ASTR 1200 Study Guide - Cool Air, Thermosphere, Oort Cloud
30 Oct 2014
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Document Summary
7: comparitive planetology is the approach to studying planets in which the worlds are compared to one another to understand their differences and similarities. The spaces between planets are so much more massive than the planets themselves that you wouldn"t see much from beyond the orbit of neptune: the solar system is fairly simple. At the center is the sun, which is orbited by four terrestrial planets (small in size, made of metal and rock, few moons/no rings). Surrounding the four terrestrial planets (mercury, venus, earth, mars) is the asteroid (metal/rock) belt. After the asteroid belt come the four jovian planets (large in mass/size, made of helium/hydrogen rich compounds, rings/many moons), jupiter, saturn, uranus, and neptune. Even farther out is the oort cloud, where various comets and asteroids orbit the sun in random motion. Included in this category are (in terms of distance from the sun) mercury, venus, earth, mars.
