The Solar System at a Glance

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The Solar System at a Glance

• By Ms. Kimm

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Overview of the Solar System

• It is made up for the Sun, nine planets, several
  moons, and a band of rocks called the Asteroid
  Belt.
• Planets and Asteroid Belt travels around the Sun
  in orbits.
• Planets stay in orbit because of an invisible,
  powerful force called gravity, which pulls the
  planets towards the Sun.

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Ways to Remember the Planets

• My
• Very
• Excellent
• Mother
• Just
• Served
• Us
• Nine
• Pizzas

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

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Planet Pizza MenuKids Eye View of the Solar
System

• MercuryComes to your door fastest. Because
  Mercury orbits the sun faster than any other
  planet.
• VenusHot, hot, hot. Only order this planet if
  you like it spicy. Venus is the hottest
  planeteven hotter than Mercury which is closer
  to the sun because its atmosphere traps heat.
• EarthThe hometown favorite. Earth is the only
  planet known to have just the right environment
  for plants, animals, and people to live.

• MarsThe pizza is heavy on the tomatoes. The
  planets soil is full of iron oxiderustwhich
  gives it a reddish color and the nickname The
  Red Planet.
• JupiterThe largest planet in the solar system.
  For big appetites only.
• SaturnThe planet has beautiful rings, make of
  tiny particles of ice. The pizza is served with
  onion rings.
• Uranusbecause of its unusual tilt, Uranus looks
  like a top spinning on its side in its orbit
  around the sun.
• Plutofor those on a diet.

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How was the Solar System Formed?From Gas to Dust

• Everything in the Solar System formed 4.6
  billions years ago from the same slowly rotating
  cloud of gas and dust in space.
• Drawn together by gravity, material collected in
  a disk around the Sun.
• Small clumps came together, over millions years
  these grew larger became the planets we know
  today.

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Our StarThe SunDiscovery Education Video Clip
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The SunOur Star

• The Sun has six regions
• Interior
• Core
• Radiative Zone
• Convective Zone
• Visible Surface
• Photospere
• Chromosphere
• Outermost
• Corona

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The SunOur Star

• Random Facts
• 1.3 Millions Earths could fit inside the Sun.
• If the Sun were a soccer ball, Earth would be ½ a
  pea.
• Traveling at highway speeds, it would take 177
  years to reach the sun.
• It is close to 5 billions years old
• Caution Never look directly at the Sun! Its so
  bright it could blind you for the rest of your
  life.

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MercuryClosest Planet to Sun

• True or False Mercury looks like a ball of gray
  Swiss Cheese.
• True. Mercury is covered with craters, or round,
  shallow holes that were made when asteroids
  crashed into it.
• Is it hot or cold on Mercury?
• Both! During the day, it is 800 degrees
  Fahrenheit. At night it falls to nearly -300
  degrees. Humans would not be able to survive.

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MercuryClosest Planet to Sun

• Named for the speedy Messenger of the Roman Gods
• Revolves around the Sun in only 88 days (giving
  it the shortest year in the Solar System).
• Is 1 of the 4 Rocky Planets
• Has no real atmosphere but there is a very tiny
  amount of gas (mostly sodium and helium) around
  it.

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VenusThe Hot House

• Why is the Venus the smartest planet in the night
  sky?
• Because its so bright. It is the brightest
  planet. Thats why the Romans named it after
  their Goddess of Love and Beauty.
• Venus is the hottest planet in our Solar System.
  There are no plants or living things of any kind
  on Venus. The planet is mostly desert.

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VenusThe Hot House

• Astronauts cant land on Venus because theyd
  get
• Burned up by the planets 900-degree
  temperatures.
• Poisoned by acid that covers Venuss surface.
• Crushed in seconds by the planets heavy air.
• Lost after not finding any Venusians to give them
  a tour of the planet.

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EarthThe Living Planet

• The only place known to have life.
• Only planet not named after a god. Its name
  comes from the Old English word orthe meaning
  ground.
• Earth is covered by so much water that the planet
  looks blue from outer space.

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EarthThe Living Planet

• Why is the sky blue on Earth?
• The atmosphere scatters incoming blue light much
  more strongly than red, orange, yellow, or green
  light. The sky would be blue even without
  oceans.

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The Life Zone

• Earth lies in the Life Zone of the Sun, where
  the temperature allows liquid water to exist
• Venus and Mars lie on the very edges of the zone.
  Both had water when they first formed but has
  lost it since then.
• Planet Quest Alien Safari
• Discover some of the most extreme organisms on
  our planet, and find out what they are telling
  astrobiologists about the search for life beyond
  Earth.

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Parts of the Earth

• Core
• Is about 4,500 miles across
• Made of Iron and Nickel
• Outer part is liquid, inner part is solid
• Mantle
• Made of Rock
• Contains most of the Earths material
• Crust
• Made of lighter rocks that floated to the top
  when Earth was molten.
• Varies from 4 to 25 miles thick.

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The Moon

• The Moon is an airless ball of rock.
• It circles around the Earth once every 27.3 days.
• True of False Our moon shines the same way
  stars do?
• False. Stars are huge balls of glowing gas that
  make their own light. The moon is a big ball of
  rock that has no light of its own, but reflects
  from the Sun.

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The Moon

• NASA Moon Phases Simulation Activity
• Virtual Reality Moon Phases
• Find out what the moon did or will look like on a
  specific date.

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MarsThe Red Planet

• Mars has a barren, dusty surface with reddish
  soil and rocks. These are deep canyons and high
  volcanoes.
• Mars Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the
  Solar Systemits 3 times as tall as Mount
  Everest.
• Mars has a valley so long it would stretch all
  the way across the United States.

• Mars was named after the Roman God of War because
  its color reminded them of blood.

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JupiterThe Super Planet

• The largest planet and is heavier than all other
  eight planets put together.
• 1,300 Earths could fit inside it.
• It was named after the king of the Roman God and
  Goddesses.
• There is a faint ring around it, made of rocky
  particles. It is too faint to see from Earth.

• Could you stand on Jupiter?
• No, it is made mostly of gas and hot liquid.
  Even if there were a surface to stand on,
  Jupiters gravity is more than twice as much as
  Earths. That means youd feel as if you had
  barbells attached to your hands and feet.
• Has 4 main moons.
• It atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium.

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JupiterThe Super Planet

• Jupiters gases change color so often that the
  planet looks different each night when seen
  through a telescope.
• Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a swirling tornado
  that has been raging for at least 100 years.

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SaturnThe Ringed Planet

• Saturn is surrounded by brightly shining rings.
• The rings are bands of ice and rock whirling
  around the planet.
• Has at least 22 moons that are made of a mixture
  of ice and rock.
• It day takes only 10 hours 14 minutes long.
• Its year is 29.5 Earth years.
• Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium.

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SaturnThe Ringed Planet

• Why does Saturn belong in a jewelry store?
• Because of all its beautiful rings! Saturn is
  famous for the bright, flat rings that float
  around its middle.
• The rings look solid, but really they are super
  thin and made of pieces of rock and sparkly ice.

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UranusThe Blue Planet

• How did Uranus make the Solar System bigger?
• When it was discovered, the Solar System got
  twice as big because Uranus is twice as far away
  from the Sun as its neighbor, Saturn.
• Uranus is lying on its sideso its eleven rings
  go around the planet up and down.

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NeptuneThe Other Blue Planet

• Whats the weather report for Neptune?
• The forecast calls for storms, storms, and more
  storms, raging into the next several days and
  possibly weeks and months. Super cold winds whip
  around at more than 1,250 miles per hour.

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NeptuneThe Other Blue Planet

• How was math the path to Neptune?
• About 150 years ago, astronomers thought there
  might be another planet beyond Uranus.
  Mathematicians calculated where such planet
  should be, and Johann Galle pointed his telescope
  there in 1846.
• It was glowing like a faint, blue-green star.
• It was named after the Roman God of the Sea.

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PlutoThe Dwarf Planet

• Pluto is
• Colder than all the other planets
• Very hard to see, even with a telescope
• Dark all the time, even during the day
• Pluto is not considered a planet anymore. It is
  named as one of many dwarf planets.

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Asteroids, Meteoroids, Stars Comets

• Asteroids are space rocks usually found orbiting
  the Sun in an asteroid belt between Mars and
  Jupiter.
• Shooting stars arent stars at all, its a
  burning piece of space rock called a meteor.
  Many meteoroids burn up in our atmosphere, but
  some land on Earth. These are called meteorites.

• Comets are balls of dust, rock, and ice that
  orbit the sun.
• Stars are huge balls of gas and plasma (a form of
  gas) that make energy, which we see as light.

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Audience for Assignment

• I will use this PowerPoint to introduce the Solar
  System to 3rd through 5th graders.
• It is a starting point to give them some
  background on the Solar System before breaking up
  into groups and researching it more intensive.
• The students will integrate Science and Language
  Arts to create a project for their assigned
  planet.

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Objectives

• Students will
• Gain a base knowledge about the solar system from
  this PowerPoint.
• Create a project using the information and
  resources they research during the project.

• Teacher will
• Give a quiz over topics discussed informally
  after going through PowerPoint with students.
• Use a rubric to grade the students projects
  looking for key points.