This imaginative painting shows a possible future human settlement on ___________. Settlers might live in domes to protect themselves from the harsh climate and to provide an atmosphere for breathing.

The Terrestrial Planets How are the inner planets similar? The four inner planets are all relatively small and dense, and have rocky surfaces. Like Earth, they all have a crust, mantle, and iron core.

Compare and contrast the 4 inner planets. The Terrestrial Planets Compare and contrast the 4 inner planets.

Mercury What are the characteristics of Mercury? Mercury is the smallest of the terrestrial planets, and the closest planet to the sun.

Mercury Mercury’s surface is heavily cratered from ___________ collisions. This false-color image was made by combining a series of smaller images taken by the ___________ space probe. Orange areas for which no images are available are blank.

Venus What are the characteristics of Venus? Venus’s thick atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide, which traps heat and raises the planet’s temperature.

Venus Photographs in visible light only show Venus’s clouds. Radar is able to penetrate Venus’s atmosphere. ___________ data were used to produce this false-color image of a volcano on Venus. Create a model on how radar works.

Earth What are the characteristics of Earth? Earth’s surface has a suitable atmosphere and temperature range for water to exist as a liquid.

Earth Earth is unique among the planets in having liquid-water ___________ at its surface.

Mars What are the characteristics Mars? Mars shows evidence of once having a great deal of liquid surface water.

Mars Mars has ___________ at both poles.

Mars Olympus Mons is the largest ___________ in the solar system.

Mars These Martian valleys are thought to have been formed at least in part by large flows of ___________ in the distant past.

Mars This photo of a dark boulder on Martian sand was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in ___________. Spirit found rocks and minerals that formed in, or were altered by, water. Compare the Martian surface to places on earth.

Asteroids What are asteroids and how were they formed? Scientists now hypothesize that asteroids are remnants of the early solar system that never came together to form a planet.

Asteroids The asteroid ___________ was photographed by the Galileo probe on its way to Jupiter. In 2001, the NEAR Shoemaker space probe landed on the asteroid ___________.

Assessment Questions Which object in the solar system has conditions on its surface most like the conditions on planet Earth? Mercury Venus the moon Mars

Assessment Questions Why do most scientists no longer accept the hypothesis that asteroids are remnants of a shattered planet? Their total mass is much less than the mass of a planet. They are not as spherical as are all the planets. Unlike planets, asteroids are made primarily of ice. There is no known cause for a planet to shatter.