The Solar System
Where we live!
Mercury
Mercury is the planet closest tothe sun.
Mercury’s surface looks like themoon.
It is very cratered. 3.8 billionyears ago
Mercury has no atmosphere tospeak of
No moons
Mercury
Mercury is the fastest planet –30 mps
Mercury’s revolution is 88 days,rotation is 59
One day lasts 176 Earth days
Gravity is 1/3 of E
Temps range from 840 to -275
Mercury
Mercury is 3032 miles at theequator
Mercury is hard to see becauseit is close to Sun. Seen in phases
Named after Roman god ofcommerce, travel, and thievery
Mercury
Dust covers the surface of theplanet
Mariner 10 came close in 1974-1975.
Venus
•4.6 billion years old
•2nd planet from the sun, 67million miles from the sun
•Rotation- 243 E days
•Revolution- 225 E days
•900 to – 225 degrees!
•Mass- .815 of Earth
Venus
Earth’s twin due to size, density,
and gravity.
Temperature 900F due to runaway
greenhouse effect.
97% Carbon Dioxide- atmospheric
Pressure is 90 times
21+ spacecraft have visited
Venus
Photojournal:http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/targetFamily/Venus
Volcanoes, rocky, craters,basins, highlands
Mount Maxwell – 17 timeshigher than Everest
Oceans once- boiled away
Mars
Mars
•The Red Planet – reminded ancients of bloodand war.
•Names after the Roman god of war
•Has 2 moons- Phobos and Deimos (fear andterror)
•Avg 142 million miles from the sun
Mars
•The soil is rusted because it has a high ironcontent
•The large volcano is Olympus Mons (over 3Mount Everests!)
•Ice caps at both poles
•Once believed to have water
•Scientists thought “canali” meant canals-canals= life
Mars
•Temperatures range from super cold to barleyabove freezing
•A Martian day is almost the same as Earth’sbut a year is twice as long (687 days)
•Mars has seasons like Earth because its axis istilted about 25 degrees
Asteroids
Asteroids are bit and chunks of solid materialleft over form the formation of our solarsystem.
Most are in orbit between Mars and Jupiter-asteroid belt (belt asteroids)
Some have been captured- like Mars’ moons
Some cross Earth’s orbit- near Earth asteroids
Solar system picture: http://www.aerospaceguide.net/solar_system/solar_system.jpgVeus- http://blogs.sundaymercury.net/weirdscience/assets_c/2009/08/venus1-thumb-450x504.jpghttp://rocksfromspace.open.ac.uk/images/venus.jpg