Touring Solar System

• Planets that are small and rocky—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

  Terrestrial planets
• Huge gas giants—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

  Jovian planets
• Cloud of gas and/or dust in space.

  Nebula
• Small, irregularly shaped bodies formed by colliding matter.

  Planetesimals
• Has cratered highlands, much like the moon, and vast smooth terrains that resemble maria.

  Mercury
• “Earth’s twin.”

  Venus
• Martian Atmosphere

  Mars
• Jupiter’s satellite system has:

  28 moons
• Jupiter’s ring system was one of the most unexpected discoveries made by

  Voyager 1
• Elegant Planet

  Saturn
• Storm in Jupiter

  The Great Red Spot
• Largest moon found in Saturn

  Titan
• Windiest places in the solar system

  Neptune
• Small, rocky body whose diameter can range from a few hundred kilometers to less than a kilometer.

  Asteroid
• Asteroids lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
• Small bodies made of rocky and metallic pieces held together by frozen gases.

  Comets
• Comets move in nearly circular orbits that lie roughly in the same plane as the planets.

  Kuiper Belt
• Comets with long orbital periods appear to be distributed in all directions from the sun

  Oort Cloud
• The most famous short-period comet is:

  Halley’s comet
• Small, solid particle that travels through space.

  Meteoroid
• Luminous phenomenon observed when a meteoroid enters Earth’s

  atmosphere and burns up, popularly called a shooting star.

  Meteor
• Portion of a meteoroid that reaches Earth’s surface.

  Meteorite
• ◆ Most meteoroids originate from any one of the following three sources:

  (1) interplanetary debris that was not gravitationally swept up by the planets during the formation of the solar system,

  (2) material from the asteroid belt, or

  (3) the solid remains of comets that once traveled near Earth’s orbit.