Download HW Solar System Mnemonic

Our Solar System
08.24.06 The International Astronomical Union, wrapping up its meeting in Prague, Czech
Republic, has resolved one of the most hotly-debated topics in the cosmos by approving a
specific definition that gives our solar system eight planets, instead of the nine most of us grew up
memorizing. NASA has already visited all eight planets that retain their official title: Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In addition, the agency has its New
Horizons spacecraft en route to Pluto, which the astronomical union has re-assigned to a new
category of celestial objects, to be called "dwarf planets."
My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine Planets
Note: A mnemonic device (pronounced /nəˈmɒnɪk/) is a memory aid. Commonly met mnemonics
are often verbal, something such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person
remember something, particularly lists.
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the
planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids
or minor planets. The asteroid belt region is also termed the main belt to distinguish it from other
concentrations of minor planets within the Solar System, such as the Kuiper belt.
The Kuiper belt (pronounced to rhyme with "viper"), sometimes called the Edgeworth-Kuiper
belt, is a region of the Solar System beyond the planets extending from the orbit of Neptune (at
30 AU) to approximately 55 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, although it is far
larger; 20 times as wide and 20–200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of
small bodies (remnants from the Solar System's formation). It is home to at least two dwarf
planets – Pluto and Makemake. But while the asteroid belt is composed primarily of rock and
metal, the Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (dubbed "ices"), such as
methane, ammonia and water.
The astronomical unit (AU or au or a.u. or sometimes ua) is a unit of length based on the
distance from the Earth to the Sun. The precise value of the AU is currently accepted as
149,597,870,691 ± 30 metres (nearly 150 million kilometres or 93 million miles).
Please come up with YOUR OWN mnemonic to help you remember the
planets in the solar system. You may choose to include Pluto, The Asteroid
Belt, and The Kuiper Belt if you choose.