Naturalists at Large Solar System Slide Show

1. E arth S cience
An overview of the
Solar System

2. The Sun
 The sun is the
biggest, brightest, and
hottest object in the
solar system.
 The sun is an
ordinary star.
 The sun is made of
about 70% hydrogen
and 28% helium.

3. Mercury
 Mercury is solid and
is covered with
craters.
 Mercury has almost
no atmosphere.
 Mercury is the eighth
largest planet.

4. Venus
 Venus is the sixth
largest planet. It’s
about three-fourths
the size of earth.
 The surface is rocky
and very hot. The
atmosphere
completely hides the
surface and traps the
heat.

5. Earth
 Earth is the fifth largest planet and the third from
the sun.
 Liquid covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface.
 The Earth has one moon.

6. Moon

7. Mars
 Mars is the fourth
planet from the sun.
 Mars has a thin
atmosphere that
contains mostly
carbon dioxide.
 Mars has two small
moons.

8. Moons of Mars
Phobos
Deimos

9. Jupiter

10. Jupiter’s Red Spot
 The Great Red Spot,
a huge storm of
swirling gas that has
lasted for hundreds of
years.
 Jupiter does not have
a solid surface. The
planet is a ball of
liquid surrounded by
gas.

11. Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has four large Galilean moons,
twelve smaller named moons and twenty-
three more recently discovered but not
named moons.
We’ll take a look at the four large Galilean
moons which were first observed by
Galileo in 1610.

12. Io
 Io is the fifth moon of
Jupiter. It’s the third
largest of Jupiter’s
moons.
 Io has hundreds of
volcanic calderas.
Some of the volcanoes
are active.

13. Europa
 Europa is the sixth of
Jupiter’s moons and is
the fourth largest.
 It is slightly smaller than
the Earth’s moon.
 The surface strongly
resembles images of sea
ice on Earth. There may
be a liquid water sea
under the crust.
 Europa is one of the five
known moons in the solar
system to have an
atmosphere.

14. Ganymede
 Ganymede is the
seventh and largest of
Jupiter’s known
satellites.
 Ganymede has
extensive cratering
and an icy crust.

15. Callisto
 Callisto is the eighth of Jupiter’s known satellites
and the second largest.
 Callisto has the oldest, most cratered surface of
any body yet observed in the solar system.

16. Saturn
 Saturn is the second largest planet and the sixth
from the sun.
 Saturn is made of materials that are lighter than
water. If you could fit Saturn in a lake, it would
float!

17. Rings of Saturn
 Saturn’s rings are not
solid; they are
composed of small
countless particles.
 The rings are very
thin. Though they’re
250,000km or more in
diameter, they’re less
than one kilometer
thick.

18. Uranus
 Uranus is the third
largest planet and the
seventh from the sun.
 Uranus is one of the
giant gas planets.
 Uranus is blue-green
because of the
methane in its
atmosphere.

19. Neptune
 Neptune is the fourth
largest planet and the
eight from the sun.
 Because of the orbits,
from 1979 to 1999,
Neptune was the
ninth planet.
 Like Uranus, the
methane gives
Neptune its color.

20. Pluto
 Pluto was the
smallest planet and
usually the farthest
from the sun. (no
longer considered a
planet)
 Pluto is now
recognized as the
largest member of a
distinct region called
the Kuiper belt.