Sun Our Brightest Star Approximately one million Earths can fit inside the Sun. The center of the Sun, is made of helium. There are dark blotches on.

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SunOur Brightest Star

bull Approximately one million Earths can fit inside the Sun

bull The center of the Sun is made of helium

bull There are dark blotches on the Suns surface called Sunspots These are cooler areas of the Sun

bull 45 pounds of sunlight hit Earth every second

Our Solar System

bull Consists of nine planetsbull All revolve around the Sun which is the main source of light and

heat for these nine planetsbull It is the Suns strong pull of gravity which keeps the planets in

orbit around it

MercuryOur Fastest Planet

bull The closest Planet to the Sunbull Only a little larger than our

moonbull It is covered by dust rocks

and cratersbull It takes 59 days for it to

rotate once around its axisbull Mercury can reach a high of

800 degrees and a low of about 300 degrees Fahrenheit

VenusOur Hottest Planet

bull It takes longer to rotate once around its axis than to revolve once around the sun

bull On Venus a day is slightly more than a year

bull About the same size as Earthbull Has mountains valleys and

plains bull The heat is about 450 degrees

Celsiusbull Has no water bull Life as we know it could not

survive here Only rocks can handle the high temperature and crushing pressure

EarthOur Mother Planet

bull 70 of its surface is wateramp the other 30 is land

bull Itrsquos tilt causes the seasons on the planet

bull Earth is the only planet in the universe which is known to support life

bull Earth is almost five billion years old

bull The center of the Earth its core is molten

bull Earth is the only planet in the Solar System known to be geologically active

MarsOur Angry Red Planet

bull The largest volcano in the Solar System is on Mars called Olympus Mons

bull Mars has seasons like Earth This is caused by the tilt of the planets axis at a similar angle to the tilt of Earths axis

bull Rocks from Mars have landed on Earth from meteorite impacts blasting debris through space

bull The average temperature on Mars is about -67 degF

Jupiter Our Largest Planet

bull Earth could fit into Jupiter over 1300 times

bull Jupiter is made up almost entirely of gas

bull Jupiters famous Red Spot is a great storm that has raged for at least four hundred years

bull Jupiter has a thin set of rings hardly visible from Earth

bull Jupiter has the strongest pull of gravity in the Solar System

bull If we were able to stand on the surface of Jupiter we would weigh three times as much as we would on Earth

SaturnRings of Beauty

bull Saturn is the second largest planetbull The many moons of Saturn are as

different as fire and ice There are at least 24 of them

bull Saturns rings are believed to be the particles of an old moon orbiting the planet smashed apart in a collision about 50 million years ago A year on Saturn would take almost thirty Earth years

bull Saturn is twice as far away from the Sun as Jupiter is

Uranus

bull It takes just over 84 years on Earth for Uranus to orbit the Sun

bull Uranus is the only planet in our solar system to rotate on its side

bull If we were able to see Uranus moons orbiting the planet they would go over and under the planet like lights on a ferris wheel

bull Uranus pale blue color is caused by the methane in its atmosphere which filters out red light

Neptune

bull Neptune sometimes orbits the Sun further away than Pluto making it the most distant planet in the Solar System

bull Since its discovery in 1846 Neptune has not yet completed a full orbit In fact it takes 165 years for the planet to go around the Sun

bull Neptune has the strongest winds in the Solar System and a dark spot similar to Jupiters Great Red Spot

bull Mercurybull Venusbull Earthbull Mars

Inner Planets

bull This is between Mars and Jupiter and separates the inner and outer planets

Asteroid Belt

bull Jupiterbull Saturnbull Uranusbull Neptune

Outer Planets

Solar Eclipsebull A total solar eclipse is not

noticeable until the Sun is more than 90-percent covered by the Moon At 99-percent coverage daytime lighting resembles twilight

bull The longest duration for a total solar eclipse is 75 minutes

bull At any specific geographic location on the globe a total solar eclipse can occur only once every 360 years on average

bull Local animals and birds often prepare for sleep or behave confusedly during a total solar eclipse Local temperatures often drop 20 degrees or more near totality

Lunar Eclipsebull A lunar eclipse happens when the

Moon passes through the Earths shadow

bull Lunar eclipses can only occur at full Moon

bull Lunar eclipses can last for more than three hours because the Moon and the Earth are moving slowly in relation to each other and the shadow cast by the Earth is so large

bull Lunar eclipses are visible over an entire hemisphere and can never happen more than three times a year

Reference Pagewwwplanetpixelemporiumcom

httpwwwmpsmpgdeenforschungplanetenWww thefamouspokercom

httpsosnoaagovdatasetssolar_systemvenushtmlhttpsolarsystemnasagovplanetsprofilecfmObject=Earth

httpsciencehowstuffworkscommarshtmhttpwwwspacecom7-jupiter-largest-planet-solar-systemhtml

httpnssdcgsfcnasagovphoto_galleryphotogallery-saturnhtmlhttpamazing-spacestscieduresourcesfastfacts

neptunephpp=Astronomy+basicsedsastronomy-basicsphpampa=edshttpwwweclipsetourscom

httpsciencenasagovscience-newsscience-at-nasa200813feb_lunareclipse