Earth and the Solar System

The Earth
Our planet the Earth is the third planet from the Sun.
The shape of the Earth although considered to be spherical, is actually oblate
spheroid (squashed at the North and South poles).
It is the only planet that hosts all known life. Its orbit lies between Venus and Mars
and has one moon.
The Earth is travelling in a nearly circular orbit around the Sun, and the Moon
orbits the Earth as a satellite.
The Earth's Axis
The Earth rotates on its axis, which is a line through the north and
south poles.
The axis is tilted at an angle of approximately 23.4° from the vertical.
The Earth completes one full rotation (revolution) in approximately 24
hours (1 day).
This rotation creates the apparent daily motion of the Sun rising and
setting
Rotation of the Earth on its axis is therefore responsible for the
periodic cycle of day and night.
The Earth's Orbit
The Earth orbits the Sun once in
approximately 365 days, that is 1
year.
The path of the Earth around the
Sun is not quite circular but
takes the form of an ellipse with
the Sun at one focus.
The combination of the orbiting
of the Earth around the Sun and
the Earth's tilt creates the
seasons.
Moon & Earth
The Moon is a satellite around the Earth.
It travels around the Earth in roughly a circular orbit
once a month.
This takes 27-28 days.
The Moon revolves around its own axis in a month so
always has the same side facing the Earth at all
times.
We never see the hemisphere that is always facing
away from Earth, although astronauts have orbited
the Moon and satellite have photographed it.
The Moon shines with reflected light from the Sun, it
does not produce its own light.
Orbital speed
The relationship between speed, distance and time is:
So, for the Moon, moving in a circular orbit around the
Earth or planets moving around the Sun, with average
orbital speed vr ,

where r is the average radius of the orbit, and T is the

orbital period (the time for one orbit).
This orbital period (or time period) is defined as: The
time taken for an object to complete one orbit.
The orbital radius r is always taken from the centre of
the object being orbited to the object orbiting
Example
Taking the average distance of the Moon from the Earth to be 380,000 km and the orbital
period of the Moon to be 27 days, calculate its average orbital speed in km/s.
Solution:
r = 380,000 km
T = 27 days = 27 x 24 x 60 x 60 = 2,332,800 s (1 day = 24 hours = 24 x 60 mins = 24 x 60
x60 s)
v=?

= 2 x (22/7) x 380,000 / 2,332,800 = 1.02 km/s

 The Solar System
The Solar System consists of:
● The Sun
● Eight planets
● Natural and artificial satellites
● Dwarf planets
● Asteroids and comets
The Sun
The Sun is the largest object in the solar system and was the first to form.
The Sun is a star that lies at the centre of the Solar System.
The Sun alone contains 99.8% of the total mass in the solar system. Due to its
large mass the Sun has strong gravitational field which keeps many other objects -
planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and comets - in orbit around it.
Planets
The Earth is one of eight planets in the solar system.

The planets orbit the Sun at different distances.

The following sentence may help with remembering the order of the names of the planets
from the Sun outwards:

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming

1. Mercury 2. Venus 3. Earth

4. Mars

5. Jupiter 6. Saturn 7. Uranus

8. Neptune
Inner Planets and Outer Planets
The four inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are all small, of similar
size, solid and rocky, with a layered structure, and have a high density.
The four outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, are much larger and
colder and consist mainly of gases; their density is low. These outer planets have
many moons and other natural satellites in the form of rings of icy materials.
Dwarf Planets
Most of the dwarf planets, the best known of which is Pluto, orbit the Sun at
average distances greater than Neptune.
These are Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) and, together with their satellites,
number over 2000; they are generally of low density and are thought to be
composed of a mixture of rock and ice.
The gravitational field around planets is strong enough to have pulled in all nearby
objects with the exception of natural satellites, whereas, the gravitational field
around a dwarf planet is not strong enough to have pulled in nearby objects
Asteroids
Asteroids are made of metals and rocky material.
There are many asteroids in our solar system which orbit the Sun in oval or egg-
shaped elliptical orbits which can take millions of years to complete.
There are large numbers of asteroids orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt between
Mars and Jupiter.
Difference between Minor Planets and Dwarf Planets
Asteroids are presently classified as minor planets, which are defined as any
object that orbits a star that does not have a large enough mass for gravitational
attraction to have pulled it into a spherical shape.
Larger asteroids, such as Ceres, are classified as dwarf planets if they have
enough mass and a gravitational field strength high enough to have formed a
spherical shape, but not enough to attract and clear the area around them of
smaller objects.
Comets
Comets consist of dust embedded in ice made from water and methane and are
sometimes called ‘dirty snowballs’.
Their density is similar to the outer planets and they orbit the Sun in highly elliptical orbits
and are much closer to it at some times than others. They return to the inner Solar System
at regular intervals but in many cases these intervals are so long (owing to journeys far
beyond Pluto) that they cannot be predicted.
On approaching the Sun, the dust and gas are blown backwards by radiation pressure
from the Sun and the comet develops a bright head and long tail pointing away from the
Sun.
One of the most famous is Halley’s comet which visits the inner Solar System about every
76 years, the last occasion being 1986.
Difference between asteroids and comets
The main difference between asteroids and comets is their composition, as in,
what they are made of.
● Asteroids are made up of metals and rocky material.
● Comets are made up of ice, dust and rocky material.
Both asteroids and comets were formed early in the history of the solar system
about 4.5 billion years ago.
Satellites
There are two types of satellite:
● Natural
● Artificial
Moons orbit the planets and are an example of natural satellites. Some planets
have many moons - Saturn has more than 50. The Earth has just one moon - the
Moon.
Artificial satellites are man-made and can orbit any object in space. The
International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth and is an example of an artificial
satellite.
Strength of the gravitational field
Newton proposed that all objects in the Universe having mass attract each other
with a force called gravity. The greater the mass of each object and the smaller
their distance apart the greater is the force
For a planet, the strength of the gravitational field:
● at the surface of a planet depends on the mass of the planet
● around a planet decreases as the distance from the planet increases
 Gravity and planetary motion
A planet’s year (i.e. orbit time around
the Sun or orbital period) increases
with distance from the Sun.
The orbital speed, however,
decreases with distance; Neptune
travels much more slowly than
Mercury.
The strength of the Sun’s
gravitational field decreases with
distance so the further a planet is
away from the Sun, the weaker the
centripetal force; this results in a
lower orbital speed and longer
orbital periods.
Surface temperature on planets
Surface temperatures decrease markedly with distance from the Sun with one
exception. Venus has a high surface temperature (460°C) due to its dense
atmosphere of carbon dioxide acting as a heat trap (i.e. the greenhouse effect).
Travel times
The planets and their moons are visible from Earth only because they reflect light
from the Sun.
The outer regions of the Solar System are over 5000 million kilometres (5 × 10 12m)
from the Sun and even light takes time to travel to such distant places.
If we take the distance of the Earth from the Sun to be 1.5 × 10 11m and the speed
of light to be 3 × 108m/s, then using v=d/t
t = (1.5 × 1011m) / (3 × 108m/s) = 500s (about 8 minutes)
That means light from the Sun takes approximately 8 minutes to reach the Earth.