Satellites of the Planets• Mercury 0• Venus 0• Earth 1• Mars 2• Jupiter 16• Saturn 18?• Uranus 15• Neptune 8• Pluto 1

The Mack Daddy of the planets

Jupiter

Io - Only object, other

than Earth, with active

volcanoes. Constantly

changing it’s surface.

Io

Europa - Ice covered, with a very smooth surface. Liquid ocean believed to be underneath the ice. Sometimes called a giant billiard ball.

Europa

Ganymede- Largest satellite in the solar system. It is larger than the planets Mercury, Mars and Pluto.

Ganymede

Callisto - More craters than any other object in the solar system. Took billions of years to create it’s surface features.

Callisto

Hoola-hooping forever through time.

Saturn

TitanTitan* second largest satellite in

the solar system

* it has it’s own atmosphere

* organic material has been found on its surface

COMETS- are frozen

balls of gas, dust and rocks

- resembles a dirty snowball

- originate in a region out beyond Pluto called the Oort Cloud

- have two tails* one of dust* one of ions

- tails always point away from the Sun

- comets break apart as they approach the Sun

- they leave a trail of debris

- they increase in size away from the Sun

•Meteoroids -- pieces of rock left

behind in the trail of a comet. Floating

free in space. Comet trash.

•Meteor -- a meteoroid skipping across the Earth’s atmosphere.

-- sometimes called a

“Shooting Star”

• Meteorite -- a meteor that has hit the Earth’s surface.

-- the rock we can physically pick up.

** chunks of rock or

planet like material

floating in space

** located in the

Asteroid Belt between

Mars and Jupiter

** a few asteroids have a

gravitational pull

** a few have their

own satellites

The End