From our small world we have gazed upon the cosmic ocean for thousands of years.

Ancient astronomers observed points of light that appeared to [a] move among the stars. The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it,

all of which formedfrom the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass (well over 99%) is in the Sun. Of the many objects that orbit the Sun, most of the mass is contained within eight relatively solitary planets
[e]

whose orbits are almost circular and lie within a nearly flat disc called the ecliptic plane. The four smaller inner

planets, Mercury,Venus, Earth and Mars, also called the terrestrial planets, are primarily composed of rock and metal. The four outer planets, thegas giants, are substantially more massive than the terrestrials. The two largest, Jupiter and Saturn, are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium; the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are composed largely of ices, such as water, ammonia and methane, and are often referred to separately as "ice giants".There are 140 known natural satellites, also called moons, in
orbit around the various planets in our solar system, ranging from bodies larger than our own moon to small pieces of debris. Most of the planets also have magnetic fields, which extend into space and form a magnetosphere around each planet. These magnetospheres rotate with the planet, sweeping charged particles with them. The sun has a magnetic field, the heliosphere, which envelops our entire solar system.

The Sun The Romans called the sun Sol, which in English means sun. In ancient Greece, the sun was

ur Sun is not unique in the universe. It is a common middle-sized yellow star which scientists have named Sol, after the ancient Roman name. This is why our system of planets is called the Solar System. There are trillions of other stars in the universe just like it. Many of these stars have their own systems of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets.
called Helios.

The Sun was born in a vast cloud of gas and dust around 5 billion years ago. Indeed, these vast nebulae are the birth places of all stars. Over a period of many millions of years, this gas and dust began to fall into a common center under the force of its own gravity.

At the center, an ever growing body of mass was forming. As the matter fell inward, it generated a tremendous amount of heat and pressure. As it grew, the baby Sun became hotter and hotter. Eventually, when it reached a temperature of around 1 million degrees, its core ignited, causing it to begin nuclear fusion.

When this happened, the Sun began producing its own light, heat, and energy. L i g h t f r o m t h e S u n c a n r e a c h t h e E a r t h i n o nl y 8 mi n u t e s ! T hi s
i s c al l e d t h e s p e e d o f l i g h t . T h e S u n i s ne a rl y 9 3 m i l l i o n m i l e s ( ap p r ox 1 4 5 m i l l i o n k m ) f r om E a rt h .

Planets

Mercury
Mercury means:
Mercury was the Roman version of the god Hermes. He was the messenger for the other gods, and for this reason Mercury is often depicted in pictures with winged sandals. In addition to delivering messages, he was also the protector of travelers and merchants.

Mercury
1 Orbit of Sun 1 Rotation Mass Volume Escape Velocity Distance From Sun 87.969 Days 58.6461 Days 5% of Earth 5% of Earth 15,450 km/h
(9,600 mph)

How much would you weigh on Mercury?

If you moved to Mercury you would not weigh as much as you do on Earth. Not because you would lose weight on the space ship, but because Mercury is smaller, and so has less gravity. If you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on Earth, you would weigh only about 27 pounds (12 kg) on Mercury.

57 million kilometers
(36 million miles)

The Planet:
Mercury is a world of extremes. Because it is so close to the Sun a visitor could easily cook to death. However, because mercury spins so slowly it gets very cold in the night time, which means a visitor could also freeze to death. We are just starting to understand this world. It looks a lot like our moon, because it has craters and basins. Scientists used to think it acted like the Moon, but we are now learning that Mercury is in fact very different. In March of 2011, NASAs Messenger probe entered Mercury's orbit. It will soon give scientists a lot of new information about Mercury.

Maximum 465C Temperature (870 F) Minimum -184C Temperature -300 F Atmosphere Diameter Hydrogen, Helium 4876 kilometers
(3030 Miles)

Moons:
Mercury has no moons. Mercury is so close to the Sun and so small that it has only a very small atmosphere. It has been blown away by the Sun's solar winds. That means that there is almost no air on Mercury.

Venus
Venus means:
Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Greek her name was Aphrodite.

Venus
1 Orbit of Sun 1 Rotation Mass 224.701 Days 243.16 Days 81% of Earth 86% of Earth 37,498 km/h
(23,300 mph)

How much would you weigh on Venus?

Because Venus and the Earth are almost the exact same size, you Volume would weigh almost exactly the same on either planet. If you weighed 70 pounds (32 kg) on Earth, you would weigh 63 pounds (29 kg) on Venus. Escape Velocity

The Planet:
Venus is a hostile planet. Its thick cloud cover makes it impossible to see the surface, and traps much of the Sun's heat. This extra heat gives Venus the hottest average temperature of all the planets.

Distance From Sun

107 million kilometers

(67 million miles)

Average 449C Temperature (850 F) carbon dioxide, nitrogen, 12,107 kilometers

(7,523 Miles)

Atmosphere In many ways Venus is similar to the Earth. It has active volcanoes, venusquakes, mountains and valleys. The major difference is that Venus' atmosphere makes the planet far too Diameter hot for life.

Moons:
Venus has no moons. Because Venus and the Earth are the same size, scientists call Venus Earth's sister planet. For a long time most scientists thought that Venus had plants, animals, and possibly even people. However, because Venus is so hot, we now know that it is impossible for anything to live there.

Earth
Earth means:

Earth

Her name in Greek was Gaea. Earth was the mother of the mountains, valleys, streams and all other land formations. She was married to Uranus.

1 Orbit of Sun 1 Rotation Mass

365.3 Days 23hour 56min 13,200,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 Pounds 67,578 km/h

(25,000 mph)

How big is the Earth?

The Earth is the biggest of all the terrestrial planets. A terrestrial planet is a dense planet found in the inner Solar System.

Volume Escape Velocity Distance From Sun

The Planet:
Our planet is an oasis of life in an otherwise desolate universe. The Earth's temperature, weather, atmosphere and many other factors are just right to keep us alive.

150 millionkilometers (93 million miles)

Average 7.2C Temperature (45 F) Atmosphere nitrogen, oxygen, argon Diameter 12,755 kilometers (7,926
Miles)

Moons:
The Earth has one moon. Its name is Luna. Scientists use the Earth to study all the other planets. Since no human has ever visited another planet, we have to use what we know about the Earth and try to guess what the other planets must be like. This is called Comparative Planetology.

Mars
Mars means:
Mars was the Roman god of war and agriculture. It may not seem 1 Orbit of Sun like these two things go together, but they do. Mars protected those who fought for their communities and stayed home to raise 1 Rotation crops for food.

Mars
686.98 Days 24hour 37min 10% of Earth 15% of Earth 18,024 km/h
(11,200 mph)

How much would you weigh on Mars?

If you weighed 70 pounds (32 kg) on the Earth, you would weigh about 27 pounds (12 kg) on Mars.

Mass Volume Escape Velocity

The Planet:
Mars excites scientists because its mild temperament is more like the Earth's than any of the other planets. Evidence suggests that Mars once had rivers, streams, lakes, and even an ocean. As Mars' atmosphere slowly depleted into outer space, the surface water began to permanently evaporate. Today the only water on Mars is either frozen in the polar caps or underground.

Distance From Sun

229 million kilometers

(142 million miles)

Maximum 36C Temperature (98 F) Minimum -123C Temperature (-190 F) Atmosphere carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon 6794 kilometers
(4222 Miles)

Moons:
Mars has two moons, their names are Deimos and Phobos. Diameter Mars has much higher mountains and far deeper canyons than the Earth. Mars' biggest canyon would stretch from New York City to Los Angeles on the Earth. That makes the Grand Canyon look tiny. It also has the Solar System's biggest volcano called Olympus Mons.

Jupiter
Jupiter means:

Jupiter
4332.59 Days 9 hour 55 min
317 times more than Earth 1318 times more than Earth

Jupiter, known as Zeus in Greece, over threw his father Saturn to 1 Orbit of Sun become king of the gods. He then split the Universe with his brothers Neptune and Pluto. 1 Rotation

How much would you weigh on Jupiter?

Mass

If you traveled to Jupiter on vacation you would be very heavy. If Volume you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on the Earth, on Jupiter you would weigh 185 pounds (84 kg). Escape The Planet: Velocity Jupiter's great red spot is where a giant storm has been raging for at least 300 years. Its super hurricane winds blow across an area larger than the Earth. This giant planet has no solid surface. Under its atmosphere is a large liquid ocean of hydrogen and water. What lies in Distance From Sun

214,203 km/h
(133,100 mph)

777 million kilometers

(483 million miles)

between that ocean and the atmosphere? Actually there is no Average in between. The atmosphere slowly gets thicker and thicker Temperature until it becomes part of the ocean. In other words, Jupiter's Atmosphere ocean has no surface on which you could float a boat. The sky slowly becomes the ocean.

-153C
(-244 F)

hydrogen, helium, methane 142,983 kilometers

(88,846 Miles)

Moons:
Jupiter has 62 moons, 50 official and 12 unofficial. The four largest and most well-known were discovered by Galileo in the year 1610. Their names are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Some of the other moons are Adrastea, Ananke, Carme, Elara, Himalia, Leda, Lysithea, Metis, Pasiphae, Sinope, and Thebe. You can see the four Galilean moons of Jupiter with a pair of binoculars at night. Also, Jupiter spins really fast. It only takes 10 hours to go from night to day on Jupiter. For that reason, its middle has been stretched out. Rather than round it is short and fat. Kind of like when someone spins pizza dough really fast to stretch it out.

Diameter

Saturn
Saturn means:
Saturn was the god of agriculture, he was called Cronus by the Greeks. He is the son of Uranus, and father of Jupiter. Saturn over threw his father to become king of the gods, but was then over thrown himself by his son Jupiter.

Saturn
1 Orbit of Sun 1 Rotation Mass 10,759.2 Days 10 Hours 13 Min 95 times more than Earth 744 times more than Earth 127,782 km/h
(79,400 mph)

How much would you weigh on Saturn?

Because Saturn is bigger than the Earth, you would weigh more on Saturn than you do here. If you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on Earth you would weigh 74.5 pounds (34 kg) on Saturn.

Volume

The Planet:

Escape Velocity

Saturn is a favorite object for many observers. Its beautiful rings are 169,800 miles wide (approx 273,266 km). But the Distance rings are amazingly thin. If you turned the rings on their side,

1,429 million

they would be able to fit between the goal posts on a football field. In many ways Saturn is similar to Jupiter, but it is much smaller. Under the clouds of methane and helium, the sky gradually turns into liquid until it becomes a giant ocean of liquid chemicals.

From Sun

kilometers
(888 million miles)

Average -184C Temperature (-300 F) Atmosphere hydrogen, helium, methane 120,536 kilometers
(74,898 miles)

Moons:

Saturn has 53 official moons and 9 provisional (unofficial) Diameter moons. The most well-known of Saturn's moons is probably Titan. It is the second largest moon in the Solar System next to Jupiter's Ganymede. Titan is larger than the planet Mercury. Some of the other moons are Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Enceladus, Hyperion, Iapetus, Janus, Mimas, Phoebe, and Tethys. Saturn has several hundred rings. However, it is not the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings.

Uranus
Uranus means:
Uranus was the lord of the skies and husband of Earth. He was also the king of the gods until his son Saturn overthrew him.

Uranus
1 Orbit of Sun 1 Rotation Mass 30,684 Days 17.2 Hours
14.6 Times more than Earth

How much would you weigh on Uranus?

It would take you many years to fly a rocket to Uranus. When you arrived you would weigh more because Uranus is bigger than Volume the Earth . If you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on the Earth, you would weigh 62 pounds (28 kg) on Uranus.

67 times more than Earth 76,605 km/h

(47,600 mph)

The Planet:

Escape Velocity

Uranus is very odd. Unlike all the other planets and most of Distance the moons in our Solar System, Uranus spins on its side. It is From Sun believed that long ago a very large object smashed into this planet. The crash was so powerful that it completely changed Maximum the direction of Uranus' spin. Temperature Uranus may have an ocean of water beneath its clouds. It has Atmosphere a large rocky core, and because of the tremendous pressure

2,871 million kilometers

(1,784 million miles)

-184C
(-300 F)

hydrogen,

could possibly contain trillions of large diamonds. Uranus is almost identical to the planet Neptune. Diameter

helium, methane 51,117 kilometers

(31,763 miles)

Moons:
Uranus has 21 moons. Five of these moons are large and the rest are smaller. The largest moon is Titania, followed by Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda. Some of the smaller moons are named: Belinda, Bianca, Caliban, Cordelia, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Ophelia, Portia, Puck, and Rosalind. Scientists think Uranus has a huge water ocean underneath its clouds.

Neptune

Neptune means:

Neptune
60,190 Days 16 Hour 17min 17 times more than Earth 57 times more than Earth 84,651 km/h
(52,600 mph)

1 Orbit of Neptune was originally only the god of water, but was later extended to the ocean when he became associated with the Greek Sun god Poseidon. 1 Rotation

How much would you weigh on Neptune?

If you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on the Earth, you would weigh 78.5 pounds (36 kg) on Neptune.

Mass

Volume

The Planet:
Neptune has a giant storm much like the storm on Jupiter. This storm is often called The Great Dark Spot. We do not know how long this storm has been active, because it is so far away that we could not get a good view of Neptune until modern times when we began to send robot explorers. Escape Velocity Distance From Sun

4,496 million kilometers

(2,794 million miles)

For many centuries people did not know that this planet even Average -223C existed. It was discovered by Johann Galle and Heinrich Temperature (-370 F) D'Arrest in 1846. Atmosphere hydrogen, helium, Neptune has six rings which circle the planet. methane

Moons:
Neptune has 13 moons that we know of. Because Neptune is so far away, it is difficult to see any of these worlds. There are probably many more moons orbiting this blue planet which we have not yet discovered. Perhaps you will be the astronomer who discovers some of these worlds. The first moon to be discovered was Triton. Triton was discovered by an amateur astronomer in England named William Lassell only 17 days after Neptune was discovered in 1846. The names of the other moons are: Despina, Galatea, Halimede, Laomedeia, Larissa, Naiad, Nereid, Neso, Proteus, Psamathe, Sao, and Thalassa. Like Uranus, scientists think there is a very large water ocean under Neptune's clouds.

Diameter

49,527 kilometers
(30,775 Miles)

Pluto

Pluto means:
To the Romans, Pluto was thought to be the god to whom all men must eventually go. They believed him to be the god of the 1 Orbit of underworld. His name in Greece was Hades. Sun

Pluto
90,465 Days
6 Days 9 Hours

How much would you weigh on Pluto?

Because Pluto is so small you would be very light if you visited. If you weigh 70 pounds (32 kg) on Earth, you would only weigh 4 pounds (2.5 kg) on Pluto.

1 Rotation Mass Volume Escape Velocity Distance From Sun

.02% of Earth 1% of Earth 15,449 km/h

(9,600 mph)

The Planet:
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. For decades, children have been taught in school that there are nine planets in our Solar System. However, with this change, there are now only eight planets. Also because of this change, there is a new category of small planets known as plutoids. The only spacecraft to get somewhat close to Pluto was the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble was able to take pictures of Pluto and its moons for scientists to study. Little is known about Pluto and its moons because it is so far away.

5,869 million kilometers

(3,647 million miles)

Average -234 C Temperature (-390 F) Atmosphere Diameter methane, nitrogen 2,390 kilometers
(1,485 miles)

Moons:
Pluto has 3 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 system. The Earth and its moon, Luna, are sometimes considered double planets. Pluto's two other moons are called Hydra and Nix. To learn more about Charon Click Here. Pluto is so far away that no satellites have ever been sent there. This means that we have no good pictures of it. All we can do is guess what is must look like. The picture above was taken

by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is the most detailed picture we have.

What are asteroids?

An asteroid is a large rock in outer space. Some, like Ceres, can be very large, while others are as small as a grain of sand. Due to their smaller size, asteroids do not have enough gravity to pull themselves into the shape of a ball. Astronomers group asteroids into different categories based on the way they reflect sunlight.

The asteroid belt is divided into an inner belt and an outer belt. The inner belt which is made up of asteroids that are within 250 million miles (402 million km) of the Sun, contains asteroids that are made of metals. The outer belt, which includes asteroids 250 million miles (402 million km) beyond the Sun, consists of rocky asteroids. These asteroids appear darker than the asteroids of the inner belt, and are rich in carbon.

Where did the Asteroid Belt come from? Asteroids are left over materials from the formation of the Solar System. These materials were never incorporated into a planet because of their proximity to Jupiter's strong gravity.
Comets Among the most brilliant and most rare objects in the night sky. These soaring beacons with their beautiful tails come from the outer realms of the Solar System. What are comets? A comet is a small world which scientists sometimes call a planetesimal. They are made out of dust and ice, kind of like a dirty snow ball. Where do they come from? Comets come from two places: The Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud.

Why do Comets leave their home in the Oort Cloud or Kuiper Belt? A comet will spend billions of years in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud. Sometimes two comets will come very close to each other, or even crash into one another. When this happens the comets change directions. Sometimes their new path will bring them into the Inner Solar System.

This is when a comet begins to shine. Up until now the comet has been among millions of others exactly the same, but as they approach the warmer Inner Solar System they begin to melt leaving behind magnificent tails. Unfortunately, comets don't live very long once they enter the warmer part of the Solar System. Just like a snowman melts in the summer, comets melt in the Inner Solar System. Although it is the most glorious part of their lives, traveling through the Inner Solar System eventually kills them. After several thousand years they melt down to a little bit of ice and dust, not nearly enough to leave a tail. Some even melt away completely. Meteorites
Their names are a little misleading and this causes some people to think that these fast moving trails of light really are stars that have fallen out of the sky. However this is not true. Our Sun is a star, our closest star, and the other stars are many many miles away (it would take more than your lifetime to travel to them!) and since they are much bigger than a shooting star, they are certainly not responsible so we can count them out. If you are still not sure of the answer, then you might be surprised it to learn that shooting stars are just tiny bits of dust entering the Earths atmosphere from space. Tiny particles, like grains of sand or pebbles on a beach, like to crash into the atmosphere at amazingly fast speeds - some faster than a car travelling at his highest speed along the motorway! But dont worry - they are not big enough to harm you! If you pick up a stone from the beach, however, you will find that a fast moving pebble does not quite look the same as a shooting star, no matter how hard you throw it. This is because the light that you see is the heat of the air around them as they fly into the atmosphere and burn up.