Important Terms Definations

As always there are very specific terms that need to be used to describe things in science and
most of these terms have been discussed in introductory courses, but some might be new to you.
Planet a few years ago there was not specific rule for what exactly a planet was. Since many
things orbit a star, including comets and asteroids, some guidelines had to be developed to help
astronomers decide which objects get planet status and which get reclassified as other types of
objects. This was mainly brought about by the discovery of several large objects in the outer
solar system. So in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (the group that defines
astronomical standards) voted on the criterion for what makes a planet. Here is the final
description
A celestial body that
(a) is in orbit around the Sun,
(b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a
hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and
(c) Has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.
So basically it has to be big enough to be round and dominates it location around the Sun. This
definition rules out asteroids, Pluto and the other objects found in the area of Pluto, as well as
comets (not big enough).
Planetismals: these are the planetary building blocks that were common in the early solar
system. There are no specific guidelines for the sizes of these things, so they can be anywhere
from microscopic to about 1000 km in size. Over time many of these became incorporated into
the planets or satellites in our solar system, but some survived to the present day as other objects
(asteroids, dust, comets).
Satellite: A smaller object that orbits a planet, or other larger object in the solar system, also
referred to as a moon. Planets have satellites (both natural and man-made), but so do asteroids,
and it is even possible that comets could have satellites as well Planets Notes 1-4

Asteroid: A small rocky/metallic/icy object note the order of the materials, since that gives
the likely order of their dominance. Asteroids tend to be mainly rocky, though a fraction appears
to have a rather metallic composition. It is also likely that there is quite a bit of icy material
within asteroids, but it is difficult to estimate how much. It is also worth noting that icy is a
general term for things that are volatile they evaporate/melt easily under even moderate
conditions. All known asteroids are less than 1000 km in size.
Comet: A small icy/rocky object, so in this case there are more volatiles in the objects than
rocky material. It is sometimes the case that a comet is misclassified as an asteroid since it may
be discovered at a location where its volatile material doesnt evaporate so it looks like a rock
in space. When comets get close to the Sun they become more comet-like developing a halo of
gas and evaporated material around them, as well as forming tails. But when they are far from
the Sun (which is most of the time), they are considered dormant.
Rings: small particles in orbit about a planet. These would tend to be a collection of small
objects in orbit, not solitary objects. The composition and sources of ring particles are varied,
and rings may be made of either icy or rocky material, or a mix of both.
Planet Groups: Odds are you learned that there are two types of planets, Terrestrial and Jovian.
Well thats not entirely accurate. There are actually 3 types of planets in our solar system
Terrestrial, Gas Giants and Ice Giants.
Terrestrial: group of planets like the Earth, including the first four planets in the solar system in
order from the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
Gas Giants: objects comprised of mainly low density gases, includes Jupiter and Saturn.
Ice Giants: objects with a good fraction of ice in their interiors, includes Uranus and Neptune.
It might seem like Im splitting hairs to break up the outer planets into the gas and ice giants, but
their structures are distinct enough that breaking them apart in this way is logical.
And now onto terms that define location, motion and other aspects of planets
Ecliptic: The plane of the Earths orbit about the Sun. This is how we define our location in the
solar system and we reference the location of all other objects relative to this plane. It is also
seen as the apparent path of the sun, planets in the sky, and the location along which we see
eclipses (hence its name).
Revolution: the orbit of an object, as in the Earth revolves around the Sun, or The Moon
revolves around the Earth. Dont confuse it with the next term.
Rotation: the spin of an object along an axis. The Earth rotates once in approximately 24
hours, or the rotation of Venus is in the opposite direction to that of the Earth.
Perihelion: The location in an objects motion about the Sun where the object is closest to the
Sun. Planets Notes 1-5

Aphelion: The location in an objects motion about the Sun where the object is furthest from the
Sun.
And there are similar terms for an object being closest/furthest from other objects
Perigee, Apogee: the location that an object is closest/further from the Earth
Periapse, Apoapse: the location that an object is closest/further from a planet
Perijove, Apojove: the location that an object is closest/further from Jupiter
Similar terms exist for the other planets as well as the Moon. But thats overkill.
And speaking of orbits, some other terms pop up quite a bit. Most of these are defined as orbital
terms about the Sun.
Inclination (i): angle of the plane of an objects orbit with respect to the ecliptic. This is
basically a measure of how tilted the orbit of the object is compared to our orbit about the Sun.
Eccentricity (e): a measure of the elongation of the objects orbit about the Sun. Values range
typically from between 0 (circular) to 1 (straight line). For comets values of e can be greater than
1, in which case the orbit is hyperbolic.
Period (P): how long does it take to go around once.
Semi-major axis (a): for non-hyperbolic orbits, the average distance an object is from the Sun
and is equal to half of the widest length in the orbit.
Prograde, Retrograde: whether the motion is normal with respect to the Earths motion
(prograde), or backwards (retrograde). This can be applied to all motions including orbital,
rotational and the motions of moons as well. In our common view of the solar system we see
objects from above the north pole of the Earth, and in this case prograde motion is
counterclockwise and retrograde motion is clockwise. You may have also seen retrograde used in
reference to the apparent motion in the sky of objects such as Mars when it spends a few months
appearing to move backwards (westward).
And finally
Obliquity: tilt of a planets rotation axis with respect to its orbital plane. And of course if a
planets orbital plane is tilted relative to our orbital plane, then there can be some serious tilts out
there.

Planets in the Solar System

Mercury
Named for the messenger to the Roman gods, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and as a
result, revolves around our star in the least amount of time.
Characteristics:

Mercury has a solid rocky surface and like the Moon, has many craters.

Mercury has a very weak atmosphere.

Mercury goes through extremes in temperatures. Daytime temperature can reach up to

450 C, which is enough to melt lead. On the other hand, the planet's nighttime side can be quite
cold, temperatures as low as -180 C have been recorded by Mariner 10.

Mercury has no moon.

It was first photographed from space by the American space probe Mariner 10 in 1974.

Venus
Venus, named for the Roman goddess of love, is known as Earth's "sister" planet because they
are very near in size, mass and density. However, the similarities end there. Venus is the planet
that approaches closest to Earth and can be the brightest object in the sky, next to the Sun and
Moon.
Characteristics:

Venus has a solid rocky surface that is now known to be covered with craters and
volcanic mountains.

Venus has clouds of sulfuric acid that cover the planet. Because of this, we cannot see its
surface.

Venus has a very dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) that has the property of
letting in sunlight but does not permit the resulting heat to escape. This, together with the planet's
relative proximity to the Sun has caused temperatures on Venus to reach up to 455 C. This is
commonly known as the greenhouse effect. The atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is
90 times that of Earth A visitor to the planet would be instantly crushed without special
protection.

Venus has no moon.

Earth
Earth is the only planet known to have living things. Its atmosphere is composed mostly of
oxygen and nitrogen. The earths atmosphere protects it from the suns harmful rays. The
atmosphere also keeps heat as well as water from escaping into space. Earth is a rocky planet.

Characteristics:

is a little more than 12,000 kilometers in diameter

It rotates on its axis every 24 hours (a day) and revolves around the Sun every 365 days
(a year).

Beneath its surface lie solild iron and nickel surrounded by rocks.

Temperatures range from as high as 7,000 C to about 870 C.

Mars: The Red Planet

Mars, named for the Roman God of war was once thought to possess a highly organized
civilisation. Much of this came about when the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli thought
he observed canali on the Martian surface. In English, canali means "channels" but was
improperly translated to meaning "canals", which implied they might have been dug by
intelligent life. In America, Percival Lowell set up an observatory to study Mars. Lowell's
observations and his book, Mars and its Canals, written in 1906, fuelled the misconception that
"intelligent life" existed on Mars. It is now known that the canali or canals do not exist, but were
an effect of how the brain and eye work together. The Mariner space probes and Viking landers
found no evidence of life on Mars.
Characteristics:

Mars has a solid rocky surface rich in iron.This is what gives it a reddish colour. Among
its surface features are craters, extinct volcanoes, canyons and river-like features where water
may once have flowed.

Mars, like Earth goes through seasons that last about 6 months,(it's axis of rotation is
tilted by 24o to the plane of its orbit)

Mars has polar "ice" caps, like Earth, that expand and contract with the seasons; however,
they are composed of frozen carbon dioxide and water ice.

Mars has a thin atmosphere mostly composed of carbon dioxide gas (CO2), the
atmospheric pressure at the surface is 150 times less than Earth's.

Winds on Mars can exceed 300 km/hr. Because of this, Mars has planet-wide dust storms
that can shroud the planet for weeks at a time.


Mars has two small moons; Phobos (from the Greek, meaning fear) and Deimos (from
the Greek, meaning terror).

Jupiter
Jupiter, named for the King of the Roman Gods, is the fifth planet from the Sun and is by far the
largest planet in the Solar System. The first telescopic observations of Jupiter were made by
Galileo Galilei in the year 1610. With his small refracting telescope, Galileo discovered four of
Jupiters' moons: Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede -commonly known as the Galilean satellites.
Characteristics:

Jupiter has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet composed mostly of hydrogen (85%)
and helium (15%) gas.

The visible surface of Jupiter is composed of clouds characterized by dark coloured belts
(of ammonium hydrosulfide) and lighter coloured zones (of ammonia ice crystals).

Jupiter generates more energy than it receives from the Sun. If Jupiter had been much
more massive, temperatures could have been high enough for the planet to become a star.

Jupiter has the largest storm in the Solar System called the Great Red Spot. This
atmospheric feature has been in existence ever since the first telescopes were trained on the
planet over 300 years ago. The Great Red Spot is in rotation and is so big that Earth would fit
inside about four to five times.

Jupiter has a ring discovered by a Voyager 1 photograph of the planet when it was backlit
by the Sun.

Jupiter has 16 known moons. The four largest are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Saturn
Saturn, named for the Roman God of the Harvest, was the farthest known planet from the Sun
until the discovery of Uranus in 1781. The second largest planet in the Solar System has an
intricate ring system.
Characteristics:

Saturn has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet mostly composed of hydrogen and
helium gas.

Saturn's atmosphere has clouds that are banded (similar to Jupiter's but not as colourful).

Saturn generates more heat than it receives from the Sun.

Saturn has an extensive ring system. The rings have a thickness that varies from tens of
metres to about 1 km. The rings are made up of thousands of tiny ringlets mostly composed of
water ice and rock particles that range in size from grains of dust to objects kilometres across.

Saturn is less dense than water. As a result, it would float if we could find a big enough
ocean.

Saturn has 18 known moons. Titan is one of the most interesting because it is the only
moon to have an atmosphere.

Saturn's rotation period of 10 hrs. 40 min and the fact that it is a gaseous planet produces
flattening at the poles and at the equator, even more so than any of the other gaseous planets.

Uranus
Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781. The seventh planet from the Sun is
named after the Greek God, Ruler of the World. Uranus is so far from the Sun that it is almost 4
times the Sun-Jupiter distance. As a result, it takes about 84 "Earth years" to complete one orbit
around the Sun.
Characteristics:

Uranus has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet composed of hydrogen and helium gas.

Current thought on the interior of Uranus holds that it may be made up of water, methane
and ammonia. Uranus may have a solid rocky core.

Uranus is the only giant planet to lack a "significant" internal heat source. Its rings are
composed of ice and rock particles that are darker than Saturn's and almost as black as charcoal.

Uranus' axis of rotation is tilted almost parallel (97) to the plane of its orbit.

It has 15 known moons (10 of them discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986), one of which is
the most perplexing in the whole Solar System. Miranda has a surface that shows evidence of
having been shattered and then reassembled more once.

Neptune
Neptune is named for the Roman God of the Sea. It is the first planet to be discovered by
mathematical prediction. It was known at the time that something was causing a perturbation in

the orbit of Uranus, quite possibly another planet. Independent calculations made by
UrbainLeverrier and John Cough Adams led to its discovery in 1846 by J.G. Galle at the Berlin
Observatory.
Characteristics:

Neptune has no solid surface. It is a gaseous planet, primarily composed of hydrogen and
helium gas, with traces of methane. Its colour is a blueish green. Neptune's interior may be
similar to that of Uranus.

Neptune possesses an internal heat source.

Neptune has a dynamic atmosphere. Cloud features and a giant storm system similar to
Jupiter's Great Red Spot were discovered by Voyager 2. Neptune's large storm system is called
the Great Dark Spot and is located in the planet's southern hemisphere.

Neptune has rings that are different from those found at Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. They
don't circle the planet completely, but are partial rings called "ring arcs".

Neptune has 8 known satellites; six of them were discovered by Voyager 2.