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The Planets

The Planets. Science for Teachers. INTRODUCTION TO THE PLANETS. A. Two Groups of Planets. 1. Inner Planets --Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars 2. Outer Planets --Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune 3. Asteroid Belt --between Mars & Jupiter--separates the inner & outer planets.

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The Planets

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  1. The Planets Science for Teachers

  2. INTRODUCTION TO THE PLANETS A. Two Groups of Planets 1. Inner Planets--Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars 2. Outer Planets--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune 3. Asteroid Belt--between Mars & Jupiter--separates the inner & outer planets. 4. Terrestrial Planets--inner planets or Earthlike, all have a rocky crust, a denser mantle layer, & dense core.

  3. 5. Jovian (or Jupiter-like) Planets--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, & Neptune. • Gaseous--less dense than the terrestrial planets. 6. “Dwarf” Planets—Pluto, Ceres, Eris

  4. MERCURY PLANET DATA

  5. MARS PLANET DATA

  6. JUPITER PLANET DATA

  7. SATURN PLANET DATA

  8. URANUS PLANET DATA

  9. NEPTUNE PLANET DATA

  10. PLUTO “Dwarf” PLANET DATA

  11. Solar System Debris METEORITES ASTEROIDS & COMET

  12. A. Meteoroids, Meteor, Meteorites. 1. Meteoroid--an interplanetary chunk of rock smaller than an asteroid. 2. Meteor--a track of light in the sky from rock or dust burning up as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere. 3. Meteorites--an interplanetary chunk of rock after it impacts on a planet or moon. 4. Bolide--a meteor (fireball) that breaks up as it travels to the surface.

  13. 1999 Leonid Fireba1l

  14. B. Types and Sizes of Meteorites • 1. Micrometeorites--less than a mm across & are the major cause of small-scale erosion on the moon. • These also hit Earth’s upper atmosphere. • They are debris from comet tails & asteroids. • Enough of the dust reaches Earth’s surface to equal 100 tons a day. • 2. Small meteoroids ( 1mm) from comets • 3. Larger meteoroids--from collisions of asteroids in the asteroid belt.

  15. a. Meteor Showers • Meteor Showers--when meteors are seen at a rate far above average. (several meteors or more per minute) • occur at the same time each year. • Represent the Earth’s passing through the orbits of defunct comets & hitting the meteoroids left behind. • Meteorites do not usually result from showers. • Named for the constellation that they appear to come from.

  16. C. ASTERIODS or MINOR PLANETS 1. A million or so larger than 1 km. 2. Most are in elliptical orbits between Mars & Jupiter in the Asteroid belt. 3. 1st Asteroid was discovered in 1801 = Ceres (now classified as a minor planet along with Pluto and Eris) 4. 2500 are now named and numbered. 5. Only 6 known asteroids are larger than 300 km across. 6. 200 are larger than 100 km across.

  17. D. COMETS--mostly ice, with some rocky material, 1-10 km in diameter. 1. Very eccentric, highly elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus. 2. Tail forms as it nears the Sun. 3. Nucleus, or main solid body, only a few km in diameter. 4. Coma a halo of duct & evaporated gas around the nucleus-- expands as the comet gets closer to the Sun.

  18. 5. Two types of comet tails: • ion tail = straight & composed of charged particles. • dust tail = broad, diffuse, composed of dust particles that reflect sunlight. • 6. Solar winds direct the comet’s tail away from the Sun.

  19. Halley’s Comet in 1986, about one month before it rounded the Sun

  20. 7. Kuiper Belt--region beyond Neptune--Astronomers believe short-termed comets (less that 200 year periods) originate here. 8. Oort Cloud--huge cloud of comets lying far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

  21. The blue ion tail is composed of ionized gas molecules The white dust tail is created by bits of grit

  22. Hyakutake: Stars Through A Comet's Tail

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