Assignment 1: The Solar System The solar system consists of the Sun; the nine planets, 67 satellites of the planets and a large number of small bodies (comets and asteroids). The inner solar system contains the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars: The planets of the outer solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto: The orbits of the planets are ellipses with the Sun at one focus, though all except Mercury and Pluto are very nearly circular. The orbits of the planets are all more or less in the same plane (called the ecliptic and defined by the plane of the Earth's orbit). The ecliptic is inclined only 7 degrees from the plane of the Sun's equator. Pluto's orbit deviates the most from the plane of the ecliptic with an inclination of 17 degrees. Below you see a diagram that show some relative information about most of the objects in our Solar System:Diameter (km)MoonsSurface temp.Surface gravityAxial inclinationAxial rotationThe Sun1 390 000-5800c--25 - 36 daysMercury4 878None350c / -170c0.38058 daysVenus12 104None480c0.9178243 daysThe Earth12 756120c123.423h 56mMars6 787None-23c0.382424h 37mJupiterN/A16-150c2.643.19h 50mSaturn199 30018-180c1.226.710h 39mUranus51 80015-210c1.29817h 10mNeptune49 5008-220c1.229.518h 24mPluto2 3201N/A0.0450178 yearsThe Moon3 474-107c / -153c0.171.527 daysThe SunThe sun is the most important part of our solar system. It is the biggest object and does have about 98% of the whole mass of the solar system. About 1,3 billion earths would fit inside the sun. The sun travels around the galaxy together with planets and other objects bound to it by gravitational forces. The largest of the bodies we call planets, most of which are in turn are orbited by smaller moons or satellites. These objects, together with many lesser masses, are known as the Solar system. The Sun is just a star, one of a hundred billion inhabitin...
