SPACE PHYSICS

Our Solar System

SOLAR SYSTEM

There are many planetary

systems like ours in the
universe, with planets orbiting
a host star. Our planetary
system is called “the solar
system” because we use the
word “solar” to describe
things related to our star,
after the Latin word for Sun,
"solis."
OUR SOLAR
SYSTEM
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– THE SUN
Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old star – a hot glowing ball of
hydrogen and helium at the center of our solar system.

The Sun is the largest object in our

solar system. Its gravity holds the solar
system together, keeping everything
from the biggest planets to the
smallest bits of debris in orbit around
it. The hottest part of the Sun is its
core, where temperatures top 15
million degrees Celsius.
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– THE SUN
Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old star – a hot glowing ball of
hydrogen and helium at the center of our solar system.

The Sun is a star of medium size.

Nuclear fusion reaction of hydrogen
to helium releases a lot of energy.
The sun radiates of its energy in
infrared, visible, and ultraviolet region
of the electromagnetic spectrum.
OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– SCALING FOR SIZE
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– SCALING FOR DISTANCE
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– EIGHT PLANETS

The inner planets: small The asteroids: The outer planets: Dwarf planets: Pluto,
& dense, made of rock thousands of minor large, mainly gas & no Ceres, Eris are some.
& iron, terrestrial planets, the largest solid surface, solid
planets one is 530km (Vesta) core, gas giants
across
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– SOME DATA
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

Avg. dis from sun 58 108 150 228 778 1420 2870 4490
(million km)

Time for one orbit 0.24 0.62 1.00 1.88 11.86 29.46 84.01 164.8
(years)
Diameter (km) 4880 12 100 12 800 6790 142 980 120 540 51 120 49 530
Mass compared 0.06 0.82 1.00 0.11 318 95.2 14.5 17.2
with earth (Earth=1)
Gravitational field 3.8 8.8 9.8 3.8 25 10.4 10.4 13.8
strength (N/kg)
Average density 5.4 5.2 5.5 3.9 1.3 0.7 1.3 1.6
(g/cm^3)
Avg. surface 170 460 15 -23 -110 -140 -210 -200
temperature
(degree Celsius)
Number of moons 0 0 1 2 79 82 27 4
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
It has icy lump on its head, typically several kilometres across.– COMETS
Heated by the sun, the particles of dust and gas stream off it
into space, forming a huge ‘tail’ millions of kilometres long.
They have highly elliptical orbit. Refer 258 in
your text
book

A comet has the least speed when it is furthest

from the sun – its gravitational pull is weakest.
As it moves closer, the force of gravity increases
– comet speeds up as it ‘falls’ towards the sun –
gravitational potential energy is converted into
kinetic energy
 OUR SOLAR SYSTEM
– METEORS & METEORITES
Meteoroids are what we call “space rocks” that range in size
from dust grains to small asteroids. This term only applies when
they’re in space.

When meteoroids enter Earth’s atmosphere, or that of

another planet, like Mars, at high speed and burn up,
they’re called meteors. This is also when we refer to
them as “shooting stars.”

When a meteoroid survives its trip through the

atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s called
a meteorite.