By the end of this unit, a successful student will be able to:
- Identify and compare the major classes of objects within the solar system (the Sun, terrestrial planets, gas giants, asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects, the Oort cloud, moons, etc.) and their defining characteristics
- Understand and describe the theories of the evolution of the solar system and the evidence supporting them.
- relate such physical properties as energy, gravitational forces and angular momentum to the development of the solar system, the planets, moons and ring systems
- describe how major properties of the planets, such as mass, are determined
- Recall some of the unique and defining characteristics of sundry objects within the solar system as related in student presentations.
All assignments are due on the date listed. That is not the date they are assigned.
Date Due Day Assignment
11/4 Wed Read: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3
Do: p. 166 R+D: 1,2,3
TF/MC: 1,2,3,11,12
11/5 Thu Read: 6.4
Do: R+D: 4,5,6,7,8,9
11/6 Fri Read: 6.5
Do: R+D: 10, 11
TF/MC: 6,7,8,15,16
End of Term 1
11/9 Mon Scan: 6.6
Read: Discovery 6-1
Do: R+D: 13
11/10 Tue Read: 6.7
Do: R+D: 17, 18, 19, 20
TF/MC: 10, 19, 20
11/11 Wed No School - Veteran's Day
11/12 Thu Finish: Solar System Classification activity
11/13 Fri Write: Solar System Paper
Do: Solar System Presentations
11/16 Mon Finish: Crater Lab
11/17 Tue Test Ch 6 & Solar System papers.
Online Labs & Simulations:
Atmospheric Retention - UNL: http://astro.unl.edu/naap/atmosphere/atmosphere.html
Extrasolar Planets - UNL: http://astro.unl.edu/naap/esp/esp.html
The Solar System
- The SEDS (Students for the Exploration and Development of Space) site has an extensive tour of The Nine Planets
- Calvin J. Hamilton's Views of the Solar System is another good collection of images and information.
- Sun
- The SOHO spacecraft provides a report of Solar Weather conditions which includes several views the sun over a number of different sets of wavelengths.
- The Sun Today: SHINE Directory to the Latest Solar Images and Interplanetary Data.
- Big Bear Solar Observatory at Big Bear Lake, CA provides a number of current images of the Sun in a number of wavelengths, as well as magnetograms.
- Terrestrial Planets
- Venus
- As an undergrad, I did one of my theses on Venusian volcanoes, using data collected by Magellan.
- Also check out the Magellan Image Sever from MIT's Center for Space Research.
- and NASA's Magellan Mission to Venus page.
- Glen Newton and Paul Budkewitsch present F.O.V. Face of Venus includes descriptions of the types of features found on Venus as well as searchable databases about Venusian craters and coronae.
- In 1963, Carl Sagan introduced the theory that Venus's surface was, not Earth-like, but rather extrordinarily hot due to a runaway greenhouse effect. He discusses this theory in two brief YouTube clips here: Carl Sagan in 1963 and here: Young Carl Sagan on Venus Greenhouse Effect
- Earth's Moon
- Lunar Prospector was launched in January of 1998. This spacecraft finished its mission in July 1999, by crashing into a lunar crater near the south pole in an attempt to see if there is any water there.
- In 1996, Clementine also visited the moon and found evidence of ice in a polar crater.
- Eric M. Jones has assembled a Apollo Lunar Surface Journal documenting the surface portions of the manned missions to the moon from 1969 to 1972. Included are the transcripts between the astronauts and Houston, numerous images, and commentary on what was done and why.
- In the practice of science it is good to remain skeptical of assertions made by others until one sees if those assertions are backed up by solid justifications and proof. Some folks have taken the skeptical portion of this attitude with regard to the Apollo Moon landings, but haven't really examined the proof that astronauts did indeed land on the Moon. Michael Shermer of Skeptic magazine looks at the reasons why folks might think the lunar landings were faked and counters those arguments in this "Moon Hoax"- debunk article.
- Mars
- Set to launch in 2003, ESA's Mars Express will put the Beagle2 lander on the planet.
- Jim Bell has some interesting pages on Mars and NEAR
- Woohoo! Mars Pathfinder landed on that planet on July 4th, 1997.
- Because of the high load expected around the landing date, JPL has let SGI put up this Pathfinder Mirror site
- The Mars Global Surveyor arrived in September of 1997 and began mapping that planet in March of 1998.
- The geological features in the Cydonia Region are quite interesting and include what has been called the "face on Mars". The above web page presents the raw and processed images of that region from Mars Global Surveyor.
- This page on the Face on Mars by Malin Space Science Systems presents some of the same images in a clearer format than above.
- In early August, 1996 a team of NASA and Stanford scientists held a news conference about their findings from an asteroid centering around the possibility that there was once life on Mars. JPL's mirror site, Ames's mirror site Johnson Space Center's mirror site
- Transcripts of that news conference and other life on Mars related links can be found at the Federation of American Scientists site.
- In the 1970's the Viking spacecraft orbited and landed on Mars. You can use these Mars Atlases and image finders to search the images obtained from Mars orbit.
- Asteroids
- NEAR - Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous flew past 253 Mathilda and snapped some cool pictures then orbited and later landed on the asteroid Eros.
- The Planetary Data System, Small Body Node provides information, including ephemeris data, about Asteroids and Comets.
- Dr. David Williams maintains the NSSDC Asteroid Home Page.
- Douglas Hamilton presents a page on Solar System Collisions which includes an applet which lets you input data on how fast, how large and what composition your impacting body will be and then shows you the results with images from actual craters and some artistic renditions.
- Gas Giants
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- As Galileo is to Jupiter, Cassini is to Saturn. Launched in late 1997, Cassini is due to arrived at Saturn in 2004 and dropped a probe into the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
- Pluto and the Kuiper belt
- Prof. Fran Bagenal maintains The Pluto Home Page
- David Jewitt maintains an informative page on the Kuiper Belt a collection of icy bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
- Comets
- The Comet Observation Home Page maintains information on currently visable comets as well as having old comet images.
- In the Summer of 2000, Comet Linear made its closest approach to the sun and began to break apart!
- Russel Sipe has assembled a site on Comet Hale-Bopp - which wowed us in March, April, and May of 1997.
- In March of 1996, Comet C/1966 B2 (Hyakutake) was a brilliant show. Quite visible to the naked eye, it passed within one tenth of an AU of the Earth.
- Charles Kowal discovered the icy body Chiron in 1977, but it wasn't until 1988 that a cometary tail was observed, confirming that it was a comet and not an asteroid.
- Cometary Magnitude Analyzer
- Offline
- The New Solar System, ed. Beatty, J. Kelly and Chaikin, Andrew, Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990 (There is also a more recent edition). This wonderful book collects articles on the Sun, the planets, comets, asteroids and other features of our solar system written by top planetary scientists. Still, the technical jargon is minimal and kept at a Discover magazine level. It also contains several beautiful photos and color charts which help illustrate the concepts within. I first used this in an introductory level planetary science course at MIT, but it would be a good resource for high school students writing a term paper in earth science or astronomy.