The Solar System Rang 4, 5, 6. Knockconan N.S 2010

Jupiter The planet Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter has 16 moons. It is is 483 million miles away from the sun. If you were 12 years old on Earth, on Jupiter you would be only 1 year old. Jupiter was the King of the Roman Gods and the patron of the Roman state. To the ancient Greeks, he was known as Zeus, ruler of the Greek Gods and Mount Olympus.

URANUS The icy planet Uranus is a smaller version of Jupiter. It has faint rings and a number of moons. Uranus takes about 84 years to orbit the sun. It rotates on its side and so half the time one pole is toward the sun and then the other making each of the four seasons last about 20 years. The faint bluish colour of the planet is because the methane gas in the atmosphere absorbs red light and reflects blue light. Uranus was the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god.

Mercury is the innermost and smalle Mercury is a small, rocky planet. It has been visited by the Mariner 10 spacecraft. Mariner 10 mapped about half of Mercury's surface.   Scientists think that there may be *volcanic activity* on Mercury. They are still studying information sent to Earth from the Mariner spacecraft to make sure.  The temperature on Mercury ranges from 90K to 700 K.  It was once believed that there was no water on Mercury, but this turned out to be false. There is evidence of ice at Mercury's north pole. The ice hasn't melted because it is protected from the Sun's heat by shadows of some craters. Mercury has no moons. Mercury is the innermost and smalle In Roman mythology Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery. Mercury is also known as Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, in Greek mythology. The planet probably received this name because it moves so quickly across the sky.

By Ciara Woods & Sinead Rafferty Venus Venus has been known since perhistoric times. It is the brightest object in the sky except for the sun and the moon. The first spacecraft to visit Venus was mariner 2 in 1962. Venus is the second planet from the sun it is 108,200,000 km from the sun. It is the sixth largest planet. Venus has no moons. They say that Earth and Venus are like sisters. Venus can be 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Venus was named after the goddess of love and beauty. It is so hot that a vehicle will not last more than 30 minutes, it will evaporate. Venus is called the greenhouse. Venus is very small. Venus is covered with clouds. Venus is 67 million miles from the sun. By Ciara Woods & Sinead Rafferty 5th Class

Pluto Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun and by far the smallest. Pluto is smaller than all nine of the solar system's planets. In fact its no longer really considered a planet. It’s orbit on average is 5,913,520,000 from the sun Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Pluto has three moons: Charon, Nix and Hydra. It is so far away that no satellites have been sent to it so we do not have a good picture of it.

Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, is commonly referred to as the Red Planet due to its reddish appearance from Earth. The planet is named after the Roman God of War, Mars. It is the seventh largest planet in our solar system. The yellow-orange colour of the Martian surface is due to the presence of oxidized iron. The pink-orange colour of the sky is caused by extremely fine red dust that is suspended in the thin atmosphere of Mars. Very strong winds and vast dust storms sometimes blow through the entire planet for months. Mars has two tiny moons which orbit very close to the surface. Mars Mars is a small, rocky planet which is cold and lifeless.   The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others followed including the two Viking Landers in 1976. After a long break, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on July 4, 1997.  Mars has permanent ice caps at both poles made up mostly of solid carbon dioxide. We know this as "dry ice." 

Neptune Neptune is a gas giant like Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus. It is the smallest one in the solar system. Although it is traditionally reported that the planet is the eighth from the Sun, this isn’t always true. Pluto has an elliptical orbit, which means it occasionally is closer to the Sun than Neptune. This only occurs during brief periods.  Neptune is comprised primarily of hydrogen and has a very active atmosphere. Winds can reach over 1,200 miles per hour and storms are frequent. Neptune has a big blue spot similar to the red spot storm found on Jupiter. It also has faint rings similar to those found on Jupiter. 

EARTH Earth is the only planet that has plants and animals living on it. The worlds population has grown tremendously over the past two thousand years. In 1999, the world’s population passed the six billion mark. The average distance from Earth to the sun is 93,020,000 miles (149,669,180km) The average distance to the moon is 238,857 miles (384,403.1km) Earth has one moon.

The Moon Some of the planets have many moons. A moon is a satellite that orbits a planet. Earth has one moon. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 kilometres (238,857 miles), about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon's diameter is 3,474 kilometres (2,159 miles) a little more than a quarter of that of the Earth. Gravity on the moon is about 17 percent of that at the Earth's surface. The Moon is the only celestial body on which human beings have made a manned landing. The first manned lunar mission was by NASAs Apollo 8 in 1968 and there were further manned lunar landings between 1969 and 1972. The surface of Earth's Moon is marked by impact craters which form when asteroids and comets crash with the lunar surface. There are about half a million craters with diameters greater than 1 km on the Moon. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth with respect to the fixed stars about once every 27.3 days Earth's ocean tides are initiated by the tidal force of Moon's gravity.