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My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies

° Our solar system is comprised of the sun, 9 planets, asteroids, meteoroids, and comets

° Our sun is one of 200 billion stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy

° The Milky Way galaxy is one of 200 billion galaxies that make up the universe

° The planets are divided into 2 groups: inner and outer

The inner planets are smalland terrestrial (earth-like, rocky)

Mercury

heavily cratered, resembling our moon

trace atmosphere

59 days to rotate88 days to revolve

(2 revolutions = 3 rotations)

largest temperature range700 °F to -300 °F

° no moons ° about the size of earth’s moon ° may be the remnant core of a

planet

Venus

° our nearest neighbor ° almost the same size as earth

(sister planet)

inhospitable

° 97 % of the atmosphere is CO2 runaway Greenhouse Effect

900+ °F (hottest planet)

° air pressure 90 times that of earth

° sulfuric acid in the atmosphere give it a yellow tint

retrograde (clockwise) rotation

no moons

3 brightest object in our sky

Mars

polar ice caps of CO2 and water which get larger and smaller with the

seasons

the surface has an orange color due to iron oxidizing (rust)

several bits of evidence which suggest water: channels, river beds,

ice caps

Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system (300 miles in diameter and 17 miles high)

almost the same size as Arizona

2 moons: Phobos and Deimos

Asteroid beltrocky objects orbiting the sun between the

inner and outer planets

they generally look like a potato

The Outer Planets

The Outer Planets: huge, Jovian (Jupiter-like), gaseous, moons, and

rings

And pluto

Jupiter

largest planetGreat Red spot (2-3 times the size of

earth)

Europa (moon) may have ocean under its ice crust

Io (moon) has atmosphere and active volcanoes

Saturn

less dense than water

1,000+ rings

Uranus retrograde rotation (backwards)

axis of rotation is nearly 90° may be due to a collision with

Miranda (moon)

Neptune

Great Dark Spot comes and goes

Pluto & Charon

not Jovianis now considered a dwarf planet

consists of ice and rockCharon may be its double planet

(half the size of Pluto)sunlight takes 6 hours to reach itmost eccentric orbit (closer than

Neptune from 1979-1999)travels in a tilted orbital plane