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Kineton Primary Shape Gang - Solar System

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In our solar system, nine planets circle around our Sun. The Sun sits in the middle while the planets travel in circular paths (called orbits) around it. These nine planets travel in the same direction (counter- clockwise looking down from the Sun's north pole). The picture on the left shows the different paths and positions of each planet.
The Sun is a star - it is not a planet. Our Sun is just like the stars we see in the night sky. The Sun is also the only star we see during the daytime.

The solar system is made up of two parts:

The inner solar system contains: 

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

The inner planets are separated from the outer planets by the Asteroid Belt.

The Outer solar system contains:

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

These nine planets can be split into Rocky Planets and Gas Planets:

ROCKY PLANETS (Mercury - Venus - Earth - Mars - Pluto )

The rocky planets are mostly made up of rock and metal. These planets are very heavy and move slowly. They also do not have rings and very few moons.

GAS PLANETS (Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune ) 

The gas planets are mostly made up of gases (hydrogen and helium). These planets are light for their sizes (just like a big air balloon) and move quickly. They have rings and lots of moons.

How Big is the Earth?

Our world, Earth, is one of nine planets orbiting the Sun. A great ball of fire, the Sun provides light and heat to the entire Solar System. If it wasn't for the Sun, our world would just be a cold rock, falling through space.

The picture above is called a montage : it shows the relative sizes of all the planets. The fiery edge at the left of the picture is the Sun. As you can see, the Sun is far larger than any of the worlds orbiting it. Well over half a million Earths (the Earth is the third planet out from the sun) could fit inside of it! This is roughly the same size difference in size as a beach ball next to a ball bearing!

Orbits of the Planets

Planets and moons orbit due to gravity. Just like we are pulled towards the ground, the Moon is attracted to the Earth too, as are all the planets to our Sun. The orbits of the planets about the sun are almost, but not quite, circular. They are in fact elliptical, which is like a slightly squashed circle.

picture : The Solar System taken from The Solar System page at Arizona State University

The four inner planets are sometimes known as the Terrestrial Planets : Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Unlike the gas giants, they all have a solid surface.

The four largest planets are known as the Gas Giants or Jovian Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They are massive balls of fluids without a solid surface that you could stand on. If you were able to send a spacecraft into the atmosphere of one of them, it would soon be crushed by the huge pressures.

The furthest planet from the Sun is Pluto. It is a very small world: some astronomers even question whether it is a planet at all. It is extremely cold and has an elliptical orbit.

How did our Solar System form?

Our Solar System began forming about 4.6 billion years ago from a swirling gas cloud. Over time, the gas cooled and clumped together to form large bodies called 'protoplanets'. The 'left over' material became comets, roaming silently through the Solar System.

Eventually after 100 million years, the enormous ball of gas at the centre of the cloud overheated and exploded in a huge nuclear reaction. The Sun was born.

The Sun

The Sun is a star at the centre of the Solar System. All the planets revolve around it.

  • The Sun is a 1 million km wide burning ball of gas is with a surface temperature of 5500ºC, with the core reaching a sweltering 15.6 million ºC
  • The Sun is so large, you could fit over one million Earths inside it

 

  • The Sun is by far the brightest object in the sky. It's so bright that during the day its light drowns out virtually everything else in space.The Sun is so powerful that even from the Earth, its light can damage your eyesight. So never look at the Sun directly or through a telescope.
  • The best time to appreciate the majesty of the Sun from the Earth is during a solar eclipse. Then the Moon passes in front of the Sun and so it temporarily disappears from the sky.

The Terrestrial Planets

Mercury

Mercury is the nearest planet to the Sun and the second smallest in the Solar Syste. 

  • If you were on Mercury you could see the Sun rise twice in one day
  • Mercury experiences the widest range in temperature of any planet, from a chilly -170°C at night to a sizzling 350°C during the day
  • Caloris Basin - The most conspicuous feature on the planet is the Caloris Basin - a crater larger than the British Isles. A staggering 1300km (800 miles) across, it is one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System.
  • Mercury has very little atmosphere

Venus

The second planet from the Sun and the Earth's nearest planetary neighbour
  • Experiences the longest day of any planet, a staggering 243 Earth days!
  • The only planet where the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east
  • Has volcanoes 100km wide and five km high
  • But watch out for the poisonous Venusian atmosphere - it's full of sulphuric acid

Earth

Earth is the only planet in the Solar System on which conditions are right for intelligent life to evolve. The planet is the correct distance from the Sun for water to exist as a liquid, a vital ingredient for life.
Earth's oceans also help to regulate the planet's temperature. So it remains fairly constant even when solar conditions change.

The Earth also has a powerful magnetic field. This, combined with the atmosphere, shields the planet from the majority of the harmful solar radiation.

The Earth is therefore the only planet you can walk on without the aid of protective clothing.

The Earth has got a huge satellite called the Moon, an amazing satellite that, despite not having an atmosphere, has been visited safely by humans. Both bodies dominate each other's skies, and have complicated gravitational interactions. As a result, the Earth's seas vary in height as much as two metres every rotation. The Moon's rotation has perfectly matched its orbital period (also due to these interactions) and Earth's rotation is slowing down for the same reasons.

Mars

The fourth planet from the Sun, just past the Earth. Often called the 'Red Planet', due to its vivid colour.
  • It has longest ever canyon system, stretching over 5,000km (3,000 miles)
  • and the Solar System's largest volcano - over 50 times bigger than those on Earth

The Jovian Planets or Gas Giants

Jupiter

The fifth planet from the Sun and the biggest in the Solar System

  • Jupiter is larger than all the other eight planets put together
  • The Great Red Spot - This circular knot of gases marks a vast thunderstorm that has raged on the planet's surface for over 300 years. The spot is over twice the size of Earth and is the largest thunderstorm in the Solar System.
  • It has largest system of moons of any planet (over 39!)
  • Jupiter's rings -An infrared imager is a must-have gadget for any trip to Jupiter. Like Saturn, Jupiter also has a system of rings. They're very faint when viewed with the naked eye. But scanned in the infrared spectrum, Jupiter's rings are a colourful sight. Unlike Saturn's rings, Jupiter's do not contain ice crystals. They are probably composed of debris from meteor collisions on Jupiter's moons.

Saturn

The second largest planet in the Solar System, sixth in line from the Sun.
  • It has most spectacular ring system of any planet in the Solar System
  • This planet's density is so small that it would float on water - if there were an ocean large enough!

  • Saturn is a 'gas giant' planet, like its larger neighbour Jupiter. Although it's not as brightly coloured as Jupiter, the planets have a very similar composition. The atmosphere, mostly hydrogen and helium, with traces of simple compounds, spins around the planet.
  • Saturn's rings - Saturn has the most spectacular ring system in the Solar System. These rings aren't solid, but made up of billions of separate chunks. They range from microscopic particles to rocks that are a few metres in diameter.

Uranus

The third largest planet in the Solar System, and the seventh planet from the Sun.

  • A giant ball of gas, four times bigger than the Earth
  • The only planet to spin on its side
  • Has 42-year nights and days
  • A blue hue - The atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium, with small quantities of methane. It's the methane that absorbs the red light from the Sun's ray, giving the planet its distinct blue colour.

Neptune

The fourth largest planet in the Solar System.

  • Has the fastest winds in the Solar System at over 2,000km per hour
  • During certain points in its orbit, Neptune passes Pluto to become the furthest planet from the Sun

  • Mystery colour - Neptune's vivid blue colour is a mystery. No one knows the identity of the light-absorbing chemical that creates its deep blue skies

The Outer Reaches

Pluto 

The smallest planet in the Solar System, around half the size of Earth's Moon. For most of its orbit, Pluto is the furthest planet from the Sun.
  • The mysterious icy planet that has yet to be mapped
  • The coldest planet in the Solar System at a chilly -220ºC
  • Due to its small size and distant location, some astronomers argue that Pluto isn't a planet at all. They think of it as giant asteroid.

 

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© Copyright: 2004 All information on this website belongs to Kineton CEVA Primary School & should not be reproduced, copied etc. without written permission