Download 205 Leah Science

November 10, 2009
OUTER SPACE AND
featuring
Jupiter and
Uranus
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
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Two pictures
of Uranus and Jupiter.
http://starbozz.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/jupiter.jpg
http://thedailytamasha.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/uranus-the-seventh-plant.jpg
The solar system is a wide, vast area in space. It consists of eight
many different storms, but the biggest and most famous is the Great Red
planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,
Spot, which has been blowing its strong winds for about 345 years. As it
three dwarf planets, Pluto, Ceres, and Eris, an asteroid belt, all of which
blows, it can change its size. Sometimes it grows to the size of three Earths!
revolve around the Sun, the center of our solar system. The planets also
Jupiter and Uranus are alike. They are both gas giants, outer planets,
rotate or spin as they orbit the sun. The solar system is expanding every
and have more than two dozen satellites. They also both have rings. Scientists
single second of every single day, making it never-ending. Scientists estimate
think both Jupiter and Uranus have rock in their cores, but they don’t know
that the sun has fifty billion more years in its life left. At the end of that, it will
for sure.
either explode or turn into a black hole, which would suck in all of the planets.
Jupiter and Uranus have a number of differences also. For instance,
Nobody knows what is on the other end of a black hole yet, but we might at
they both have rings, however, Uranus has more, with 11, meanwhile Jupiter
the end of fifty billion years!
has only 3. Jupiter is also warmer than Uranus, but Uranus has a longer year.
Uranus is a very interesting planet. The seventh planet from the Sun, it is
Jupiter has many more moons than Uranus because it is bigger and therefore
so tilted that it looks like a ball rolling through space as it rotates! It has 27
has more gravity, it has pulled more into its orbit.
moons and 11 rings encircling it. Uranus’ surface is covered with icy slush and
The solar system also contains three dwarf planets, Pluto, Ceres, and
rock. Uranus’ four seasons last twenty-one Earth years each, which means
Eris. Ceres is closest to the Sun. It is located inside the asteroid belt. Pluto is
that it’s year is only twenty years short of a century! It is sixty times the size of
second closest, outside the orbit of Neptune, and Eris is outside the orbit of
Earth, and considering Earth is 3 times as big as Mercury, that means Uranus
Pluto. The solar system is so gigantic that astronauts have never been to the
is a pretty big planet compared to others in the solar system.
corners of it, but they hope to someday. It is not the only one out there
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and it also has the most
moons, with an eye-boggling minimum of 63, more still waiting to be found!
either. There are other galaxies, where astronauts hope to travel
also. Maybe someday we will uncover all the secrets of space.
Jupiter is very bright in the sky, second only to Venus. Its average
temperature is much, much colder than the coldest freezer. Jupiter has many,
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