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CAPITOLO 4
The solar system
The brightest thing that you can see in the sky is the Sun. It is a star which provides all the heat and light that we
need to live. The Earth is a planet which moves around the sun.
There are also 9 planets which move round the Sun in curved paths called orbits. The sun and the planets are knows
as the Solar System. Some planets have moon. The four planets nearest to the Sun including Earth have hard solid
and rocky surface, The planet closest to the sun is Mercury. This has a cratered surface and travel quickly round the
sun. Venus has a thick atmosphere and nothing could survive on his hot and poisonous surface. Mars is a lot colder
than the Earth.
There are also four giants planets: Jupiter Saturn Uranus and Neptune. Each of these planets is made from gas. If
you landed on one of these you would sink into it. The planet furthest from the sun is Pluto. It is a small, frozen and
dead world.
There are a few theories about the Solar System. The Solar system is thought to have developed at the same time out
a large gaseous cloud. The Sun is made mostly from hydrogen and helium. There are 3 types of planet:
 Rocky: mostly iron and oxides and silicates of magnesium calcium and aluminium.
 Gases: hydrogen and helium mostly, then oxygen, nitrogen, ammonia, carbon, dioxide and methane.
 Icy: Water ice.
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