Solar System and Universe Study Guide

PLANETS—all travel in elliptical orbits around the sun. Planets/moons follow orbits roughly in
the same plane. Most orbit counterclockwise

Inner Planets: (TERRESTRIAL) Solid, dense, and usually small. Rocky crust. Close together.
All have atmospheres

Mercury-Very thin atmosphere. Fastest orbit. A little larger than moon. Extreme temp. changes.

Venus-“Earth’s twin” dense atmosphere (CO2). High surface temp. (460 C) Hottest planet in
solar system. Spins Clockwise.

Earth-water vapor, CO2, oxygen….etc.

Mars-Red because of Iron, thin atmosphere, evidence of water. (C02, O2) Polar ice caps/Seasons.
Has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos

Jupiter-Largest, composition more like Sun, more liquid than solid/gas. 1000 times earth, liquid
hydrogen, (H2, He, Methane, Ammonia) 63 moons. Radiates 2X energy than receives,
strong magnetic field (Shields Planets)

Outer Planets—(JOVIAN) Large, Consist of hydrogen and helium, all have rings

Saturn—Second largest, able to float in water, 31 moons (some have own atmosphere)
METHANE atmosphere, no oxygen for fire.

Uranus—tilt is 98 degrees to the perpendicular, 27 moons, 4 times larger than earth, METHANE
atmosphere. Radiates more than absorbed.

Neptune—13 moons, less dense than earth (Hydrogen and Helium)

Pluto—Not a planet b/c: abstract orbit, sometimes in Kuiper belt (Like comet), TOO icy/rocky,
no atmosphere

ASTEROIDS, COMETS, METEORS, METEORITES, METEORIDES

Asteroids—small rocky bodies orbiting sun, located on asteroid belt (between Mars/Jupitar)

Comets—orbit the sun, composed of frozen water/methane, with metal and dust particles…etc.
Orbit in same direction as planets, originate in Kuiper Belt. (Short-period, 200 years)
Those originated in Oort cloud have long-period orbits (more than 200 years) elliptical
orbits
When they near the Sun, they have a long tail as the solar winds push tail back away from
Sun
 Meteors—are the particles from comets that enter the Earth’s atmosphere
Meteorites—Meteors that are able to reach the ground on Earth
Meteoroids—Small piece of debris chipped off from an asteroid or comet

NEBULAR THEORY:

• Sun/planets came from a large cloud of gas and dust particles called a nebular. This had slight
rotation.
• Gravity exceeded the gas pressure and slowly caused the cloud to begin to collapse. As it
shrunk, the gravity increased causing the cloud to become spherical.
• Nebula collapsed into smaller sphere, heated up, flattening into a disk
• Grew hotter because of the pressure increase
• In the disk, matter began to break up into small objects called planetesimals.
• These collided forming larger masses known as planets
• According to law of conservation of energy, the gravitational potential energy of particles
transform to heat as they move closer together
• As it shrank, it moved faster and faster. Any rotating gas spins, it flattens, creating solar system
with hot center fusing into the protosun and later the Sun.

STARS
• ¾’s of a star is hydrogen, ¼ helium, 2% other. All stars use of their fuel and die. Not all are
the same
• Differ in two ways; Brightness and Color
• Color tells surface temperature (Blue—Hottest, Red---Coolest)
• Brightness tell about its energy output/how far away from earth it is
o Apparent brightness-brightness to human eye
o Luminosity—total amount of light a star emits into space relative to Sun’s
luminosity
• HERTSPRUNG-RUSSEL Diagram
o Compares luminosity of starts to their surface temps.
o Luminous towards
top and dim towards
bottom
LIFE CYCLE OF STARS

SOLAR SYSTEM UNIVERSE

MULTIPLE CHOICE
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