Earth and space By Amy Roche

The Sun The sun is a star in the solar system. The sun is recognized to have the largest mass in our solar system. The diameter of the sun is 1.4 million km (870,000 miles) The sun’s distance from the Earth is 150 million km (93 million miles) Earth orbits the Sun 365 days, yes, one year. The Sun rotates every 25-36 earth days. The Sun’s energy travels outwards. The Sun’s core is composed of hot & dense gasses. It has a temperature of 15 million Kelvin (27 million degrees F) The Sun is made up of 92% hydrogen, 7% helium and the remainder of various gasses. The atmosphere of the Sun is composed of three areas: the photosphere, chromosphere, and solar corona.

Mercury Mercury is the eighth largest planet (or second smallest) in the Solar System. The orbital speed of Mercury is 47.8 km/sec Mercury has no atmosphere and no known satellites, perhaps because of its proximity to the Sun. The diameter of Planet Mercury is 4,878 km The only visit to Mercury was a flyby made by the Mariner 10 spacecraft in 1974. Mercury, often identified with the Greek god, Hermes, is the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology. Mercury orbits the sun once every 87.97 Earth Days A day, from sunrise to sunrise, on Mercury is equivalent to 176 Earth Days Mercury’s maximum distance from the Sun = 70 million km (43.5 million miles) Mercury’s minimum distance from Earth = 77 million km (48 million miles)

Venus The diameter of Venus is 12,100 km (7,522 miles) The interior of Venus is composed of a central iron core and a molten rocky mantle, similar to the composition of Earth. The surface of Venus is very dry with flat plains, highland regions, and depressions. Venus is the sixth largest planet in the Solar System Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun. Planet Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. The atmosphere of Venus is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (96%) and nitrogen (3%), with traces of other gases and little to no water vapor. Similar in size, density, and mass, Venus and Earth often referred to as sister planets. The orbital speed of Venus is 35 km per second. Maximum distance of Venus from the Sun is 109 million km (68 million miles)

Earth Earth is the fifth largest planet in the Solar System. The Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. The Earth’s atmosphere is composed mainly of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon (.93%), and carbon dioxide (0.03%). Earth’s atmosphere divided in 5 sections from the surface: Troposphere (0-13 km), Ozone Layer (13-25 km), Stratosphere (25-50 km), Mesosphere (50-75 km), and Thermosphere (75-150 km) Earth is the fifth largest planet in the Solar System. The Diameter of the Earth is 12,756 km (7,926 miles) The earth’s orbital speed is 29.8 km per second. Earth has only one satellite, the Moon. The Moon is the second brightest object in the sky from Earth. Earth has an average surface temperature of 13 degrees C (55.4 degrees F). The greenhouse effect raises Earth’s temperature 35 degrees C (95 degrees F).

Mars Known as the Red Planet, Mars is characterized by its red, dusty landscape. The atmosphere on Mars is very thin, composed mainly of carbon dioxide (95%), nitrogen (2.7%), and argon (1.6%), with traces of oxygen and water. The orbital speed of Mars is 24.2 km per second. Temperatures on Mars vary from a maximum of 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) to minimum -100 degrees C (-148 degrees F). The diameter of the planet Mars is 6,785 km A Mars year is equal to 686.98 Earth Days A day in Mars is equal to 24.6 Earth Hours Mars maximum distance from the Sun = 249 million km (155 million miles) Mars is 35 million miles from Earth Mars is the god of war in Roman mythology (Ares).

Jupiter Jupiter’s equatorial diameter is 142,984 km Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is 318 times larger than Earth. The orbital speed of Jupiter is 13.1 km/sec A year on Jupiter is equal to 11.9 Earth Years Jupiter, sometimes called Jove, was the King of the gods in Roman mythology and the son of Saturn. Jupiter’s maximum distance from the Sun = 817 million km (508 million miles) Jupiter’s minimum distance from Earth = 588 million km (365 million miles) Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to explore Jupiter in December 1973. Pioneer 10 just did a flyby. Jupiter has sixty three moons or satellites, eight are regular and 55 irregular.

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest. Saturn was the god of agriculture in Roman mythology. Saturn is also the father of Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods. Saturn is flattened at the poles, due to a fast rotation on its axis. Saturn has 62 known moons, fifty-three have been named. Most of them are small in size. Names of some of Saturn’s moons: the largest is Titan, discovered in 1655; Tethys, Dione, Rhea, & Iapetus, discovered from 1671 to 1672; Mimas & Enceladus, discovered in 1789; and Hyperion, discovered in 1848. A year on Saturn is equal to 29.5 Earth Years Saturn is the only planet in our solar system that is less dense that water. A day on Saturn is equal to 10 hours and 14 minutes in Earth days. # Diameter of Saturn is 119,871 km (74,500 miles) Saturn’s maximum distance from the Sun is 1.5 billion km (938 million miles)

Uranus Uranus is named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus was the husband of Gaia, the goddess of the Earth. The orbital speed of Uranus is 6.6 km/sec A year on Uranus is equal to 84.01 Earth Years (orbit around the sun). Uranus is the third largest planet in the Solar System. The atmosphere of Uranus is composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane in the atmosphere absorbs red light, giving the planet a blue-green color. Uranus is considered unusual because the planet is tipped on its side. The poles actually point towards the Sun. This is due to the fact that its magnetic field is tilted 60 degrees from the axis of rotation. In 1986, Voyager 2 visited Uranus, until then, little was known about this planet. Like Venus, Uranus spins from east to west, which is opposite from the spin of Earth. A day on Uranus is equal to a little more than 17 hours on Earth.

Neptune Neptune is the fourth largest planet in the Solar System. Neptune is a gaseous planet, composed of hydrogen, helium, methane, with traces of ammonia and water. Neptune was discovered by Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams, and Johann Galle on September 23, 1846. The only spacecraft ever to visit Neptune was Voyager 2 in 1989. In Roman mythology, Neptune is the god of the sea. Neptune has strong winds which is more than any other planet in the Solar System. Winds on Neptune can get up to 2,000 km/hour (1,200 miles/hour). “The Scooter” is a cloud that moves around Neptune about every 16 hours. The blue color of the planet is due to the absorption of red light by methane in the atmosphere. The orbital speed of Neptune is 5.4 km/second. The diameter of Neptune is 49,493 km One Neptune day is equal to 16 hours in Earth time.

Pluto Pluto is the smallest planet in the Solar System, smaller than Earth’s Moon, and half the width of Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede. Pluto’s journey around the Sun takes 248 Earth years. This means that, since its discovery in 1930, it still has 177 years to go until it has made a complete orbit around the Sun. Pluto’s atmosphere is composed of a thin layer of gas containing carbon monoxide, methane, and nitrogen. Its atmospheric pressure has been estimated to be 1/700,000 compared with that of earth. Pluto was the only planet to have been discovered in the Twentieth Century. Pluto is the only planet in the Solar System that has not yet been visited by a space probe. Pluto orbits the Sun on a different plane than the other 8 planets, going over them and below them. Pluto has four identified moons, Charon, the largest is not much smaller than Pluto itself. (Pluto is 2,280 kilometers wide, Charon is 1,212 kilometers wide). The other 3 are Nix, Hydra, and newly discovered S/2011 P 1 on July of 2011. A day on Pluto is equivalent to Earth’s 6 days and 9 hours, meaning that it has the second slowest rotation in the Solar System (after Venus, which takes 243 days to turn on its axis). Pluto’s orbit is elliptical, meaning that it can come closer to the Sun than Neptune, but then go almost two billion kilometers further away from Neptune’s orbit.

The Moon The Moon is Earth’s lone natural satellite. The Moon is the fifth largest satellite in our Solar System. The Moon is a little more than one-fourth the size of Earth. The Moon’s diameter is 2160 miles (3476 km) The Moon’s total surface area is 14,658,000 sq. mi (37,932,000 sq. km). The Moon rotates at ten miles per hour. Average distance between the Earth and the Moon is about 239,000 miles. Actual distance varies from 221,457 to 252,712 miles. The Moon’s gravity is 1/6 that of Earth. Closest distance between the Moon and the Sun is 91,341,565 miles (147 million km). The speed in which the moon orbits the earth is at 2,300 miles an hour.

My Evaluation I really enjoyed this topic and if I had to do it again I would defiantly do lots of different things like, use a different website to get my information and get lots different pictures. I got most of my facts off a website called planet facts where I learnt a lot of things about all the planets. The hardest thing was trying to find animations for my slides. The easiest thing was when I had to find pictures for my slides. We found out how to get bullet points and used lots of different ones for all the different planets like for Jupiter I used Jupiter bullet points. THANKYOU FOR WATCHING MY POWER POINT 

Thank you For Watching 