RXENL08ARD6B26_BLR_Cover

GRADE 6
Lesson 26
WORD COUNT
1,332
GENRE
Expository Nonfiction
LEVEL
Below Level
by Claire Daniel

Harcourt Leveled
Readers Online Database

ISBN-13: 978-0-15-350593-5
ISBN-10: 0-15-350593-1
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RXENL08ARD6B26_BLR_P1

by Claire Daniel

Cover, Detlev van Ravenswaay/Photo Researchers, Inc.; 3, Courtesy of NASA; 4, Courtesy NASA/
JPL-Caltech; 5, Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; 6, Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; 7, Courtesy of
NASA; 8, Courtesy of NASA; 9, Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; 10, Courtesy of NASA; 11, Courtesy
of NASA/JPL-Caltech; 12, Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech; 13, Detlev van Ravenswaay/Photo Re-
searchers, Inc.; 14, Navin Patel.

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 Ever since humans first looked up to the stars,
they have wondered about space. With the help
of space travel, landing on the moon, and new
technology, we have learned much in the past
century about the sun and the planets in our solar
system.

The Sun
Earth would be a dismal and barren planet without
the warmth of the sun. The sun is an average of 93
million miles (150 million km) away from Earth, yet
it sends enough heat to allow plants to grow and
animals to thrive.
The sun is huge and has a diameter of almost
900,000 miles (1,448,370 km). The 27,000,000°
Fahrenheit (14,999,982°C) temperature at its core
assures us that enough heat will reach Earth to allow
life to flourish.
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The sun is made up of mostly helium and

hydrogen. These gases undergo reactions that
release massive amounts of energy. Scientists think
that the sun will burn for another five billion years,
and that as it does, it will get bigger and hotter. Then
after many more millions of years, scientists think
that the sun will run out of fuel and become a tiny,
cold object known as a “white dwarf.”

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Mercury
Mercury is the planet that is closest to the sun.
That makes it a very hot place—during the day it
reaches around 800° Fahrenheit (427°C). However,
when the sun disappears, Mercury becomes very
cold, around -300° Fahrenheit (-184°C)!
Scientists know that Mercury’s surface has been
dented by the impact of large rocks in space. The
results are huge craters on its surface. The largest
chasm on Mercury is quite wide, about 800 miles
(1,287 km) across! The surface also looks wrinkled.
Scientists think that the wrinkles were created after
the planet was formed. They believe that Mercury
was once hot, and then it cooled. As it cooled, it
shrank, and the surface became wrinkly like a prune.

In 1973, a space probe took photographs of Mercury.

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The first color

photograph of
Venus was taken
in 1974.

Venus
Even though
Venus is the second
closest planet to the
sun, it is actually the
hottest. Thick clouds of
carbon dioxide cover the planet,
trapping heat from the sun. During the
day, temperatures can reach close to
900° Fahrenheit (482°C)!
Venus would make a terrible home for
humans. Hurricane-strength winds blow
constantly. It even rains sulfuric acid on
Venus. Obviously, no plant or animal
found on Earth could survive living on
this harsh planet!

The bluish color of Earth

is made from the oceans of
water that reflect sunlight.

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Earth
Earth is the only planet we know of where life
has come to thrive. Living things use oxygen in the
atmosphere for breathing. There is plenty of water for
plants and animals. The sun provides the energy for
plant photosynthesis, the basis for the food chain.
From outer space, Earth is distinctive with its
blue and green color, with clouds swirling above its
surface. We have relatively mild temperatures with a
mean temperature of around 59° Fahrenheit (15°C).
Earth’s surface is in a state
of constant motion. Solid rock
plates float on top of molten
rock. When these plates
hit one another, they
change the structure of
Earth in different ways.
The impact can cause
mountain ranges to
form over thousands
of years. Other times
the plates collide to
cause earthquakes.
Earthquakes can also cause
tidal waves.

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Mars
Science fiction writers have written many books
about martians, but there is no proof that any life on
Mars exists. Mars is a much colder planet than Earth.
The average temperature on Mars is -67° Fahrenheit
(-55°C). Nighttime is much colder than daytime.
Prominent mountains and deep valleys hint that
volcanoes were once active on Mars. Not much liquid
is found on Mars today, but scientists think that Mars
might have once had rivers. There is ice on Mars, but
it is made of frozen carbon dioxide, or “dry ice.”
The surface of Mars looks red and mottled, and
people often call it the “Red Planet.” The surface
is red because its dust contains iron oxide, or rust.
Robotic rovers sent by NASA have been used to
travel the surface of Mars to discover more about it.

In 2003,
unmanned
rovers landed
and began
exploring the
surface of Mars.
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Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our
solar system, even though most of
it is gas. Jupiter’s outer layers are
made up of hydrogen gas.
At its core, the hydrogen
becomes a hard material
more like metal. Some
scientists think that
the temperature inside
Jupiter could be hotter
than the sun. Clouds
engulf Jupiter and swirl
around this planet as
fast as 250 miles (402 km)
per hour.
Jupiter is not a lonely
planet. It has sixty-three known
moons orbiting it, and there could
be even more that have not been There is a Great
Red Spot on
discovered! The moon Io is covered Jupiter, which is
with volcanoes, and some are active. a hurricane of
gases whirling
Jupiter’s moon Europa is made up of about 22,000
ice. Some scientists think there might miles per hour.

be oceans of water underneath the ice.

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The spacecraft Voyager

photographed Saturn’s rings.

Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the
second largest planet. Lakes of liquid hydrogen gas
cover it’s surface. In fact, Saturn is made up entirely
of gases except for the rings. They are made up of
chunks of ice that stretch miles across. The rings look
like only a few bands, but they are actually thousands
of separate rings. These icy fragments might be what
is left of a small moon that once orbited Saturn.
Saturn has many moons. Some of the moons orbit
inside the rings. Titan is the most famous moon.
Scientists think that Titan also has liquid gas on its
surface.

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Uranus
Uranus is also made up entirely of gases. It also
has violent winds. It is the third largest planet, and
it is very cold. It has an average temperature of
-320° Fahrenheit (-196°C). Uranus
is about 1.5 billion miles (about
2.5 billion km) away from
Earth. It has twenty-seven
moons orbiting it.
Uranus also has
rings, but they are
positioned vertically.
This blue-green
planet orbits the
sun only once every
eighty-four years.

William Herschel, an amateur

astronomer, discovered Uranus.

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Neptune

Like Saturn,
Jupiter, and
Uranus, Neptune is
also made up of gases. Neptune is the eighth and
farthest planet from the sun.
Neptune is a brilliant blue color, and it is a very
cold and windy planet. Winds can blow up to 1,400
miles (2,253 km) per hour on the surface.
Neptune has a very unusual moon called Triton
that orbits Neptune in the direction opposite its other
twelve moons! Scientists don’t know why this is so.
Some believe that the moon might have bumped
another body in space and that the impact may have
sent the moon orbiting the other way.

12
 Dwarf Planets
Astronomers have long known that our solar
system contains many more objects than just the eight
planets. Scientists are still deciding what to call some
of these objects. In 2006, they decided to call three of
these objects “dwarf planets.” A dwarf planet looks
like a planet. It can even have moons like a planet.
However, it is smaller than a planet.
The names of the three dwarf planets are Ceres,
Pluto, and Eris. The dwarf planet closest to the sun
is Ceres. The next dwarf planet is Pluto. Pluto was
considered a planet for many years. In 2006, scientists
decided that Pluto was a dwarf planet instead. Pluto
has one moon, Charon. The
dwarf planet farthest from
the sun is Eris.
As scientists learn
more about the other
objects in our solar
system, they may
decide to make even
more categories for
the objects. They could
even decide to reclassify
existing ones again.

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Da

Di
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333 36
Mercury 0 88
(167) (58)
867 67.2
Venus 0 224.7
(464) (108.1)
59 93
Earth 1 365.2
(15) (150)
-85 141.6
Mars 2 687
(-65) (227.9)
-166 483.8
Jupiter 63 4,331
(-110) (778.6)
-220 890.8
Saturn 47 10,747
(-140) (1,433.6)
-320 2,793.1
Uranus 27 30,589
(-196) (4,495)
-330 1,784.8
Neptune 13 59,800
(-201) (2,872)

Source: NASA Planetary Fact Sheet

14

SPEC# RXENL08ARD6B26_BLR_014A
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Think Critically
1. What factors would make it difficult for humans to live
on Mars?

2. Which three planets are made up entirely of gases?

3. If you could visit any planet, which would it be?

Explain your answer.

4. What are some characteristics of the dwarf planets?

5. Why do you think people are so fascinated with

space?

Science
Planet Facts Choose a planet other than Earth. Study facts
about the planet. Then imagine that you are visiting the planet.
Write a description of what you see. Read the description aloud,
and have your classmates guess which planet you are visiting.

School-Home Connection With family members,

use this book to find facts about the planets. Write them
on index cards. Then make up fantasy facts and write them on
cards, too. Place all cards face down on the table. Take turns
choosing and reading a fact. Then tell if it is a real or a fantasy
fact.

Word Count: 1,332 (with graphic 1,418)