Sun: The Sun is the largest body in our solar system, and contains 99.8% of the mass.

Because it is a globe of gases, it rotates differently depending on the area. The equator takes around 25 days, whereas the polar
regions take around 35 days (Earth days). It is 4.6 billion years old and is made up of layers, starting from the outside(with Temperatures), Corona(1,000,000 C), Transitive Region, Chromosphere,
Photosphere(6,000 C), Convection Zone(1,000,000 C), Radiative Zone(2,000,000 C),and the Core(15,000,000 C).It produces heat from the fusion of hydrogen atoms. The heat is transferred by the process of
convection, through the radiative and the convective zone, where it is radiated out through the photosphere and corona to the planets in the form of rays. Mercury: Mercury is the smallest planet with a radius of
2439 km. It is also the planet closest to the sun at a distance of 57.9 million kilometers. Its year is 88 earth days long, and its day is 59 earth days long. The surface gravity of mercury is 1/3 of Earth's, so it cannot
hold on to an atmosphere. Therefore its surface is scarred with the craters of meteors that would have broken up if it had an atmosphere. The surface temperatures at day and at night are very different. The
temperature during the day is 227C and the temperature at night is -173C. Its most noticeable feature is the largest impact crater on its surface, the Caloris basin. Venus: Venus is the third smallest planet in the
solar system with a radius of 6051 km. It is also the second closest to the sun at a distance of 108.2 million kilometers. It is the only planet whose day is longer than its year. Its day is 243 Earth days, and its year is
225 Earth days. The extremely long rotation periods of Venus and Mercury is thought to be caused by mutual gravitation pull; Mercury is sometimes thought to be an escaped moon of Venus. Venus is often called
Earth's sister planet because of its close proximity to Earth, and because of its similar diameter and mass. People even thought it could hold life, but sadly people discovered that the greenhouse effect on Venus
raised the surface temperature to the highest in the Solar System. Mars: The fourth planet from the Sun at a distance of 227,392,000 km, it's often called the Red Planet due to the large quantities of iron oxide in its
soil. The Romans saw it as blood, so they named it for their god of war, Mars. It is the second smallest planet, with a radius of 3397 km. It has a day length of about 25 hours, and a year equal to 687 Earth days. It
has been suggested that Mars may hold intelligent life, but it has not been proven. Mars contains two polar ice caps located on the southern and northern endsof the red planet. 30% of the polar ice caps are made up
of dry ice or CO2. The dry ice then sublimates creating large gusts sweeping across the polar ice caps creating cirrus clouds in the atmosphere. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Jupiter: Jupiter is the
fifth planet from the sun at a distance of 778.3 million km. It is also the largest planet with a radius of 71,492 km. Jupiter holds most of the non-solar mass in the solar system. It gives off more energy than it
receives from the sun, so it is believed that Jupiter is a failed star. That means that Jupiter could have formed into a star, but was not under the right conditions. Contrary to popular belief, Jupiter has three small
rings around it. These rings are made out of tiny particles. Its day is the shortest of the solar system's planets at about 10 hours, and its year is equal to 12 earth years. It has an atmosphere composed of hydrogen
and helium. The outer layer is the thin visible cloud bands that we see this is also the zone that contains the circular storm known as the Great Red Spot, which has been churning for centuries. This is followed by a
thick layer of liquid hydrogen. Beneath that is a nearly same size level of liquid hydrogen that, because of the pressure, behaves like a metal. Finally, beneath that is an iron-silicate core. Saturn: Saturn is the sixth
planet from the sun, and it is 1.427 billion km away from the sun. It is also the second largest with a 60,330 km radius. Its day is only 10 hours and 40 minutes, and its year is about 30 Earth years. It is the least
dense planet, and if placed in a large enough body of water, it would float. It has the largest and most spectacular ring system in the solar system. They have a diameter of 275,000 km, but they are only a few
hundred meters thick. The rings are made up of particles that vary in size, from dust like particles, to the moons Janus and Epimetheus. Sheperd moons such as Atlas, Prometheus, and Pandora keep the rings in
line. Saturn, like Jupiter, is made up of only Hydrogen and Helium, and gives off more energy than it receives. It is not as large as Jupiter, so it is not believed to have ever had the potential to be a star. Uranus:
(The pronunciation preferred by astronomers is /jrns/ (yoor-uh-nuhs)) Uranus is the 3rd largest planet (25,560 km radius), and the seventh planet from the sun (2.87 billion km away). It was the first planet
discovered after prehistoric times, because it is so far away from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel. Uranus is known for having its axis of rotation almost parallel to its plane of orbit. This gives it
seasons that seem rather strange on Earth - 42 years of almost complete darkness followed by 42 years of consistent sunlight. Its 9-ring ring system is also parallel to its plane of orbit. These rings are different from
those of Jupiter and Saturn, because they are more like hoops than rings of particles, and they have large gaps between them. Its day is about 18 hours long, and its year is 84 Earth years long. Its outer atmosphere
is composed of hydrogen, helium, and methane, which gives it its blue green color. Beneath the outer layer is a layer of high pressure solid water, methane, and ammonia. Then, beneath that layer is a ball of rocky
material that is very similar to Earth, but its surface is distorted by the dense inner ocean of water and methane. Neptune: The 8th planet from the sun, Neptune is 4.479 billion km away from the sun. It is the 4th
largest planet with a radius of 24,765 km. It was discovered in 1846 after calculations in Uranus's orbit revealed that its motions were disturbed by a more distant planet. Its day is about 19 hours, and its year is 165
Earth years. The outer third of Neptune is made of hydrogen, helium, water, and methane, which, as on Uranus gives it a blue tint. The inner two thirds are made of molten rock, liquid water, liquid ammonia, and
methane. Neptune's most apparent feature is a storm similar to the Great Red Spot, the Great Dark Spot. Here, winds can reach more than 1600 kph, making it one of the windiest places in the solar system. Ceres
The largest object in the Asteroid Belt, containing 30% of its mass. When it was discovered in the early 1800s, Ceres was considered a planet, but was reclassified as an asteroid 50 years later. Since 2006, it has
been considered a dwarf planet. Ceres orbits the Sun once every 4.6 Earth years and its day is about 9 hours. Pluto: When it was still considered a planet, Pluto was the ninth planet from the Sun and the smallest
planet. Very little is known about Pluto and its similarly sized moon, Charon (pronounced "karen"). It was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, and was the only planet discovered in the 20th century. It is a
part of the Kuiper belt, and is one of many similar Kuiper Belt objects. The only thing we know about Pluto is that it has a highly eccentric orbit, which crosses Neptunes orbit every 200 years or so, for 20 years.
It also has two smaller moons, Nix and Hydra. It became a dwarf planet in 2006. In July 2011, a fourth satellite was discovered. It has yet to be named. Eris Eris is in the scattered disc, a region beyond the

Kuiper Belt. Since Eris is larger than Pluto, its discovery led the IAU (International Astronomical Union) to define "planet" and reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet. Its only known satellite
is Dysnomia. Haumea An "egg-shaped" dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt. The odd shape is believed to come from a high rotational speed, which flattens the poles and creates a bulge around the equator.
Haumea has a year of about 283 earth years. It also has two moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka. These are believed to be fragments of the KBO - early in its history, it was hit by something, breaking off Hi'iaka and
Namaka. MakeMake Makemake has no moons, making it unique among the larger Kuiper Belt objects. It orbits the sun every 310 years. Like most KBOs, it has an highly eccentric orbit - it's perihelion (distance
closest to sun), is 38.5 AU(5,760,000,000 km). It's aphelion (distance farthest from sun), is 53.1 AU (7,939,000,000 km). It has a mass of 3 10^21 kg. Plutoids To be considered a Plutoid, a dwarf planet must
have a semi-major axis greater than that of Neptune. In other words, it must orbit outside of Neptune. Any Dwarf planet that orbits within Neptune is considered still considered a dwarf planet. As of right now,
there are four official Plutoids. They are Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. Sedna Sedna is a plutoid candidate with an orbit lasting about 11,518 Earth years. Its orbit is also highly eccentric, with a perihelion
in the outer Kuiper Belt and an aphelion possibly in the inner Oort Cloud. Sedna's diameter is 995 miles, or about 1,600 kilometers. This object has no known natural satellites. Its discovery was mostly luck, as it
was near its perihelion and at a (barely) detectable magnitude. Should it have been at the aphelion, it would remain unknown for thousands more years. This great distance is a potential reason that no natural
satellites have been found; they would be way too dim. Asteroids A small solar system body orbiting the sun composed mainly of rock. They are larger than meteoroids but smaller than planets. Size ranges from
10 meters across to thousands of kilometers. The main difference between asteroids and comets is that comets have a tail of gases while asteroids do not. Comets can become asteroids if they burn off the ice on
their surfaces. In fact, asteroids with eccentric orbits are most likely former comets. Most asteroids in the solar system orbit within the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Meteoroids A "sand- to bouldersize" piece of space debris. The official definition from the IAU is "a solid object moving in interplanetary space, of a size considerably smaller than an asteroid and considerably larger than an atom". Traditionally,
anything smaller than 10 meters across is considered a meteoroid, while anything larger than 10 meters is an asteroid. Once a meteoroid enters the atmosphere of Earth or another planet, it is considered a meteor. If
it reaches the ground and stays (more or less) intact, it's called a meteorite. A method to remember this is meteoroid is in the void of space and a meteorite is right here. Comets A small solar system body that has
a coma (the dust particles gathered around the comet's nucleus that give it an "atmosphere") and/or a tail. The nucleus itself is made up of water ice, dust, frozen gases and small rocky particles. The nuclei range
from 100 meters across to more than 40 kilometers. As the comet approaches the sun, solar radiation cause the gases inside to vaporize and carry the dust with them. The gases also become excited by sunlight and
emit electromagnetic radiation. Comets leave a trail of solid particles behind them, and if a comet crosses earth's path, there will most likely be meteor showers when earth passes through the debris field. For
example, Halley's Comet causes the Orionid Showers and the Swift-Tuttle Comet causes the Perseid showers. Short-Period Comets- Comets with an orbital period of less than 200 years. Their orbits are in the
same direction as the planets, close to the ecliptic, and their aphelion is generally in the area of the outer planets. They are divided into the Jupiter family (orbital period less than 20 years) and the Halley family
(orbital periods between 20 and 200 years). Long-Period Comets- Comets with orbital periods of more than 200 years, sometimes even thousands or millions of years. Their orbits are very eccentric, often don't
lie near the ecliptic, and their aphelion is far beyond the outer planets. However, all long-period comets are still gravitationally bound to the sun; comets that have been ejected from the solar system by the gravity
of the outer planets are no longer considered to have an orbital period. Single-Apparition Comets- Comets that have a parabolic or hyperbolic trajectory, i.e. their trajectories only let them enter the solar system
once (hence the name). Other than that, they are very similar to long-period comets. Ort Cloud The Oort cloud is an immense cloud at the outer limits of the solar system. This is believed to be the farthest reaches
of the Sun's gravitational pull that measurably affects other objects. This cloud is so vast that comets within it can be tens of millions of kilometers apart. It is believed that the cloud is denser along the elliptical
plane. The estimated mass of all the bodies in the Oort cloud is about 40 times Earth's mass. These comets are easily influenced by other stars, and often a star that comes to close to another star's Oort cloud can
fling these comets out into deep space or into the solar system. It is believed that this is where many of the comets and asteroids in our solar system originated from. Kuiper Belt The Kuiper belt is similar to the
Asteroid belt. It lies beyond Neptune, about 30-50 AU from the Sun. It is believed that these are the remains of when the Solar System was first created. When the solar system was created, most space debris was
condensed to form planets. The debris that did not form planets slowly drifted outwards to form the Kuiper Belt. No spacecraft has ever reached the Kuiper Belt, but the New Horizons spacecraft should drift past it
sometime in 2015. Lunar Eclipse A type of eclipse that occurs when the Earth passes directly between the moon and sun, which means that the moon is in Earth's shadow. Since Earth is in the middle of the moon
and sun, it must always be a full moon for a lunar eclipse to occur. There are several types of lunar eclipses: Penumbral Eclipse- The moon passes through Earth's penumbra, causing its surface to darken slightly.
Total Penumbral Eclipse- The moon passes "exclusively" through Earth's penumbra. The area of the moon closest to the umbra can appear darker than the rest of it. Partial Lunar Eclipse- A portion of the moon
passes through Earth's umbra. Total Lunar Eclipse- The whole moon passes through Earth's umbra. Totality can last up to 107 minutes, depending on the distance of the moon (at apogee, the moon's speed is
slower, meaning a longer eclipse). Selenehelion- Also known as a "horizontal eclipse", this is when the sun and the eclipsed moon can be seen at the same time. It can only occur right after sunrise or just before
sunset. Technically, the moon and sun shouldn't be visible at the same time, but Earth's atmosphere refracts light and things near the horizon appear higher in the sky than they really are. The name is derived from
the Greek goddess of the Moon (Selene) and their word for Sun, helios.Solar Eclipse The moon passes between the Earth and sun so that the sun's light is partially or completely blocked. Solar Eclipses can only
occur during a new moon, when the moon is between the earth and the sun. However, since the moon's orbit around the earth is inclined at about 5, solar eclipses can only happen when the moon's orbit crosses
the ecliptic. There are four types of solar eclipses: Total Eclipse- The sun is completely blocked by the moon. A total eclipse often happens near perigee because the moon is closer to the earth and its apparent size
is larger. When earth is close to aphelion, total eclipses are also more likely to occur. The sun's disk is obscured and its corona is visible. Total eclipses are only visible from the path of totality in the moon's umbra.
Annular Eclipse- The sun and moon are in line, but the moon's apparent size is smaller than the sun because the moon is close to apogee. Annular eclipses are more likely to occur during earth's perihelion. The
sun appears as a bright ring around the moon's outline. Annular eclipses are only visible in the antumbra. Hybrid Eclipse- A hybrid eclipse is visible as a total eclipse from some places on earth and is visible as an
annular eclipse from other places. This kind of eclipse is rare compared to the other kinds. Partial Eclipse- The moon only obscures part of the sun. Partial eclipses can be seen from "a large part of earth" (the
moon's penumbra) outside the path of totality for a total or annular eclipse. Some eclipses are only visible as a partial eclipse because the umbra passes above the poles. Aristarchus Aristarchus was an ancient
Greek astronomer. He was the one to first put forward the idea of a heliocentric Solar System. After observing solar and lunar eclipses, he deduced correctly that the Solar System was heliocentric. Tycho
BraheTycho Brahe was a Danish astronomers that was famous for creating precise measurements of the planets, and also more than 700 stars. He discovered a supernova in 1572 near Cassiopeia. The king of
Denmark was so impressed with this discovery that he funded a large observatory on the island of Ven. He also invented his own view of the Universe, the Tychonian System. In it, every planet but Earth orbited
the Sun, and the Sun and Moon orbited the Earth. Galileo Galilei was a very famous astronomer who is sometimes known as "the father of modern observational astronomy". His greatest astronomical
achievements include discovering Jupiter's four largest satellites, observing and recording the phases of Venus, improving the design of the telescope, and greatly supporting the theory of a heliocentric solar
system. Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy, but moved to Florence at the age of 8. He later applied to the University of Pisa to get a medical degree, but his interests took a different course (no pun intended) and he
ended up studying mathematics. Johannes KeplerJohannes Kepler was a German astronomer most famous for developing the Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. He began to work on complex math formulas to
explain planetary motion, which he mistakenly thought were circular in shape. Later, he became Tycho Brahe's assistant. Kepler and Tycho did not get along, however, and Tycho set Kepler to the task of
understanding Mars' orbit. It was just this that allowed him to find the final piece in developing the Laws of Planetary Motion. Clyde TombaughClyde Tombaugh is credited for discovering Pluto. He began at
home with a nine inch home-made telescope, and used this to draw pictures of Saturn and Jupiter. He sent the pictures to the Lowell Observatory, and was immediately offered a position. His goal was to discover
the elusive "planet X", later to be renamed Pluto. Even after this great accomplishment, he went on to discover many more things such as comets, open clusters, and globular clusters. Nicholas
CopernicusNicholas Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who developed the Copernicus theory, stating that the sun lies near the center of the Solar System, and the Earth revolves around it, rather than the other
way around. This theory was not proven until Galileo, and not widely accepted for many more years. Later in life he went on to lecture in Rome about astronomy. Edmond HalleyEdmond Halley was a British
astronomer who was the first to calculate a comet's orbit. He went to the University of Oxford where he studied the theories of Sir Issac Newton. He published a book in 1705 called Astronomiae Cometicae

Synopsis (Synopsis on Cometary Astronomy). His theories were validated when a comet appeared in 1758, just as he predicted. The comet was named after him for his remarkable accuracy, and is now known as
Halley's Comet.

4-2012