Solar System Model
From Cedric
All images are made by Cedric
1. Oort Cloud
Location
In the outermost part of the
solar system. It surrounds the
whole Solar System.
Distance
Between 40,000 and 50,000
AU (1 Au = 150 million km)
from the Sun, with the out
edge of it is 100,000 AU from
the Sun.
It is very huge, NASA's
Voyager 1 spacecraft won't
enter the Oort cloud about
300 years. And it won’t exit
the outer edge for maybe
30,000 years.
Characteristics
It is the home of long-period
comets.
Crust
Composition
(Plutonic rocks and
basalt with diagenetic
Intrusions)
They are composed of icy
small bodies composed of
dust, metal, rocks.
Mantle
(Olivine-rich
Rocks)
Core
(Fe-Ne)
Composition of an asteroid
Orbiting
characteristics
Its period is extremely long (200
years), and its orbit is also very
big. It’s more than1,000 times
that the orbit of the Neptune
(the outmost major planet). The
objects of it don’t share the
same orbiting plane with the
Kuiper belt, all the planets and
the asteroid belt, because it is
very huge so some objects are
over the Sun while some are
under the sun, so we call it
“cloud” instead of “belt”
2. Kuiper Belt
Location and Distance
It is between the Oort cloud
and Neptune.
Its inner edge is about 30 AU
from the Sun. The main
region is 50 AU from the Sun.
The outer edge continues
outward to 1000 AU.
Composition of Pluto
Composition
Icy small bodies composed of
ice, methane, ammonia, dust
and rocks.
There are many icy bodies
larger than 100 kilometers
including Pluto.
And some short-period
comets are considered to
come from Kuiper belt
including famous Halley’s
Comet
Outer Crust
(frozen nitrogen)
Frozen Layer
(water)
Core
(solid rocks)
Comet
Composition
Comets such as Halley’s
Comet are composed of
hydrocarbon, ice and dust.
And there are three large
asteroids: Makemake, Eris,
Haumea, which are named by
the gods in ancient civilization.
They are all dwarf planets
The far left is Makemake
The middle is Eris
The far right is Haumea
Orbiting characteristics
• Many objects of Kuiper belt have a definite orbital period ratio to the
Neptune’s. And the ratio is about 3:2, which means when Neptune
orbits around the Sun three times some objects will orbit around the
Sun two times. And this phenomenon is called “a mean motion
resonance”.
AU
3. Asteroid Belt
Location and Distance
It is between the Terrestrial
planets and the Jovian planets.
It is about 2.2 to 3.2 AU away
from the Sun.
Characteristics
The Asteroid belt is
very vast, so the
every asteroid is far
away from each
other.
Composition
The asteroids composed of
metal, rocks. It can be
classified as C-type
carbonaceous asteroids, Stype silicate asteroids, and a
hybrid group of X-type
asteroids.
Left-above is C-type,
Right-above is S-type, Bottom is X-type
Composition
There are many famous
asteroids in the asteroid belt
such as Ceres, Pallas, Juno,
Vesta, and so on.
Among them, Ceres was
discovered by Italian
astronomer Piazzi and
published on January 1, 1801.
In 2006, the International
Astronomical Union redefined
Ceres, once thought to be the
largest known asteroid in the
solar system, as a dwarf
planet.
Orbiting
characteristics
Many objects of the Asteroid
belt have orbital eccentricities
of less than 0.4, and an
inclination of less than 30°. In
general, the asteroid belt
orbits very close to the
ecliptic plane.
4. Jovian Planets
Scale
• Jupiter’s average radius is about 69911km, and its equatorial radius is
about 71492km.
• Saturn’s equatorial radius is about 60268km.
• Uranus’s equatorial radius is about 25559km. Neptune’s equatorial
radius is 24764km.
• As a contrast, Earth’s average radius is 6371km.
Neptune
Jupiter
Uranus
Saturn
Characteristic
Jovian planets are very heavy,
for example, Jupiter is
1.8981×10^27 kg, which is as
317 times as the Earth’s.
The left is Jupiter and the right is
the Earth.
Composition
Jovian planets are mainly
composed of hydrogen,
methane, ammonia gas,
helium etc. For example,
Jupiter's atmosphere is about
75% hydrogen, 24% helium,
and the remaining 1% other
elements.
Significant moons
IO, Europa Ganymede, and
Calisto, they are the largest
moons in the solar system,
orbit in a pattern that forms
the Laplacian Resonance
(they belong to Jupiter); and
the Saturn’s moon Titan’s
mass is as 1.8 time as Moon.
The image above is Titan.
The image left is
Galilean moons.
Orbiting characteristics
• Jovian planets’ orbital revolution period is very long relative to the
Earth.
• Saturn’s period is about 29 years
• Jupiter’s period is about 12 years
• Uranus’s period is about 84 years
• Neptune’s period is about 165 years.
5. Terrestrial planets
Location and Distance
Between the Sun and Jovian
planets
Mercury 0.4AU;
Venus 0.72AU
Earth 1AU
Mars 1.5AU
Scale
• Mercury 0.056 times as Earth’s volume;
• Venus 0.902 times as Earth
• Mars 0.151 times as Earth
• (Earth’s volume is 1.08321×1012 km3)
Mercury
Earth
Mars
Venus
Characteristics
Mercury doesn’t have
atmosphere,
it is composed of
approximately 70% metal and
30% silicate material. And its
temperature is low to -200°C.
Characteristics
Venus also doesn’t have
atmosphere, and its
environment is very
hazardous, it has 167 large
volcanoes over 100 km in
diameter.
Characteristic
The Earth is our planet, it has
the proper size and mass, has
the proper atmosphere to
provide oxygen, has the
proper temperature, is very
suitable for human life.
It has proper size, position so
we have proper temperature,
pressure, atmosphere, water,
and life.
Characteristic
Mars has an atmosphere which
is mainly composed of about
95% carbon dioxide, 1.6%
Nitrogen, and so on. Because the
atmosphere is very thin, cannot
retain a lot of heat, so that the
surface temperature difference
between day and night is very
large, the surface temperature in
some areas can reach 28 ° C
during the day, the night can be
as low as -132 ° C, the average 52 ° C.
Composition
It is mainly composed of
rocks and metal. And all of
them have Fe-Ni core.
Inner Core(Fe-Ne)
Surface
Mantle(Rock and Silicates)
Outer Core
Orbiting Characteristics
• Their orbiting period of revolution is vey short relative to Jovian
planets.
• Mercury’s is 58 days.
• Venus’s is -243 days (Venus orbits in the opposite direction of the
other planets.
• Earth’s is 365 days.
• Mar’s is 687 days.
6. Sun
Scale
Its volume is 1.41×1018 km3. It
is as 1,300,000 times as the
Earth’s volume, so it is very
huge. Its mass is
1.9885×1030 kg, which is as
332,950 times as the Earth’s
mass.
Sun
Jupiter
Characteristics
• It is a near-perfect ideal sphere of hot plasma, heated to
incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun mainly
radiates energy in the form of visible, ultraviolet and infrared light,
and is the most important energy source for life on Earth.
Hydrogen(73%)
Helium(25%)
Composition
Its composition is simple,
About three-quarters of the
Sun's mass is hydrogen ( 73%);
The remainder is mostly
helium (~ 25%), including
heavy elements such as
oxygen, carbon, neon, and
iron, in much smaller
quantities.
Other
Sun
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From Cedric