INTRODUCTION
The planetary group comprises of the sun, and everything bound to it by gravity, including planets
and bantam planets and 193 known moons with a large number of space rocks, comets, and
meteoroids. Our planetary group expands a lot farther than the eight planets that circle the sun.
the planetary group likewise incorporates the Kuiper belt that lies past the circle of Neptune, this is
scantily involved ring of frosty bodies which are practically all more modest than Pluto.
Section 1 - Components of the Inner and Outer Solar System
MERCURY: Mercury is the closest planet to the sun in the solar system, Figure 1
with a distance of 57,909,050 Km according to “university today”.
However, it is not the hottest planet in the solar system, even if it is the
closest to the sun, Venus is the hottest. Mercury tends to swing between
burning and freezing temperatures with temperatures rising to 430
degrees and falling to -180 degrees. This due to its lack of atmosphere,
allowing heat to escape more out of the planet, making it colder during
“night” and creating drastic difference in the temperatures.
Mercury does not have an atmosphere due to the distance between it and
the sun being too close, which causes the sun’s events (flares, solar
winds) to blow off any atmosphere the planet has. In addition, since
mercury is small, it does not have much gravity, with 3.70m/s^2, to hold onto any atmosphere.
Mercury has an orbital period (how long it takes to travel around the sun) of 88 earth days in an
ellipse orbit. A complete rotation would take them 58 earth days, which spins three times for every
2 orbits in a counter-clockwise spin.
Mercury is made up of a solid inner core, molten outer core, rocky mantle, and solid crust.
Mercury’s core stands out 85% of the centre of the planets to the surface, which is the exposed
planetary core. Mercury’s surface is made up of cool lava- becomes an enriched crust. Mercury
also has a radius of 1,516 miles, with a surface area of 74.8 million km^2 and a mass of 3.301 X
10^23 kg- making it the smallest terrestrial planet. It is seen as a terrestrial planet due to the
rocky, dust solid nature of the planet compared to the Jovian planet, with their gas giants.
It is theorized that Mercury used to be 170 million km away from the sun and near Mars- where
life was forming. And mercury collided with an embryo planet, causing the crust/ mantle scatter,
which then later forms Venus later on.
Figure 2
VENUS: Venus is the 2nd closest planet to the sun with a distance of
108,208,930 km according to “cool cosmos”. Unlike mercury, Venus is
the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of
457 degrees during day and night, due to its thick atmosphere trapping
all the heat inside the planet, and a tough atmosphere with 96.5% of it
made up of carbon dioxide. The atmosphere also has a pressure of 89
earth atmosphere, making it able to smash a car. Venus shows that it is
unable to hold life that we know of.
Venus has an iron core that is 3,200 kilometres in radius, followed by a
mantle manufactured from hot rock slowly churning because of the
planets interior heat, the surface of Venus may be a skinny crust of rock which bulges and moves
as its mantle shifts and creates volcanoes throughout this process.
Venus is roofed with clouds that mirror and scatter daylight leading to a bright white surface.
Venus has mountains, valleys, and thousands of volcanoes. The surface temperatures reach a
vituperative 880 degrees. The atmosphere on Venus consists of mainly: greenhouse emission with
clouds of sulphuric acid droplets the atmosphere has several layers with completely different
temperatures, Venus has high surface temperatures 470 degrees Celsius. Venus includes a
diameter of 12,104km, and therefore the mass of the planet is 4.867 x 10^24kg. Venus has no
moons. Venus has no rings. Orbit and rotation: Venus rotate from east to west called “backwards
rotation”. that world completes one rotation in 243 earth days. Venus makes a whole orbit round
the sun in 225 earth days. Venus has an axial tilt of three degrees thus doesn't expertise
noticeable seasons.
,EARTH: Earths is the third planet from the sun, the only planet that
we know is inhabited by living things. Only world in the solar system Figure 3
with liquid water on the surface. Earth is the biggest of the terrestrial
planets with a radius of 6371 km.
The earth is composed of 4 main layers: inner core, outer core,
mantle, and crust.
Inner core: a solid sphere made of iron and nickel metals which are
1221 km in radius the temperature is as high as 5400 degrees
Celsius.
Outer core: made of iron and nickel fluids and it is 2300 km thick.
Mantle: hot, viscous mixture of molten rock which is 2900km thick with the consistency of
caramel.
Crust: it is about 30km deep. At the bottom of the ocean the crust is thinner extending about 5km
from the sea floor to the top of the mantle.
Earth consists of volcanoes, mountains, and valleys. Earths lithosphere (includes both crusts) are
divided into huge plates which are constantly moving. Earthquakes result when plates grind past
one another or collide to make mountains. The plates consist of constructive, destructive,
conservative, collision plate boundary.
Earth has an environment containing of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% alternative gases.
Earth includes a diameter of 12,760km, and has a mass of 5.972 x 10^24.
Orbit and rotation: it takes around 8 minutes for light from the sun to reach our planet. It takes
the earthy 365.25 days to complete one trip around the sun. The earth’s axis of rotation is tilted
23.4 degrees, this tilt causes our yearly cycle of seasons. During part of the year the northern
hemisphere is tilted towards the sun and the southern hemisphere is tilted away causing heat at
the north producing summer whilst less solar heating at the south produces winter. In addition,
earth has a single moon and has no rings.
MARS: Mars is the 4th closest terrestrial planet to the sun and the
closest planet to earth. It is 228 million km away from the sun Figure 4
according to “universe today”.
Mars is the only terrestrial planet to be positioned next to the asteroid
belt, which separates the terrestrial planets from the Jovian planet/
the gas giants. Mars surface temperature is quite complex, with an
average temperature between -63 degrees and 20 degrees, during
noon. And can go as low as -153 degrees. Mars atmosphere is a layer
of gas containing 95% carbon dioxide, 2.8% molecular nitrogen and
2% argon.
Most of its water in the atmosphere tends to evaporate therefore less water vapour
appears in the atmosphere. Mars also has small traces of carbon monoxide, hydrogen,
and other noble gases. Mar’s atmosphere is way thinner compared to earth's; this is due
to solar winds directly interacting with the atmosphere, which leads into the formation of
a magnetosphere. This causes a problem for mars to not be able to form a strong thick
atmosphere. Mars has an orbital period of 687 earth days around the sun in an ellipse
orbit. Mars has a similar rotational period to earth with 24 hours and 39 minutes, with a
counter clockwise in its axis. Mars has an outer layer of permafrost which may pervade
the upper crust. And the crust is 10-80 miles thick. It has a core with a diameter of
1.600-2,500 miles.
, The core is made out of metallic iron and nickel, which is also surrounded by a less
dense, silicate mantle and crust. Mars’ surface is covered with the largest mountains in
the solar system, and also holds evidence that mars could potentially hold organisms
(that we know of) that could make life and holds evidence that mars had water on the
surface. There are craters too, that help with this theory, that liquid water was in these
craters.
Mars has a surface area of 144.8 million km^2 and a radius of 2,106 miles. Since mars
has such similar aspects of the planet to earth, there are questions wondering if we could
potentially live on mars, considering the new modern technology we are using.
JUPITER: Jupiter is the fifth planet away from our sun. Jupiter’s stripes Figure 5
and swirls are cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an
atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter’s fast rotation creates strong
jet streams, which separates its clouds into dark belts and bright zones
across long stretches.
The great red spot-on Jupiter is a giant storm bigger than earth that has
raged for hundreds of years.
Jupiter has the same materials as a star, but it did not grow massive
enough to ignite. Deep in the atmosphere pressure and temperature
increase which compresses the hydrogen gas into a liquid, allowing Jupiter
to have the largest ocean in the solar system.
Jupiter has 3 distinct cloud layers that span about 71km. the top cloud is probably made of
ammonia ice; middle layer may be made of ammonium hydrosulphide crystals. The inner layer
may be made of water and ice.
The vivid colours you see in thick bands across Jupiter may be plumes of sulphur and phosphorus
containing gases which rise from the planet’s warmer interior.
Jupiter has 4 large moons:
Figure 6
- lo: most volcanically active body in the solar system
- Europa: life may lie beneath the frozen crust of Europa
- Ganymede: the largest moon in the solar system
- Callisto: the very few small craters indicate a small degree of current surface activity
Jupiter’s has rings that are composed of little dark particles and are tough to examine except once
backlit by the sun. Jupiter contains a diameter of 139.822km, and also the mass of the world is
1900 x 10^24.
Orbit and rotation: Jupiter have the shortest day within the star system. Its equator is tipped
round the Sun by simply three degrees, which means Jupiter spins nearly upright and doesn't have
seasons as extreme as alternative planets do.
