1. THE SOLAR SYSTEM

2. WHAT IS THE SOLAR SYSTEM? The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to planets, the Solar System also consists of moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun. The Sun contains around 98% of all the material in the Solar System. The larger an object is, the more gravity it has. Because the Sun is so large, its powerful gravity attracts all the other objects in the Solar System towards it.

3. HOW DID THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORM? Scientists believe that the Solar System evolved from a giant cloud of dust and gas. They believe that this dust and gas began to collapse under the weight of its own gravity. At the centre of this spinning cloud, a small star began to form. This star grew larger and larger as it collected more and more of the dust and gas that collapsed into it. Further away from the centre of this mass where the star was forming, there were smaller clumps of dust and gas that were also collapsing. The star in the centre eventually ignited forming our Sun, while the smaller clumps became the planets, minor planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.

4. JUPITER Jupiter is by far the largest planet in our Solar System. The Earth could fit inside Jupiter more than 1000 times. Jupiter's great red spot, visible in the picture below, is where a giant storm has been raging for at least 300 years. This red spot is also called "The Eye of Jupiter" because of its shape. This storm's super hurricane winds blow across an area larger than the Earth. Did you know Jupiter has rings? They are faint and are only able to be viewed when Jupiter passes in front of the Sun. This is because the light from the Sun lights them up for us to see here on Earth. Jupiter has 50 official moons and 12 provisional (unofficial) moons.

5. EARTH Earth is the only planet that can support life The Earth's temperature, weather, atmosphere and many other factors are just right to keep us alive. The Earth has one moon. Its name is Luna. It takes 1 year for earth to complete 1 orbit The Earth is the biggest of all the terrestrial planets. A terrestrial planet is a dense planet found in the inner Solar System. The diameter of Earth is 7,926 miles. The circumference measured around the equator is 24,901 miles About 30% of the Earth's surface is covered with land, while about 70% is covered by oceans.

6. PLUTO Pluto is the 9 th planet from the sun. Pluto is smaller than 7 of the moons in the Solar System. It is about two-thirds smaller than Earth's moon. Because it is so small, many scientists don't consider it a planet at all. In 1999, a group of scientists attempted to re-classify Pluto as a comet. On August 24, 2006, Pluto's status was officially changed from planet to dwarf planet. Pluto has 4 moons. The largest is named Charon. Charon is only slightly smaller than its parent Pluto. For this reason, Pluto and Charon are often called a double planet system.

7. THE END By aoife and emma