The Solar System

Funding support for outreach programs provided by the Utah State Legislature and the Utah State Board of Education

Commonly Confused Terms

• Solar System– Our star (Sun) and everything that orbits around

it (planets, asteroids, comets, etc.)

• Galaxy– Huge collection of stars bound together by

gravity (the Sun is 1 star among 100-400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy)

• Universe– Everything (~100 billion galaxies)

What objects make up theSolar System?

The following tour shows objects in the solar system ordered by mass.

Sun

Has about99.86% of theMASSin the solar system

Courtesy of SOHO/EIT consortium. SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Sunspots

Credit: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Jupiter

has about0.1% of theMASSin the solar system

Everything elsetogether hasonly about 0.04%of the MASSin the solar system

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Jupiter

Jupiter has many objects in orbit around it(current count = 63)

Composition:86% Hydrogen13% Helium

NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Jupiter

Most satellites orbit far away from Jupiter and are probably captured asteroids

Credit: University of Hawaii, Institute for Astronomy

Saturn Composition:90% Hydrogen 9% Helium

Credit: NASA, ESA and E. Karkoschka (Univesity of Arizona)

Neptune

Neptune has 8 known moons

Largest moon Triton is in a retrograde orbit

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Uranus

Uranus has an axial tilt of 98˚

Composition:83% Hydrogen15% Helium

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Earth

Temperature and pressure allow water to exist as a liquid at the surface

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Venus

Venus has 82% of the mass of Earth and is covered with white clouds of sulfuric acid

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Venus Surface Temperature: 864˚ F

Credit: NASA/NSSDC

Mars

Mars

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mercury

Although it is smaller in size than Ganymede and Titan, Mercury has more mass of both of these moons combined.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

MoonsSeven moons have more mass than Pluto

Ganymede

(Jupiter)

Titan (Saturn)

Callisto (Jupiter)

Io (Jupiter)

Moon (Earth)

Europa (Jupiter)

Triton (Neptune) Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Eris Eris is the largest dwarf planet in the Solar System. Eris has 1.27 times the mass of Pluto.

Credit: NASA ,ESA , and M. Brown (California Institute of Technology)

PlutoPluto, the second largest dwarf planet, is one of the largest objects in a belt of objects that orbit the Sun beyond Neptune.

Credit: Allen Stern (Southwest Research Institute), Mark Buie (Lowell Observatory), NASA and ESA

The Kuiper BeltThousands of icy objects orbit the Sun beyond Neptune in a region commonly called the Kuiper Belt.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

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Pluto Orbit

Neptune Orbit

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Field (STScI)

Eris

Dysnomia

Haumea

Makemake

Comets

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA/NSSDC/W. Liller

Astronomers think that many comets originate in the Kuiper Belt

Asteroids

Eros

Courtesy: NASA/JPL-Caltech