Earth Sciences 1086F/G Study Guide - Atmospheric Circulation, Tidal Locking, Mariner 9
25 Apr 2014
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Document Summary
The division of planets into terrestrial and gas/ice giants is not based on mass, physical size, or any property other than density. The four terrestrial planets are all quite close to sun. They are all rocky bodies, and the heat energy they receive from sun is simply too great for any body to be mainly ice (like the four gas/ice giants) The composition of that rocky material is common to them all: a lot of silicon (si), oxygen (o), aluminum (ai), magnesium (mg), sulfur (s), and iron (fe) Basalt: an igneous rock, the primary product of volcanic lava, fine grained, and dark grey to black. The closer a planet is to sun (which has a massive gravitational attraction), the more often it will be bombarded by incoming asteroids and comets. Learn the different models of moon"s origin and why one is favored. Unit 3 - the terrestrial planets page 1.
