The Nine Planets

1. The Nine Planets By: 2

2. Mercury

3. How far is Mercury from the sun? Mercury is 58 million km. from the sun. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

4. 5 facts about Mercury • Little was known about Mercury before 1974.Scientists had a hard time studying Mercury with telescopes because of the Sun's bright glare • Mercury was named after an ancient Roman Messenger of the Gods. • The god Mercury had winged sandals which gave him super speed. • Mercury is very fast. It speeds around the Sun faster than the other planets. • A spacecraft named messenger will begin to orbit mercury in2011

5. Mercury’s atmosphere • The planet is bare and rocky with many craters formed by all the meteoroids and comets that have crashed into the planet. • Its coldest temperature is -170 degrees Celsius which is very very cold (-280 degrees F). The hottest temperature is 430 degrees Celsius (800 degrees F) which is very very hot.

6. How long does it take for 1 orbit? • It takes only 88 Earth days for Mercury to orbit the Sun. • The planet rotates on its axis very slowly, once in 59 Earth days.

7. Cool fact about Mercury • Mercury has no moon. It does not have any water and has almost no atmosphere.

8. Venus

9. How far is Venus from the sun? • Venus is 108 million km. from the Sun.

10. 5 facts about Venus • It is often called Earth's twin or sister because it is almost the same size as Earth.  • But Venus is not at all like the Earth. • The Magellan Spacecraft launched in 1989 took 15 months to reach Venus. • It orbited the planet from 1990 to 1994 mapping the surface of Venus. • Another spacecraft the Venus Express is a mission of the ESA (European Space Agency).

11. Venus’s atmosphere • Venus is surrounded by thick clouds which are not composed of water droplets, but are composed of droplets of sulfuric acid. The poisonous atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide gas. The clouds move at high speeds. Bolts of lightning streak across the sky. • The planet has no water and is covered with volcanoes and old lava flows. • It is hotter on Venus than it is on Mercury, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun. This happens because the clouds lets some sunlight in and trap heat against the planet's surface (greenhouse effect). Temperatures on Venus are high enough to melt metals.

12. How long to orbit the sun? • Venus orbits the Sun in 225 Earth days and rotates on its axis every 243 Earth days. This slow rotation means that one Venusian day is like 243 days on Earth. Venus rotates from east to west, while Earth rotates from west to east.

13. Cool fact about Venus? • Venus can be so bright it casts shadows

14. Earth

15. How far is the Earth from the sun? • The Earth is 152 million km from the sun.

16. 5 facts about the Earth • Earth is shaped like a sphere. • Earth has the things that are needed for life - the right amount of sunlight, air and water. • Earth is surrounded by a blanket of air called the atmosphere . • Earth has one moon. • Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.

17. Earth’s atmosphere • Earth's surface is about 70 percent water. Water helps to control Earth's weather and climate. Water breaks up rocks into soil so that plants can grow. There are seven large land areas called continents that make up the rest of the surface. On these continents are mountains, plains, volcanoes, deserts, rainforests and glaciers.

18. How long to orbit the sun? • It takes 365 days or 1 year to orbit the sun

19. Cool fact about the Earth • The outer core is a core that covers the inner core from making the earth too hot. It also is less hotter then the inner core. Plus the core might be as hot as the sun.

20. Mars

21. How far is Mars from the Sun? • Mars, the fourth planet, is nearly 230 million km. from the Sun.

22. 5 facts about Mars • It is often called the Red Planet, because it is reddish in color. • There is a large amount of iron oxide (rust) in the soil and rocks. • In the night sky Mars appears as a reddish-orange dot. • Mars has two tiny moons which orbit very close to the planet. • Mars was named after the Roman god of war.

23. Mars’s atmosphere • Mars it found what looked like gullies and dried up river beds. Mars has no water now.There are mountains, volcanoes, canyons, valleys and plains. Much of the surface of Mars is very old. There are many craters. Ice caps at the north and south poles are composed mostly of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice).

24. How long to orbit the sun? • Mars orbits the Sun every 687 Earth days and rotates on its axis once every 24 hours and 37 minutes.

25. Cool fact about Mars • Mars has the largest canyon in the solar system. It would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago if it was on Earth!

26. Jupiter

27. How far is Jupiter from the sun? • It is 778.5 million km (483.7 million miles) from the Sun. • Jupiter, a gas giant, is the fifth planet from the Sun.

28. 5 facts about Jupiter • Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. • Its diameter is 11 times the size of Earth's. • It is the third brightest object in the Solar System. Only Venus and the Moon are brighter. • Jupiter has been visited seven times by spacecraft from Earth. • Jupiter rotates on its axis quickly.

29. Jupiter’s atmosphere • Jupiter might have a small core of ice-rock about the size of Earth but is mostly a giant ball of liquid hydrogen and helium gases. The "stripes" are caused by strong winds in the upper atmosphere. • The planet's surface is composed of thick red, brown, yellow and white clouds. Jupiter has a huge red spot on its surface, which has puzzled astronomers for nearly 350 years. We now know that it is a huge swirling wind storm. The spot is 3 times larger than the planet Earth.

30. How long to orbit the sun? • It takes 12 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun. Jupiter rotates on its axis quickly. A day on Jupiter is only 9 hours 55 minutes long. Jupiter has 63 moons.

31. Cool fact about Jupiter • The planet was named after the Roman god Jupiter. The god Jupiter was the ruler of the gods.

32. Saturn

33. How far is Saturn from the sun? • Saturn is more than 1.4 billion km (885 million miles) from the Sun.

34. 5 facts about Saturn • Saturn is surrounded by hundreds of rings, made up of pieces of ice, rocks and dust. • Some scientists believe the rings are pieces of comets, asteroids, meteors or Saturn's moons. • Saturn is called the "jewel of the solar system" because of its beautiful rings. • Saturn tilts in its orbit. This changes the angle from which we can see the rings. • As of 2009, there may be as many as 61 moons orbiting Saturn.

35. Saturn’s atmosphere • The planet does not have a solid surface. It is made up of very light gases (hydrogen and helium). Like Jupiter, Saturn has a small core of rock and ice. It is difficult to study the surface of Saturn because it has such a thick atmosphere of swirling clouds caused by strong winds. Wind speeds can reach 1,800 km per hour (1,100 m per hr), much faster than the winds on Jupiter.

36. How long to orbit the sun? • It takes twenty-nine and a half Earth years for Saturn to orbit the Sun. • A day on Saturn is shorter than a day on Earth. Earth rotates once every twenty-four hours, while one rotation on Saturn takes approximately ten and a half hours.

37. Cool fact about Saturn • Since early 2005, scientists have been tracking lightning on Saturn. The power of the lightning is said to be approximately 1000 times stronger than the lightning on Earth. Cassini detected a large and very powerful lightning storm on Saturn. A region in Saturn's southern hemisphere is called "Storm Alley".

38. Uranus

39. How far is Uranus from the sun? • The average distance Uranus is from the Sun is 2,870,990,000 km.

40. 5 facts about Uranus • It is a very cold planet because it is so far from the Sun. • Uranus is one of the four gas giants in our solar system. • Long ago a very large object may have smashed into Uranus and changed the direction of its spin. • Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found 27 moons. • Uranus was named after the Greek god of the sky.

41. Uranus’s atmosphere • The planet is surrounded by thick clouds. The atmosphere is made up of gases (mainly hydrogen, some helium and a small amount of methane). The planet looks blue-green because of a gas called methane in its atmosphere.

42. How long to orbit the sun? • It takes 84 Earth years to revolve around the Sun.

43. Cool fact about Uranus • Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited the planet (January, 1986).

44. Neptune

45. How far is Neptune from the sun • It is 4.5 billion km (2.8 billion miles) from the Sun.

46. 5 facts about Neptune • Neptune was visited in 1989 by a spacecraft called Voyager 2. Much of what we know about Neptune comes from this mission. • In 1994 when the Hubble Space Telescope viewed Neptune, the spots had disappeared. But another spot was found in the planet's northern hemisphere. • Voyager 2 found several thin rings around Neptune when it flew past the planet. • Neptune has 13 moons, but only the largest one, Triton, can be seen from Earth. • Neptune was discovered in 1846 after astronomers realized that an unknown object was affecting the orbit of Uranus.

47. Neptune’s atmosphere • Neptune is one of the gas giants (along with Uranus, Saturn and Jupiter). Its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium gases. Methane gas in the upper atmosphere gives Neptune a beautiful blue color. High white clouds streak the blue atmosphere. • Neptune is similar to Uranus. The two planets are also called ice giants. It has a solid core approximately the size of Earth. The core is surrounded by water and other "melted ices".

48. How long to orbit the sun? • It takes nearly 165 Earth years for Neptune to orbit the Sun. The dwarf planet Pluto's orbit sometimes crosses Neptune's orbit.

49. Cool fact about Neptune • Neptune and Uranus are so similar that they are sometimes called twins.

50. Pluto