Chapter 8
Survey of
Solar
Systems
The solar system formed from a cloud of cold
gas and dust called the solar nebula about 4.6
billion years ago
The planets in out Solar System were
formed from countless impacts
Moon
Mercury
Asteroids
Inner planets are vastly different than outer
planets in terms of sizes, masses, and densities
Most Voyagers Entering Mars Journey Serenely Until Nightfall
My Very Enormous Martian Just Swallowed Up Neptune!
There is still minor debris left over from
the formation of the solar system
Rocky Asteroids - mostly found
between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
There is still minor debris left over from
the formation of the solar system
Icy Comets – found in the outer parts
of the solar system
Dwarf Planets- orbit the Sun,
nearly round shape, not a planet,
star or moon
Protoplanetary Disks
New solar systems in formation!
Exoplanets
Planets that have been detected orbiting other stars!!!
Detection of Exoplanets: Stellar
Wobble Method
•
• gravity of the planet causes
the star to wobble back
and forth
• 1990s, used Doppler effect
to detect stellar wobbles
Exoplanets
in other
solar systems
detected by the
Stellar Wobble
method
A real life Tatooine!
KEPLER 2009
Detection of
Exoplanets:
Planetary Transit
Method
The Most Earthlike Planet
Discovered
One of a few images of an
exoplanet around a star
Future Discovery Methods Canceled
Terrestrial Planet
Finder (2014, 2020)