The Solar System By Level Two

The Sun The sun is 864,000 miles in diameter The sun is a star The temperature on the sun’s surface is 10,500 degrees Fahrenheit The sun is the brightest object in the sky The sun is made of hydrogen and helium

The Milky Way 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

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

Venus 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

Earth Earth 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

Jupiter Jupiter is 88,850 miles in diameter Jupiter is made out of gas It takes Jupiter 9 hours and 55 minutes to rotate Jupiter has three rings Jupiter 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

Neptune The diameter of Neptune is 30,776 miles Neptune is made out of gas The great dark spot has disappeared from Neptune’s atmosphere Bright blue clouds surround Neptune Neptune’s air has no oxygen

Pluto The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered in 1930 The diameter of Pluto is 1,422 miles Pluto is made from rocks It takes Pluto 248 years to orbit the sun Pluto is a far-off icy body in our solar system Pluto comes closer to the sun than the planet Neptune

Asteroids Asteroids are made out of rocks Some asteroids follow the planet Jupiter around the sun Asteroids are found between Mars and Jupiter Asteroids are less than 18 miles in diameter The best time to view an asteroid is at night with a telescope

Comets A comet can move up to one million miles per hour The path of a comet is a flatten circle When the comet is towards the sun, the tail is behind the head A comet moves fast in its trip around the sun A comet is made out of gases and dust