Learning Goals

After completing this lesson, you should be able to answer the following questions:
What types of objects make up our Solar System?
How were the sizes of the Earth and Moon first determined?
How do the sizes of the other planets compare to Earth?
How does the size of the Sun compare to the sizes of the planets? to Earth?
How can we determine the distance to the Moon? to the Sun?
How do the distances to the Moon and Sun compare to the size of the Earth, or
other celestial objects?
How does the spacing of the planets change with distance from the Sun?
How do the orbits of the planets compare in terms of eccentricity and inclination?

Theres No Place Like Home

As we begin the course, the best place to start is right here at home,
our planet Earth. You may have learned that the general public
believed that we lived on a flat Earth until Christopher Columbus proved
otherwise, but this is not true. We have known that the Earth is round
for thousands of years. How did we determine this?
When we look up into the heavens, probably the two most obvious
observations are those of the Sun and the Moon. You may notice that
they both appear to be roughly the same size in the sky, but as well
quickly find out, they are not actually the same diameter. How can we
determine their sizes, and how far away they are from us?
Finally, well also look at the other planets in our solar system, see how
they compare to ours in size, and find out where they are located and
how they move around the Sun. By the end of this lesson, you should
have a good feel for the size and scale of our solar system, the place
we call home.

Basic Facts
The Solar System is composed of:

1 Star the Sun

8
9 Major Planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto

Dwarf Planets 5 officially classified so far (Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake & Eris)

Over 100 Moons (and counting)

Asteroids, Comets, Meteoroids, and other objects!

Diameter of the Earth

While most people believe that it was Christopher Columbus who determined that the Earth
was round, knowledge that the Earth was round was known by some for over a 1000 years
beforehand!
Eratosthenes was able to determine that the Earth was round and measure the size of the
Earth with a few simple measurements and geometric calculations.
Eratosthenes discovered that at noon on the summer solstice, a vertical stick in the city of
Syene cast no shadow, while at the same time, a shadow was cast in the more northern
town of Alexandria.

Diameter of the Earth

While most people believe that it was Christopher Columbus who determined that the Earth
was round, knowledge that the Earth was round was known by some for over a 1000 years
beforehand!
Eratosthenes was able to determine that the Earth was round and measure the size of the
Earth with a few simple measurements and geometric calculations.
Eratosthenes discovered that at noon on the summer solstice, a vertical stick in the city of
Syene cast no shadow, while at the same time, a shadow was cast in the more northern
town of Alexandria.
If the Earth were flat, then the shadow cast by a vertical stick would be the same
everywhere. The fact that the shadow differed between cities suggested that the Earth was
round.
Using basic geometry, Eratosthenes was able to calculate the circumference, and from that
the radius, of the Earth.

The distance between Syene and Alexandria is a fraction of the total circumference of the Earth.
The angular difference between the shadows equals the difference in latitudes of the two cities,
which is a fraction of a complete 360o circle.

5000 stadia
7.2

C
360

C = 250,000 stadia = 46,000 km

(Actual circumference: 40,007.86 km; radius = 6378.1 km)

Diameter of the Moon

We can use basic geometry to determine the sizes of and distances to other
celestial objects as well.
As well find out in a later lesson, every once in a while the Moon passes directly
between the Earth and Sun, casting a shadow upon the Earth, which has a
diameter of around 100 km (practically zero, compared to the size of the Moon).
Sometimes, when the Moon is on the other side of the Earth from the Sun, it
passes through the Earths shadow. When it does, we can observe that the
Earths shadow is roughly 2.5 times wider than the Moon.
Moons orbit
Light rays from
upper edge of sun

Earths shadow is
2.5 times wider
than Moon

Moon during
solar eclipse
Earth

Light rays from

lower edge of
sun

Moons shadow tapers

1 moon diameter

Moon during
lunar eclipse

Diameter of the Moon

If the shadow of the Moon tapers from one moon-diameter to essentially zero
over the same distance that the Earths shadow tapers to 2.5 moon-diameters,
that suggests that the Earth is roughly 3.5 moon-diameters big, or 3.5 times
bigger than the Moon.
In actuality, the Earth is 3.67 times bigger than the Moon.
(radius of the Moon = 1737.4 km)

Earth

2.5 Moon
Diameters

3.5 Moon
Diameters
Moon
Radius of Moons Orbit

2.5 Moon
Diameters

Planetary Sizes
Astronomers have also determined the sizes of the planets. Below are the
terrestrial planets (plus the Moon), shown to scale. Out of all of the terrestrial
planets, Earth is the largest.
As you can see, Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth.
Mars is roughly half the size of Earth.
Mercury is about 40% the size of Earth.
The Moon is a little more than a quarter the size of Earth.

Planetary Sizes
Below are the Jovian planets (plus Earth), shown to scale. The Jovian
planets are all much larger than Earth (the largest terrestrial planet).
Uranus and Neptune are roughly 4 times bigger than Earth.
Saturn is 9.5 times bigger than Earth.
Jupiter is over 11 times bigger than Earth!

Earth

Diameter of the Sun

The sizes of all of the planets are negligible
compared to the Sun. The Sun has a
diameter of around 1.4 million km. This
means that you could fit 109 Earths endto-end across the diameter of the Sun.
How many Jupiters would it take to span
the diameter of the Sun?

In terms of volume, you could fit over one

million Earths inside of the Sun.

Distance to the Moon

To determine the distance to the Moon, we can use similar triangles.
If youve ever looked at the Moon when its high in the sky, you may have noticed
that it appears to be about the size of a quarter held at arms length (try it some
time hold up a quarter next to the Moon and compare).
We can see in the figure below that there are two triangles: in each one, the long
sides represent the distance to the object (coin or Moon) and the short side
represents the diameter of the object.
Using similar triangles, the ratio of the diameters is equal to the ratio of the
distances. Using this method, we can determine the distance to the Moon.
Diameter of Moon
Diameter of coin

Distance to coin

Distance to Moon

Coin diameter
Coin distance

Moon diameter
Moon distance

The Earth-Moon System

So how far away is the Moon from the Earth?
It would take around 30 Earths, lined up side-by-side, in order to reach
the orbit of the Moon. In other words, the diameter of the Moons orbit
(from one side to the other) is equal to 60 Earth diameters.

Moon
Earth

To Scale
Based on this, which is bigger, the Moons orbit, or the diameter of the
Sun?

Distance to the Sun

Now that we know the distance to the Moon, we can determine the distance to the
Sun.
At certain times, the Moon (as viewed from Earth) will appear to be half-illuminated.
We call this a Quarter Moon (well discuss this more in a later lesson). The Moon will
appear in this phase when the angle between the Earth & Sun is exactly 90 o.
If we measure the angle between the Moon and Sun at this time, we can use basic
trigonometry to determine the distance to the Sun.
NOT TO SCALE

Quarter Moon
90
D

Sun

D
cos =
X
D
X=
cos

Earth

The Sun-Earth System

So how far away is the Earth from the Sun?
It would take almost 108 Suns, lined up side-by-side, in order to reach
the orbit of the Earth. (Sorry, Im not drawing that one to scale).
How many Earths would it take, lined up side-by-side, to span this
distance?

1 AU
Earth
Sun

Not To Scale

We define the average distance between the Earth and the Sun as one
astronomical unit (AU). 1 AU roughly equals 1.5 x 108 km, or 150
million kilometers.

Spacing of the Planets

The planets are not evenly distributed through space. The spacing
increases as you move farther out in the solar system.
Below is a scale model of the spacing of the planets in our solar
system, compared to a football field. (The scale is 100 in = 1 AU)
NOTE: Only the spacing is to scale; the sizes of the planets and the
Sun are not to scale.

30

20

Kuiper Belt

Neptune

40

Uranus

Saturn

Jupiter

10
Asteroid Belt

20

Venus Mercury
Mars Earth

30

40

50
50

40

40

30

30

20

20

10

10

10

Orbital Properties
Not all of the planets orbit in exactly the same plane as the Earth (what we call
the ecliptic plane), but relative to the ecliptic plane, most other planets orbit
close to the same plane. The most inclined is Mercury at 7.
Based on our understanding of how the solar system formed, this is to be
expected. All of the planets formed out of the material which formed around the
Sun, which, as well find out later, collapsed down into the shape of a disk.

Orbital Properties
The planets all orbit around
the Sun in the same
direction; counterclockwise
when viewed from above
Earths north pole (and most
moons orbit around their
planet the same way).
Most planets have near
circular orbits. The most
eccentric is Mercury with an
eccentricity of e = 0.21.