Survey
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* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
• The four planets that are closest to the sun are called the TERRESTRIAL PLANETS. • These planets have rocky crusts and dense mantles and cores. • Scientists study Earth to learn more about other planets. • All of the terrestrial planets formed in similar ways and follow similar patterns. • All terrestrial planets have layers. – The heaviest materials form the core. – Lighter rock formed a mantle around the core. – The lightest rock rose to the surface and formed a crust. • Tectonics is the processes of change in a crust due to the motion of hot material underneath. • The crusts of the planets can be twisted, wrinkled up, or stretched out by the mantle. • Volcanism occurs when molten rock moves from a planet’s hot interior onto its surface. • When the inside of a planet cools enough, no more molten rock reaches the surface. • Weather or small impacts break down rocks. • The broken material is moved by a group of processes called erosion. • The material may form dunes, new layers of rock, or other features. • A small object sometimes hits a planet’s surface so fast that it causes an explosion. • The crater it leaves behind can be 10 times larger than the object that created it! • Earth’s crust is split into large pieces called tectonic plates. • These plates are moved by Earth’s hot mantle. • Mountains, valleys and other features form as the plates move. • On Earth, magma often builds up into mountains and eventually erupts as lava. • On Earth, weathering and erosion create sedimentary rocks, sand dunes, fill in lakes, and change the topography. • On Earth, impact craters are generally erased by other geologic processes. • Impact craters can be found under lakes. • Mass: 6 x 1024 kg • Diameter: 12,800 km • Average distance from the sun: 1 AU (150 million km) • Orbits in: 365 days • Rotates in: 24 hours • Read pages 725-732 or 85-92E and learn more about how the four processes, that we discussed with earth, shaped Mercury, Venus, and Mars. • Complete these pages in your Planet Book. • Work on your cover - must be colored and very well done