The Planets in Our Solar System By the end of this lesson: Students will be able to name the eight planets in order from the closest to the sun to the farthest away. Students will be able to tell at least two facts about each planet.

What is the order of the planets? From closest to the Sun to farthest away from the Sun, the planets go in this order: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

Mercury Closest planet to the sun It takes less than 88 Earth days for Mercury to orbit around the sun one time. Has a diameter of 3,031 miles The ancient Romans named it Mercury after the swift messenger of their Gods. Mercury has no moons.

Venus Venus is the second planet from the sun and it is the closest planet to Earth. It is named after the Roman Goddess of love and beauty. The diameter of Venus is about 7,520 miles (about 400 miles smaller than that of Earth). It takes 224 days for Venus to orbit around the sun. Has mountains that are higher than Earth.

Earth The Earth travels through space at 660,000 miles per hour. The Earth weighs 6,588,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000 tons. The Earth is the third planet from the sun.

Mars Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen in detail from the Earth. It is reddish in color. Mars was named after the bloody God of war of the ancient Romans. Mars is the fourth closest planet to the sun. The diameter of Mars is 4,200 miles

Jupiter Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. Named after the king of the Roman Gods. Jupiter is the 5th closest planet to our sun. It rotates faster than any planet in the Solar System. It takes 12 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit around the sun 1 time.

Saturn Saturn is the second largest planet. Saturn is known for its beautiful rings. Saturn's diameter at its equator is 74,600 miles (almost ten times that of Earth). Named after the Roman God of agriculture. It takes about Earth years for Saturn to orbit around the sun. Saturn's rings are made up of billions of pieces of dust and rocks.

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. It is named after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus has a mass that is more than 14 times larger than Earth. Uranus is known as the sideways planet. It takes 30,685 Earth days for Uranus to complete one orbit around the sun

Neptune Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun. It's diameter is about 30,200 miles (almost 4 times the Earth's diameter). Neptune was named after the Roman sea God. Neptune is the stormiest planet. Some winds get up to 1,240 miles per hour. Neptune is blue in color and has 8 moons.