The Planets in our Solar System

The Planets
Do you know a saying to remember the planets in order?
 My Very Eager Mother Just Severed Us Nine Pizzas

Do you know the planets in order?

 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
 Pluto (dwarf planet)
 Solar System Data

Pluto 2,300
What do you know about the
planets?
Planet Sizes Relative to Each Other
Inner Planets
Characteristics of the inner planets:
 “Terrestrial Planets”
 Rocky
 Dense (about five times denser than water)
 Metal cores (iron)
 Thin atmosphere

The inner planets:

 Mercury
 Venus
 Earth
 Mars
 Mercury
 Inner most planet
 Terrestrial planet
 “Iron Dwarf” for having a large iron
core and being only 38% the size of
Earth
 Thin Atmosphere: Some
Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen
 Composition: Iron Core, Silicate
Surface
 Iron core is about the size of Earth’s
moon
 Hundreds of craters
 Sunlight Strength: 450-1040% of
Earth’s
 Highest and lowest surface temps:
427°C to -173 °C
 Venus
 Second planet from the Sun
 Terrestrial planet
 “Sister Planet” roughly the same size and
mass as Earth’s
 Thick Atmosphere: 96% Carbon
Dioxide
 Surface pressure 92 times greater
than Earth’s
 Clouds made of sulfuric acid
 Composition: Nickel-iron Core,
Silicate mantle, rocky crust
 Lots of volcanic features, but not
active.
 Sunlight Strength: 190% (cloud
tops), 5% (surface) of Earth’s
 Surface Temp: 464° C
 Earth
Third planet from the Sun
Terrestrial planet
200km Thick Atmosphere:
78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen,
1% argon
Composition: Nickel-iron
Core (inner core: solid & outer
core: liquid), Olivine mantle
(composed from oxygen,
magnesium and silicon), rocky
crust
One moon
 Mars
 Fourth planet from the Sun
 Terrestrial planet
 “Red Dwarf”
 Once covered with water

 Surface Pressure: 0.007 equivalent to the

cruising altitude of a plane
 Atmosphere: 95% Carbon Dioxide, 2.7%
Nitrogen, 1.6% Argon, and 0.7% other gases
 Composition: Iron and iron sulfide core,
olivine and iron oxide mantle, rocky crust
 Craters in the south, volcanic features in the
north
 Lack of craters in the north suggest a much younger region

covered by lava flows.

 Sunlight Strength: 36-52% of Earth’s
 Surface Temp: -50°C to -123° C
The Outer Planets
Characteristics of the outer planets:
 “Jovian Planets”
 Composed of mostly gases and ices
 No solid surface
 May have a solid core
 Most have rings
 Thick Tumultuous atmospheres - rapid winds, large storms

The outer planets:

 Jupiter
 Saturn
 Uranus
 Neptune
 Pluto (dwarf planet)
 Jupiter
 Fifth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Goliath planet”
 Five main rings
 Atmosphere: 90% Hydrogen and 10% Helium
 Three separate clouds layers of ammonia ice,
ammonium hydrosulfide ice, and water ice.
 The atmosphere blends seamlessly with the
outer core.
 Composition: Liquid molecular hydrogen and
helium outer mantle, liquid metallic hydrogen
inner mantle, and ice and rock core
 Core pressure is about 100 million atmospheres
 A very powerful magnetic field that extends all
the way to Saturn’s Orbit.
 Sunlight Strength: 3-4% of Earth’s
 Saturn
 Sixth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Ringed Giant”
 Seven main rings
 Atmosphere: 96% Hydrogen and 4%
Helium
 Clouds on Saturn the same as Jupiter’s
but can twice a deep as Jupiter’s.
 Composition: Liquid hydrogen (outer
mantle), Liquid metallic hydrogen (inner
mantle), ice (outer core) and rock (inner
core)
 Most oblate planet with visible bulges at
the equator
 Sunlight strength: 1% of Earth’s
 Powerful magnetic field (600 times that
of Earth’s)
 Uranus
 Seventh planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Blue Giant”
 Eleven thin rings
 Atmosphere: 83% Hydrogen, 15% Helium and 2%
Methane
 Only one cloud layer of methane has been
detected. Below this layer it is believed to have
clouds similar to Saturn and Jupiter
 Composition: Liquid hydrogen and other elements
(outer mantle), slushy layer of icy compounds of
water, methane, and ammonia (inner mantle), and
an icy & rocky (core)
 Red light is absorbed by methane, which is why
this planet is blue-green in color
 Sunlight strength: 1% of Earth’s
 Powerful magnetic field (50 times that of Earth’s)
 Axial inclination of 97.8° (sideways compared to
other planets)
 Neptune
 Eighth planet from the Sun
 Jovian planet
 “Blue Colossus”
 Five main rings

 Atmosphere: 79% Hydrogen, 18% Helium and

3% Methane
 Dynamic atmosphere with a main clouds of
methane ice crystals.
 Composition: Hydrogen and other elements
mixed into an icy liquid (outer mantle), slushy
mixture rich in water, methane, and ammonia
(inner mantle), and an icy & rocky (core)
 Orbit is almost perfectly circular
 Sunlight strength: 0.1% of Earth’s
 Visually the sun would be 900 times fainter than
how we see it on Earth
 Axial inclination of 97.8° (sideways compared to
other planets)
Poor Pluto
What have you heard about Pluto?

Why is it different than the other planets?

Why is it now technically not a planet?

 Pluto
 Little is know, but best guess is that
70% of the planet is rock and ice
makes up the other 30% of the planet.
 The picture to the right is the highest
resolution picture of Pluto known at
this time.
 67% of the diameter of the moon.
 Elongated and inclined orbit different
than the other planets
 Member of the Kuiper Belt
 Kuiper belt is a belt of icy planet
building leftovers
 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft
launched in early 2006 is expected to
reach Pluto in 2015.