Astronomy: Terrestrial and Jovian Planets

1. TERRESTRIAL
PLANETS OF OUR
03
Prepared By:
JOHN REY D. RAVAGO

3. Terrestrial Planets
Made of rocky materials
Surfaces are solid
Don't have rings
Very few moons
Relatively small
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars

4. Mercury
The smallest planet in our
solar system and nearest
to the Sun, Mercury is only
slightly larger than Earth's
Moon.
Mercury is not the hottest
planet in our solar system,
thanks to its dense
atmosphere.

5. Venus
Venus spins slowly in the
opposite direction most
planets do. Its thick
atmosphere traps heat in a
runaway greenhouse effect,
making it the hottest planet in
our solar system—with
surface temperatures hot
enough to melt lead. Glimpses
below the clouds reveal
volcanoes and deformed
mountains.

6. Earth
Our home planet is the third
planet from the Sun, and the
only place we know of so far
that’s inhabited by living
things.
Earth is the biggest of the four
planets closest to the Sun, all
of which are made of rock and
metal.

7. Mars
The fourth planet from the
Sun, Mars is a dusty, cold,
desert world with a very thin
atmosphere.
Mars is one of the most
explored bodies in our solar
system, and it's the only
planet where we've sent
rovers to roam the alien
landscape.

8. Jovial Planets
Gas giants
- predominantly made of
Helium and Hydrogen
Ice giants
- contain rock, ice and
mixture of water, methane
and ammonia
Multiple moons
No solid surface
Support ring system
Immense in size
Gas giants
- Jupiter
- Saturn
Ice giants
- Uranus
- Neptune

9. Jupiter
Fifth in line from the Sun, Jupiter is,
by far, the largest planet in the
solar system – more than twice as
massive as all the other planets
combined.
Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls
are actually cold, windy clouds of
ammonia and water, floating in an
atmosphere of hydrogen and
helium. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red
Spot is a giant storm bigger than
Earth that has raged for hundreds
of years.

10. Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from
the Sun and the second largest
planet in our solar system.
Adorned with thousands of
beautiful ringlets, Saturn is
unique among the planets. It is
not the only planet to have
rings—made of chunks of ice
and rock—but none are as
spectacular or as complicated as
Saturn's.

11. Uranus
Seventh planet from the sun,
rotates at a nearly 90 degree
angle from the plane of its
orbit.
Uranus was discovered in
1781 by astronomer William
Herschel, although he
originally thought it was either
a comet or a star.

12. Neptune
Eighth planet and the most
distant major planet orbiting
the sun.
Dark, cold and whipped by
supersonic winds, ice giant
Neptune is the eighth and
most distant planet in our
solar system.

13. Kuiper Belt
A donut-shaped region of icy
bodies beyond the orbit of
Neptune.
Similar to the asteroid belt, the
Kuiper Belt is a region of
leftovers from the solar system's
early history. Like asteroid belt, it
has also been shaped by a giant
planet, although it's more of a
thick disk (like a donut) than a
thin belt.

14. Oort Cloud
The Oort Cloud is the most
distant region of our solar
system.
Oort Cloud is believed to be a
giant spherical shell surrounding
the rest of the solar system. It is
like a big, thick-walled bubble
made of icy pieces of space
debris the sizes of mountains
and sometimes larger.
Might contain billions, or even
trillions, of objects.

16. INTERPLANETARY
OF OUR
04

17. Interplanetary Debris
Interplanetary debris is leftover stuff from remnants of
planets.
It is the minor members of the solar system.
There are three types of interplanetary debris;
Asteroids;
Comets; and
Meteoroids.

18. Asteriod
An asteroid is a small, rocky body whose diameter can
range from less than a kilometer to a few hundred
kilometers.
Most asteroids lie between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter (the Asteroid Belt). They have orbital periods of
three to six years.
Some have “eccentric” orbits and pass close to the
sun; a few larger ones regularly pass close to Earth

19. Asteriod
Types of Asteriods:
• Carbonaceous (C-Type) - are rough stony.
• Silicaceous (S-Type) - are bright shiny.
• Metallic (M-Type) – have metal cores
KIRKWOOD GAPS - regions of lower incidence of
asteroids in the main belt-associated with
resonances with Jupiter’s orbital period.
-analogous to Saturn’s Cassini
division.

20. Irregular Orbits of Asteriods

22. Asteriod
Families:
- Earth-crossers - Apollo and Aten groups - intersect with -
Earth’s orbit- source of major impacts on Earth in the past
- Mars-crossers- Amor group
e.g. Eros - the NEAR space mission en route - will orbit
Eros in 1999-2000
- Trojans - in stable Lagrange points 60 degrees ahead of
and behind Jupiter a few outer solar system asteroids
beyond Jupiter-e.g. Chiron

24. Asteriod
Small rocky bodies; irregular shape
Lie between orbits of Mars & Jupiter (asteroid belt)
Orbital period of 3-6 years
- Some asteroids have very eccentric orbits & travel
close to the Sun.
- Others (larger) regularly pass close to Earth &
Moon
• Largest asteroid: Ceres—1,000 km diameter

26. Comets
Comets are small bodies made of rocky and metallic
pieces held together by frozen gases.
Many comets revolve around the sun in elongated
orbits that take them far beyond Pluto
A single orbit can take hundreds of thousands of years.
A few have orbital periods of less than 200 years.

27. Comets
•Rocky, metallic material held together by frozen gases
(water, ammonia, methane, CO2, and CO)
•Elongated orbits (far beyond Pluto)
–Orbital period of most  hundreds of thousands of
years
–Some less than 200 years and encounter inner
solar system

28. Comets

29. Comets

30. Comets

31. Comets

32. Meteoriods
Meteor Crater (Winslow,
Arizona)
50,000 years ago
Originated from asteroid belt
26,000 mph prior to impact;
150 ft across
Crater is roughly
1 mile wide
2.4 mile circumference
550 feet deep

33. Meteoriods
• Annual Meteor Showers - Earth passing through streams
of meteoroids on parallel orbits e.g. Perseid meteor
shower on Aug. 12.
• Meteorites are the most ancient rocks - 4.2-4.6 billion
years from radioactive dating.
• Various compositions describing the composition of the
primordial solar nebula from which the solar system
formed - stony, nickel-iron, carbonaceous.

34. Meteoriods
• Most meteoroids originate from any one of the following
3 sources:
1.) Interplanetary debris that was not gravitationally
swept up by the planets during the formation of the
solar system,
2.) Material from the asteroid belt, or
3.) The solid remains of comets that once traveled near
Earth’s orbit.

35. Meteoriods