1. Planet Highlights

2. Mercury

3. Mercury

4. Mercury Highest Density Thinnest Atmosphere
Highest Temperature and Greatest Temperature Range
Messenger will fly by in 2011
Surface is similar to the moon, very cratered, old

5. Venus

6. Venus It’s day is longer than its year
Still volcanically active and covered with large lava flows
It has no moons
Atmosphere is mostly Carbon Dioxide, which causes a large Greenhouse Effect, raising its temperature

7. Venus: Earth’s Twin Similar in size Similar density
Young, volcanically active surface
Probably used to have water that boiled away

8. Mars

9. Exploration of Mars Has been explored more than any other planet:
Mariner 4 visited for the first time in 1965
Landers include Mars 2, Viking, Pathfinder, Spirit, and Opportunity
3 orbiters are currently in orbit
We have learned a lot about the surface of Mars as a result

10. Surface of Mars
Largest Mountain/Volcano in Solar System: Olympus Mons

11. Surface of Mars
Rocky
Evidence of erosion possibly by liquid water: Dry river beds and canyons
Volcanoes and lava flows
Red Planet

12. Largest Canyon in solar system
Would stretch from New York to Los Angeles on earth

13. Moons of Mars
2 Moons
Phobos Deimos

14. Other Mars Facts Very thin atmosphere
Permanent polar ice caps made of water and carbon dioxide

15. Asteroid Belt
The region between Mars and Jupiter contains irregularly shaped rocky objects called asteroids.

16. Asteroids
Asteroids are probably left over material from a planet that never formed.
They range in size from 1000 km to the size of a pebble.
There are 26 large ones and millions of smaller ones, although most of the asteroid belt is empty space.

17. Jupiter Gas Giant: No solid surface, it’s gases just get more dense.
Under the gases is a liquid metallic core (at high temperatures and pressures the hydrogen becomes a liquid with ionized protons and electrons that conduct electricity like a metal)
Made mostly of Hydrogen and Helium
Rocky core times the mass of earth

18. Jupiter Lots of images from Hubble Flyby in 1973 by Pioneer, Voyager
Orbited for 8 years by Galileo

19. Jupiter Facts Has the Great Red Spot- giant storm in its gases
Has faint rings
Has 63 moons, 4 very large ones
Was hit by a comet in 1994
So big all of the other planets would fit inside it (diameter is 11 times that of earth)

20. Saturn
Gas Giant containing a gas surface of mostly Hydrogen and Helium, a liquid hydrogen metal outer core, and a rocky inner core
Has large, prominent rings with spaces between them
Cassini is orbiting since 2004
Voyager and Pioneer visited
34 moons

21. Saturn
Saturn has such a low density it would float in water!

22. Titan- Saturn’s Moon Larger than Mercury and Pluto
Second largest moon in solar system
Has a planet-like atmosphere
Has places on it that look like liquid-filled lakes (probably not water)

23. Titan
We sent Cassini THROUGH Saturn’s rings to orbit Titan. Then we dropped Huygens onto the surface of Titan. It landed with the help of 3 parachutes to slow it down from 12,000 mph
Found mud, rock, and liquid

24. Uranus
Gas Giant: It’s atmosphere has Hydrogen and Helium, but it’s interior is rocky and icy.
Only visited once by Voyager
Rotates on it’s side with its south pole facing the sun
11 rings
27 moons

25. Uranus

26. Neptune
Sometimes its orbit crosses that of Pluto, making it farther away from the sun than Pluto
Visited only once by Voyager
Gas Giant with a Gas surface of hydrogen and helium, and then a rocky, icy core
13 Moons and faint rings

27. Neptune

28. Pluto
Smaller than 7 moons in the solar system and is now a dwarf planet
Very eccentric orbit, so it crosses with Neptune
New Horizons, launched in 2006, should flyby in 2015
3 moons, one almost as big as Pluto; “Double Planet”

29. Pluto

30. Kuiper Belt
Region beyond Neptune with small, icy objects that are the source of comets
Sedna and other small planetoids are located here