THE SOLAR
SYSTEM
The Solar System consists of:
Planets
Moons
Asteroids
Comets
PLANETS
A planet is a large, round
heavenly body that orbits
a star and shines with light
reflected from the star. We
know of nine planets that
orbit the sun in our solar
system. Since 1992,
astronomers have also
discovered many planets
orbiting other stars.
World book
What are the nine planets?
HINT: My Very Educated Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
MERCURY
Mer|cu|ry «MUR kyuhr ee», noun.
The smallest planet in the solar system, after
Pluto, and the one nearest to the sun. Its orbit
about the sun takes 88 days to complete, at a
mean distance of almost 36,000,000 miles. Mercury
goes around the sun about four times while the
earth is going around once.
[< Latin Mercurius]
World Book
VENUS
Venus is the sixth largest
planet in the solar system and
the second in distance from
the sun. Venus is the brightest
planet in the solar system and
the one that comes closest to
the earth. World Book
EARTH
Age: At least 4 1/2 billion years
Mass: 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 (6.6 sextillion)
tons (6.0 sextillion metric tons).
Surface features: Highest land—Mount Everest, 29,035
feet (8,850 meters) above sea level. Lowest land—shore
of Dead Sea, about 1,310 feet (399 meters) below sea).
Temperature: Highest, 136 °F (58 °C) at Al Aziziyah,
Libya. Lowest, -128.6 °F (-89.6 °C) at Vostok Station in
Antarctica. Average surface temperature, 59 °F (15 °C).
Chemical makeup of the earth's crust (in percent of
the crust's weight): oxygen 46.6, silicon 27.7,
aluminum 8.1, iron 5.0, calcium 3.6, sodium 2.8,
potassium 2.6, magnesium 2.0, and other elements
totaling 1.6.
MARS
The Mars Odyssey probe,
shown in this illustration
orbiting Mars, found
evidence of water ice
beneath the surface of
Mars in 2002. The probe,
launched in 2001, also
analyzed the chemical
composition of the
planet's surface. World Book
What is this planet called?
Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
Its diameter is 88,846 miles (142,984
kilometers), more than 11 times that of Earth,
and about one-tenth that of the sun. It would
take more than 1,000 Earths to fill up the
volume of the giant planet. When viewed from
Earth, Jupiter appears brighter than most stars.
It is usually the second brightest planet—after
Venus.
SATURNS
SATURN
URANUS
U|ra|nus «yu RAY nuhs, YUR uh-», noun.
one of the larger planets in the solar system and the seventh in distance from the sun.
NEPTUNE
Latin , related
to nebula
cloud, mist
In Neptune's outermost ring, 39,000 miles
(63,000 kilometers) from the planet, material
mysteriously clumps into three bright, dense
arcs.
NASA
PLUTO
Is Pluto a planet? Yes, Pluto is a
planet. The body that decides the
classification of objects in the solar
system, the International Astronomical
Union (IAU), has no plans to change
Pluto's status as a planet and has
decided against assigning it a minor
planet number. For more on this
decision, see:
http://www.iau.org/IAU/FAQ/PlutoPR.h
tml.
AND MUCH
MUCH
MORE…….
