Download the workSHeet

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solar sys
What’s it all about?
of the planets and distances between them. The Solar System Walk is a fun way
Time for blast off!
Activity 1: Planet sizes
What to do
For each planet (and the Sun) we'll give you an object to represent it, the planet's
actual diameter and the scaled diameter (so you can take your ruler in search of
perfect planets). First find something to represent the Sun.
The Sun
actual: 1,400,000 km
scaled: 140 cm
1/2 bed sheet
To start, see if you can guess how big Earth would be if it were at the same scale as
your Sun. Then guess the sizes of some of the other planets. Now, here are the
planet sizes scaled down.
Mercury
4,900 km
0.49 cm
Popcorn kernel
Venus
12,100 km
1.21 cm
Mini-marshmallow
Earth
12,800 km
1.28 cm
Gobstopper
Mars
6,800 km
0.68 cm
Pea
Jupiter
143,000 km
14.3 cm
Football
Saturn
120,000 km
12 cm
Melon
Uranus
51,800 km
5.18 cm
Tennis ball
Neptune
49,500 km
4.95 cm
Small apple
Pluto*
2,300 km
0.23 cm
Peppercorn
*now classified as a "dwarf planet"
What did you learn?
Planets
The planets in our Solar System are very different in size. Did you realise just how small
Mercury and Pluto are compared to the Sun?
The next activity will now demonstrate just how big our Solar System is and how far apart
the planets actually are.
Activity 2: Planet distances
What you’ll need
mercury
venus
earth
4,900 A
kmlarge
- 1 mm
12,100
kmto
- 2.4
mm
12,800 km - 2.6 mm
park or walk (enough
space
walk
about 1200 meters)
Cut out each planet from the last page of this worksheet (get an adult to help).
What to do
Begin by placing something on the ground to mark the position of the143,000
Sun. From
km
that point walk in a straight line and place each planet on the ground in turn to
saturn
jupiter
mark out
the distances between each planet.
(One very large stride is roughly
mars
125,000
km - 24 mm
143,000
km
28.6
mm
6,800tokm
- 1.4 mm
equal
a meter)
1. The Sun
6. Jupiter - 155.6m
2. Mercury - 11.6 m
7. Saturn - 284.8 m
3. Venus - 21.6 m
8. Uranus - 573.4 m
4. Earth - 30 m
9. Neptune - 897.8 m
5. Mars - 45.6 m
10. Pluto - 1182.0 m
are average distances from the Sun – but you should be able to
see just how much space there is in space.
uranus
neptune
pluto
51,100 km - 12 mm
49,500 km - 9.8 mm
2,300 km - 0.4 mm
Planets
mercury
venus
earth
4,900 km - 1 mm
12,100 km - 2.4 mm
12,800 km - 2.6 mm
143,000 km
saturn
mars
jupiter
6,800 km - 1.4 mm
143,000 km - 28.6 mm
uranus
neptune
pluto
51,100 km - 12 mm
49,500 km - 9.8 mm
2,300 km - 0.4 mm
125,000 km - 24 mm