solar system

solar system

gravitationally bound system made up of the sun and everything that orbits it

4.6 billion years ago

scientists believe the solar system formed about ____ from a giant, slowly rotating cloud of gas and dust called a solar nebula

terrestrial (inner planet)

mercury, venus, earth, and mars, are small dense, and rocky solid surfaces. they have few or no moons and no ring systems

jovian (outer planets)

jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune are large,m low-density planets made mostly of gas (jupiter and saturn) or icy compounds (uranus and neptune, sometimes called ice giants)

• they have many moons and ring systems, though saturn’s rings are the most visible

dwarf planets

objects that orbit the sun and are round due to their own gravity, but have not cleared their orbital path of debris

asteroids

rocky leftovers from planet formation, mostly found in the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter

comets

icy bodies that develop a glowing coma and tail as they approach the sun and their ices vaporize

• many originate from the Kuipper Belt or the more distant oort cloud

meteoroid

small rocky/metallic particle in space

meteor

streak of light it produces burning up in the atmosphere (a shooting star)

meteorite

is what survives to hit the ground

moons (natural satellite)

bodies that orbit a planet rather than the sun directly

kupier belt

a disk-shaped region beyond neptune filled with icy bodies, including pluto

oort cloud

a vast, spherical shell of icy debris far beyond the kuiper belt, thought to be the source of long-period comets