1. The Solar System
Funding support for outreach programs provided by the Utah State Legislature and the Utah State Board of Education

2. Commonly Confused Terms
Solar System
Our star (Sun) and everything that orbits around it (planets, asteroids, comets, etc.)
Galaxy
Huge collection of stars bound together by gravity (the Sun is 1 star among billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy)
Universe
Everything (~100 billion galaxies)

3. What objects make up the Solar System?
The following tour shows objects in the solar system ordered by mass.

4. Sun Has about 99.86% of the MASS in the solar system
Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

5. Sunspots
Credit: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

6. Jupiter has about 0.1% of the MASS in the solar system Everything else
together has
only about 0.04%
of the MASS
in the solar system
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

7. Jupiter Composition: 86% Hydrogen 13% Helium
Jupiter has many objects in orbit around it
(current count = 63)
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

8. Jupiter
Most satellites orbit far away from Jupiter and are probably captured asteroids
Credit: University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy

9. Saturn Composition: 90% Hydrogen 9% Helium
Credit: NASA, ESA and E. Karkoschka (Univesity of Arizona)

10. Neptune Neptune has 8 known moons
Largest moon Triton is in a retrograde orbit
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

11. Uranus Composition: 83% Hydrogen 15% Helium
Uranus has an axial tilt of 98˚
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

12. Earth
Temperature and pressure allow water to exist as a liquid at the surface
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

13. Venus
Venus has 82% of the mass of Earth and is covered with white clouds of sulfuric acid
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

14. Venus
Surface Temperature: 864˚ F
Credit: NASA/NSSDC

15. Mars

16. Mars
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

17. Mercury
Although it is smaller in size than Ganymede and Titan, Mercury has more mass of both of these moons combined.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/
Carnegie Institution of Washington

18. Moons Seven moons have more mass than Pluto
Ganymede (Jupiter)
Titan (Saturn)
Callisto (Jupiter)
Io (Jupiter)
Moon (Earth)
Europa (Jupiter)
Triton (Neptune)
Ganymede has 11.4 times the mass of Pluto
Titan has 10.4 times the mass of Pluto
Callisto has 8.3 times the mass of Pluto
Io has 6.9 times the mass of Pluto
Moon has 5.7 times the mass of Pluto
Europa has 3.7 times the mass of Pluto
Triton has 1.7 times the mass of Pluto
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

19. Eris
Eris is the largest dwarf planet in the Solar System. Eris has 1.27 times the mass of Pluto.
Credit: NASA ,ESA , and M. Brown (California Institute of Technology)

20. Pluto, the second largest dwarf planet, is one of the largest objects in a belt of objects that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune.
Pluto
Credit: Allen Stern (Southwest Research Institute), Mark Buie (Lowell Observatory), NASA and ESA

21. The Kuiper Belt
Thousands of icy objects orbit the Sun beyond Neptune in a region commonly called the Kuiper Belt.
______
Pluto Orbit
________
Neptune Orbit
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

22. Dysnomia
Eris
Makemake
Haumea
Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Field (STScI)

23. Comets Astronomers think that many comets originate in the Kuiper Belt
NASA/NSSDC/W. Liller
Astronomers think that many comets originate in the Kuiper Belt
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

24. Asteroids
Eros
Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech