AST101H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Giant Planet, Kuiper Belt, Oort Cloud
Document Summary
Our solar system extends to about 100 000 a = 20 x 1012 km from the sun. Our solar system contains planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. However, there is order to our solar system that helps us understand other solar systems. Planets orbiting the sun: inner = terrestrial planets that are close to the sun and like earth (terra): mercury, venus, earth, mars, outer = jovian planet that are farther from the sun and similar to jupiter (jove): Jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune: dwarf planets there are tiny and very far from the sun: pluto, eris. Are rocky objects orbiting the sun, that are much smaller than planets, so they look like stars = aster. Most asteroids orbit between mars and jupiter in the asteroid belt . Comets are tiny ice objects that orbit the sun mostly beyond neptune in the kuiper belt and the oort cloud.
