Download The Solar System - University of Sioux Falls

The Solar System
A View of the Sun and the
Nine Planets
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Launch off to the Planets
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Nine Planets
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Solar System called the Milky Way
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Everything rotates around the sun
First Stop:
The sun is a star like all other stars, it is just
closer to us.
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It is made of 75% Hydrogen, and 25% Helium
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The sun is about 4.5 Billion years old
There are cooler spots on the sun called sunspots,
but they are still extremely hot.
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Mercury
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Mercury is the closest planet to the sun
The surface has many craters that are
very old
The atmosphere of Mercury is thin
Mariner 10 is the only spacecraft to visit
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The Earth and Venus are very similar,
many times Venus is called the Earth’s
sister planet.
There is no water on Venus, it has all
boiled off.
Venus is the sixth largest
It is the brightest planet
 The Earth is the fifth largest planet
 There is only one natural satellite,
the moon, rotating around the earth
 71% of the Earth’s surface is
covered with water
 The Earth is the only planet with
proven life living on it
Mars has the nickname “Red
Planet” for its appearance
The average temperature is
negative 67 degrees
Fahrenheit
There are permanent ice caps
at both poles on Mars
People have landed on Mars to
explore its surface
 Jupiter is the largest planet
 It is 318 times the size of the Earth
 Galileo discovered Jupiter in 1610
 There are 16 satellites (moons)
orbiting Jupiter
 Jupiter is a gas planet and has no
solid surface
 Saturn is the second largest
planet
 The interior of Saturn is hot
and radiates more heat than
what it receives from the sun
 The planet looks flat because
of its rapid rotation and
gaseous atmosphere
 Saturn is known for its many
rings
 Uranus was the first planet
discovered at a later date, it was
founded in 1781 by William
Herschel
 The composition of Uranus is
rocks and ice
 There are 11 rings and 17 moons
 Voyager 2 made the only visit to
Uranus on January 24, 1986
Neptune
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Neptune is blue in color like
Uranus
 Sometimes Neptune crosses
Pluto’s orbit making it the
furthest planet from the sun
 There is a Great Dark Spot in the
southern hemisphere that moves
very quickly
 Neptune has rings that have a
twisted structure and has a faint
arc to it
Pluto is the smallest planet
It is 5,913,520,000 km from the sun
Pluto is the only planet that has never
been visited
There is only one satellite known to
Pluto that is named Charon
For more information go to
the Astronomy for Kids
website
Http://www.frontiernet.net/~kidpower/astronomy.html