1) The document provides an overview of the solar system, including descriptions of planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
2) It also describes other objects in our solar system like asteroids, which orbit the sun in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and comets, which have elliptical orbits that take them close to and far from the sun.
3) The document compares sizes and features of celestial bodies like Earth, the sun, and other planets to provide context for their scale and characteristics within our solar system.
2. 2
A walk through the Universe
Space is big. You just won’t believe
how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly
big it is. I mean, you may think it’s
a long way down the road to the
chemist’s, but that's just peanuts
to space.
Douglas Adams,
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
English humorist & science fiction novelist
(1952 - 2001)
11. 11
The Milky Way (Our Galaxy)
A hundred, thousand, million stars!
12. 12
the Milky Way
as seen from
the Enterprise
A hundred thousand light years across
Light would take
100 000 years to
travel across the
galaxy.
13. 13
Distances
It takes 8 minutes for light to reach us
from the Sun.
A light-year is the distance travelled by
light in 1 year.
The Sun is our nearest star.
Our next nearest star, Alpha Centauri is
4 light years away.
The Milky Way is 100 000 light years
across.
14. 14
The local group of galaxies
Andromeda is
the nearest big
galaxy to the
Milky Way
Milky
Way
17. 17
It left when the dinosaurs
were on Earth.
Light from Virgo has taken 65 million
years to reach us.
Virgo
Cluster
18. 18
The Universe is mind-bogglingly big!
The Sun is about 150 000 000 km away
from Earth
Bright stars in the night sky are about
1000 000 (1 million) times as far away
as the Sun.
The near galaxies are about 100 000
times as far away as the bright stars.
15 000 000 000 000 000 000 km
21. Size and Scale of the UniverseSize and Scale of the Universe
Image courtesy of The Cosmic Perspective by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, & Voit; Addison Wesley, 2002
22. EarthEarth
• Planet where we all live
• Comprised primarily of
rock
• Spherical in shape
• 12,700 km in diameter
• It would take 17 days to
circumnavigate the
globe driving a car at
100 km/hr
• At the speed of light, it
would take 0.13
seconds to go all the
way around Earth.
23. SunSun
• Star that Earth orbits
• Composed primarily of
hydrogen and helium
gas
• Uses nuclear fusion in
its core to generate
heat and light to allow
itself to resist the
crushing weight of its
own mass
• Spherical in shape
• 1.39 Million km in
diameter
24. Earth & SunEarth & Sun
• The Sun’s diameter is 109
times greater than that of
Earth
• Over 1 million Earths
would fit inside the Sun’s
volume
• Earth orbits the Sun at an
average distance of 150
million kilometers. This
distance is called an
Astronomical Unit (AU)
• It would take 11,780
Earths lined up side to
side to bridge between
Earth and Sun.
25. The Solar System
The solar system consists of the
sun, 8 planets and their moons
The 8 planets are Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Uranus, Neptune.
26. Mercury
Mercury is the planet that is
closest to the sun
Mercury does not have a moon
A day on Mercury is equal to 176
days on Earth
The surface of Mercury is similar
to that of the Earth’s moon
27. Venus
Venus is the Second planet from
the sun
A day on Venus is longer than a
year on Venus!!!
The Atmosphere is composed of
Carbon Dioxide
Venus has no moons
Called Earth’s sister planet
28. Earth
The third planet from the sun
The only planet that supports life
in our Solar System
Earth has 1 moon
71% of the Earth’s crust is
covered with water
29. Mars
Fourth from the sun
Last of the Terrestrial (Earth-like)
planets
Called the Red planet because of
its color
Mars has 2 moons; Phobos and
Deimos
30. Jupiter
Jupiter is the 5th
planet from the
sun and is the largest planet in the
Solar System
Jupiter is the first of the Gas
planets
Jupiter has 61 known moons!!!
31. Saturn
Saturn is the 6th
planet from the
sun
Saturn is best known for its rings
The rings around Saturn are made
up of frozen gases, water ice and
rock. So the rings are not solid
bands around the planet
There are 31 moons orbiting Saturn
32. Uranus
Uranus is the 7th
planet from the
sun
It, along with Neptune, are the
only planets whose orbits overlap
each other
Uranus has 21 moons
33. Neptune
Neptune is the 8th
planet from the
sun
A year on Neptune is equal to over
164 years on earth!!
There are 11 known moons, Triton
is the largest!
34. Pluto
Pluto is 9th
from the sun. It is not
considered as a planet though.
Pluto has 1 moon, Charon
Pluto is the rockiest of the outer
planets
36. Asteroids are either rocky or metallic
objects that orbit the Sun. They are
too small to considered planets but
are sometimes called planetoids.
They can be anywhere from the size
of a pebble up to a 1000km (620
miles) in diameter; the asteroid Ceres
is an example of an asteroid that is
this large.
They have been found inside Earth’s
orbit and all the way out past
Saturn’s orbit. Most asteroids,
however, are located in the asteroid
belt which exists between the orbit’s
of Mars and Jupiter.
Asteroids
37. Comets - small, fragile, irregular-
shaped body composed of a mixture
of non-volatile grains and frozen
gases.
Their orbits are elliptical (oval) or
parabolic (U-shaped).
The orbit brings them in very close
to the Sun and swings them far out
into space, sometimes out past Pluto.
As comets approach the Sun,
radiation from the Sun evaporates
the ice and gases, creating the lone
tail.
The closer to the Sun, the longer the
tail of the comet.
The tail of the comet always faces
away from the Sun because of the
solar wind coming from the Sun.
Comets