T H E P L A N E T S - Presented by Earthrise

T H E P L A N E T S - Presented by Earthrise
This is a simple guide to the basic information about the system.

The Sun
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Asteroid Belt
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Oort Cloud

T H E S U N

Type of Object : Class G2 Star
Location : Orion arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, Center of the System
Diameter : 1.35 million kilometers (865,000 miles), or 109 Earths
Mass : 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms (4.385 x 10^30 pounds), or 1.3 million Earths
Temperature : Surface-10,000°F (5500°C); Center-27,000,000°F (15,000,000°C)
Age : 4.6 billion years
Rotation Period : 25-36 days
Revolution Period in the Milky Way : 200,000,000 years
Density : 1000kg/m3, about the same as water
Composition of Gases : 75% hydrogen , 25% helium
Distance from Earth : 1.496 x 10^8 meters (92,957.130 miles), also defined as one astronomical unit.
Core Pressure : 340 billion times Earth's air pressure at sea level

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M E R C U R Y

Type of Object : Solid Planet
Location : First planet away from Sun
Diameter : 4,878 kilometers (3031.04 miles)
Mass : 3.303^23 kilograms (2.051^26 pounds), or 0.0558 Earths
Temperature : Surface-179°C (354.2°F)
Rotation Period : 58.6462 days
Density : 5.42 gm/cm^3
Distance from Sun : 57.9 million kilometers
Mean orbital velocity: 47.89 kilometers per second
Length of mercurian year: 0.2408 Earth-year, 87.9 Earth-days
Length of mercurian day: 58.6 Earth-days
Rotational period : 58.6462 days
Orbital period : 87.969 days
Mean orbital velocity : 47.88 km/sec
Orbital eccentricity : 0.2056
Tilt of axis : 0.00°
Orbital inclination : 7.004°
Equatorial surface gravity : 2.78 m/sec^2
Equatorial escape velocity : 4.25 km/sec
Magnitude : -1.9 Vo

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V E N U S

Orbital Distance: 0.72 Earthąs orbit
Orbital Period: 0.62 Earth years
Rotation: 243 Earth days (retrograde)
Mean Radius: 0.95 Earthąs radius
Mass : 0.815 Earth's mass
Surface Pressure : 90 atmospheres
Gravity : 0.91 Earthąs gravity
Orbit : 108,200,000 km (0.72 AU) from Sun
Diameter : 12,103.6 km
Mass : 4.869 x 10^24 kg

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E A R T H

Mass (kg) : 5.98 x 10^24
Diameter (km) : 12756
Mean density (kg/m^3) : 5520
Escape velocity (m/sec) : 11200
Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2) : 9.78
Average distance from Sun (AU) : 1 (149,600,000 km)
Rotation period (length of day in Earth hours) : 23.93
Revolution period (length of year in Earth days) : 365.26
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) : 29.79
Obliquity (tilt of axis in degrees) : 23.4
Orbit eccentricity (deviation from circular) : 0.017
Mean surface temperature (K) : 281 (15 degree Celsius)
Maximum surface temperature (K) : 310
Minimum surface temperature (K) : 260
Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity) : 0.39
Highest point on surface : Mount Everest (8+ km above sea-level)
Atmospheric components : 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon
Surface materials : basaltic and granitic rock and altered materials

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M A R S

Mass : 6.42 x 10^23 kg
Diameter : 6787 km
Mean density : 3940 kg/m^3
Escape velocity : 5000 m/sec
Average distance from the Sun : 227,940,000 km
Average distance from Sun : 1.524 AU
Rotation period/Length of day : 1.026 Earth days
Revolution period/Length of year : 686.98 Earth years
Obliquity/Tilt of axis : 25 degrees
Orbit inclination : 1.85 degrees
Orbit eccentricity/deviation from circular : 0.093
Maximum surface temperature : 310 K
Minimum surface temperature : 150 K
Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity) : 0.15
Magnitude : -2.01 Vo
Highest point on surface: Olympus Mons, 24 km high
Atmospheric components: 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon

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A S T E R O I D B E L T

The Asteroid Belt is made up of large and small rocks and chunks of ice called Asteroids that were left over from the creation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. They are rocky objects with round or irregular shapes. Some are up to several hundred km across, but most are very small.

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J U P I T E R

Mass : 1.90 x 10^27 kg
Diameter : 142,800 km (88,731.8 miles)
Mean density : 1,314 kg/m^3
Escape velocity : 59,500 m/sec
Average distance from Sun : 5.203 Astronomical Units
Rotation period/Length of Day : 9.8 Earth hours
Revolution period/Length of Year: 11.86 Earth years
Obliquity/Tilt of Axis : 3.08 degrees
Orbit inclination : 1.3 degrees
Orbit eccentricity (deviation from circular): 0.048
Mean surface temperature : 120 K (cloud tops)
Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity): 0.44
Rings: Faint ring : Infrared spectra imply dark rock fragments.
Halo
Distance (From center of Jupiter) : 92,000 km (57,166.15 miles)
Width: 30,500 km (18,951.82 miles)
Thickness: 20,000 km (12,427.42 miles)
Main
Distance (From center of Jupiter) : 122,500 km (76,117.97 miles)
Width: 6,440 km (4,001.63 miles)
Thickness: Greater than 30 km (18.64 miles)
Inner Gossamer
Distance (From center of Jupiter) : 128,940 km (80,119.60 miles)
Width: 52,060 km (32,348.58 miles)
Thickness: Unknown
Outer Gossamer
Distance (From center of Jupiter) : 181,000 km (112,468.18 miles)
Width : 40,000 km (24,854.84 miles)
Thickness : Unknown

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S A T U R N

Mass : 5.69 x 10^26 kg (95.2 Earth masses)
Volume : 8.52 x 10^23 m^3 (764 Earth volumes)
Diameter : 120660 km
Mean density : 690 kg/m^3
Escape velocity : 35600 m/sec
Average distance from Sun : 1,430 million km (9.539AU)
Gravity : 1.08 x Earth's
Rotation period/Length of Day : 10.2 Earth hours
Revolution period/Length of Year : 29.46 Earth years
Orbit Eccentricity : 0.056
Orbit Inclination : 2.5 degrees
Obliquity/Tilt of axis : 26.73 degrees
Orbit eccentricity (deviation from circular) : 0.056
Mean temperature : 134 K (1 bar level)
Visual geometric albedo (reflectivity) : 0.46
Rings
Rings are 270,000 km in diameter, but only a few hundred meters thick.
Particles are centimeters to decameters in size and are ice (somemay be covered with ice); there are traces of silicate and carbon minerals. There are four main ring groups and three more faint, narrow ring groups separated by gaps called division.

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U R A N U S

Minimum Distance from Earth : 2.57 billion km (1.6 billion miles)
Minimum Distance from Sun : 2.7 billion km (1.7 billion miles)
Maximum Distance from Sun : 3 billion km (1.87 billion miles)
Period of Revolution/Length of Year : 84.01 Earth years
Period of Roration/Length of Day : 17.3 Earth hours
Orbital Eccentricity : 0.047 degrees
Orbit Inclination : 0.8 degrees
Diameter : 51,488 km (32,000 miles)
Mass : 14.5 Earths
Density : 1.3 (water=1)
Tilt of Axis : 98 degrees
Surface Gravity : 0.91 x Earth
Temperature : -200 degrees C ( -328 degrees F)

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N E P T U N E

Distance to Sun : 2.793 billion miles
Period of Revolution/Length of Year : 164.79 Earth years
Period of Rotation/Lenth of Day : 16.03 Earth hours
Orbit Eccentricity : 0.009
Orbit Inclination : 1.8 degrees
Mass : 1.024 x 10^26 kg
Mass : 17.204 Earths
Diameter 48,598.97 km (30,198 miles)
Gravity : 1.19 Earths
Density : 1.76
Tilt of Axis : 29.6 degrees
Rings of Neptune
1989N3R
Distance From center of Neptune : 41,900 km (26,035.45 miles)
Width : 15 km (9.32 miles)
Thickness : Unknown
Mass : Unknown
Albedo : low
1989N2R
Distance From center of Neptune : 53,200 km (33,056.94 miles)
Width : 15 km (9.32 miles)
Thickness : Unknown
Mass : Unknown
Albedo : low
1989N4R
Distance From center of Neptune : 53,200 km (33,056.94 miles)
Width : 5,800 km (3,603.95 miles)
Thickness : Unknown
Mass : Unknown
Albedo : low
1989N1R
Distance From center of Neptune : 62,930 km (39,102.889 miles)
Width : 50 km (31.06 miles)
Thickness : Unknown
Mass : Unknown
Albedo : low

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P L U T O

Distance to Sun: 5.899 billion km (3.666 billion miles)
Distance to Sun in Astronomical Units : 39.5
Average Surface Temperature : -230 degrees C (-446 degrees F)
Lenth of year : 247.69 Earth years
Length of Day : 6.3867 Earth days
Orbit Eccentricity : 0.25
Orbit Inclination : 17.2 degrees
Mass : 0.0026 Earths
Diameter : 2299.75 km (1,429 miles)
Gravity : .05 Earth or 1.27 x 10^22 kg
Tilt of Axis : 94 degrees
Year Discovered : 1930

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O O R T C L O U D

The Oort Cloud is a giant field of Asteroids and Comets that encircles the solar system. Discovered in 1950 when Jan Oort believed that since no Comets were coming from interstellar space, there must be some vast cloud where all our solar system's comets come from. The cloud could contain more than a trillion comets, and might account for a very large portion of the mass of our system. Not much is known about this or even if it exsists, because seeing objects that small that far away is very difficult.

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