1. Week 4 Week April 8-12 Uranus, Neptune, Pluto

2. Week 4 Day 1 Before: Question of The Day During; PPT notes on Uranus
After:
3-2-1

3. Week 4 Day 1 Question of The Day
Answer:

4. Week 4 Day 1 Uranus a gas giant 7th from the sun
3 billion Km. from Sun
orbit is an ellipse –stretched circle
At first Uranus was named “Georgium Sidus”, after George III (the King of England at the time).
Other people called the planet Herschel, in honor of the man who discovered it.
Uranus was suggested, an ancient Greek god who was the father of Saturn, so that the new planet would have a name from mythology like the rest of the planets.
The name Uranus was finally agreed on by everybody in the mid 1800’s.

5. Uranus year= 84 Earth yr. day=a little over 17 hr. blue-green color
small even when viewed through a telescope
methane, hydrogen, helium
core of melted rock
core blends into a dirty ocean of water, ammonia, and other elements
dirty ocean blends into clouds

6. Uranus winds blow at over 645 km. an hour At least 15 moons
largest, and furthest away, of Uranus’ moons are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon
moons are named after characters in the stories of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope
Remaining 10 small moons
discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986.

7. Uranus all the gas planets have rings rings of Uranus are a very faint
rings cannot be seen from Earth
seem to be made of larger chunks of very dark, rocky material
Discovered by William Herschel

8. Uranus Special Features
lies on side
Thought to be result of collision with something
Spins in opposite direction of Earth

9. Week 4 Day 2 Before: Question of the Day During: PPT Notes on Neptune
After:
Exit Ticket

10. Week 4 Day 2 Question of The Day
Answer: A

11. Week 4 Day 2 Neptune a gas giant 8th planet in our solar system
orbit is almost a perfect circle
almost 4.5 billion km. from Sun
orbit almost a perfect circle
named after the Roman god of the sea
year 165 Earth years
day sixteen hours

12. Neptune almost 4 times the size of Earth
can be seen with binoculars or telescope
small central core of melted rock.
above center is extremely cold water
After water is top layer of hydrogen and helium, with a little methane mixed in
methane gives Neptune its color
winds can blow as fast as 2000 km. per hour at the planet’s equator

13. Neptune eight moons two can be seen from Earth Triton-- over 2600 km.
rest of moons tiny, some as small as 32 km. in diameter
Voyager space missions gave us our info on the moone.
The spacecraft sent back pictures of nitrogen “geysers” erupting on Triton’s surface.
gas giants have rings.
Neptune rings-- small, very dark clumps of rock --about the size of a small car.
also a large amount of dust in the rings
One of the rings has a twist in it.

14. Neptune
Some sources say the astronomers Galle and d’Arrest discovered Neptune on September 23, 1846, although other sources say that it was Adams in 1846.
interesting fact --astronomers were looking for it before it was know to exist.
After William Herschel discovered Uranus, astronomers noticed that Uranus’ orbit didn’t seem to obey the laws of physics. Something was making Uranus move in unexpected ways. Astronomers decided that there must be another planet making Uranus move and they then calculated where the new planet might be.

15. Week 4 Day 3 Before: Question of The Day During: PPT Notes on Pluto
After:
Exit Slip

16. Week 4 Day 3 Question of The Day
Answer: B

17. A Planet or Not????
In 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) demoted Pluto from a Planet to a Dwarf Planet.
Out of the 10,000 members only about 500 were at the meeting to vote on this decision.
237 voted to demote
157 voted to keep as a planet

18. What it takes to be a planet!!
As defined by the IAU in August 2006
Must orbit a sun
Must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball
Must have cleared other objects out of the way in its orbital neighborhood
To clear an orbit it must be able to pull the objects into the planet itself or to sling-shot them around the planet and into outer space

19. Pluto According to IAU, in 2006, Pluto did not meet third criteria.
New Horizons sent to Pluto
A nine yr. trip
New Horizons spacecraft arrived on Pluto in July 2015.
Because of info. gathered by New Horizon, Plutos right to be a planet was argued at IAU assembly in August 2015.

20. Pluto Nothing decided in 2015 Many people calling Pluto a planet again
NASA’s Dawn space ship arrived on Ceres in March 2015
Evidence gathered leads us to believe Ceres meets planetary requirements.
Ceres first discovered —classified as planet
Demoted to asteroid 1850
Promoted to Dwarf Planet in 2006
IAU 2016 assembly will decide whether or not these two “Dwarf Planets” deserve to be reinstated as Planets!!

21. Week 4 Day3 Pluto a small planet an outer planet elliptical orbit
average distance from the Sun --6 billion km.
Origins of name unknown—Possible origins
Pluto is the Roman god of darkness and the underworld.
Pluto is always in darkness.
It may have also have been given its name from the fact that its symbol “PL” are the initials of Percival Lowell, who founded the observatory where Pluto’s discoverer, Mr. Tombaugh, worked.

22. Pluto Comparison to Earth-ping pong ball to soccer ball
Earth’s moon is larger than Pluto.
can not be seen with a normal telescope from Earth
Pluto is the only planet in the solar system that has not been explored with a spacecraft.
Discovered Clyde Tombaugh

23. Pluto Hypotheses dark frozen world
made of a mixture of rocks and several kinds of “ices”
most of the ices are frozen methane and ammonia
surface temp. are less than -200 degrees Celsius
atmosphere to thin to support life
one tiny moon– Charon
discovered 1978
half the size of Pluto
No other moon in the solar system is as large, when compared to the planet it revolves around.
Pluto and Charon are so similar in size that some astronomers think of them as a double planet.

24. Pluto Special Features
 orbit is tilted
Looking at the solar system from an “edge”, most of the planets are in a line like a table top, with the Sun in the middle. This line, or plane, is called the ecliptic. The rest of the planets’ orbits stay on this plane. However, Pluto’s orbit is tilted at an angle to the rest of the solar system.
Pluto spins in the opposite direction from Earth. This means that the dim Sun would rise in the west and set in the east.

25. Week 4 Day 4
Before:
Question of The Day
During:
Review
After:
Mini-Q

26. Week 4 Day 4 Question of The Day
Answer: B

27. Week 4 Day 5 Before: Question of The Day During: Review After:
Mini Test

28. Week 4 Day 5 Question of The Day
Answer: D