Astronomy 2021A/B Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Kuiper Belt, Exoplanet, Terrestrial Planet
19 Apr 2017
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Document Summary
All planets have nearly circular orbits going in the same direction in nearly the same plane, most large moons orbit their planets in this way and the sun rotates in this direction as well. 4 inner (terrestrial) planets: mercury, venus, earth, mars; they are all made of metal and rock, small, close to the sun, and no rings. 4 outer (jovian) planets: jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune; large, far from sun, made mostly of h, he and hydrogen, rings. Most asteroids (metal + rock) located in asteroid belt which is between mars and jupiter, most comets (icy) located in kuiper belt, even more comets located in the oort cloud. Radius: 700,000 km (108x earth), mass: 333,000x earth (contains 99. 8% of the solar system"s mass, 1000x bigger than everything else combined), composition: 98% hydrogen and helium, Sunspots only appear darker because they are slightly cooler than everything else.
