Space

Sandoval Students I have added Directions to Schoology, you can ask me questions through there too. I miss you, Make something cool with your knowledge today!

Click here for resources to create cartoons, presentations, powerpoints to show your knowledge of solar systems.

Links to Celestial Objects       How the Universe Works     International Space Station Live Stream

NASA and the Solar System            Orbit Simulator      Canadian Defense Minister on Aliens?

Space Games from Nasa     Gravity Game    ISS Space walk game   Planet Game   

Gravity Inside Einsteins Mind NOVA

Our Solar System
The words solar system refer to a star and all of the objects that travel around it -- planets, natural satellites such as our moon, asteroid belts, comets, and meteoroids. We now know there may be more than 5,000 planets orbiting other stars. Our solar system is part of a spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way. The sun, the center of our solar system, holds eight planets and countless smaller objects in its orbit.

Our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The four planets closest to the sun - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars - are called the terrestrial planets because they have solid, rocky surfaces. 

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the Asteroid Belt. Asteroids are rocky, airless worlds that orbit our sun, but are too small to be called planets. Tens of thousands of these minor planets are gathered in the main asteroid belt, a vast doughnut-shaped ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids that pass close to Earth are called near-earth objects. Click here to learn more about asteroids.

Two of the outer planets beyond the orbit of Mars - Jupiter and Saturn - are known as gas giants.

The more distant Uranus and Neptune are called ice giants. 

The Planets

Mercury has a very weak atmosphere.

Venus has a thick atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide. Similar in structure and size to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect. A permanent layer of clouds traps heat, creating surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Glimpses below the clouds reveal volcanoes and deformed mountains. Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction of most planets.

Earth's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and oxygen. 


Mars' carbon dioxide atmosphere is extremely thin. Explore Mars with Curiosity here.



NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s . Engineers and scientists around the country are working hard to develop the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home from the next giant leap for humanity. NASA also is a leader in a Global Exploration Roadmap, working with international partners and the U.S. commercial space industry on a coordinated expansion of human presence into the solar system, with human missions to the surface of Mars as the driving goal. Follow our progress at www.nasa.gov/exploration and www.nasa.gov/mars.

Jupiter and Saturn are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium.

Uranus and Neptune are composed mostly of water, ammonia, and methane, with icy mantles around their cores.

The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft visited the gas giants, and Voyager 2 flew by and imaged the ice giants.

Pluto is  a dwarf planet along with Ceres, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. They have similar compositions and are solid with icy surfaces.

Two NASA spacecraft have are exploring dwarf planets - the Dawn mission arrived at Ceres in March 2015 and the New Horizons mission reaches Pluto in that same year in July. After Pluto, New Horizons will explore deeper into the Kuiper Belt.

Between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt.


Galilean Moons of Jupiter


How do Moons effect our planets? Do you notice anything about Jupiter's moons compared to others?