Space 1

Our Solar System

Our Solar System DO NOW

On your white boards or the back of your

booklet list the 8 planets in our solar
system in order from the Sun.

What else is found in our solar system?

 Do you think humans are the
only life form in the Universe?

5500 165 billion 100 thousand million stars per galaxy

 Aiming for a 4 Aiming for a 6 Aiming for a 8
Describe a variety of Describe the formation Analyse data about the
objects within the Solar of a protostar and planets to compare
System. planets. them in terms of
composition.

State that the material in Explain why a star Explain why a star in its
a star is pulled together radiates light in terms of main sequence
by gravitational forces nuclear fusion. maintains a constant
radius
 On your white boards
write your full address

5500 165 billion 100 thousand million stars per galaxy

• Duffield So currently…..
• Derbyshire
where are we?
• United Kingdom
• Earth
• The Solar System,
• Orion Arm,
• The Milky Way,
• Local Group,
• Virgo Cluster,
• Virgo Super-Cluster,
• Universe
Where do we fit in the grand scale of things?
• Scale of the Universe
The Universe is enormous,
lets zoom in a bit……..
Inner Planets- Rocky
Size comparison of the Inner Planet
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth
taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1
space probe from a record distance of about 6
billion kilometers

Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it
everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard
of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.
Outer Planets- Gas
Dwarf
planet
Pluto
• Downgraded from ‘planet’ to ‘dwarf planet’ in 2006
• Smaller than The Moon
• Has one moon - Charon
Our Solar system
consists of 8 planets
orbiting our star.

They are split into the

rocky planets and gas
giants.

But what else can be

found in our solar
system?
Natural satellites in our solar system
A natural satellite, or moon, is, in the most common usage, an
astronomical body that orbits a planet or minor planet
• Earth has one moon
• Saturn has 60!
• In the Solar System there are six planetary satellite systems
containing 185 known natural satellites
Activity 1 – Our Solar System…
the basics - review
 Comets.
Frozen gas, rock and
dust that orbit the sun.
Can be the size of a
small town!
When the orbit brings it
near to the sun the
comet spits out gas into
a giant glowing head the
size of a planet! The tail
is dust and gas millions
of miles long!
 Asteroids
Rocks left over from
the solar system
formation.
Range 1 – 480 miles.
800 000 known.
Concentrated area in
the asteroid belt
between Mars and
Jupiter.
Meteoroids, meteors and meteorites
A solid piece of debris from a comet or asteroid that originates
from outer space.
Range microns – 10 metres.
Meteor is the light emitted from a meteoroid as it enters the
atmosphere. Mbozi was discovered in
Tanzania in the 1930s. It's 3
A meteoroid becomes a meteorite if it reaches earth. metres long and weighs an
estimated 25 tonnes.
Activity 1 – Our Solar System…
the basics - review
 Aiming for a 4 Aiming for a 6 Aiming for a 8
Describe a variety of Describe the formation Analyse data about the
objects within the Solar of a protostar and planets to compare
System. planets. them in terms of
composition.

State that the material in Explain why a star Explain why a star in its
a star is pulled together radiates light in terms of main sequence
by gravitational forces nuclear fusion. maintains a constant
radius
So how was our solar
system formed?

To explain this we need

to go back 4.6 billion
years to not quite the
big bang.
 The cosmic
calendar shrinks
the history of
the Universe
into 12 months,
where January
1st is the Big
Bang.

On this scale the

solar system
was created
around
September.
The fact that heavy elements like Uranium exist,
we know that at some point a star went super
nova- this is what follows……
 Somewhere in the distant Universe……Dust
and gas cloud

The Sun formed from

a cloud of dust and
gas (nebula) that was
pulled together by
gravitational
attraction
 The Birth of a Star
Red, dashed arrow is radiation, black arrow is gravity

1 Clouds of dust rock and gas (including lots of
hydrogen) exist in a planetary nebula. Gas
is drawn inwards by gravity and clumps
begin to form. The collapsing cloud begins to
rotate and flatten into a disc of gas and dust.
rotation
2 The disc rotates faster and faster pulling
more material inwards. The particles collide
more often, the temperature increases in
the centre and a hot dense core called a
protostar is created.
rotation
3 When the protostar becomes hot enough
hydrogen atoms begin to fuse producing
helium and energy is released – the star
begins to shine.
radiation
5 These clumps are not hot enough to
become protostars – but go on to form
planets, or if smaller, asteroids orbiting the
star. Our Sun has four inner rocky planets
and four outer “gas giants” orbiting it with an
4 In the formation of our Solar System the
Sun is the star at the centre. The heat from
the Sun evaporates any ice in the cloud and
pushes away the gas, leaving clumps of
rock orbiting close to the Sun.
6 Eventually radiation pressure pushing
outwards from the fusion reaction in the star
or in our Sun is equal to gravity pulling
inwards. The forces are balanced and the
star is stable, it will remain the same size –
5 These clumps are not hot enough to
become protostars – but go on to form
planets, or if smaller, asteroids orbiting the
star. Our Sun has four inner rocky planets
and four outer “gas giants” orbiting it with an
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
6 Eventually radiation pressure pushing
outwards from the fusion reaction in the star
or in our Sun is equal to gravity pulling
inwards. The forces are balanced and the
star is stable, it will remain the same size –
it is a main sequence star.
 Visible

The birth of stars

small dark areas in the photograph are
believed to be protostars
 Infra red

The birth of stars

There are many more stars visible in the IR part of the spectrum. These are much cooler
and obscured by the dust and gases within the nebula. These can only be observed using
space telescopes. Many of these will by young stars forming out of the gases in the
nebula. Some protostars will fail to form as their gravity competes .
 Aiming for a 4 Aiming for a 6 Aiming for a 8
Describe a variety of Describe the formation Analyse data about the
objects within the Solar of a protostar and planets to compare
System. planets. them in terms of
composition.

State that the material in Explain why a star Explain why a star in its
a star is pulled together radiates light in terms of main sequence
by gravitational forces nuclear fusion. maintains a constant
radius
Activity 2 –
Origins of
our Solar
System -
review
Activity 2 –
Origins of
our Solar
System -
review
Activity 2 – The sun formed at the centre of a spinning cloud
of dust, gas and rock due to the force of
Origins of gravitational attraction ttraction.
our Solar
System -
review The sun's heat evaporated ice and drove gas away
from the inner Solar System, leaving rocks behind

The rocky planets formed near the Sun and the gas
giant planets formed further away. The minor
planet Pluto orbits the Sun Beyond the giant
planets.
 Describe the process that starts to happen in a protostar?
Activity 2 –
Origins of The particles in the clouds are pulled together
our Solar by their own gravitational attraction so speed
System - up. The clouds merge together and become
review more concentrated to form a protostar.
Why is a main sequence star stable? (hint: think balanced
forces)
The forces are balanced – the force of gravity
acts inwards trying to make the star contract.
This is balanced with the outward force of the
radiation from nuclear fusion in its core trying
to make the star expand.
Answers - questions
1 Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune (4 marks)
2 Between Mars and Jupiter (1 mark)
3 a main sequence (1 mark)
b radiation outwards, gravity inwards, balanced (2 marks)
4 b, f, c, d, e, a (3 marks)
5 gravity clumping dust together as it rotates (2 marks)
6 radiation pushes gas away;
gravity draws rocks and dust together (2 marks)
7 Density of inner planets > density of outer planets (2 marks)
Answers – student follow-up
1 Venus has a very thick layer of CO2;
which creates a greenhouse effect;
the short wavelength infra red radiation passes through to Venus;
it emits long wavelength infra red which cannot pass through the atmosphere
and is trapped so Venus has warmed up. (4 marks)
2 Jupiter (1 mark)
3 Jupiter (2 marks)
4 The gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune;
They consist of countless small particles, (ranging in size from micrometres to
metres), orbiting the planets. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water
ice, with a trace component of rocky material. (2 marks)
Post it

On your white board or the back of

your booklet write both a sentence
about your learning so far and a
question to test the rest of the class.
 The Sun
• The Sun is a star.
• It is 4,500 million years old
• It takes 8 minutes for its light to reach
the Earth.
• 98.6% mass of the Solar System
• Consists of Hydrogen (74%) and
Helium (24%)

• Radius: 695,000 km
• Mass: 333,000 Earths!
• Surface Temperature: 5,500 °C
• Core Temperature: 15,500,000 °C
 Mercury
• Scans indicate that craters at the
poles contain water ice.
• Temperatures reach 450°C during
the day. At night, the temperature
drop to -170°C.
• No moon

• Radius: 2400 km
• Mass: 3.30 x 1023 kg
• Distance from Sun: 58 million km (0.38 AU)
Mercury Earth Size Comparison
 Venus
• Surface temperatures are a
constant 500°C due to thick
atmosphere
• The atmosphere is 95% Carbon
Dioxide
• Venus rotates in the opposite
direction to other planets in the
Solar System.

• Radius: 6500 km
• Mass: 4.86 x 1024 kg
• Distance from Sun: 108 million km (0.72 AU)
Mountain ranges on Venus taken
with Radar. Note the metallic snow.

Thick cloud cover blanketing Venus

 Earth
Radius: 6,400 km
Mass: 5.8 x 1024 kg
Temperature: -80 to 60 °C
Distance from Sun: 146 million km (1 AU)
Surface is 70% covered by water.
Over 2200 manmade satellites in orbit
But only 1 natural satellite the moon
 Mars
• Surface temperatures are
between 0°C and -100°C
• Has the highest mountain in the
Solar System – the Olympus Mons
(24km high and 600km wide at
the base)

• Radius: 3400 km
• Mass: 6.4 x 1023 kg
• Distance from Sun: 228 million km (1.5 AU)
Size comparison of the Inner Planet
 Asteroid Belt

• Located between
Jupiter and Mars
• Has a dwarf planet,
Ceres – 950km in
diameter
• Gravity from Jupiter
prevented debris
from forming into a
planet
 Jupiter
• Made up of 90% hydrogen,
10% helium
• probably has a core of
rocky material of 10 to 15
Earth-masses
• Great Red Spot – a storm
that has been raging for
over 300 years. As big as 2
Earths.
• Has over 63 moons

• Radius: 71000 km
• Mass: 1.9 x 1027 kg
• Distance from Sun: 780 million km (5.2 AU)
Time-lapse animation from Voyager I on approach to Jupiter.
 Saturn

• 75% hydrogen, 25% helium with a rocky core and liquid hydrogen
mantle.
• The rings are 250000km in diameter but only 1 km thick.
• Has 34 named moons (60 in total)
• Radius: 60000 km
• Mass: 5.7 x 1026 kg
• Distance from Sun: 1400 million km (9.5 AU)
Saturn’s Rings showing
spoke formations

Mimas – a small moon

of Saturn
 Uranus
• Composed mainly of rock
and various ices
• Has a tilt of 97° so rotates on
its side
• has 21 named moons and 6
unnamed
• Surface temperature of ~50K
(-223°C)

• Radius: 25000 km
• Mass: 8.7 x 1025 kg
• Distance from Sun: 2900 million km (19.2 AU)
 Neptune
• The existence of Neptune was
predicted as it was noticed
that Uranus’ orbit did not fit
with Newton’s laws - another
planet must be influencing
Uranus' orbit.
• Discovered in 1846
• September 2011 marks one
orbit since it was discovered.

• Radius: 25000 km
• Mass: 1 x 1026 kg
• Distance from Sun: 4500 million km (30 AU)
Pluto
• Downgraded from ‘planet’ to ‘dwarf planet’ in 2006
• Smaller than The Moon
• Has one moon - Charon