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Researched by Zach G. |
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The solar system is huge. It contains planets,
comets, asteroids, and moons orbiting around the sun, which gives heat
to the planets. The solar system is located inside the Milky Way. There
are many solar systems in the Universe, but our solar system is
special. It is our home!
Our Sun: The Star of the Solar System!
Our sun is actually a star that has the name “Sol”. That is where
the solar system got its name. There are several different types
of stars. The sun is only an average size compared to other
stars. Some stars are hot, like our sun, and some are white
dwarfs and black dwarfs. The gravity of the Sun helps keep the planets
from drifting away and holds them in their orbits. The heat and light
from the sun helps keep Earth’s temperature just right for life to
exist.
The Sun has a solar eclipse. When the moon is directly between earth
and the Sun it causes a solar eclipse since the Sun is 400 times
farther away, but the moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun.
The Sun also has huge solar flares that stretch out for hundreds of
thousands of miles. The Sun has different star stages. In about 5
billion years the Sun will expand in size that may cover Venus’s and
Mercury’s orbits. After that, it will shrink to a white dwarf star.
Then it will cool to a black dwarf star.
The Nine Planets
Our planets’ names are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Some planets are rocky (like Earth) and some are made of gas like
Jupiter.
∑ Mercury, doesn’t have an atmosphere. That’s why it gets hit by so
many meteors. The meteors can’t burn up since it doesn’t have an
atmosphere.
∑ Venus has carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. The clouds are made
of tiny sulfur crystals.
∑ Earth is the only planet known to support life. Earth is tipped 23.5
degrees. It takes Earth a little over365 days for it to make a complete
orbit(one year.
∑ Mars, has some things that are the same as Earth and some things that
are not the same. Mars has four seasons. It has dried up rivers. Mars
does have an atmosphere but it is made of carbon dioxide. Mars
also has a nick name, “the Red Planet”. It got that name from its red
dust.
∑ Jupiter, has small rings. The rings are made of carbon dioxide.
Jupiter has huge storms. One of the storms is three times as big as
Earth! The whole planet is 11 times larger than Earth!!
∑ Saturn, like Jupiter, has rings, but Saturn’s rings are made of ice
and dust. The large rings are made of smaller rings. Saturn isn’t very
dense(compacted). For example, if you had a huge pool it would float!
∑ Uranus, has small rings like Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus is tilted a
lot more than Earth ,it is tilted 98degrees. That’s why it has harsh
seasons.
∑ Neptune, is the last planet that has rings. Neptune’s rings are
different from the other planets’ rings, they are incomplete. Some
rings that are thick have particles while others don’t. Neptune is
another planet that is made of gas.
∑ Pluto, is the last planet. Pluto is a cold icy world. It is because
it is the farthest from the Sun, and the Sun’s heat can travel there
but it doesn’t get very much heat. Pluto’s orbit is very
different from other planets orbits.
Many Moons
There are many types of moons, some have frozen oceans, and there are
some active volcanoes. Mercury and Venus don’t have any moons. Mercury
doesn’t have a moon because it is too small to make enough gravity to
hold a moon.
Earth has one moon. Its name is Luna. Mars has two moons their
names are Pheobos and Deimos. Mars’ moons are actually captured
asteroids. Jupiter has 16 moons. The largest are Amaithea, Io, Europa,
Ganymede, and Calisto. Saturn has 31 known moons. One of Saturn’s
moon’s atmosphere is thicker than Earth’s. That moon is called Titan.
Uranus has at least 15 moons. Neptune has 8 moons but you can only see
2 of them. Pluto has 1 moon, Charon. It is half the size of Pluto.
Comets, Asteroids and Other Bodies
∑ Asteroids are material that may have not formed into planets.
∑ Comets have a nucleus, coma, hydrogen cloud, dust tail, and an ion
tail.
o The coma for the comets are made of carbon dioxide.
o The nucleus is hard and stable. It is also mostly made of gas and
ice.
o The dust tail might be ten million kilometers long.
o The ion tail may be a hundred million miles long.
o Their strange shaped orbits allow them to go farther from the sun
than Pluto.
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