Planets p

Inner Planets  Known as terrestrial planets –Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

Mercury—VenusMercury  1 day = 59 Earth days  Spins slower than earth  1 yr = 88 days  Closest to sun  No moon Venus  Earth’s sister planet  Sun rises in W sets in E  Rotates in opposite direction  2 nd brightest in night sky.  2 nd from sun  Densest atmosphere of inner planets (CO 2 )  Hottest planet

Earth – Mars Earth  3 rd planet from sun  Contains life and water  Iron Core Mars  4 th planet  Red planet  Cold planet  Only water in form of ice  Has 2 ice caps  Thin atmosphere  Most studied  Largest mountain in universe –Olympus Mons

Outer Planets  Known as the Gas Giants  Don’t have any known solid surfaces

Jupiter – Saturn Jupiter – Saturn Jupiter  5 th planet  Clouds made of water, methane, ammonia  Great Red Spot  Largest planet in solar system- 1,321.3 Earths would fit into Jupiter Saturn  6 th planet  2 nd largest  75% hydrogen, 25% helium, and trace amounts of other gases  Largest set of rings  Most violent winds of any planet

Uranus – Neptune Uranus – Neptune Uranus  Discovered by William Hershel – 1781  Blue-Green  7 th planet  Tipped on its axis almost 90 degrees –Hit by massive object Neptune  8 th planet  Great Dark Spot  The blue world  So blue because of Methane  Has Five Rings

Kuiper Belt  The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune – billions of kilometers from our sun.  Pluto and Eris are the best known of these icy worlds. There may be hundreds more of these ice dwarfs out there.  The Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud are believed to be the home of comets that orbit our sun.

Moons Moons  Mercury – None  Venus – None  Earth – One –Luna  Mars – Two –Phobos & Deimos  Jupiter – 67 known –Ganymede- largest of ALL Moons –Callisto –Io –Europa  Saturn – 62 known –Titan  Uranus – 27 known –Miranda  Neptune – 13 known –Triton