Download Slide 1 - MrMrsCase

Our Solar
System is
made up of
the sun and
everything
that orbits
the sun.
Planets, their
moons,
asteroids,
comets,
dwarf
planets.
Our solar system contains 8 planets. They can be divided into
the solid inner planets and the outer planets which are gas
planets. They do not line up as shown in the picture below. It
is possible for them to roughly line up once in millions of
years.
The solid planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars. They are made up of iron and rock. The
outer planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune. They have a core surrounded by gases
like hydrogen and helium. They are known as the
gas giants because they are so much larger than
the inner planets. All the planets orbit the sun, but
at different speeds. This picture is incorrect because
they don’t orbit in a straight line.
The sun is a star. It is a
gigantic ball of exploding
hydrogen and helium gas. The
sun is so large, more than a
million Earths could fit inside
it. Everything in the solar
system gets its heat and light
from the sun. The sun is also
the center of our solar
system. The sun’s
gravitational pull creates a
pulling force that pulls
everything within 3,750
million miles toward it.
Everything in the solar
system orbits around the sun.
Different planets revolve around the sun at different speeds. It takes
Jupiter almost 12 Earth years to revolve around the sun. It only takes
Mercury about 88 earth days to revolve around the sun. So that means
a year on Jupiter is 12 Earth years, and a year on Mercury is 88 Earth
days.
Asteroids are large chunks of rock, or rock
and metal that orbit the sun. Most asteroids
are found in the asteroid belt between Mars
and Jupiter.
Comets are large chunks of dirty ice that orbit the sun. As the
sun’s gravity pulls them closer to the sun, the ice begins to melt.
The tail you see is really water vapor from the melting ice.
Meteoroids are
small pieces of rock
and metal which
orbit the sun. When
they are caught by
Earth’s gravity and
pulled into Earth’s
atmosphere, the
friction between
the meteoroid and
the atmosphere
causes them to
burn up. We call
burning meteoroids
meteors or falling
stars.
A star is a burning ball of
gas that gives off light and
planet
heat. A
is made up
of iron, rock or gases and does
not make its own light or heat.
Planets have to get light and
heat from stars.
Mercury is 36 million
miles from the sun and
its high temperature is
about 800 degrees
Fahrenheit. Neptune is
about 2,800 million
miles from the sun and
the high temperature on
Neptune is around -330
degrees Fahrenheit. The
farther a planet is from
the sun, the colder its
temperature.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves
between the Earth and the Sun. The moon
temporarily blocks out our view of the sun.
During a total eclipse it becomes very dark
outside and you can see rays of sunlight
radiating out from behind the moon.
A lunar eclipse
occurs when the
Earth moves
between the sun
and the moon
and the Earth’s
shadow falls on
the moon.
The Milky Way is the galaxy we live in. Our galaxy is a huge collection of
about 100 billion stars and everything that orbits the stars. Our sun is
found about 28,000 *light years from the center of the Milky Way
Galaxy, and since we are on Earth, and the Earth orbits the sun, that
means we are found about 28,000 light years from the center of the Milky
Way galaxy.
* A light year is the distance that light travels in a year, about 5.88 million million miles.
THE MILKY WAY GALAXY