太阳系天体介绍.docVIP

Solar System Review: Our solar system consists of a star of average size and luminosity we call the Sun, the planets (in order of their distance from the Sun) Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, the satellites or moons of the planets, numerous comets, asteroids, meteoroids and the interplanetary medium. The planets, most of the satellites of the planets and the asteroids revolve around the Sun in the same direction (counterclockwise), in nearly circular orbits (ellipses, but close to circles). When looking down from above the Suns north pole, the planets orbit in a counter-clockwise direction. The planets orbit the Sun in or near the same plane, called the ecliptic. Pluto is a special case in that its orbit is the most highly inclined (18 degrees) and the most highly elliptical of all the planets. The Sun contains 99.85% of all the matter in the Solar System. The planets, which condensed out of the same disk of material that formed the Sun, contain only 0.135% of the mass of the solar system. Jupiter contains more than twice the matter of all the other planets combined. Terrestrial Planets: The four primary terrestrial worlds are the innermost planets in the solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. There are an additional 8 other terrestrial worlds; the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto (the four Galilean moons), Titan (a moon of Saturn), Triton (a moon of Neptune) and Pluto. They are called terrestrial because they have a compact, rocky surface like the Earths and are spherical in shape. The other moons are not spherical and are more asteroid-like (i.e. irregular). Venus, Earth, Mars and Titan have significant atmospheres, the rest have little to zero. Planet vs. Moon: A planet revolves around the Sun. A moon or satellite revolves around a planet. The term planet or moon is not selected by mass or size of the body (for example, Titan is bigger than Mercury). The period of revolution of a planet is determined