{"id":133,"date":"2019-06-15T00:14:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T00:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/methods\/chapter\/our-solar-system\/"},"modified":"2023-03-24T15:01:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T15:01:50","slug":"our-solar-system","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.usnh.edu\/methods\/chapter\/our-solar-system\/","title":{"raw":"Our Solar System","rendered":"Our Solar System"},"content":{"raw":"Formative Assessment: The Moon<\/a><\/strong> & Stars<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\n\nPlanets<\/strong>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_131\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\" Planets in the Solar System \"A representative image of the solar system with sizes, but not distances, to scale<\/a>\" by WP is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>[\/caption]\n\nThere are 8 planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. To remember the order of the planets (closest to farthest from the sun), use the acronym \u201cMy Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nutella.\u201d\n\nThe four inner planets--Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars--are rocky planets because they have a solid surface. The four outer planets--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune--are gaseous planets because they are composed of gases, mainly hydrogen and helium. Notice that the rocky planets are much smaller in size and the gaseous planets are larger. One theory for this is that when the Sun turned on and became a star, it caused the gas clouds of the four inner planets to blow away. The rocky planets were left with a smaller, solid planet. The gaseous planets are farther from the sun, so they retained their composition. As they increased in mass, their gravity increased which allowed them to attract more and more material from space and grow larger in size.\n\nSizes and Distances of Planets<\/strong>\n\nThe image below shows the huge variance in size between planets in our solar system. Notice the differences in size between the inner, rocky planets and the outer, gaseous planets.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_131\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"516\"]\"\" \u201cSize planets comparison<\/a>\u201d by Lsmpascal<\/a>-Own work is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>\/labels added from original[\/caption]\n\n
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Measurements of Our Solar System<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Element<\/strong><\/td>\nDiameter (km)<\/strong><\/td>\nDistance from the Sun (x106<\/sup>) (km)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Sun<\/td>\n1,392,000<\/td>\n--------------------------<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mercury<\/td>\n4,897<\/td>\n57.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Venus<\/td>\n12,104<\/td>\n108.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Earth<\/td>\n12,756<\/td>\n149.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Mars<\/td>\n6,794<\/td>\n227.9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Jupiter<\/td>\n142,980<\/td>\n778.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Saturn<\/td>\n120,540<\/td>\n1433.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Uranus<\/td>\n51,120<\/td>\n2872.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Neptune<\/td>\n49,530<\/td>\n4495.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWatch the following video to see a size comparison of the planets across Iowa's campus.\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ebiNhwGRxFY&feature=youtu.be\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_131\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1024\"]\"\" Size comparison of the planets[\/caption]\n\nTo understand the scale of the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, watch the video below:\n\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=216&v=WYQ3O8U6SMY&feature=emb_title\n
Video credit: \"How Small are We in the Scale of the Universe?<\/a>\" by Alex Hofeldt\/TED-Ed <\/a>\u00a0is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a><\/h5>\nWhy is Pluto Not a Planet?<\/strong>\n\nPluto was the ninth planet in our solar system until a controversial 2006 decision when it was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Pluto meets two requirements to be a planet: it orbits around the sun and its gravity formed the planet into a round shape. However, it does not meet the third requirement of \u201cclearing the neighborhood.\u201d Planets must have gravitational dominance and clear the neighborhood around their orbit; this means that large planets (more mass=more gravity) either attract or eject other, smaller bodies from that region of space. Several other dwarf planets and similarly-sized space objects were discovered in the solar system near Pluto\u2019s orbit in the Kuiper Belt. Therefore, Pluto has not cleared the neighborhood and so it cannot be considered a planet.\n\nNGSS:<\/strong>\n
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K-6 Standards<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

\n\n5-ESS1-1. Support an argument that differences in the apparent brightness of the sun\ncompared to other stars is due to their relative distances from Earth.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\n\n\n
1-ESS1-1.<\/th>\nAnalyzing and Interpreting Data<\/h4>

Analyzing data in K\u20132 builds on prior experiences and progresses to collecting, recording, and sharing observations.<\/p>