OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

 Our solar system is composed of one star (Sun),

eight planets, numerous smaller asteroids, comets,
meteoroids, and some dwarf planets.
 All planets travel in the same direction, on slightly
elliptical orbit.
 Gravity causes objects nearest to the Sun to travel
fastest.
c
FORMATION OF
THE SOLAR
SYSTEM

 The nebular theory explains the formation of the

solar system.
 It proposes that the Sun and planets were formed
from a rotating cloud of interstellar gases and dust
called the solar nebula.
 As the solar nebula contracted due to gravity, most
of the material collected in the center to form the hot
protosun.
 The remaining materials formed a thick, flattened,
rotating disk and due to repeated collision, these
materials form a larger chunks that eventually
became the asteroid-sized object called
planetesimals.

THE SUN
 The Sun is one of the 200 billion stars that make up
the Milky Way Galaxy.
 Here on Earth, it is the
primary source of Energy.
 Food we eat,fossil fuels we
burn, [Link] all derived from
solar energy.
 Sun is very important in
astronomy as it is the only star
close enough to permit easy
study of its surface.
UCompared to other stars of the universe, our Sun is
an “average star.”
It has a diameter of 1.35 million kilometers, 109 times
of Earth’s.
The Sun is divided into four parts; 
1. Solar interior and
2. Photosphere
3. Chromosphere and
4. Corona (atmosphere)
 A study proves that 90 % of the Sun’s surface atoms
are hydrogen and 10% are helium.

The photosphere radiates most of the sunlight we see
and therefore appears as the bright disk of the Sun.
 Just above the photosphere lies the chromosphere.

 It is a relatively thin layer of hot, incandescent

gases a few thousand kilometers thick.
 The outer most portion of the solar atmosphere is
the corona.
 Normally, corona extends 1 million
km from the Sun and produces a glow
about half as bright as the full Moon.
 At the outer fringe of the corona,
ionized gases have speeds great
enough to escape the gravitational
pull of the Sun which then become the
solar wind.

 Solar winds travel at high speeds,
about 250800 km/sec.
 Together with the Sun’s magnetic
field, they form a sort of bubble
called heliosphere that reaches far
beyond the orbit of Pluto.
 During its journey, solar wind
interacts with the bodies of the
solar system.
 Studies of these emitted energy
from the Sun indicate that its
temperature averages about
5538 °C in the Photosphere and
exceed 999,727 °C at the top of the Corona.

 Most of the Sun’s energy that reaches Earth is a

result of a rather steady, continuous emission from
the Photosphere.
 In addition to this continuous emission of energy,
there are some explosive activities happening in the
surface of the Sun that contributes in energy output.
 Sunspots

 Prominences

 Solar flare
 Sunspots
SUNSPOTS
 Sunspots are the dark
blemishes found on the
surface of the Sun.
An individual spot contains a
black center called umbra
which is rimmed by a lighter
region called penumbra.
 Sunspots only appear dark because of the brilliant
photosphere, but if it is observed away from the
Sun, they would appear many times brighter than
the full moon.

 Prominences
 Prominences are
among the most
spectacular features
of the active Sun.
 These huge cloud-
like structure,
consisting of

NA

 Solar Flares
 Solar flares are brief
outbursts that normally
last an hour or so and
appear as a sudden
brightening of the
region above a sunspot
cluster.
 During their existence,enormous quantities of
energy are released across the entire
electromagnetic spectrum, much of it in the form of
UV, radio, and X-ray radiation.
  Solar flares produces solar
wind and causing it to
intensify noticeably.
 The most spectacular
effects of solar flares are the
auroras.
 Following a strong solar
flare,earth’s upper
atmosphere above the
magnetic poles is set aglow
several nights.
2.4 THE ACTIVE
SUN

8 PLANETS
Mercury: The Innermost Planet
 It revolves around the Sun for 88
days but rotates on its axis for 176
days.
 3 months for one daylight and 3
months for one night.
 Mercury absorbs most of the
sunlight that strikes it and reflect
only 6% into space.
 Mercury’s average temperature is
about -173 ºC at night and exceeds 427 ºC at
noontime.
 Hot enough to melt tin and lead.
Venus: The Veiled Planet
 It orbits the Sun in a nearly
perfect circle for 225 Earthdays.
 Venus rotates for about 244 Earth
days in an opposite direction of
the other planets.
 Venus has the densest atmosphere
of the terrestrial planets,
consisting mostly of carbon
dioxide (97%).
 This results for its average surface temperature of
about 450 ºC day and night.
 Investigation of the extreme and uniform surface
temperature of Venus led scientists to more fully
understand how the greenhouse effect operates on
Earth.
 Venus is second only to the Moon in brilliance in the
It orbits the Sun in a nearly perfect circle for 225
Earthdays.
  Venus rotates for about 244 Earth days in an opposite
direction of the other planets.
 Venus has the densest atmosphere of the terrestrial
planets, consisting mostly of carbon dioxide (97%).
 This results for its average surface temperature of
about 450 ºC day and night.
 Investigation of the extreme and uniform surface
temperature of Venus led scientists to more fully
understand how the greenhouse effect operates on
Earth.
 night sky.

Mars: The Red Planet

 Mars is
approximately one-
half the diameter of
Earth.
 It revolves around
the Sun in 687 Earth-
 days and rotates on its axis for about 1day and 37
minutes.
 Due to its very thin atmosphere, consisting
primarily of carbon dioxide (95%) with small
amounts of nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor, its
mean surface temperatures ranges from -140 ºC at
the poles to 20 ºC
at the equator.

 The reddish
color of the
Martian
landscape is due
to iron oxide
(rust).


 Since the first

close-up picture of
Mars in 1965,
spacecraft voyages
to the Mats have
revealed a word that
is strangely familiar.
 Mars has a thin
atmosphere, polar
ice caps, volcanoes,
 lava plains,
sanddunes, and seasons.
 Mars appear to lack liquid water on its surface, however, many
Martian landscaped suggest that, in the past, running water was
an effective erosion agent.
  4 Considerable evidence indicates that in the first 1 billion
years of the planet, liquid water flowed on the surface,
creating stream valleys and related features.
 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter notice the stream-like banks
that contain numerous tear-drop shaped islands.
 Opportunity rover investigated structure similar to features
created by water on Earth, such as layered sedimentary rocks
and lake beds.
 On 2019, its mission had come to an end after 15 years of
exploring the Mars and his last message to Earth was “ My
battery is low and it’s getting dark”
 On August 6, 2012, Curiosity rover landed on Mars and
study the habitability, climate, and geology of Mars

Jupiter: The Giant among Planets

 Jupiter has a mass
2.5 times greater than
the combined mass
of all other planets,
satellites, and
asteroids in the Solar
System. But, only
1/800 of the Sun’s
mass.
 Jupiter orbits the Sun
once every 12 Earth-
years and completes
its day in slightly less
than 10 hours.
 The immense gravity of Jupiter causing the planet to
shrink a few centimeters each year.
 This contraction generates most of the heat that
drives Jupiter’s atmospheric circulation.
 Jupiter has a total of 67 discovered moons.
  In 1610, Galileo discovered the four largest
satellites of Jupiter, referred to as Galilean
satellites/moons.
 Ganymede and Callisto are roughly the size of
Mercury.

Saturn: The Elegant Planet

 Saturn requires more than
29 Earth-years to make
one revolution and
completes one rotation
every 10.5 hours.
 The most striking feature
of Saturn is its system of
rings, which are first
observed by Galileo in
1610 and was determine
by Christian Huygens 50
years later.
 Saturn’s atmosphere, like Jupiter’s is dynamic and are
also driven by the heat released by gravitational
compression.
Rotating storms similar to the Great Red Spot occur in
Saturn’s atmosphere.
AN PLANETS
The Saturnian satellite system consists of 62 known
moons, in which 53 have been named.

 Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and is larger

than Mercury. It is also the second-largest moon in
the solar system next to Ganymede.

PAE
 Uranus and Neptune: Twins
 Perhaps Uranus and Neptune deserves more of being
called twin than the
Earth and Venus.
 Uranus and Neptune
has nearly equal
diameter.
 Both are bluish in
appearance as a result
of methane in their
atmospheres.
 Their days are nearly the same length, as Uranus takes
17 hours to complete one rotation while Neptune takes
16 hours.
 One of the most pronounced difference between
Uranus and Neptune is their orbit period.
 Uranus takes 84 Earth-years to orbit around the Sun,
while Neptune takes 165 Earth-years. J
O
Uranus: The Sideways Planet
 Unique to Uranus is that its equator is nearly at a
right angle to its orbit.
 This unusual
characteristics is
likely due to one or
more impacts
essentially
knocking the planet
sideways from its
original
orientation.
 Uranus shows
evidence of huge
 storm systems equivalent in size to those in the
United States.
VIAN PLANETS

Neptune: The Windy Planet

 Because of its
distance from
Earth,
astronomers
knew very little
about Neptune
until 1989 when
Voyager 2
travels for 12
years and nearly
3 billion miles in
this planet.
 Neptune has a
dynamic
atmosphere.
 Record wind speeds exceeds 2400 km/hr.
making Neptune as one of the windiest places in
the solar system.
 It also exhibit large dark spots thought to be
rotating storms similar to Jupiter’s Great Red
Spot.
 Layers of white, cirrus-like clouds about 50 km
can also be observed in this planet.
 Neptune has 13 known planets, which Triton is
the largest.
 Triton is the only large moon in the solar system
that exhibits retrograde motion, which indicate
that it was formed independently and later
captured by Neptune.
  Triton and few
other icy moons
exhibits
Cryovolcanism.
 This means that
these moons has
a volcanoes that
erupts icy
magma from a
partial melted ice
instead of silicate
rocks.
 These magmas
can generate
quiet outpourings
of ice lavas and
occasionally produce explosive eruptions.
. JOVIAN PLANETS

 Neptune has five names rings.

 Two of them are broad and

three are narrow. Perhaps
no more than 100 km.
wide.
 Neptune’s rings are most
similar to Jupiter’s in that
they appear faint which
suggest that they are
composed of dust-size
particles.
 Neptune’s rings also
display red colors,
 indicating that the dust is composed of organic
compounds.

Asteroids: Leftover Planetesimals

 A
s
t
e
r
o
i
d
s

are small bodies that are leftover debris from the

solar nebula, which means they are about 4.6
billion years old.
 Most asteroids orbit the Sun between Mars and
Jupiter, in the region known as the asteroid belt.
 About 1 to 2 million asteroids larger than 1
kilometers and many millions that are smaller
lies in this belt.
 Only five asteroids are more than 400
kilometers in diameter.

Comets: Dirty Snowballs

 Comets, like asteroids, are leftover materials from the
formation of the solar system.
 They are loose collections of rocky material, dust, water
ice, and frozen gases, thus the nickname “dirty
snowballs”.
 When comets reach the inner solar system, solar energy
beings to vaporize their ice and the escaping gases carry
dust from the comet’s surface, producing a highly
 reflective halo called coma.

Kuiper belt in honor of astronomer Gerald Kuiper,

host comets that orbit in the outer solar system,
beyond Neptune and contain about a billion objects
over 1 kilometer in size.
 Halley’s comet originated in the Kuiper Belt. Its
orbital period averages 76 years and appear in the
night sky for 29 times since 240 B.C., which are all
recorded by ancient Chinese astronomers.
 Named for Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, the Oort
cloud consists of comets that are distributed in all
directions from the Sun, forming a spherical shell
around the solar system.
  The gravitational
effect of a distant
passing star may
send an occasional
Oort cloud comet
into a highly
eccentric orbit that
carries it toward the
[Link]
SOLAR
SYSTEM
BODIES
Meteoroids: Visitors to
Earth
 Meteors, commonly called “shooting stars” is a
small solid particle that are capable in entering
Earth’s atmosphere that produces light that we see
across the sky caused by the heat created by
friction between the meteoroid and the air.
 Most meteoroids originate as:

 Interplanetary debris missed by the gravitational

sweep of the planets.
 Material that is continually being ejected from the
asteroid belt.
 Rocky and/or metallic remains of comets that once
passed through Earth’s orbit.
 Fragments of the Moon, Mars, or possible Mercury.
6 . SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES

 Researchers estimate that thousands of meteoroids

enter earth’s atmosphere every day but gets
 vaporized
before
reaching
Earth’s
surface.
 These

meteoroids less than about 1 meter in diameter is

called micrometeorites.
 Meteor shower results when Earth encounters a
swarm of meteoroids traveling in the same direction
at nearly the same speed as Earth.
 Some swarms are probably the scattered remains of a
[Link] SYSTEM BODIES
 Most meteoroids large enough to survive passage
through the atmosphere to impact Earth probable
originate among the asteroids.

SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES

 Dwarf Planets
 Dwarf planets are celestial bodies that orbit the Sun
and are essentially spherical due to their own
gravity but are not large enough to sweep their
orbits clear of other debris.
 Pluto is one of the known dwarf planets in the solar
system.
  At the time of its
discovery in 1930,
Pluto was thought to
be the size of Earth.
However, recent
calculations based on
images obtained by
the Hubble Space
Telescope show that
Pluto’s diameter
(2300 km) is 1/5 of
the Earth’s.
 Seven moons in the
solar system,
including our very
own Luna, are larger
than Pluto.
6 . SMALL SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES

 More than 1000 of these Kuiper belt objects were

discovered forming a band of objects.
 Some famous dwarf planets include
 Eris, Make make, Haumea, all are Kuiper belt objects, and
Ceres, the largest-known asteroid.

STRIAL PLANETS