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Solar System

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Solar System

Uploaded by

branstonkevin
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE EARTH
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical
object known to harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being
a water world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining
liquid surface water. Almost all of Earth's water is contained in its
global ocean, covering 70.8% of Earth's crust. The remaining 29.2% of
Earth's crust is land, most of which is located in the form
of continental landmasses within Earth's land hemisphere. Most of
Earth's land is somewhat humid and covered by vegetation, while
large sheets of ice at Earth's polar deserts retain more water than
Earth's groundwater, lakes, rivers and atmospheric
water combined. Earth's crust consists of slowly moving tectonic
plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and
earthquakes. Earth has a liquid outer core that generates
a magnetosphere capable of deflecting most of the
destructive solar winds and cosmic radiation.
THE MOON
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.
It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km
(238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth.
Over time Earth's gravity has caused tidal
locking, causing the same side of the Moon to
always face Earth. Because of this, the lunar
day and the lunar month are the same length,
at 29.5 Earth days. The Moon's gravitational
pull – and to a lesser extent, the Sun's – are the
main drivers of Earth's tides.
MARS
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. The surface of Mars
is orange-red because it is covered in iron(III) oxide dust,
giving it the nickname "the Red Planet". Mars is among the
brightest objects in Earth's sky and its high-contrast albedo
features have made it a common subject
for telescope viewing. It is classified as a terrestrial
planet and is the second smallest of the Solar System's
planets with a diameter of 6,779 km (4,212 mi). In terms of
orbital motion, a Martian solar day (sol) is equal to 24.5
hours and a Martian solar year is equal to 1.88 Earth years
(687 Earth days). Mars has two natural satellites that are
small and irregular in shape: Phobos and Deimos.
JUPITER
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest
in the Solar System. A gas giant, Jupiter's mass is
more than two and a half times that of all the other
planets in the Solar System combined and slightly
less than one one-thousandth the mass of the Sun.
Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of
5.20 AU (778.5 Gm) with an orbital period of 11.86 years.
It is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's
night sky after the Moon and Venus and has been
observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives
from Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman
religion.
SATURN
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-
largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas
giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half
times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average
density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even
though Saturn is nearly the size of Jupiter, Saturn has
less than one-third of Jupiter's mass. Saturn orbits the
Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km) with
an orbital period of 29.45 years.
URANUS
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a
gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is
made of water, ammonia, and methane in a supercritical
phase of matter, which in astronomy is called 'ice'
or volatiles. The planet's atmosphere has a complex
layered cloud structure and has the lowest minimum
temperature of 49 K (−224 °C; −371 °F) out of all the Solar
System's planets. It has a marked axial tilt of 82.23° with
a retrograde rotation period of 17 hours and 14 minutes.
This means that in an 84-Earth-year orbital period around
the Sun, its poles get around 42 years of continuous
sunlight, followed by 42 years of continuous darkness.
NEPTUNE
Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from
the Sun. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar
System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and
the densest giant planet. It is 17 times the mass of Earth,
and slightly more massive than fellow ice giant Uranus.
Neptune is denser and physically smaller than Uranus
because its greater mass causes more gravitational
compression of its atmosphere. Being composed
primarily of gases and liquids, it has no well-defined
solid surface. The planet orbits the Sun once every
164.8 years at an orbital distance of 30.1 astronomical
units (4.5 billion kilometres; 2.8 billion miles).

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