Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun.

It has a rocky surface, full of craters much like the earth’s moon.
It has an average distance of 58 million km from the Sun
and an equatorial diameter of 4880 km.
It takes 88 Earth days to complete its revolution and
59 Earth days to complete its rotation.
Mercury has a very thin atmosphere and
has a surface temperature of 430°C during daytime and
-180°C during nighttime.
Mercury has no moons and no ring around it.
Venus has almost the size and density as the
Earth. It is the second closest planet to the Sun and
has an average distance of 108 million km from it.
Venus is a rocky planet and has an equatorial
diameter of 12,104 km.
It has mountains, craters, and volcanoes on its surface.
Its atmosphere is made up of mostly carbon dioxide
which has a surface temperature that arises to more than 470°C.
The thick layer of clouds in Venus’ atmosphere reflect sunlight very well,
making Venus the brightest object in the sky next to the Moon, as
seen from Earth.
It is often called Evening Star or Morning Star.
Venus rotates from east to west once every 243 Earth days and revolves
around the Sun for 225 Earth days.
Like Mercury, it has no moon ring around.
Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that can sustain life. It is known as
the blue planet because it looks blue as seen from the outer space.
Earth has an average distance of 149 million km from the Sun
And has 12,742 equatorial diameters. Earth’s atmosphere
is made up mostly of 77% nitrogen gas and
21% oxygen, and water.
Its average surface temperature is 15°C.
About 1/3 of the Earth’s surface is land and 2/3 is water.
The land part is divided into continents and various landforms like mountains
and hills. The water part consists of various bodies of water like oceans and
rivers.
It takes 365 1/4 days for the Earth to complete its revolution and
24 hours to complete its rotation.
The earth has only one moon that revolves around every 27.3 days.
Mars is called the red planet. It looks red
because of the presence of iron in its surface. Mars has
an equatorial distance of 6788 km.
Its average distance from the Sun is 227 million km.
Mars has a very thin atmosphere which consists
of largely carbon dioxide and a small percentage of
other gases.
It has an average surface of temperature of -63°C.
It is also known for its volcanoes.
It has one of the largest volcanoes in the solar system, the Olympus Mons.
Mars takes 687 Earth days to complete its revolution.
Like Earth, it takes 24 days to complete its rotation.
Mars has two moons.
Jupiter is the biggest planet system.It is bigger and heavier than all other
planets combined . It has an equatorial diameter of 142 984km. Its average
distance from Sun is 774 million km.
Jupiter is covered with thick clouds.
There is no solid ground on Jupiter.
It is called a gas giant planet which is made up
mostly of hydrogen and helium rather than
rocks and metal as Earth.
The average surface temperature at the top of its clouds
can reach about -149°C.
Jupiter takes 12 Earth years to complete on revolution and 10 hours
to complete its rotation. It has huge storm in its atmosphere called as great red
spot.
Jupiter has 92 moons (recently discovered and currently being confirmed). One
of its moons, Ganymede, is the largest in the solar system.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun, which has an average distance
of 1.4 billion km from it and is the farthest planet visible to the naked eye.
Saturn has an equatorial diameter of 120536 km.
It takes 10.7 Earth hours for Saturn
to complete a rotation and
29 Earth years to complete a revolution.
Saturn is a cold planet.
The temperature at the top of Saturn’s clouds
can reach about -176°C.
Like Jupiter, Saturn is also a gas giant without a
solid surface.
It is composed mostly of hydrogen and helium.
There are 145 moons surrounding Saturn.
Its largest moon is Titan.
It is the second largest moon in the solar system.
Uranus is the seventh planet of the
solar system and is the first planet discovered
by means of a telescope. Its average distance
from the sun is 2.99 billion km.
This planet is considered an ice giant
because it is mostly made up of frozen water,
methane and ammonia. Its atmosphere is
mostly hydrogen and helium. Its average
surface temperature can reach -215° C.
Uranus is the only planet that rotates
on its side. It takes 17 hours to complete its rotation and 84 Earth years to
complete its revolution. Its equatorial diameter is 51 118 km.
Uranus has rings, too. There are 11 rings around it. The rings are dark,
narrow, and widely spaced. The planet also has 27 moons, the largest is called
Titania.
Neptune is the eight planet from the
sun and is the first planet to be discovered
using mathematical calculations before
being confirmed by a telescope. Its average
distance from the sun is 4.5 billion km.
Neptune’s rotation lasts about 16 Earth
hours. It completes one revolution around
the sun every 165 Earth days.
This planet also has no solid surface
and is a gas giant. Its surface temperature
is -214°C. Its equatorial diameter is 49 532 km. Neptune and Uranus are
called twin planets because they have about the same size and mass. They
also both look blue green because of methane gas in their atmosphere.
Neptune has six dark rings made up of very fine particles. It has 13
moons, the largest of which is called Triton.
What are the inner planets?
The first four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are
called terrestrial or inner planets.
They are solid and are mostly made up of rocks and metal;
they do not have rings. These are the planets closer to the
Sun.
Among the four terrestrial planets Earth has one moon, Mars
has two moons,
Mercury and Venus has none. The terrestrial planets have
common features such as mountains and volcanoes.
What are the outer planets?
The last four planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are
outer or Jovian planets. They are called gas giants. These gas
giants are so-called because they are much larger than other
planets and are mostly made up of gas.
They are set-apart from the terrestrial planets by the asteroid
belt.
All of these gas giants have rings and moons.
Of the four gas giants Saturn has the most prominent ring.
What are the compositions of the planets?
The terrestrial or inner planets have solid surfaces. These
planets are small and mostly made up of rock and metal.
They have silicate mantle surrounding a metallic core
composed mostly of iron.
The Jovian or outer planets are made up of hydrogen and
helium gases and they have small rocky core.
Aside from being called gas giants, Uranus and
Neptune are also called ice giants.
The ice giants have interior composition of compounds like
water, methane and ammonia.
Form

NAME OF PLANETS SURFACE TEMPERATURE NUMBER OF MOONS

Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
NAME OF PLANETS DISTANCE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION
FROM THE SUN
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
NAME OF PLANETS SIZE PERIOD OF ROTATION
(EQUATORIAL DIAMETER)
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
 Common/Similar Characteristics Differences

Inner Planets

Outer
Planets
 CRITERIA 5 Points 4 Points 3 Points

Accuracy No error/incorrect idea One error/incorrect idea Two errors/ incorrect

ideas

Timeliness Finishes before or on Not more than 10% More than 10% late
time limit Late after required time after required time

Behavior/ All members One member did not Two or more

Participation participated without participate/occasional members did not
trouble noise participate/
troublesome
Total

RUBRICS 1
 CRITERIA 5 Points 4 Points 3 Points

Timeliness Finishes before or on Not more than 10% More than 10% late
time limit Late after required time after required time
Behavior/ All members One member did not Two or more
Participation participated without participate/occasional members did not
trouble noise participate/
troublesome
Creativity Showing great Showing less creativeness No creativeness and
creativeness and and originality orignality
originality
Total

Rubrics 2
 GASEOUS SURFACES
BIGGER SIZES COLDER
FARTHER FROM THE SUN
LONGER ORBITS LESS DENSE
SPIN FASTER MORE GRAVITY

OUTSIDE THE ASTEROID BELT

SOLID/ ROCKY SURFACES
SMALLER IN SIZES HOTTER
NEARER TO THE SUN DENSER
SHORTER ORBITS
SPIN SLOWER LESS GRAVITY

INSIDE THE ASTEROID BELT

SPHERICAL IN SHAPE
ROTATE ON THEIR OWN AXES
CORES ARE METALLIC/SOLID
HAVE CORES NO GRAVITY
ORBIT THE SUN
NO RINGS
SOLID GROUND
SUPPORT LIFE

HAVE 2 SEASONS
HAVE RINGS
GASEOUS SURFACES
FARTHEST FROM THE SUN
Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

92 145 27 14
Moons Moons Moons Moons

33% ? 10% 5%

118.8 ̊ 187.2 ̊ 36 ̊ ?