Tour of the Inner Solar System

With Mr. Hulsman

Pre-Flight Announcement

We will be embarking from the Earth shortly on a journey through the inner Solar System. Please be sure your drinks are covered, your seatbelts are fastened and your Brain is In Gear!

Your vessel this morning will be:

The Corellian Corvette

The Corellian Corvette is a moderate sized, fast ship designed for cargo transport and quick blockade runs. It carries a full compliment of weapons, so we should be very safe if we have any Imperial encounters.

Manufacturer Corellian Engineering Corporation

Specification N/A

Type Multi-Purpose Corvette

Length 150 meters

Weapons TurbolasersLasers

Crew 20 officers, 35 crew, 14 gunners

Troop Capacity N/A

Affiliation Rebel Alliance

Cargo 3,000 metric tons

Passengers 200

Departure….

Our first destination is an orbit around the Sun.

Obviously we can’t get too close. The Sun is way too hot and it’s gravity might be too strong for our ship to escape from at close distance.

(1) Remember: gravity increases with mass and the Sun’s mass is 333,000 times larger than the Earth!

The Sun

We’ll keep our distance here….

The Sun, as you know is a huge ball of gases. Mostly Hydrogen and Helium. (2) Inside the core of the Sun temperatures range around 15,000,000 degrees C. Here nuclear fusion is taking place. Hydrogen is being crushed into Helium gas and MASSIVE amounts of energy are released.

The Sun is a relatively averaged-sized, yellow, Main Sequence star. (3) Main Sequence means that a star is in the beginning or middle of its life.

When Good Stars Go Bad…When stars die, they go through a series of stages. (4) Larger stars begin to fuse Helium into heavier elements as they begin to die. Then they fuse there elements into even heavier ones. Oxygen, Carbon, and others.

Basically, every molecule of every element in existence came from the death of a star.

“I am made of the dust of the stars, and the oceans flow in my veins.”

-Neal Peart

“Presto”

In Earth Science today we learned that Neal Peart is a living god, and Rush is the greatest band EVER.

Our Sun probably won’t do this.

Our little star is not large enough to produce heavy elements. We know that our Sun will go Red Giant and then collapse into a dim, very hot White Dwarf.

Stars need supernovae to produce really heavy elements.

Saying bye to the Sun

Okay… The Sun has several billion years left in its life, so we’ll take a short trip over to our first planet – Mercury!

Looks like we even got an escort!

Mercury

The closest and fastest orbiting planet to the Sun. Mercury got it’s name from ancient Roman origins. Mercury was the speedy messenger of the Gods, and as the planet was observed to move quickly in the sky, it seemed a good match.

Much Smaller Than EarthMercury has a mass that is only half of the Earth’s. It’s diameter is roughly a third of the Earth’s, more like the Moon in size, and (5) at an eccentricity of 0.206, Mercury has the most elliptical orbit of all eight planets.

Mercury is not geologically active, which means that the impact craters that cover its surface will never go away. The Earth’s crust recycles due to geological activity and so most of the craters that formed here when the solar system was young became recycled into the planet long ago.

Some stats on MercuryMercury like all of the terrestrial planets is made up of rocky and metallic elements. (6) It has a density of 5.1 g/cm3.

The day on Mercury (59 Earth Days) is almost as long as its year (88 earth Days). For this reason the side of the planet facing the Sun at any given time faces it for a long period. (7) Temperatures on the Sunny side range up to 500 C whereas on the “dark side” they can drop as low as -184 C.

Mercury has no moons and a very thin atmosphere made up of particles blasted off of the surface by the Sun.

Aight’… Let’s move on.. Next Stop = VENUS!

Venus

Venus drew its name from the Roman goddess of love and merriment. Because Venus shines so brightly in the night sky, ancient astronomers believed it to be the most beautiful (8) celestial object.

Celestial Object: Any of the natural objects that can be seen in our sky, including stars, planets, moons, asteroids, galaxies, and comets.

Earth’s Evil Twin!

Venus is almost the same size as Earth. It has a mass of 0.8 times our planet and a diameter only about 600km shorter. But that is about all that makes the planets similar..

VENUS STATS:

Temperature: (9) average is about 450 C (Twice as hot as your oven at home)

The temperature has to do with the fact that 95% of the atmosphere is made up of the really excellent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide is well less than 1%)

Rocky / metallic make-up: density is 5.2g/cm3

Atmospheric Pressure

Because carbon dioxide weighs so much, the atmospheric pressure on Venus is almost 100x the Earth’s. This would be like being at the bottom of one of our oceans. Basically, you’d be crushed. The clouds that cover Venus also contain lots of sulfuric acid! So - if we fly into the atmosphere….

Arrrrrrgh!!!

So the beautiful brightness that the Romans saw was really the Sun reflecting off of a thick, poisonous atmosphere.

If they only knew – they’d have probably picked a different name!

Venus has a period of rotation than its period of revolution, so one day on Venus is longer than one year on Venus.

This planet has no moons.

Let’s go somewhere a bit more comfortable…

Earth….

The only planet that we know of which can support life is our own Earth. We are situated in a prime location around the Sun. At 149 million km from the Sun, we are close enough to be warmed by it, but far enough that we don’t get baked like Mercury.

Life on the EarthIt is amazing how the delicate balances during our solar system creation made Earth PERFECT for life.

• Our distance from the Sun is perfect for life-supporting planet temperatures

• Our nitrogen and oxygen rich atmosphere is perfect for breathing, and we have JUST enough carbon dioxide to keep the planet warm when the Sun is on the other side of us.

• Our metallic Iron core rotates inside the planet and produces a magnetic field that protects our atmosphere from being blown off by the Sun, and our size is perfect to hold our atmosphere without creating the pressures that occur on Venus.

There’s more!

• The mild temperatures of our planet allow water to remain in liquid phase – ESSENTIAL for the sustaining of all life.

• Our Moon, in perfect orbit around us, pulls the oceans with its gravity and creates high and low tides. These tides are thought to have been essential in the formation of early life, and help circulate nutrients in the shallow oceans.

• Our rotational speed makes sure that one side of the planet is never exposed to the Sun for too long, giving us time to warm evenly and not develop crazy fast winds.

It’s our place… We know about it, right?

Basic Earth Facts

Temperature: Average temp = 15 C

Period of Revolution: 365 days

Period of Rotation: 24 hours

Axis tilt: 23.5 degrees

Eccentriciy of orbit: 0.017

Density: 5.5 g/cm3

Elemental Make-up: Oxygen, Nitrogen, Silica, Iron, Nickel, Aluminum and Magnesium

Right now it seems that we are very alone in the Galaxy as far as life goes. However, scientists are finding new planets around new stars every day, and it seems likely that SOMEDAY we’ll find a planet that

can support or already does support life.

The Moon

Our only natural satellite, the Moon, is our constant companion. It orbits our planet every 27 days. The Period of Rotation of the Moon is equal to it’s Period of Revolution, and therefore the same side of the Moon always faces us.

The Moon’s composition is similar to that of the Earth, however its density is less than the Earth’s – about 3.3 g/cm3.

Questions about how the Moon formed still remain, but the strongest theory currently is that a Mars-sized object struck the earth early in its development and knocked a chunk of matter (the Moon) into orbit around the Earth.

As I like to say… Booo-YAH!

Okay… We got a Big Mac and fries. Time to move on!

Mars

Mars’ red color made the ancient Romans associate it with the God of war.

(10) Mars is a rather a bit smaller than the Earth – only about one tenth of the mass of the Earth.

(11) Mars is the only planet in our solar system that has temperatures that could support life. (-17.2 C to 178 C)

Mars is the last of the inner, terrestrial planets. It is a rocky planet with a density of 3.9 g/cm3. It is 227.9 million km from the Sun.

(12) Mars has two moons. Phobos and Deimos.

Phobos and Deimos

Mars is the most explored planet. Recent missions from NASA have placed rovers on the surface of the planet. These rovers and planetary orbiters have discovered evidence that water once flowed on the surface of Mars. Today, however, mars is a dry planet with little atmosphere and not immediately inhabitable by life.

Mars

Now we move out deeper into space…