Solar System
Tags
bio/astro
cegep/3
Word count
218 words
Reading time
2 minutes
Sun
- 99.9% of total mass
- Mostly gas
Terrestrial planets
- Solid
Mercury
- Desolate; only craters
- Looks like the Moon
- Tidally locked
- No atmosphere => big temperature variation
Venus
- May have had a ocean that evaporated due to runaway greenhouse effect
- Very hot
[!abstract] runaway greenhouse effect
Heat increases vapour concentration in atmosphere, which in turn traps more heat, finally leading to evaporation of oceans
Mars
- Ice cap; may have had water flow in the past
- Thin atmosphere
Asteroid belt
Belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter
- It exists because it is where all the asteroids happen to survive.
Jovian planets
- Gaseous
- All four have ring systems
Jupiter
- Mostly helium
- Many moons
Saturn
- Mostly helium
- Some moons create gaps in rings
Uranus
- Mostly hydrogen compounds (water, methane, ammonia)
- Spins in a different direction <= big collision
Neptune
- Mostly hydrogen compounds
Kuiper belt
Belt of large, icy objects outside of Neptune
Pluto
- Much smaller than the other planets
- Icy, comet-like composition
- Elliptical, inclined orbit
- Orbit crosses that of Neptune
Oort cloud
Cloud of comets
Ajitani Hifumi