Astronomy Midterm: Solar System FA-2025

closest planet to the Sun

Mercury

difficult to observe because of the Sun's light and only visible during sunrise/sunset

Mercury

fastest planet with most eccentric orbit other than pluto

Mercury

greatest temperature range of any planet

Mercury

1 day lasts 2 years from noon to noon

Mercury

similar size to Earth, but closer to the Sun and much hotter

Venus

thick atmosphere traps greenhouse gases and makes the planet hot and dry

Venus

surface temperature hotter than Mercury's (750K)

Venus

surface pressure is 92 atmosphere due to CO2

Venus

constantly rains sulfuric acid that dries before it reaches the ground due to the surface temperature

Venus

diameter is 1/2 of Earth's

Mars

used to have water on its surface

Mars

smaller mass means less gravity and higher mountains on

Mars

between Mars and Jupiter containing trillions of small rocks

Asteroid Belt

tens of thousands of asteroids separated by an average distance of 1 million km

Asteroid Belt

chunk of ice rock with a coma and tail

Comet

rocky body smaller than a planet that orbits the Sun

Asteroid

rock smaller than an asteroid

Meteoroid

streak of light when space rock enters the atmosphere and starts burning up

Meteor

space rock that lands on Earth

Meteorite

an object accelerates when it falls increasing the pressure air pushes back until it reaches no net force stopping the acceleration

terminal velocity

meteors vaporize between

80-90km above the surface

largest planet in the solar system

Jupiter

radius is 11x Earth's

Jupiter

deep internal structure is difficult to predict due to the compression of H and He that act in ways unimaginable on Earth

Jupiter

what do the striations on Jupiter show

the gases cooling thus sinking and heating thus rising

mostly made of hydrogen and helium but has a solid core 15-20x Earth's mass

Jupiter

core is 15x larger than Earth's

Jupiter

pressure at the center is 8 million atmosphere

Jupiter

what happens when hydrogen is put under a lot of pressure

it becomes a liquid

has a strong magnetic field generated by electrical current in its spinning core

Jupiter

has rings that were difficult to find

Jupiter

broadcasts radio waves with 400 billion watts of power

Jupiter

has 67 moons, 4 discovered by Galileo

Jupiter

radiates heat

Jupiter

what where the 4 moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo

Io Europa Ganymede and Callisto

rings were first seen by Galileo who didn't know what he was looking at

Saturn

radiates 2.5x as much heat as it gets from the Sun due to its shrinking

Saturn

doesn't have a solid core and is composed mostly of liquid hydrogen

Saturn

discovered by Herschel in 1781

Uranus

could be seen but no one knew it was a planet because it didn't appear to move

Uranus

also has rings

Uranus

found using mathematical prediction using Newton's law of universal gravitation

Neptune

wasn't moving the way Newton's laws says it would

Neptune

Adams and Verrier predicted this planet based on Newton's Laws

Neptune

its moon Triton travels counterclockwise

Neptune

so small and distant a good telescope is needed to see it

Pluto

such an eccentric orbit it's sometimes closer to the Sun than Neptune

Pluto

has 4 small moon

Pluto