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Scrolling
Through the Solar
System
Check out an
on-line distance scale of the planets.
The
Solar System
Song
by Ms. Poland's Class January 2008, Jordan Acres School,
Brunswick, Maine
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 SUN
Rotates: 26 days. Surface Temp: 12,000°F
(6000°C) Core Temp: 27 Million°F (15
Million°C) Diameter: 865,000 mi. (1,395,161 km).
Density: 1.41. Mass=333,000 Earths. A middle aged (4.5
Billion yrs. old) average sized star. It's outer
atmosphere "the heliosphere" extends beyond
Pluto.
Off Site Sun
Links:
The
Sun / SOHO
/ Ulysses
Probe to the Sun /
Genesis
Mission
The
Virtual Sun
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 MERCURY
Rotates: 58 days 16 hours. Revolves: 88 days. High
Temperature: 700°F (350°C) Low Temperature:
-270° F (-170° C). Diameter: 3,031 miles.
(4,878 km.) Density: 5.4. Mass=0.06 Earths. Gravity: 0.38
X Earth's. No moons or rings. Mercury was visited in 1974
by the Mariner 10 Space Probe and about 45% of the
planets surface was photographed. It's surface is
dominated by impact craters. The largest crater is called
the Caloris Basin which measures 810 miles (1,300 km) in
diameter. Lacking in mountains, Mercury's other dominant
type of feature are scarps. Scarps are long cliffs formed
by a contracting crust when the planet cooled. The
largest scarp is called "Discovery Rupes" and is about
310 miles (500 km) long and about 2 miles (3 km)
high.
Off Site Mercury
Links:
Messenger
Space Probe
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 VENUS
Rotates: 243 days. Revolves: 224.7 days. Average
Temperature: 900°F (480°C) Diameter: 7,541
miles. (12,104 km.) Density: 5.2. Mass=0.8 Earths.
Gravity: 0.9 X Earth's. Thick Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
atmosphere. No Moons or rings. Venus has clouds of
sulfuric acid. It has nearly 90 times more atmosphere
than Earth. Named after the Roman Goddess of Love and
Beauty. It is believed that it may rain sulfuric acid on
Venus, but due to the high temperatures the rain
evaporates before reaching the surface.
Off Site Venus
Links:
Magellan
Probe
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 EARTH
Rotates: 23 hours. 56 minutes. Revolves: 365.25 days.
High Temperature: 130°F (58°C) Low Temperature:
-126°F (-88°C). Gravity: 1 X Earth's. Diameter:
7,927 miles. (12,756 km.) Density: 5.5. Mass=1 Earth.
Nitrogen & Oxygen atmosphere. 1 moon, no rings. Earth
is dominated by water which covers three quarters of it's
surface area.
Off Site Earth
Links:
The
Aurora Page / Terra
Server
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 THE
MOON
Rotates:27 days, 8 hours. Revolves: 27 days, 7 hours. 43
minutes. (when measured in relationship to the stars) or
29 days, 12 hours. 44 minutes. (when measured in
relationship to the Earth and Sun--this is the amount of
time from one full moon to the next). High Temperature:
214°F (101°C) Low Temperature: -300°F
(-184°C). The poles seem to have a near constant
temperature of -140°F (-96°C). Diameter: 2,155
miles (3476 km). Density: 3.34. Evidence of water ice has
been found deep in some craters near the moon's poles.
Twelve astronauts have walked on the moon's surface
between 1969 and 1972.
Off Site Moon
Links:
Apollo
11 / Clementine
Probe / Lunar
Prospector
Google
Moon / Inconstant
Moon
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 MARS
Rotates: 24 hours. 37 minutes. Revolves: 1,88 years. High
Temperature: 80°F (27°C). Low Temperature:
-190°F (-123°C). Diameter: 4,197 miles. (6,794
km). Density: 3.9. Mass=0.1 Earths. Gravity: 0.38 X
Earth's. Thin Carbon Dioxide atmosphere. 2 moons, no
rings. In 1996 scientist found possible evidence of
fossilized bacteria in a meteorite believed to have
originated on Mars--perhaps long ago Mars had life! Mars
has a canyon named Valles Marineras that would stretch
from Maine to California if it were found on Earth. It
also has the largest and tallest volcanoes in the solar
system.
Off Site Mars
Links:
Mars
Exploration (all active
probes) / Mars
Rovers
Mars
Pathfinder / Mars
Global Surveyor
Mars
Odyssey / Mars
Express / Mars
Reconnaissance /
Mars
Phoenix
Spirit
and
Opportunity
Curiosity
Rover (NASA)
Curiosity
Rover (JPL)
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 ASTEROIDS
Between Mars and Jupiter is a region of the solar system
known as the asteroid belt. Thousands of asteroids have
been catalogued. The asteroid pictured here, named
Gaspra, was the first asteroid seen up close by a space
probe, the Galileo Probe to be exact.
Off Site Asteroid
Links:
/ /
Malin
Space Science System's NEAR Page
/ Near
Shoemaker Probe
Muses-C
Mission
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 JUPITER
Rotates: 9 hours. 48 minutes. Revolves: 11.86 years.
Cloud top Temperature: -140°F (-95°C) Diameter:
88,733 miles. (142,796 km.). Density: 1.3. Mass=318
Earths. Gravity: 3 X Earth's. Composition: Mostly
Hydrogen, Helium. 67 moons, 1 small ring. Jupiter has a
huge storm called the Great Red Spot that has been
blowing about on Jupiter for hundreds of years. In 1994
Jupiter was hit by Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Off Site Jupiter
Links:
Comet
Shoemaker Levy 9 Impacts Jupiter
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Galileo
Probe / Galileo
Fun Stuff /
Voyager
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 SATURN
Rotates: 10 hours. 39 minutes. Revolves: 29.46 years.
Cloud top Temperature: -292°F (-180°C)
Diameter: 74,600 miles. (120,000 km.). Density: 0.7.
Mass=95 Earths. Gravity: 1.32 X Earth's. Composition:
Mostly Hydrogen, Helium. 62 moons. It has a large ring
system.
Off Site Saturn
Links:
Cassini-Huygens
...... Voyager
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 URANUS
Rotates: 16 hours. 48 minutes. Revolves: 84 years. Cloud
top Temperature: -346°F (-210°C). Diameter:
31,600 miles. ((50,800 km.). Density: 1.3 Mass=14.5
Earths. Gravity: 0.93 X Earth's. Composition: Mostly
Hydrogen, Helium, some ammonia, methane. 27 moons, about
a dozen thin rings. Uranus is tipped on its side by
98°.
Off Site Uranus
Links:
Voyager
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 NEPTUNE
Rotates: 16
hours 3 minutes. Revolves: 164.8 years. Cloud top
Temperature: -364°F (-220°C). Diameter: 30,200
miles. (48,600 km.). Density: 1.6 Mass=17 Earths.
Gravity: 1.23 X Earth's. Composition: Mostly Hydrogen,
Helium, some methane and ammonia. 13 moons, 3 thin rings,
2 broad rings.
Off Site Neptune
Links:
Voyager
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 PLUTO
Rotates: 6 days, 9 hours. Revolves: 248 years.
Temperature: -400°F (-238°C). Diameter: 1900
mi. (3,000 km.). Density: 2. Mass=0.002 Earths. Gravity:
0.03 X Earth's. Has a very thin atmosphere. 5 moons, no
rings. The largest moon, Charon, is half the size of
Pluto, some scientists refer to Pluto & Charon as a
"Double Planet." Pluto's orbit is very elliptical and
tilted; it actually crossed inside Neptune's orbit from
1979-1999.
Pluto was officially
reclassified in August 2006 as no longer an official
planet, instead it joins the ranks of dwarf
planets.
Off Site Pluto
Links:
New
Horizons Probe
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 QUAOAR
Quaoar is
approximately 800 miles in diameter and is slightly
farther away from the Sun than Pluto. It is made
primarily of ices.
Off Site
Quaoar Links:
Quaoar--Cal
Tech
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 MAKEMAKE
(pronounced
MAH-keh MAH-keh) Diameter: 950 mi. (1500 km.), it's the
third largest Trans-Neptunian Object after Eris and
Pluto. Originally designated 2005 FY9, Makemake was
discovered on March 31, 2005, near Easter, hence its
original knickname of "Easter Bunny". Since Kuiper Belt
objects are all officially named after creation gods,
2005FY9 was named Makemake for the creation god found in
the traditional mythology of Rapa Nui or Easter Island.
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 ERIS
(formerly
known as 2003 UB 313 or Xena) was first photographed in
October 2003, but was not detected until January 2005.
Its discovery was announced in August 2005. This object
is about the same size as Pluto and currently
about three times farther away from the Sun than Pluto..
It is made of ices, much like Pluto. It takes this new
planet 557 years to orbit the Sun just once. Its orbit is
tilted nearly 45 degrees up at an angle compared to the
plane of Earth's orbit. Eris has one known moon,
Dysnomia
Off Site Eris
Links:
2003UB313--Cal
Tech / NASA
Tenth Planet?
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 SEDNA
Sedna is
the most distant
object yet discovered in the solar system. It was
discovered in 2003. It is roughly three tumes further
away than Pluto, well outside the Kuiper Belt. It is
approximately 1000 miles in diameter and takes nearly
10,500 years to go around the sun just once. Currently,
scientists have not officially classified Sedna as either
a planet nor a dwarf planet, Sedna was named after an
Inuit Goddess of the Sea.
Off Site Sedna
Links:
Sedna--Cal
Tech
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 COMETS
Comets are comprised of a ball of ice, snow, rocks, and
pebbles that orbit the Sun in highly elliptical (oval)
orbits. The "dirty snowball" can vary in size from a
couple of miles in diameter to perhaps 25 or 30 miles in
diameter. The Sun's radiation and solar wind melts the
outer layers of icy materials to form the "Coma" which is
sort of like a fog bank that engulfs the nucleus
(snowball). The coma might be as much as 100,000 miles in
diameter. The coma is then pushed away from the sun by
the solar wind to form the comet's tail. Comets have two
basic tails, an Ion or Gas Tail and a Dust Tail.
Off Site Comet
Links:
Comet
Observation Page /
Comet
Shoemaker Levy 9 Impacts
Jupiter /
StarDust
Probe to a Comet /
Deep
Impact Probe / Rosetta
Mission
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Only 8 Planets? What
Happened to Pluto?
What is a
Planet?
This question was
officially answered in August 2006 by the International
Astronomical Union, a world-wide group of astronomers who
are the accepted sanctioning body for naming and classifying
objects discovered in space. They offically defined a
planet as any object that orbits a star, is large enough to
be round, and has enough gravity to clear its orbit of
smaller debris.
What is a "Dwarf
Planet?" The IAU also created a new classification of
solar system objects known as "Dwarf Planets", these
would be objects that orbit a star, are large enough to
be round, but not have enough mass (and therefore gravity)
to clear its orbit of debris.
Under the new guidelines,
Pluto is no longer a planet, instead it falls into
the category of being a Dwarf Planet because it lies within
the Kuiper Belt of thousands of icy asteroid like objects.
Other solar system objects that fall into this new category
are Ceres (the largest asteroid), Eris, and
Makemake.
For more information
regarding this new classification system check out the
following links:
International
Astronomical Union 2006
Resolutions
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Tne
Nine Planets
IAU
Planet Definition pdf
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Off Site Links:
/Online
Schools: Space and Science Online Study Guide for
Kids
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