THE SOLAR

SYSTEM
THE SOLAR SYSTEM

■ Solar means dealing with the sun, so our sun is just a star that
is closer to the planet earth .the solar system is everything that
centers around the sun.
Definition;
■ The solar system is a system of objects that orbits the sun,
either directly or indirectly, under the influence of the suns
gravitational pull.
■ Our solar system is elliptical in shape. Planets revolve around the
sun along fixed elliptical path called orbits
■ Planets have different speeds in their orbits around the sun. in other
words. the speed of each planet in its orbit is perfectly uniform .the
gravitational pull of the sun keeps all planets and other objects
revolving around it in its orbits.
■ Compared to millions of other stars ,the sun is a star of medium size
and average brightness it appears to be larger and brighter because
it is much more nearer to the earth than any other star.
■ The sun is the source of all energy in the solar system by nuclear
fusion.
PLANETS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
■ A planet is a solid heavenly [celestrial] body revolving in the
same direction around the sun in an elliptical path [orbit].
■ Planets move around the sun from west to east, so the relative
positions of planets keeps changing day by day.
■ The solar system consists of one star [sun] and eight planets.
The eight planets in the order from the are: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars Jupiter, Saturn Uranus, Neptune [MVEM
JSUN]
■ Planets are visible if their location and time are known, for
example Venus is visible a few hours before sun rise and sunset
in the eastern and western sky respectively.
■ All planets can be seen using a small telescope or binoculars,
■ In 2006 the international astronomical union [IAU] changed
the definition of a planet which disqualified PLUTO from
being a planet to a dwarf planet.
■ A DWARF PLANET is defined by the IAU is a celestial body
in direct orbit of the sun that is massive enough that its shape is
controlled by gravitational rather than mechanical forces [and
thus ellipsoid in shape] but has not cleared its neighbouring
region of other objects.

■ The dwarf planets identified by IAU are ceres, Pluto, haumea,

makemake and Eris.
DIAGRAM OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

 NB; using our naked eyes [unaided] the following planets can be seen early;
Mercury, Venus, mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
TYPE OF PLANETS

Planets are categorized into;

■ Inner [terrestrial] planets
■ Outer [Jovian] planets
TERRESTRIAL PLANETS
■ They are also called rocky or terruric or inner planets.
■ Definition; A terrestrial planet is one of the four planets in the
solar system closest to the sun.
■ Examples of terrestrial planets;
■ Mercury, Venus earth and mars
■ Of the four, the earth is known to have an active hydrosphere.
These planets have their
■ structure similar to that of the Earth hence the name terrestrial
derived from the Latin words terra and tellus meaning earth.
MAJOR FEATURES OF INNER PLANETS.

■ They have few natural satellites or moons or no satellites.

■ They have craters, mountains and volcanoes i.e.; they have
solid planetary surfaces.
■ They have almost similar size and density but relatively
smaller than outer planets.
■ They have a core of molten materials [metals] mostly iron
surrounded with silicate mantle.
■ They have a thin atmosphere.
JOVIAN PLANETS [GAS GIANTS].

■ They are also called outer planets .they are planets which
occupy orbits in the outer solar system at distances ranging
from 5[Jupiter] to 30[Neptune] times the earth distance from
the sun
■ They are; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
COMMON FEATURES OR
CHARACTERISTICS OF JOVIAN PLANETS.

■ They are made of gases primarily hydrogen and helium with traces
of ammonia methane and water.
■ They have characteristic ring systems around them, Saturn’s rings
are the brightest and most visible and well known.
■ Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus have fainter and darker rings around
them.
■ They have many moons and natural satellites
■ They have strong magnetic rapid rotation and deep atmosphere.
■ They are the furthest from the sun.
For example;
■ Jupiter has more than 60 moons.
■ Saturn has more than 50 moons
■ Uranus has more than 20 moons
■ Neptune has more than 10 moons.
■ Jupiter is 11 times in diameter than earth, the largest in our system
■ Saturn 9 times greater than the earth.
■ Uranus and Neptune are both roughly 4 times greater than the earth.
NB;
■ Despite of their sizes, the Jovian planets have low densities because
of their gaseous composition. Example Saturn is made of lighter
materials than water, if you place them in a giant swimming pool;
the entire planet would float.
■ What we see when observing the Jovian planets is actually the top
of clouds.
■ Their attitudes are the lower clouds are blue, followed by brown and
white then by the end at the blighter’s level.
■ Uranus and Neptune are blue green because they have a small
amount of methane in their upper atmosphere.
PLANETARY DISTANCES.
■ The people who study the universe, including our solar system
are called Astronauts. They discovered that our solar system
is extremely large in size. As a result they introduced a new
unit to measure distance between planets and from the sun
called An Astronomical Unit.[AU].
■ Definition: An Astronomical Unit [AU] is the average [mean]
distance between the earth and the sun and it’s about 150
million km;
■ 1AU=1.5 x 108 km.
■ The following table shows the distances of the planets from the sun and appearance
[colour] of planets.

Planet Distance from the Distance from the Colour

sun[AU] sun[km]

Mercury 0.39 5.8x107 Solid red

Venus 0.72 1.08x108 Cream
Earth 1.00 1.50x108 Clear blue
Mars 1.52 2.28x108 Clear red
Asteroid 2.8 Black
belt
Jupiter 5.2 7.80x108 Orange
Saturn 9.6 1.43x108 Clear gold
Uranus 19.2 2.88x109 Dark blue
Neptune 30.07 4.51x109 Light blue
Pluto 39.5 5.92x109 Brown
ACTIVITY.

■ Name the inner and outer planets in our solar system.

■ Write down the characteristic of each of the eight planets in the
solar systems.
■ Why is it that it’s only the earth that supports life among all the
planets?
■ What elements is the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn primary
comprised of.
Other objects in the solar system.

■ Asteroids; these are thousands [millions] of small pieces of

rocks similar to those found in the planets that orbit the sun
mostly between the orbits of the mars and Jupiter.
■ This orbit is called the asteroid belt.
■ The largest asteroid is called cera.
■ Asteroid belt; is a region between the inner planets and the
outer planets where thousands of asteroid are found orbiting
around the sun.
■ Comets; A comet is an icy celestial body moving around the sun in
an elliptical orbit releasing gas/dust having drawn out tail.
■ The solid nucleus or core of a comet consists mainly of dust of
frozen water [ice] as well as frozen gases like carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, methane and ammonia.
■ Comets lose ice and dust each time they set closer to the sun leaving
behind tails or debris. Eventually they can move all their ice with
some turning into fragile inactive objects called meteroids.
■ meteoroids – smaller asteroids that burn up in the atmosphere and
fall to the earth as dust.
■ Meteors: these are commonly known as the falling stars or shooting
stars. They can be seen on most dark nights and move clear after
midnight.
■ They are formed when meteroids enter the earth’s atmosphere
friction between them and the earth’s atmospheric gases heat it to
the point that it glows and visible to our eyes; the streak of light in
the sky is called meteor.
■ Meteorites; this is a portion of a meteor/asteroid that survives its
passage through the earth’s atmosphere and hits the ground without
being destroyed. They are small to cause damage.
Relative sizes, position and motions of the earth, moon and the
sun.
■ Life on earth is greatly influenced by two bodies in the universe
namely the moon and the sun.
■ These two bodies are very big, but you can see them appearing
small because they are very far away from the earth.
■ The moon, the earth and the sun are all spherical with the following
diameters.
Body Approximate diameter [km]

Sun 1,400,000

Earth 12,800

Moon 3,500

■ Use the data provided above to compare the sizes of the earth and the sun.
■ Calculate the volume in km3 of the;
– Moon
– The earth
– The sun.
■ How many moon can fit in the earth
■ How many times is the sun bigger than the earth
THE EARTHS ROTATION.

■ The earths is not stationary, it is constantly rotating/spinning in

an anticlockwise direction about an axis that passes from the
North Pole to the South Pole.
DIAGRAM.
Day and Night.

■ The change from day to night is due to the rotation of the earth
on its own axis. The earth turns on its own axis once in 24
hours and during that time the sun only shines on the half of
the earth that it is facing.
■ The part of the earth which receives sunlight is day while the
other part which does not receive sunlight is called night. This
explain why the day is always bright while the night is always
dark indicting the absence of light.
Revolution of the earth around the sun.
■ As the earth spins about its axis of the rotation, it revolves around the
sun in a circular path called an orbit.
■ The earth takes 365.25 days to revolve in its orbit around the sun.
Thus, during ordinary years it’s assumed that the Earth takes 365
days to revolve around the sun. However after 4 years, the fractional
days [0.25 x 4] = 1 day add one more day to the revolution of the
earth. Such years are called leap years hence a leap year the earth
takes 366 days to revolve around the sun.
■ N.B: The orbital motion is facilitated by the gravitation force
between the earth and the sun.
SEASONS ON EARTH.
■ The earth is tilted. During its yearly orbit, different parts of the planet
are exposed to move daylight [sunlight energy] than others.
■ This results into changes in weather and climatic conditions of
various regions on earth.
■ On earth we experience four seasons that is winter simmer autumn
and spring. However, Equatorial countries e.g. Uganda only
experiences only two seasons [dry and wet] which represents
summer and winter.
■ When the northern hemisphere faces the sun .it experiences summer
while the southern hemisphere experiences summer while the
southern hemisphere experiences winter.
■ In the northern and southern hemisphere spring start on the day of the
vernal equinox. A vernal equinox has a balance of hours between
daylight and night.
■ Equinoxes are days in which days and nights are of equal duration. The
two yearly equinoxes occur when the sun crosses the equator.
ROTATION OF THE MOON AROUND THE EARTH.
■ The moon is the only natural satellite in the solar system visible mainly
at night by reflecting light from the sun.
■ As the earth orbits the sun, the moon also revolves around the earth.
The time the moon takes to make one complete revolution around the
Earth is approximately 27 days and 7 hours.
■ During this rotation, we can only see the part of the moon which
receives and reflects sunlight to us on earth. This explains why we see
different shape if its moon every day. The different shape are called the
phases of the moon, they repeat themselves after every 29 days in 12
hours.
QN: what is lunar month?

■ This is time that the moon takes to pass through the complete
cycle of its phases and is measured from the new moon to the
new moon.
■ Lunar month is about 29.5 days [29 days and 12hours]
Qn: Explain why on Earth we see the same half lunar face?.
QN: why are we able to see the moon?

■ The moon is not a light source, it doesn’t make light on its own
but rather reflects light from the sun.
■ Therefore, if the sun was not there, we would not be able to see
the moon. The sun always lights up [illuminate] one side of the
moon.
■ The moon appears to change shape but what we actually see is
the moon light up from the sun between different ways on
different days.
Phases of the moon.
New moon.
■ The moon is positioned between the Earth and the sun.
■ The side facing Earth is in shadow, making it appear
completely dark.
Waxing Crescent
■ A small illuminated crescent becomes visible.
■ The moon is waxing, meaning it is transitioning from the
new moon to first quarter.
First quarter (Half-moon):
■ Half of the moon is illuminated and visible from the Earth.
■ The phase occurs when the moon is at 90-degree angle with the
earth and the sun.
Waxing Gibbous:
■ More than half of the moon is illuminated but less than full.
■ The illuminated portion continues to grow as the moon moves
towards full moon.
Full moon:
■ The entire face of the moon is illuminated and visible from the
Earth.
■ The moon is positioned opposite the sun and its fully illuminated
side faces us.
Waning Gibbous:
■ Similar to waxing gibbous but the illuminated portion decreases
from full moon to last quarter
Last quarter:
■ This is at opposite side of the first quarter.
Waning Crescent:
■ A small, illuminated crescent is visible, decreasing in size. The
moon is transiting back to the new moon.
ACTIVITY:

1. Explain why you cannot see the new moon?

2. Why are the waxing or waning crescents less light
compared to the full moon?
3. Why don’t the eclipses occur every month?
OCEAN TIDES.
■ Tides are periodic rise and fall in the level of water in large bodies like oceans
and seas.
■ Tides are caused due to gravitational pull [force] of the moon on the earth this
generates a tidal force which causes the earth and its water bulge out on the
side of the moon.
■ Another bulge occurs on the opposite side since the earth is also pulled towards
the moon [away from the water body on the far side]. These bulges are high
tides.
■ The side of the earth that are not facing the moon experiences low tides
Note:
■ Since the earth is not rotating while this happen two tides occur each day.
■ The suns gravitational pulls raises the tide on earth however, the pull of the
moon is the strongest since its closer to the earth compared to the sun.
DIAGRAM
Qn: what is the economic importance of ocean tides to
people leaving along the
coastal line?
■ The alternate rise and fall of the tides help fisher men sail out and
return to the coast.
■ Tidal energy is fast becoming an important source, used in the
production of electricity along the coast.
■ The low-lying areas of the sea coast during high tides trap water
which is used in the production of salt at the coast.
■ In cold countries tides bring in salt water to the shore and their
continuous movements prevents the harbour from becoming
ice bound.
■ Because other debril is swept away by the tide, they help keep
harbors clean.
■ Strong tides help in building lower food plains which are very
fertile.
■ Tides help in the formational creeks and inlets.
QN: what are the dangerous impacts of ocean tides?
THE ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF THE
UNIVERSE

THE ORIGIN
■ There are several scientific theories about the origin of
universe.
Big Bang Theory.
■ It suggests that the universe began as a singularity, in the form
of a hot and dense fire ball, having a high temperature
approximately 13.8 billion years ago and has been expanding
ever since.
Inflation Theory
■ This suggests that there was a rapid exponential expansion of
the universe in the moments following the Big Bang.
Steady state Theory
■ This theory proposed that the universe has no beginning or end
and is constantly expanding while maintaining a constant
density.
The Pulsating Theory
■ In this theory it is assumed that there is alternate expansion and
contraction of universe.
STRUCTURE

The universe’s structure is hierarchical and consists of various

components:
■ Galaxies: these are massive collections of stars, gas, dust and
dark matter. Our Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies
in the universe.
■ Stars: within galaxies, stars form and emit light and energy.
■ Planets: planets orbit stars.
■ Galaxy clusters: these are groups of galaxies bound by gravity.
■ Cosmic Web: this is a network of galaxy filaments.
■ Dark matter and Dark Energy: Dark matter provides a
gravitational pull, while dark energy accelerates the universe’s
expansion.
Activity.
■ After consulting your religious leaders, write briefly about the
origin of the universe according to your religion (include name
of your religion and evidences (facts) to support your Theory
in details).