A Journey to the Stars

Liz PuchnarewiczMullard Space Science Laboratorywww.mssl.ucl.ac.uk

Blast off from the

Earth

Kourou

109876543210

First stop – the Sun• Enormous hot ball of gas.• 109 times bigger than the Earth.• Only going to burn for another billion years!

This is an X-ray of the Sun!!

Follow the Sun in the Sky

Follow the Sun in the Sky

East West

South

So what does this mean?

The Earth spins around once a day…

Now – on to Mercury

1 day = 59 Earth days

Days very hot – Nights very cold!!!

And the next planet

is…Venus!!!

1 day = 243 Earth days1 year = 225 Earth days!!!

Wave to your Mum – the Earth is

next

Did you know that the Earth and Moon are a double

planet?

So how does the Moon change shape?

It’s Mars!Look out for little green men!!!

1 day = 1 Earth day1 year = 687 Earth days

JupiterThe nearest and biggest of the giants.

Great Red Spot

Which is the flattest planet?

…SaturnAnd how do

we know?…Because someone ‘saturn’ it!!!

This is Uranus

It takes 84 years to go around the Sun

The next giant is Neptune (usually)

Great Dark Spot

Scooter

And last of all - Pluto

… and his friend, Charon.It’s another double planet!

Back to Earth

Journey over!