Download Mercury The planet Mercury looks a little bit like Earth`s moon. Like

Mercury
The planet Mercury looks a little bit like Earth's
moon. Like our Moon, Mercury’s surface is covered with craters caused by space rock impacts. The
closest planet to the sun, Mercury is only a bit larger than Earth's moon. Its day side is scorched by the
sun and can reach 840 degrees F (450 degrees C), but on the night side, temperatures drop to hundreds
of degrees below freezing. Mercury has virtually no atmosphere to absorb meteor impacts, so its surface
is pockmarked with craters, just like the moon.
Venus
Venus is a cloudy orangish looking planet. The second (2nd) planet from the sun, Venus is terribly hot.
The atmosphere is toxic. The pressure at the surface would crush and kill you. Scientists describe Venus’
situation as a runaway greenhouse effect. Its size and structure are similar to Earth, Venus' thick, toxic
atmosphere traps heat in a runaway "greenhouse effect." Oddly, Venus spins slowly in the opposite
direction of most planets. The Greeks believed Venus was two different objects — one in the morning
sky and another in the evening. Because it is often brighter than any other object in the sky — except for
the sun and moon — Venus has generated many UFO reports.
Earth
From outer space the earth looks mostly like one big blue blob
with some green in it. Sometimes there is cloud cover so there are white splotches.The third (3rd) planet
from the sun, Earth is a waterworld, with two-thirds of the planet covered by ocean. It’s the only world
known to harbor life. Earth’s atmosphere is rich in life-sustaining nitrogen and oxygen. Earth's surface
rotates about its axis at 1,532 feet per second — slightly more than 1,000 mph — at the equator. The
planet zips around the sun at more than 18 miles per second.
Mars
The planet mars has a pink or red hue in reference to its land and sky. The colour of its appearance
ranges from yellow, reddish or orange and its brightness may vary in comparison to the other planets
over the orbits' course. Weather conditions are based on seasonal patterns. The fourth (4th) planet
from the sun, is a cold, dusty place. The dust, an iron oxide, gives the planet its reddish cast. Mars shares
similarities with Earth: It is rocky, has mountains and valleys, and storm systems ranging from localized
tornado-like dust devils to planet-engulfing dust storms. It snows on Mars. And Mars harbors water ice.
Scientists think it was once wet and warm, though today it’s cold and desert-like. Its atmosphere is too
thin for liquid water to exist on the surface for any length of time. Scientists think ancient Mars would
have had the conditions to support life, and there is hope that signs of past life — possibly even present
biology — may exist on the Red Planet.
Jupiter
Jupiter has bands of white, orange, brown, yellow, and red. It
also has a huge red area known as the Great Red Spot that is actually a storm that has been going on for
over 300 years. The fifth (5th) planet from the sun, Jupiter is huge and is the most massive planet in our
solar system. It’s a mostly gaseous world, mostly hydrogen and helium. Its swirling clouds are colorful
due to different types of trace gases. A big feature is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has raged
for hundreds of years. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field, and with dozens of moons, it looks a bit like a
miniature solar system.
Saturn
Saturn is a mix of shimmering colours including pink,
hues of grey and brown. The sixth (6th) planet from the sun is known most for its rings. When Galileo
Galilei first studied Saturn in the early 1600s, he thought it was an object with three parts. Not knowing
he was seeing a planet with rings, the stumped astronomer entered a small drawing — a symbol with
one large circle and two smaller ones — in his notebook, as a noun in a sentence describing his
discovery. More than 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens proposed that they were rings. The rings are
made of ice and rock. Scientists are not yet sure how they formed. The gaseous planet is mostly
hydrogen and helium. It has numerous moons.
Uranus
Uranus is a light sky blue looking planet. The seventh (7th) planet from the sun, Uranus is an oddball. It’s
the only giant planet whose equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit — it basically orbits on its side.
Astronomers think the planet collided with some other planet-sized object long ago, causing the tilt. The
tilt causes extreme seasons that last 20+ years, and the sun beats down on one pole or the other for 84
Earth-years. Uranus is about the same size as Neptune. Methane in the atmosphere gives Uranus its
blue-green tint. It has numerous moons and faint rings.
Neptune
Neptune looks like a giant ball which has a bluish-green colour. The eighth (8th) planet from the sun,
Neptune is known for strong winds — sometimes faster than the speed of sound. Neptune is far out and
cold. The planet is more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth. It has a rocky core. Neptune was the
first planet to be predicted to exist by using math, before it was detected. Irregularities in the orbit of
Uranus led French astronomer Alexis Bouvard to suggest some other might be exerting a gravitational
tug. German astronomer Johann Galle used calculations to help find Neptune in a telescope. Neptune is
about 17 times as massive as Earth.
Pluto (Dwarf Planet)
Scientists don't have a very detailed picture of Pluto but do know that Pluto is a dark brown, icy and a
snowy dark planet. The ninth (9th) planet from thee sun … well … Pluto is unlike other planets in many
respects. It is smaller than our moon. Its orbit carries inside the orbit of Neptune and the way out
beyond that orbit. From 1979 until early 1999, Pluto had actually been the eighth planet from the sun.
Then, on Feb. 11, 1999, it crossed Neptune's path and once again became the solar system's most
distant planet — until it was demoted to dwarf planet status. Pluto will stay beyond Neptune for 228
years. Pluto’s orbit is tilted to the main plane of the solar system — where the other planets orbit — by
17.1 degrees. It’s a cold, rocky world with only a very ephemeral atmosphere.
Drawrf planet
a full-fledged planet goes like this: A body that circles the sunwithout being some other object's satellite,
is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity (but not so big that it begins to undergo nuclear fusion,
like a star) and has "cleared its neighborhood" of most other orbiting bodies. Yeah, that’s a mouthful.