THE SOLAR SYSTEM
By Level Two
The SunThe sun is 864,000 miles in diameterThe sun is a starThe temperature on the sun’s surface is
10,500 degrees FahrenheitThe sun is the brightest object in the skyThe sun is made of hydrogen and helium
The Milky Way is made out of light The Milky Way is 100,000 light years across
from end to end The Milky Way is a galaxy- a huge ground of
stars and other objects in space The best time to see the Milky Way is during
winter The Milky Way does not orbit the sun
because it is a galaxy
The Milky Way
MERCURY
Mercury is 3,031 miles in diameter
Mercury is made up of rocks and iron
Mercury is covered in a thin layer of
minerals.
It takes Mercury two years to orbit
the sun
Mercury is 36 million miles from the
sun
The diameter of Venus is 7,521 miles Venus is made out of rocks It takes 225 days for Venus to orbit the sun Venus and Earth are the same size Venus does not have any moons
Venus
EARTHEarth is 7,927 miles in diameter
Earth is made out of rocks
Earth is one of the rockiest planets
Earth is sometimes called the “blue planet”
People once thought that the Earth was the center of the solar system
Mars
Mars is 4,292 miles in diameter Mars is made out of gas People can see Mars in the night sky
during certain times of the year Mars is smaller than the Earth From Earth, Mars looks like a bright
red star
JupiterJupiter is 88,850 miles in diameterJupiter is made out of gasIt takes Jupiter 9 hours and 55 minutes to
rotate Jupiter has three ringsJupiter has 16 moons
Saturn
The diameter of Saturn is 74,899 miles It takes Saturn 29 years and 6 months to
orbit the sun Titan is Saturn’s largest moon Saturn is not heavy compared to its size Five of Saturn’s moons are less than 20
miles long Saturn is made out of gas
Uranus
The diameter of Uranus is 31,764 miles It takes 84 years for Uranus to orbit the
sun Uranus has 18 moons In 1977 Uranus passed in front of a star People knew very little about Uranus
before 1977 Uranus was the first planet discovered
since ancient times
NeptuneThe diameter of Neptune is 30,776 milesNeptune is made out of gasThe great dark spot has disappeared from
Neptune’s atmosphereBright blue clouds surround NeptuneNeptune’s air has no oxygen
PlutoThe dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in
1930The diameter of Pluto is 1,422 milesPluto is made from rocksIt takes Pluto 248 years to orbit the sunPluto is a far-off icy body in our solar systemPluto comes closer to the sun than the planet
Neptune
AsteroidsAsteroids are made out of rocksSome asteroids follow the planet Jupiter
around the sunAsteroids are found between Mars and
JupiterAsteroids are less than 18 miles in diameter The best time to view an asteroid is at night
with a telescope
CometsA comet can move up to one million miles per
hourThe path of a comet is a flatten circleWhen the comet is towards the sun, the tail is
behind the headA comet moves fast in its trip around the sunA comet is made out of gases and dust
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