How did the Solar System form?

Cloud of gas and dust contracts due to gravity; conservation of angular momentum means it spins faster and faster as it contracts. Spin results in a disk. Then, somehow, the gas and dust in this disk condensed or agglomerated into planets and the other objects in the solar system. 6.7

How to scale the Solar System?

1. Scaling the Solar SystemWe want to get a feeling for the immen size of the solar system. To do that, we will look at distances and sizes of the planets, and try to put them into a cale that we can understand.There are important tables in Appendix C of the text

Is this a scale model of the Solar System?

This graphic of the solar system was made using real images of the planets and comet Hale-Bopp. It is not to scale! To show a scale model of the solar system with the Sun being 1cm would require about 64 meters of paper! Image credit: Maggie Mosetti, NASA

Which Solar System moons are dis-playing a variety of surface features?

Selected solar system moons, dis-playing a variety of surface features, are shown at correct rela-tive sizes to each other and to Earth. Miranda, a moon of Uranus, has many rugged features: canyons, grooved structures, ridges, and broken terrain. This false-color image of Neptune’s moon Triton shows what appear to be volcanic deposits.

What is the largest continuous structure in the Solar System?

The bubble in the interstellar medium formed by the solar wind, called the heliosphere, is the largest continuous structure in the solar system. Image Credit: ESA/ NASA’s SOHO Mission (false color) Solar Activity Our Sun is a dynamic, active, and constantly changing star.