The Solar System

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The Solar System
By Jeri Sanford
Different Planets
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The Different Planets
Mercury
Earth
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
EXIT
QUIZ
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Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is
the second smallest planet in the solar system,
behind Pluto. Mercury is made up mostly of iron,
with a thin rocky layer on the planet surface.
The temperature varies on Mercury from 700
degrees in the sunlight, and -300 degrees at
night.
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Venus
Venus is the second planet closest to the sun in
the solar system. You can see Venus for several
months each year, either in the morning or
evening sky, and you don't need a telescope.
Venus was named for the goddess of love and
beauty. This is definitely a case of beauty being
only skin deep, as Venus is a very unpleasant
place, with winds that blow hundreds of miles an
hour, and temperatures that are hot enough to
melt most metals!
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Earth
Earth is the planet that we live on. It is the
third planet from the sun and is the only planet
that can sustain life. 71 percent of Earth is
made up of water. It is the fifth largest planet
in the solar system. The Earth's atmosphere is
77 nitrogen, 21 oxygen, with traces of argon,
carbon dioxide and water.
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Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It has
the most distinctive color of any of the planets,
a reddish gleam that reminded the ancients of
blood. It was named it for the god of War, Mars
to the Romans and Ares to the Greeks. The
surface of Mars is more interesting than most.
Like
Mercury, Venus and Earth, Mars is mostly rock and
metal, but it also has lots of mountains and
craters. Huge dust storms swirl on Mars. The
storms are very similar to hurricanes on Earth.
Mars has two moons Phobos and Deimos.
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Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet from the
Sun, located in between Mars and Saturn. Jupiter
is the first gas planet in our solar system, as
well as being the first of what are called the
Outer Planets. Jupiter is much further away from
the Sun than Earth. Can you see it? Yes you can,
and you don't need a telescope to see the ruler
of the night sky. When Jupiter is visible, it is
usually the brightest light in the night sky. The
only objects that are brighter are the Moon and
Venus. Jupiter is so large that 1300 Earths
could fit inside it! Put another way, if you had
a ball that was about the size of a dime, Jupiter
would be the size of a basketball!
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Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet in the solar system,
located in between Jupiter and Uranus. Saturn is
the second-largest planet in the solar system.
Jupiter is the only planet that is bigger. The
gas giant is 72 thousand miles in diameter,
almost ten times the size of Earth. To put it
another way, if you had a ball that was the size
of a dime, Saturn would be a little bigger than a
soccer ball. In spite of its huge size, though,
Saturn weighs very little. It is a very light gas
planet. Saturn is so light, in fact, that it
would float in water, assuming you had a very
large swimming pool. The beautiful rings that are
Saturn's most famous feature are absolutely
huge. The rings are over 160 thousand miles
in diameter. That is two-thirds of the distance
from Earth to the Moon!
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Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet in our solar
system, located in between Saturn and Neptune.
Uranus is very far away from the Sun. Its average
distance from the Sun is about one and
three-quarters billion miles. Since it is so far
away from Earth, and so much smaller than the
giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, it is fairly
hard to see. As plain as Uranus appears, it has
an interesting collection of at least fifteen
moons. There are probably more, but we don't have
any way of finding out for sure until, and if, we
send another spacecraft to investigate.
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Neptune
Neptune is the eighth, or next to last, planet in
our solar system. It is located in between Uranus
and Pluto, and is a very long way away from the
Sun. You can see Neptune, but you will need at
least a pair of binoculars, and probably a
telescope. Neptune is no larger than Uranus and
is much further away, so it will be even harder
to see than the blue-green planet. Neptune has
eight moons that we know about and there may be
more. There are only two that we can see from
Earth.
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Pluto
Pluto is the ninth, or last, planet in the solar
system. Pluto is the smallest planet in our solar
system at a little over 1,300 miles in diameter,
or about one-sixth the diameter of Earth. Put
another way, if Earth was the size of a
basketball, Pluto would be the size of a
ping-pong ball. Many of the moons of other
planets, including our very own Moon, are larger
than Pluto. The surface of Pluto is very dark
and extremely cold. Since the planet is so far
away from the Sun, it gets almost no light or
heat. Scientists believe that the temperature on
the surface of the ninth planet is over four
hundred degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
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QUIZ
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QUIZ

• 1. Which planet is so dense that it would float
  in water?

Saturn
Mars
Earth
2. Which planet is the largest planet?
Neptune
Jupiter
Mercury
3. Which planet is made up of 71 water?
Venus
Pluto
Earth
EXIT
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Way to Go!!!
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OOPS! Try Again!!
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Thank You!
Thanks for participating in the Solar System
slide show. I hope you learned a little more
about the nine planets in our solar system.
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