LESSON

COMPOSITION OF THE SOLAR

1
SYSTEM
The solar system consists of countless heavenly bodies. These include planets,
moons and other cosmic forms.

PLANETS
The inner planets are the planets near the sun and whose orbits are within the
asteroid belt. They are also called terrestrial planets because they are mainly made
of rocks. The inner planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.

Mercury
Mercury, which is only slightly larger than the Earth’s mon, is the smallest
planet in the solar system.
It is also the closest one to the sun, causing it to experience extreme tem-
peratures that are high enough to melt lead, whereas the opposite side is extremely
cold and can reach a temperature of –1700C.
Craters cover the rock-solid surface of Mercury. However, this surface is
much thinner than that of Earth.
It also has a huge, partly liquid iron core that is about 85% of its size. Its struc-
ture makes it the second densest planet after Earth.
It spins slowly on its axis. A day in this planet is equal to approximately 59
Earth days.
It follows a short, egg-shaped orbit. Thus, it only takes 88 Earth days to make
one revolution around the sun.
It has no moon.

Diameter 4789 km

Distance from the sun 57.9 million km

Rotation 58.7 Earth days

Revolution 88 Earth days

Average temperature 1670 C

 Venus
is the second planet from the sun.
Its clouds are made up of sulfuric acid, while its thick atmosphere is fill
filled with the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Because carbon dioxide fills the atmosphere of Venus, heat is trapped
in the planet. As a result, the side facing away from the sun does not
experience cool temperatures because the atmosphere keeps heat
inside the planet. Thus, Venus is known as the hottest planet.
Similar to Earth, it also has plateaus, mountains and volcanoes.
Venus is almost the same size as Earth.
It rotates in a clockwise direction.
A day in Venus is also longer than its year because it spins around its
axis slower than it revolves around the sun. However, although the
planet spins very slowly, its winds blow rapidly and take only five
Earth days to travel around the surface.

Diameter 12 104 km

Distance from the sun 108.2 million km

Rotation 243 Earth days

Revolution 225 Earth days

Average temperature 4640 C

Earth
Our home planet. It is the only planet that is known to support life.
One factor that makes this possible is the Earth’s atmosphere, which consists
of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% mixture of different gases.
Its atmosphere is thick enough to protect organisms from the sun’s radi-
ation as well as from incoming meteorites, which break into pieces in the at-
mosphere before crashing onto the ground.
 It is slightly bigger than Venus and is the fifth largest planet in the Solar
system.
Earth has a rock-solid surface that contains mountains, volcanoes,
plains and other land forms.
Earth has one moon which is the planet’s natural satellite.

Diameter 12 756 km

Distance from the sun 149.6 million km

Rotation 24 hours

Revolution 365 1/4 days

Average temperature 150 C

Mars
is known as the “Red Planet” because of its color. The reddish hue
comes from the rusting of iron minerals in the planet’s soil and dust.
has a thin atmosphere that is made up of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and
argon gases. This thin atmosphere makes the planet vulnerable to incoming
meteorites.
Similar to Earth, it has weather and seasons, land forms such as canyons
and volcanoes and polar ice caps. Its crust also moves.
Scientists believe that Mars used to have plenty of water and even ex-
perienced floods. However, because of its thin atmosphere, water dried up
quickly on its surface. Today water can only be found on its polar regions and
hillsides.
has two moons, namely, Phobos and Deimos. These moons are believed to be
captured asteroids because they do not have enough gravity to make their
shape spherical.
Unlike the Earth’s moon, Phobos and Deimos look like potatoes.
 Diameter 6792 km

Distance from the sun 227.9 million km

Rotation 24.6 Earth hours

Revolution 687 Earth days

Average temperature -650 C

Did you know that Mars is home to the highest volcano in the solar system? The
Olympus Mons is about 22 km tall and 600 km wide. It is about three times larger
than Mt. Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. The Olympus Mons is believed to be
active and may erupt in the future.

The outer planets are those that are found beyond Mars, outside of the aster-
oid belt. These planets are called giants because they are considerably larger than
the inner planets. Outer planets can be classified into two, depending on their com-
position. Gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn are made up of mostly gas. On the
other hand, ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune are made up mostly of icy ma-
terials.

Jupiter
is the largest planet in the solar system. It is more than twice as large as
the other seven planets combined.
It is the fastest rotating planet, taking only 10 hours to complete one rota-
tion. This fast rotation creates jet streams that separate its three cloud layers,
each made up of different gases. This separation creates colorful bands, as seen in
the image below.
Jupiter’s composition is similar to that of a star. They are both made up of
mostly hydrogen and helium. However, Jupiter did not grow large enough to
burn. Even though Jupiter is a gas giant, its core is considered as one large ocean,
the largest in the solar system. This core was formed because of the increasing pres-
sure and temperature in Jupiter’s atmosphere which compresses hydrogen gas into
its liquid. This liquid along with gases in the atmosphere swirl continuously and be-
come spots of storm on the planet’s surface.
 The biggest spot of storm is called the Great Red Spot, which has been swirling
for more than 300 years.
It has 79 moons with Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto being the largest.
Although Jupiter cannot support life, scientists believe that some of its
moon such as Europa can support life because they have oceans beneath
their crusts.

Diameter 142 984 km

Distance from the sun 778.9 million km

Rotation 10 Earth hours

Revolution 11.8 Earth years

Average temperature -1100 C

Jupiter’s rings were discovered in 1979 by NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft. They were hard
to see because their particles were small and dark and only visible against sunlight.
These rings are believed to be formed from dust that was kicked up by the collision of
meteorites against Jupiter’s moons. There are four known rings surrounding Jupiter.

Saturn
Saturn is quite similar to Jupiter. However, unlike that of Jupiter, Saturn’s core is
solid and dense. This core is composed of metals such as iron and nickel and is
surrounded by rocky materials and other compounds which all solidified as a result
of the intense pressure and temperature of the atmosphere.
Saturn, as a whole, is less dense than water.
Its surface is consist mostly of swirling gases and liquids.
Has clouds that appear as faint stripes, jet streams and storms in the atmos-
phere.
Has 62 moons. Nine of them however are yet to be confirmed. Some of these
moons are also speculated to support life because they are have oceans in-
side them
Has seven rings that are made up of groups of tiny ringlets, that consist of
chunks of ice and dust-covered rocks.
 Another ring around Saturn was found not orbiting the planet but one of its
moons, Phoebe.

Diameter 120 536 km

Distance from the sun 1433.5 million km

Rotation 10.7 Earth hours

Revolution 29.4 Earth years

Average temperature -1400 C

Uranus
is an ice giant
Made up of a hot, dense fluid of icy materials such as water, methane and
ammonia that surround a small, rocky core.
Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, methane and small traces of
water and ammonia.
Methane gives Uranus is blue color.
Because of its composition, Uranus is one of the least dense planets next to
Saturn.
Like Venus, it rotates clockwise. However, because its axis is tilted at almost a
right angle, the planet spins sideways. This tilt causes extreme seasons, which shifts
only every quarter of a Uranian year (21 Earth years), on each half of the planet. The
sun shines directly on one half while the other half experiences dark winter.
It has 13 faint rings. The inner rings are narrow and dark, whereas the outer
rungs are brightly colored and are more visible.
It has 27 moons. It s inner moons look like half ice and half rock.
Diameter 120 536 km
Distance from the sun 1433.5 million km

Rotation 10.7 Earth hours

Revolution 29.4 Earth years
Average temperature -1400 C
Neptune
It is also an Ice giant made up of water, ammonia and methane above and
Earth-sized solid core.
Like that of Uranus, methane gives Neptune its blue color. However, scientists
still have not figured out what component causes Neptune to appear a darker
shade of blue than Uranus.
It is the densest planet out of the giant planets.
It does not have a solid surface, instead, its atmosphere merges with the water
and melted ice materials over its core.
The wind on the planet’s surface are nine times stronger than those experi-
enced on Earth.
Has 13 moons and another one that is still unconfirmed. One of them name
Triton, orbits Neptune in the opposite direction as the other moons.
Coldest place in the solar system
Has 5 rings surrounding it. Each ring has clumps of dust called arcs. Scientists
believe that arcs are held by the gravity of one of Neptune’s moons Galatea.

Diameter 49 528 km

Distance from the sun 4495.1 million km

Rotation 16 Earth hours

Revolution 165 Earth years
Average temperature -2000 C

DWARF PLANETS
Dwarf planets are small bodies that do not meet one or two criteria to be
considered a planet. One dwarf planet, Pluto used to be considered as the ninth
planet in the solar system. However, Pluto, orbits the sun differently than all of the
other planets. It follows a tilted, oval-shaped orbit that does not place the sun at the
center. Pluto’s orbit brings it inside Neptune’s orbit for 20 Earth years every 248 Earth
years. Because of these periodic encounters, Pluto shows that is cannot stay clear of
other planets which goes against a criteria that defines a planet.
All dwarf planets are located near asteroid belts. Pluto orbits near the Kuiper belt,
which is an ice-filled asteroid belt near Neptune.

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines planetesimals collectively
as small bodies in the solar system that could come together to form a planet. These
bodies include asteroids, comets and meteroids.

Asteroids
Asteroids are inactive, rocky bodies pitted or cratered irregular surfaces. Some
asteroids have moons of their own such as Asteroid Ida and its moon Dactyl. Some,
however, orbit another asteroid of equal size. Asteroids revolve around the sun in el-
liptical orbits. They also rotate or more accurately, tumble in their orbit. Most of them
are found in the main asteroid between Mars and Jupiter.

Comets
Comets are cosmic snowballs of ice, rock and gas. Each comet has a frozen
part called the nucleus that is no larger than a few kilometers across. As a comet
nears the sun, this frozen part heats up and forms an atmosphere or coma. As more
ice turns to gas, the coma becomes longer and forms a long, bright, tail which is
made up of slightly curved and an ion tail, which is made up of gas and is straighter
and narrower.
Comets are believed to come from a region known as the Oort cloud, which is
found in the farthest limit of the solar system. The gravities of the sun and nearby
stars cause comets to either enter the inner region of the solar system or be thrown
out of it.

Meteoroids, Meteors and Meteorites

Meteoroids are pieces of rocks from the fragments of other planetesimals such
as comets and asteroids. These space rocks can be rocky, metallic or a combina-
tion of rock and metal depending on the amount of silicon, oxygen, nickel and iron
found in it. As the meteoroid travels through the atmosphere at a high speed, it is
now called a meteor or shooting star , heats up and burns, thereby producing a
streak of light that can be seen in the sky. A meteor can turn into a bolide or a fire-
ball if it reaches a certain brightness. A bolide is an extremely bright meteor that ex-
plodes in the atmosphere. A fireball is a meteor that is brighter than the planet Ve-
nus.
 Meteors enter Earth’s atmosphere everyday. A large number of meteors en-
tering the atmosphere from roughly the same point in the sky is called a meteor
shower. Examples of the meteor showers are the Perseids, which are seen around
August and the Leonids which are seen around November.
Most meteors burn up as they go through Earth’s atmosphere. If a meteor sur-
vives and hits the ground, it is called a meteorite.