AST101H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud
23 Nov 2017
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One way of learning about different worlds is by comparing them to one another and seeking to understand their similarities and differences. Terrestrial planets: small in mass and size, close to the sun, made of metal and rock, few moons and no rings. Jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune, many dwarf planets, and comets. Large mass and size: far from the sun, made of hydrogen, helium, and hydrogen compounds, rings and many moons. Large bodies in the solar system have orderly motions. All planets have nearly circular orbits going in the same direction in nearly the same plane. Most moons orbit their planets in this same direction, which is also the dire(cid:272)tio(cid:374) of the su(cid:374)"s rotatio(cid:374). A(cid:374) exception is the uranus which has an odd axis tilt that is almost 90 degrees. Swarms of asteroids and comets populate the solar system. Composition (by mass): 98% hydrogen and helium, 2% other elements.
