Exploring the Solar System By Miss Bush Exploring the Solar System

What do you think you know about the solar system? What do you want to know? The World Outside of Earth

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto They all orbit around the Sun, the only star located in our solar system The Earth is the third planet from the Sun There are nine planets in our Solar System:

Mercury, Venus, and Earth Mercury Mercury is the closest planet to the sun Mercury hardly has any air in it’s atmosphere Because of how slowly it rotates on it’s axis, it has days as hot as 870 degrees F and as cold as -370 degrees F Mercury does not have any moons Venus Venus is the 2 nd planet away from the sun and has a heavy cloud covering its surface It is the same size as Earth but has no moons Has active volcanoes, “venusquakes”, as well as mountains and valleys Earth Earth is the third planet from the sun It is the only known planet that has the atmosphere and temperature to support human life It has one moon

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and has two moons It has a climate more like earths with potential water as well as mountains, valleys, and canyons If you weighed 70lbs on Earth, you would weigh 27lbs on Mars Jupiter Jupiter is the 5 th planet from the sun and quite large It has an atmosphere and then water and hydrogen, no land If you weighed 70lbs on Earth, you would weigh 180lbs on Jupiter It has 28 moons Saturn Saturn is the 6 th planet from the sun and has large rings Much like Jupiter, its atmosphere is a giant sea of chemicals If you weighed 70lbs on Earth you would weight 82lbs on Saturn It has 30 moons

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto Uranus Uranus is the 7 th planet from the sun It would take many years to fly there on a space ship It is different from the other planets because it spins on its side Uranus has 21 moons Neptune Neptune is the 8 th plant from the sun It has a giant storm spot much like Jupiter Neptune has six rings that circle the planet and 8 moons Pluto Pluto is the 9 th planet from the sun and considered a dwarf planet because of its extremely small size If you weigh 70lbs on Earth, you would weigh 4lbs on Pluto No space ship or probes have ever visited Pluto because it is so far away so is difficult to know much about its atmosphere Pluto has 3 moons

Summary All of the planets circle the sun at various speeds All of the planets are different distances from the sun and each other We know little about the planets that are far from us, especially Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto so we use what we know about Earth to make educated guess about their atmospheres The larger the planet is, the more gravity it has. The planets that are larger then Earth would make a human weigh more. Those that are smaller then Earth would make a human weigh less. The Sun is the only star in our solar system Our solar system is part of a galaxy called the Milky Way Galaxy There are an infinite number of galaxies that make up the universe There may be other planets in other galaxies in the universe that can support life, we just do not have the technology to reach them or research it further as of yet

Resources Solar System URL: kidsastronomy.com/solarsystem.htm Views of the Solar System URL: solarviews.com/eng/homepage.htm Solar System Exploration Home Page URL: solarsystem.nasa.gov/index.cfm Science and Nature: Space URL:. pgbbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/images /solar_system.j