The Planets

1
The Planets

• An overview of the
• Solar System

2
The Sun

• The sun is the biggest, brightest, and hottest
  object in the solar system.
• The sun is an ordinary star.
• The sun is made of about 70 hydrogen and 28
  helium.

3
Mercury

• Mercury is solid and is covered with craters.
• Mercury has almost no atmosphere.
• Mercury is the eighth largest planet.

4
Venus

• Venus is the sixth largest planet. Its about
  three-fourths the size of earth.
• The surface is rocky and very hot. The atmosphere
  completely hides the surface and traps the heat.

5
Earth

• Earth is the fifth largest planet and the third
  from the sun.
• Liquid covers 71 percent of the Earths surface.
• The Earth has one moon.

6
Mars

• Mars is the fourth planet from the sun.
• Mars has a thin atmosphere that contains mostly
  carbon dioxide.
• Mars has two small moons.

7
Jupiters Red Spot

• The Great Red Spot, a huge storm of swirling gas
  that has lasted for hundreds of years.
• Jupiter does not have a solid surface. The planet
  is a ball of liquid surrounded by gas.

8
Moons of Jupiter

• Jupiter has four large Galilean moons, twelve
  smaller named moons and twenty-three more
  recently discovered but not named moons.

9
Saturn

• Saturn is the second largest planet and the sixth
  from the sun.
• Saturn is made of materials that are lighter than
  water. If you could fit Saturn in a lake, it
  would float!

10
Rings of Saturn

• Saturns rings are not solid they are composed
  of small countless particles.
• The rings are very thin. Though theyre 250,000km
  or more in diameter, theyre less than one
  kilometer thick.

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Uranus

• Uranus is the third largest planet and the
  seventh from the sun.
• Uranus is one of the giant gas planets.
• Uranus is blue-green because of the methane in
  its atmosphere.

12
Neptune

• Neptune is the fourth largest planet and the
  eight from the sun.
• Because of the orbits, from 1979 to 1999, Neptune
  was the ninth planet.
• Like Uranus, the methane gives Neptune its color.

13
Pluto

• Pluto is the smallest planet and usually the
  farthest from the sun.
• Pluto is the only planet that has not been
  visited by a spacecraft.

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Asteroid Belt

• Between Mars and Jupiter
• Between 700,000 and 1.7 million asteroids

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Kuiper Belt

• Outside Neptune
• At least 70,000 objects
• Short-period comets
• Less than 200 year orbit

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Oort Cloud

• Far beyond the orbit of Pluto
• Long-period comets
• More than 200 year orbit