Our Solar System Part 2

URANUS Gas giant = NO solid surface Only planet that rotates on its side Has faint rings Diameter - 31,518 miles (50,724 km) It orbits the Sun every 84 Earth years. Uranus' moon Ariel (white dot) and its shadow (black dot) were caught crossing the face of Uranus in this Hubble Space Telescope image. Gas giant = NO solid surface Seventh planet from the sun (1.8 billion miles or 19.19 AU) Rotates east to west 27 moons An OUTER planet

NEPTUNE Gas giant = NO solid surface Has 6 rings 13 moons (named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology) Eighth planet from the sun 2.8 billion miles or 30.07 AU An OUTER planet. Diameter - 30,599 miles (49,244 km) It orbits the Sun in 164.79 Earth years.

PLUTO Now known as a “Dwarf Planet” Smaller than Earth’s moon Solid, rocky and icy 3.7 billion miles or 39.48 AU away from the Sun Its thin atmosphere expands as it gets closer to the Sun and collapses as it moves farther away. Diameter – 1,485 miles (2,390 km) It orbits the Sun in 247.9 Earth years.

Earth’s Moon It is the Earth’s satellite It is 239 thousand miles or 0.00257 AU away from Earth Takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth. More than 100 spacecraft have been launched to explore the moon The only celestial body visited by humans (there have been 12)

Asteroids Pieces of rock. Made of minerals similar to those that formed rocky planets and moons Most orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter

Comet Ison was disintegrated by the sun in Nov. 2013 COMETS Lovejoy From Jadwin, Mo. on Nov. 13, 2013. Warm up as they get closer to the sun and develops an atmosphere or a coma Travel in an elliptical orbit Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock and dust Appear to glow Halley’s Comet Comet Ison was disintegrated by the sun in Nov. 2013 Hale-Bopp visible in Hawaii (8/97) Lovejoy is visible in the night sky

STARS Scientists believe they began as huge clouds of gas and dust or a nebula. A group of stars that form a pattern is a CONSTELLATION. Scientist infer there are 100 billion stars in the universe.

GALAXIES Made of: Stars, gas and dust. Shapes are: Spiral, Barred spiral, Elliptical and Irregular Our Milky Way is a Barred spiral galaxy. You can’t see the entire Milky Way from Earth because Earth is INSIDE the Milky Way.

4 Types of Galaxies Spiral - a galaxy in which the stars and gas clouds are concentrated mainly in one or more spiral arms Barred spiral - a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars Elliptical - a generally elliptical shape that has no apparent internal structure or spiral arms Irregular - a galaxy that does NOT have a distinct regular shape

The End