Exercises: The Solar System

List the components of the Solar System and explain in one sentence what each type of body is.

The diagram shows the Solar System on a qualitative scale (the orbits and sizes are not realistic). Name the planets labeled with numbers from 1 to 8, from closest to farthest from the Sun.

Explain the difference between a rocky planet and a gas planet, and classify the eight planets of the solar system into one of these two groups.

Earth is currently the only planet with known life. Explain three characteristics of Earth that make it suitable for life, such as its distance from the Sun, the presence of liquid water, or its atmosphere.

In 2006, Pluto came to be considered a dwarf planet. Explain which requirement of the definition of a planet it does not meet and name another dwarf planet in the solar system.

What are the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt? State where each one is located and what type of bodies it contains.

You are going to design a scale model of the Solar System in the hallway of your school, which is $50\ \text{m}$ long. You decide to represent the Sun with a basketball of $24\ \text{cm}$ in diameter (the actual diameter of the Sun is approximately $1\,390\,000\ \text{km}$).

1. a) At that same scale, calculate what diameter the Earth should have (actual diameter: $12\,742\ \text{km}$) and compare it with a small everyday object (such as a pinhead or a grain of sand).
2. b) Knowing that the average Earth-Sun distance is $1.5 \times 10^8\ \text{km}$ and Neptune's distance to the Sun is about $4.5 \times 10^9\ \text{km}$, calculate at what distance from the ball you would have to place both planets.
3. c) Based on the results, justify whether the complete model fits in the hallway while simultaneously maintaining the scale of sizes and the scale of distances, and explain why Solar System diagrams in textbooks are often misleading.