Space By Brittany

Venus There is a lot we still do not know about how this planet looks and what it is like. scientists have in recent years unlocked many of the secrets hidden in this mysterious world. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union actually was able to land more than one probe on the surface of Venus. These scientific probes only lasted a few hours before they were destroyed by the intense heat of the planet. These probes were able to take several pictures and send them back to earth for scientists to study. 1 orbit of the sun = days 1 rotation = days Distance from sun = 107 million km Average temperature = 449 c o

Mercury The planet Mercury is the closest of the planets to the Sun. Mercury has become a part of the mythology and legend of almost every culture throughout the history of the Earth. This planet is often called a morning star. This is because Mercury shines brightly in the early morning just before the sun rises. It has also been called an evening star for the same reason. 1 orbit of the sun = 87,969 days 1 rotation = days Distance from sun = 57 million km Temperature range = c to c

Mars Mars excites scientists because its environment is more like the Earth's than any of the other planets. Evidence suggests that Mars once had rivers, streams, lakes, and even an ocean. As Mars' atmosphere slowly depleted into outer space, the surface water began to permanently evaporate. Today the only water on Mars in either frozen in the polar caps or underground. You may sometimes hear Mars referred to as the "Red Planet." This is because the surface of Mars is red. If you stood on the surface of Mars, you would see red dirt and rocks everywhere. 1 orbit of the sun = days 1 rotation = 24 hours and 37 minutes distance from sun = 227 million km Temperature range = c to 36 o c

Jupiter Jupiter is by far the largest planet in our Solar System. The Earth could fit inside Jupiter more than 1000 times. Jupiter is a very stormy planet and most of the storms never end. The many different cloud types and storms in the atmosphere also make Jupiter a very colourful planet. Jupiter's red spot, is where a giant storm has been around for at least 300 years. This red spot is also called "The Eye of Jupiter" because of its shape. 1 orbit of the sun = days 1 rotation = 9hours and 55 minutes Distance from the sun = 777 million km Average temperature = c

Saturn In many ways, Saturn is similar to Jupiter, but it is much smaller. It is the second largest planet in our Solar System and it is a gas giant like Jupiter. Under the clouds of methane, hydrogen and helium, the sky slowly turns into liquid until it becomes a giant ocean of liquid chemicals. Because Saturn is such a lightweight planet and it spins so fast, Saturn is not perfectly round like most of the other planets. Like Jupiter, Saturn is wider in the middle and more narrow at the top and bottom. 1 orbit of the sun = days 1 rotation = 10 hours and 13 minutes Distance from sun = 1429 million km Average temperature = c

Uranus Like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is a gas giant. But Uranus is a little different. Unlike all the other planets and most of the moons in our Solar System, Uranus spins on its side. Some people think that long ago a very large object smashed into this planet. The crash was so powerful that it completely changed the direction of Uranus' rotation. However, a more recent theory is that Uranus' tilt may have been caused by a large moon that was slowly pulled away from the planet by another large planet. It is thought that the gravitational pull of this moon moving away from Uranus may have caused it to tilt on its side. 1 orbit of the sun = 30,684 days 1 rotation = 17.2 hours Distance from sun = 2,871 million km Average temperature = c

Neptune For many, centuries people did not know that this planet even existed. It was discovered by Johann Galle and Heinrich D'Arrest in Neptune is the smallest of the four gas giants in our Solar System. Much like Saturn and Uranus, Neptune's atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium and methane. Neptune is a very windy place. No other planet in the Solar System has winds that are as strong as Neptune's. The wind is near the Great Dark Spot witch was believed to have reached nearly 1,200 miles per hour. 1 orbit of the sun = 60,190 days 1 rotation =16 hours and 17 minutes Distance from the sun = 4,496 million km Average temperature = c

Asteroids An asteroid is a large rock in outer space. Some, like Ceres, can be very large, while others are as small as a grain of sand. Due to their smaller size, asteroids do not have enough gravity to pull themselves into the shape of a ball. Astronomers group asteroids into different categories based on the way they reflect sunlight. A comet is a small world which scientists sometimes call a planetesimal (tiny planet). They are made out of dust and ice, kind of like a dirty snow ball. Comets Meteorites Meteors or meteorites are bits of rock (like granite) and ice - usually a mixture of rock and iron and nickel but sometimes just rock or just iron - from out in space that get sucked into the gravity of the Earth and fall through our atmosphere to the ground

Stars A star is a huge sphere of very hot, glowing gas. Stars produce their own light and energy by a process called nuclear fusion. Fusion happens when lighter elements are forced to become heavier elements. When this happens, a huge amount of energy is created causing the star to heat up and shine. Stars which are smaller than our Sun are reddish and larger stars are blue. Sun Galaxies Galaxies are huge collections of stars, dust and gas. There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Galaxies come in many different sizes, shapes and brightness's like stars, they are found alone, in pairs, or in larger groups called clusters. Galaxies are divided into three basic types: spirals, elliptical and irregulars. The sun is a star. It is a huge, spinning, glowing sphere of hot gas. The sun is just like the stars that you see in the night sky. It appears so much larger and brighter than the other stars because we are so close to it. The sun is the centre of our solar system. All of the planets in our solar system, including Earth, orbit around the sun.

Bibliography s/sun.shtml s/sun.shtml Google images By Brittany