Planets, satellites, comets,

and asteroids
Natural Science
Page 116
 Mercury
Small planet Diameter: 1/3 of the Similar to out Moon (full It can not retain gases or
Earth craters caused by the have an atmosphere
impact of meteorites)

Has more differences between maximum and minimum temperatures than any
other planet in the Solar System
Venus

It is the third brightest Has a very dense Its atmosphere has sulfuric
object in the sky after the atmosphere, made of acid clouds (prevent the
Sun and the Moon. arbon dioxide (CO2) light on the surface)

Winds: 350 km/h Temperatures: about

500ºC
Mars
• Cold desert (similar to many of the deserts on Earth)

• Atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide (CO2)

• Radius of the nucleus: 1700 km

• Many exploration missions

• Evidence of erosion
• Large abundance of water or other fluid in the
past
 Vallis Marineris Hellas Planitia Monte Olimpo
Giant canyon- 4000km long Diameter: 2000km Volcano: 24km high and
and 2-7km deep 500km wide base (Mount
Everest is small next to it)
Jupiter
The biggest of all
planets

Planet with rings

Name of a Roman
and are made of
god
rocky material

Great red spot:Oval-

Has clouds of the
shaped surface
thick atmosphere Great red spot
25000 km long and
(colored bands)
12000 km wide
 Saturn
• The ring system
• Rings made of fragments of rock and ice (much matter)
• Diameter : 250,000 km and a thickness of 1 km
• Only 3 rings, we can see them (it has many more rings-
thousands)
• It is as large as Jupiter
• We can see it like a yellow sphere
• It has hydrogen (75%) and helium (25%)
• It has a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen like Jupiter.
Uranus

• Gassy giant planet

• Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen (83%),
helium (15%), and methane (2%)
• It has not a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen
• It has rings (dark and difficult to see)
• It shows a retrograde rotation
Neptune
• Intense blue color
• Gas giant
• It has banded clouds
• Great Black Spot (stormy
zone), winds: 1000km/h
Pluto

Since 2006, it is NOT considered a planet (it

has not the enough conditions to be a planet)
• It is a dwarf planet
 Satellites

• Mars and Earth have

satellites
• Mars has 2.
• Earth has 1 satellite
The Moon
It is the brightness
It illuminates night on
celestial body in the
Earth
sky after the Sun.

It revolves around the Distance(Moon-Earth):

Earth 384,460km

Two formations:
It has water in form of •Flat extensions of dark
materials ("seas and
ice in the poles highlands")
•Mountains or craters (lighter
tones)
Mars' satellites
• Fobos They are the smallest satellites in the Solar System
• Delmos

Satellite Fobos Delmos

Distance 9000km 23000km
Size 11km 6km
Comets

• They are not stars or shooting stars

• They are fragments of rock and ice that
travel around the Sun
• (Near the Sun) Develop a tail due to
sublimation of nuclear material (change
from solid to gas)
• Made of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and
other gasses
 Halley's Comet

The last time it passed

It takes 76 years for it
by the Earth was in It was represented by It was considered as
to make its way
1986. (you can see Bayeux tapestry (1066) bad omens
around the Sun.
again in 2062)
 Astronomers thought
there was another planet
between Mars and Jupiter
but it does not exist

Piazzi, the astronomer,

found the first asteroid,
CERES, the biggest of all. It
Asteroids was so-called Asteroid Belt
 Asteroid belt

• It is a large grouping of
celestial dobies
• From giants like Ceres to
1km long rocky fragments
• 26 asteroids are more than
200km (diameter)
• The mass of the asteroids =
mass of the Moon Moon

• Ceres has a mass (1/3 mass

of the Moon)

Ceres

Earth
• Fragments of rock, which fall on our
planet.
• Origin is very diverse and their size,
Meteorites
fortunately is very small.
Classwork/Homework
• Classwork
• Page 121

• Homework
• NOTEBOOK (page 121, activity 3)

• Vocabulary: Define the following words (English-English)

• Crust
• Surface
• Celestial body
• Asteroid
• Satellite
• Comet
• Meteorite