THE SOLAR SYSTEM

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THE SOLAR SYSTEM
By Pat Baker Alderson Elementary
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SOLAR SYSTEM

• What is the Solar System?
• The Solar System is made up of the sun and the
  things which orbit, or go around, the sun.
• The Solar System includes the nine planets, their
  moons, asteroids, comets, and meteors.
• The word planet comes from a Greek word which
  means wanderer.
• The word was used because planets appear to
  wander away from the stars in their background.

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MERCURY

• Mercury is the second smallest planet and the
  closest to the sun.
• Therefore it is so hot on Mercury that a tin cup
  would melt. We could not live on this planet.
• It travels around the sun faster than any other
  planet.

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• Second planet from the sun
• It is called Earths twin
• Very very hot during the day (484 degrees
  Celsius)
• Thick rapidly spinning clouds cover the surface
• These clouds reflect sunlight therefore Venus
  appears bright in the sky
• Known as the Evening Star
• It rotates slowly in a direction opposite from
  all the other planets

VENUS
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EARTH
The third planet from the sun. 70 of the
Earths surface is covered by water. The Earth
has Polar Ice Caps at the North South Pole It
takes one year for the Earth to orbit the
sun. The Earth rotates or spins on its axis
taking one day to make a complete spin. The
Earths axis is slightly tilted. This is why
there are seasons here on Earth. Because the
Earth rotates the temperature changes with the
seasons.
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MARS

• Fourth planet from the sun. Last of the inner
  planets.
• The soil on Mars is rich in iron giving the Red
  Planet its color.
• The temperatures on Mars are very cold.
• Mars has poles at the top and bottom just like
  the Earth.

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THE ASTEROID BELT

• Asteroids are bits of rock. The largest one found
  in the belt is as big as the state of Texas.
• Most of the Asteroids in our Solar System can be
  found orbiting between Mars Jupiter.
• The belt divides the inner planets the outer
  planets.

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• Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar
  System. It is so large that all of the other
  planets could fit inside of it.
• It shines very brightly 9 months of the year when
  it is closest to the Earth.
• Huge areas of swirling gases can be found in
  Jupiters atmosphere. The largest area is called
  the Great Red Spot.
• Jupiter has thin rings around it and also has
  sixteen moons.

JUPITER
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SATURN
Saturn has over 1000 rings. When seen through a
telescope it is one of the most beautiful sights
in the night sky. It looks like a big
ball inside of rings. Saturn is a large gas
planet which spins so rapidly on its axis that
it flattens out the top and bottom of the
planet. The White Spots on Saturn are believed
to be powerful storms. Saturn has at least 18
moons.
Saturns atmosphere has winds which can blow
over 1800 km per hour.
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URANUS

• Uranus is another planet made up of gas.
• It is one of the smaller giant planets , but
  would still hold 64 planets the size of Earth.
• Uranus gets its blue-green color from the cold
  methane gas in its atmosphere.
• Uranus has 11 known rings and 18 moons.

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• Neptune like Uranus is a large gas planet that
  looks blue.
• It is very cold and one would need skin thicker
  than a polar bears to stay warm.
• This is also a very windy planet with 2000km per
  hour winds. The large dark spot on this planet is
  believed to be storms,
• Neptune has 4 rings 8 moons.

NEPTUNE
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PLUTO
Pluto is the smallest planet. It is smaller than
Neptunes moon, Triton. Pluto is called The Ice
Planet because it is so far out. Once every 248
Earth years Pluto and Neptune swing in
the others orbit. For 20 years Pluto is closer
to the sun than Neptune. Pluto has only one
known moon (shown at the right) Plutos moon,
Charon, is half the size of Pluto.
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COMETS
A comets tail can be millions of km in
length. A comet gets its light from
reflected sunlight. A few comets come close
enough to earth for us to see them with our
eyes. Halleys Comet can be seen every 76 years.
A comet is made of dirty ice, dust, and
gas. Part of the ice starts to melt when the
comet gets too close to the sun. The comets tail
is formed when the solar winds push the dust and
gas released by the melting ice away from the
comet. As the comet travels close to the sun it
melts and will eventually disappear,
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METEOROIDS
Have you ever seen a Falling Star? What you
actually saw was a meteor. A meteoroid is a
piece of stone- like or metal-like debris, which
travels in outer space. Most are no bigger than
a pebble. Large meteoroids are believed to come
from the asteroid belt. A meteoroid is a meteor
which falls into the Earths atmosphere. It
will begin to heat up and glow.
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THE SUN

• The Sun, a member of the Milky Way, is our
  closest star. It is a medium size star.
• The Sun is very very hot.
• People long ago thought the Sun was a God. They
  offered it gifts such as gold and food to keep it
  happy.
• It takes approximately 8 minutes for light from
  the sun to reach earth.

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THE MOON

• The Moon is Earths Satellite.
• The moon is like a desert with plains, mountains,
  and valleys. It also has craters.
• On July 20, 1969, Astronauts Neil Armstrong and
  Edwin Aldrin Jr. became the first humans to step
  on the moon.
• Michael Collins piloted the command module.