Introducing: The solar system!

1. Introducing: The solar system! Our Home.

2. Our home • The solar system is where we reside. Our only home – earth, is but a small speck among the myriad objects that make up the solar system • Our curiosity has taken us far into the reaches of the solar system, but only remotely. And never beyond. • Though it is infinitely tiny compared to our galaxy, and especially the universe, we continue to explore and discover new things about our solar system every day.

3. Where we are

4. The solar system defined • The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it. • Formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. (protostar formation) • Furthest known objects extend to 50,000 A.U., or about 1 light-year, from the sun • Estimated boundary of the suns gravitational dominance is about 2 light-years. • Remember, the furthest star, Alpha Centauri, is 4.3 light years away.

5. Regions of the solar system • Inner solar system • From the sun to Jupiter • 0 – 5 A.U. • Outer solar system • From Jupiter to Neptune • 5 – 30 A.U. • Kuiper Belt • Beyond Neptune, includes Pluto • 30 – 50 A.U. from the sun • Oort cloud • Beyond the Kuiper Belt • 2000 – 50,000 A.U. ( 1 light-year)

6. Planets • (Greek "wandering star") Acelestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant • Massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, • Not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion. • Has cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals.

7. Moons (Satellites) • A celestial body that orbits a planet or smaller body, which is called its primary. • A moon can orbit a Planet, minor planet, or dwarf planet.

8. Minor Planets Between the meteorites and the moons.

9. Dwarf Planets • Acelestial body orbiting the Sun • Massive enough to be spherical as a result of its own gravity • Has not cleared its neighboring region of planetesimals • Is not a satellite (does not orbit another planet). • 5 currently recognized by the IAU: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. • 50 – 200 other current candidates.

10. Asteroids • No true formal definition • Tends to refer to minor planets within the inner solar system, larger than 10 km diameter. • Can also be referred to as Planetoid or “Small Solar System Object”

11. Trans-neptunian objects (TNO) • ANY object that is part of the solar system and beyond the orbit of Neptune. • Kuiper Belt: • Objects from 30 – 50 A.U. (KBO = Kuiper Belt Object) • Primarily Icy, with frozen volatiles (methane, ammonia, etc.) • Scattered Disc: • Sparse collection of larger TNOs, beyond the Kuiper Belt • Similar in composition to Kuiper Belt Objects • Most comets believed to have originated here. • Oort Cloud: • Farthest reaches of the solar system • Spherical in structure, instead of flat, disc shaped regions

14. The rest of the objects Boulders to Dust

15. Comets • Highly eccentric orbits • Believed to originate from the scattered disc • Many come from the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud as well. • Can range from “Icy mudball” to “dirty snowball” in composition.

16. Meteoroids • sand to boulder-sized particle of debris in the solar system • Ranges from icy to rocky to metallic • When it enters the earth’s atmosphere it becomes a METEOR • Once it lands on the surface of the earth, it becomes a METEORITE

17. IT’S OVER!!!