Our Solar System
(An Introductory Tour)
Solar System Formation
ThankstoMaryOshana
The Terrestrial Planets
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
Venus from Clementine
Venus Transits the Sun
The Asteroid Belt
Eros – an Asteroid
The Gas Giants
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
Jupiter’s Rings – dust
Jupiter’s Rings and Small Moons
Jupiter’s Big Moons (Galileo)
Jupiter’s Magnetic Field
Jupiter’s X-ray Auroras
Fly Around Saturn
Saturn’s Rings – mostly ice
Spokes in the Rings
Titan – a moon of Saturn
Pluto – a dwarf planet
• Pluto is weird.
• It’s not very big, and its orbit is very strange.
• It’s not a gas giant – it seems to be made of rock and ice.
• Maybe it was captured by Neptune.
• Some astronomers say it isn’t really a planet.
Pluto (seen from Charon)
How Big is Pluto ?
WHAT’S OUT THEREBEYONDPLUTO ??
Trans-Neptune Objects (TNOs)
Thanks to Marty Mulroe
Eris – a dwarf planet(formerly 2003 UB313)
Eris and Dysnomia
Thanks to Marty Mulroe
Oort Cloud = Comets