Knowledge about planetary atmospheres and interiors can shed more light on the Earth's.
We want to know how the planets formed and evolved to their current states.
Understanding our solar system may enable us to
predict properties of planets
around other stars.
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WHAT DO WE WANT TO KNOW FIRST?
ORBITAL PROPERTIES:
GROSS PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:
DETAILS on atmosphere, surface, interior,
etc.
For the earth, this would be the study of GEOLOGY.
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CONTENTS of the SOLAR SYSTEM
One STAR, the SUN, with over 99.9% of the MASS.
We will study it in detail at the beginning of Astr 1020.
FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE COURSE WE WILL STUDY:
Nine PLANETS, falling into 2 main groups.
At least 140 MOONS, some planet sized.
Well over 10,000 known ASTEROIDS ( 100 m < D < 940 km).
Over 100,000 COMETS (around 10 km); most are in the OORT CLOUD at > 10,000 AU.
A huge number of smaller METEOROIDS.
THE TABLE OF ORBITAL PROPERTIES CAN BE VIEWED AS A JPEG FILE
You should recall the important trends discussed in class and
try to
notice other interesting relationships between these numbers.
You don't need to memorize all these numbers, but should
know the distances
of each planet from the sun and know which
planets have the most remarkable properties
in each category
(those are usually underlined in this table and were mentioned in
class.)
THE
TABLE OF PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF SOLAR SYSTEM MEMBERS
CAN BE VIEWED AS A JPEG FILE
Merely looking at the densities lets you realize that the compositions
of the Earth,
Mercury and Venus are probably very similar,
with Mars and the Moon being
somewhat different (less metals).
While the compositions of the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn
(and Uranus and Neptune
too)
are similar to each other, but different from the
terrestrial planets.
