solar known in our solar
system. system. system.
 REGIONS OF
04 THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
 Kuiper belt

The Asteroid & Kuiper belts are the

two primary regions of the Solar
System where smaller objects are
Asteroid belt
found.
- Consist of rocks and dust
- Differ in sizes and chemical
structure

Objects found in these regions are

considered to be leftovers from
formation of the Solar System that
were not able to form a planet.

Image source: The Journeying Planetarian

The Asteroid Belt
● The asteroid belt is a region of space between the orbits
of Mars and Jupiter where most of the asteroids in our
Solar System are found orbiting the Sun.
○ Probably contains millions of asteroids.
● Ceres, Pallas, and Vesta are the three largest asteroids.
○ The largest asteroid - Ceres (about one-quarter the size
of our moon). It is a dwarf planet.
● Astronomers think that the asteroid belt is made up of
material that was never able to form into a planet, or of
the remains of a planet which broke apart a very long time
ago.
 The Kuiper Belt
● The Kuiper Belt is located at the edge of the
Solar System.
○ Expands beyond the orbit of Neptune
○ Also known as the Trans-Neptunian region
○ While its exact size is unknown, it may be huge
(one of the largest objects in the Solar
System)
● Water, ammonia and methane ice
● Similarly to the Asteroid Belt, the Kuiper Belt is
home to thousands of objects
○ Objects in the Kuiper Belt are called the KBOs
or TNOs - Trans-Neptunian Objects

Image source: NASA

“Defined as a remote and faint
celestial body that orbits
beyond Neptune at a distance
of 30-48 AU from the Sun.”

● Trans-Neptunian objects include:

○ Asteroids
○ Dwarf planets - e.g. Pluto
○ Comets (although most of them
come from the Oort Cloud)

● So far, over 2000 objects have been

found
○ However, the number may be
much more
○ It is hard to spot the objects
from Earth
05 SPACE
EXPLORATION
 1957 1961 1969 1971 1973-1979

First human in Apollo 11 - First Space Pioneer-

Sputnik- 1
space Moon Station Voyager
Landing Missions
 1981 1998 2004 2012 2021
First Space International Private Curiosity Rover Commercial
Shuttle launch Space Station Spaceflight Lands on Mars Space Travel
(ISS)
 COMETS, AND
06 OTHER
PHENOMENA
 3,963
Comets
Number of known comets in the Solar
System (as of 4 Sept. 2024)

A comet is an icy object in the Solar System

orbiting the sun in a highly elliptical orbit.
- Formed from frozen leftovers from
formation of the Solar System (e.g. dust,
rock, ice, frozen gases)
- When a comet gets close to the sun, its
speed increases and ice heats up, turning
into gas. = sublimation
- The comet tail is formed
- Come from the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud

Image source: NASA

 Two types of tail:
always point away
from the sun

= second gas cloud:

- consists of
hydrogen
molecules

= gas cloud around

nucleus:
= comet core: - formed in
- made of frozen sublimation
molecules and
dust

Image source: ESA

 Solar wind
● The Sun emits charged particles into space
○ = electromagnetic radiation
● Solar wind means a stream of electrons, protons and ions
from the upper atmosphere of the Sun
○ Earth’s magnetic field protects us from these particles
○ These may be harmful for astronauts in long-distance
travel
○ Coronal mass ejections - major bursts of plasma
● Solar wind is the reason why the comet tail always points
away from the sun
○ Ionised gases in the coma interact with solar wind
THANK
YOU!
Comets - NASA Science
JPL Solar System Dynamics (nasa.gov)
Comets: Everything you need to know | Space
What Is a Comet? | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids
Moons - NASA Science
Kuiper Belt - NASA Science
10 Things to Know About the Kuiper Belt - NASA Science
Asteroid Belt vs. Kuiper Belt vs. Oort Cloud – The Journeying Planetarian
(ryanmarciniak.com) SOURCES
What is The Kuiper Belt and Trans-Neptunian Objects? - Universe Guide
Kuiper Belt: Facts - NASA Science
What Is Pluto? (Grades 5-8) - NASA
Trans-Neptunian Object - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics
294 Moons of the Planets | 2024 List | GO ASTRONOMY
(go-astronomy.com)
What is the solar wind? | University of Chicago News (uchicago.edu)