Our Solar System

The Solar System Our solar system is located in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is made up of planets, moons, asteroids, meteoroids and comets.

The Sun

The sun is a star. It is the largest object in our solar system. The sun is 4.5 billion years old. It’s surface temperature is 27 million degrees. Sunspots Solar eclipse The Sun

Mercury

It is the closest planet to the sun, but not the hottest. It’s surface is heavily cratered from meteoroids and asteroids crashing into it. The surface temperature on the dark side of Mercury is –300 degrees F. Mariner 10 visited Mercury Cratered surface

Venus

Named for the goddess of love and beauty. Earth’s sister planet- similar in size, mass, density, and volume. There are 243 Earth days to 1 Venus day. The surface temperature is 900 degrees F., making it the hottest planet in our system. Views from different satellites.

Earth

Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Seventy percent of the Earth is covered in water. The Earth’s atmosphere keeps the temperatures steady. As far as we know, it is the only planet with life. Horn of Africa North America Earth & moon

Mars

Known as “The Red Planet”. Average surface temperature is –67 degrees F. Mars has permanent ice caps on both poles. Olympus Mons- largest mountain in our solar system. Polar ice cap

Jupiter

It’s the largest planet in our solar system. It is a gas planet- it doesn’t have a solid surface. The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction. Jupiter’s moon, Io, has exploding volcanoes on it. Jupiter’s ring Four moons

Saturn

Saturn has the most moons of all the planets. It’s rings are made up of water ice and rocky particles with icy coatings. Saturn is easily visible at night from Earth. One Earth day on Saturn is 10 hours, 40 minutes. Rings in false color Saturn and moons

Uranus

Uranus is 1.78 billion miles from the sun. It is made mostly of rock and ice. It lies on its side, possibly the result from a collision with a planet sized body. Uranus’ ring Uranus and moons

Neptune

Neptune orbits the sun every 165 years. It can be seen from Earth with binoculars. Near the Great Dark Spot, winds blow up to 1,200 miles an hour. It’s moon, Triton, is the coldest object in the solar system. Great Dark Spot

Pluto

Pluto is the smallest and coldest planet, temperatures get as low as –235 degrees C. It is the only planet not visited by any space craft. It is 3,666 million miles from the sun. Not much is know about Pluto. Pluto and moon Comparison of US to Pluto and it’s moon

Earth’s Moon

Moon View of Earth from the moon The moon is 225,000 miles from the Earth. It has no water, air, or living things. The moon‘s surface is covered by thousands of bowl- shaped craters. Man stepped on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Seeing Our Solar System Asteroids- very small worlds that circle the sun mainly in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter Comets- a frozen ball of ice a few miles wide, covered by a layer of black dust

Seeing Our Solar System Meteoroids- small pieces of metal or rock from asteroids or comets Meteors- are meteoroids that have entered the Earth’s atmosphere

Stars

Galaxies Milky Way- our solar system is located here

Sources Information –Solarviews.com –Our Solar System-by Seymour Simon Pictures –Solarviews.com –Bo.cnr.it/universo2000/images/solar_s ystem.jpg