The asteroid belt.

The solar system.

The Sun.

Mercury.

Venus.Earth.

Mars.Jupiter.

Saturn.

Uranus.Neptune.

Pluto.Eris

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The Sun.

• The sun is a massive ball of gas 1,000,000 times bigger than the Earth.

• It is aged 6,000,000,000 years old, and in 5,000,000,000 years time it will expand into a red giant and destroy the solar system.

• it is made of gases like helium and is over 8,000 degrees Celsius at the centre.

Mercury.

• Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, meaning it’s orbit only takes 88 days.

• At day it’s over 500 degrees Celsius and at night it’s less than -400 degrees Celsius.

• Mercury is named after the roman messenger god.

Venus.

• A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days, that’s longer than a year on Venus which lasts a mere 225 days.

• It is the hottest planet in the solar system at over 400 degrees Celsius at day and at night still over 400 degrees Celsius .

• Venus is named after the roman god of love and beauty.

Earth.

• Earth is our home planet.• It is the only planet which we know has life.• It has 1 moon.

Mars.

• Mars is the only planet (other than Earth) which people think once had water.

• It is home to Olympus Mons the tallest mountain in the solar system at over 3 times the size of mount Everest.

• Mars is also called the “red planet” and looks red because of rust.

The asteroid belt.

• Ceres is a dwarf planet which is actually inside the Asteroid belt.

• The size of the asteroids in the belt range between 490km (Ceres) and the size of a dust particle.

• The asteroid belt first started to form 5,000,000,000 years ago.

Jupiter.

• Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system even the largest of it’s 63 moons, Titan is huge, it’s as big as a planet!

• The great red spot is a famous aspect of Jupiter because a storm 3 times bigger than the Earth and was first discovered about 300 years ago.

• it is a “gas giant planet and is named after the king roman god.

Saturn.

• Saturn is famous for it’s massive rings which are made of rock and ice.

• Ganymede one of Saturn’s moons, it has ice-canoes which shoot water instead of lava, which as soon as they leave the atmosphere turn to ice so Ganymede actually makes Saturn’s rings.

• Saturn is named after the roman god of farming.

Uranus.

• Like Saturn Uranus has rings which orbit around it.• Uranus has clouds made of water and methane.• Like Neptune Uranus is extremely icy and cold.

Neptune.

• Like Jupiter’s great red spot Neptune has a spot, only it’s the “great dark spot.”

• Neptune is 15 times bigger than the Earth.• Neptune is named after the roman god of the sea.

Pluto.

• Pluto, like Eris and Ceres is a dwarf planet and as a result the moon is 5 times larger than Pluto.

• Pluto has 4 moons including Charon, Nix and Hydra.• Pluto was named after the Greek god of the sea.

Eris.

• Eris and it’s only moon Dysnomia were first discovered in 2005 and Eris was only named in 2006.

• Eris is the biggest dwarf planet to be discovered but right now experts are not sure which is bigger, Pluto or Eris.

• Eris is named after the Greek goddess of chaos and discord.

Moons.

• Planets orbit around the sun and moons orbit around planets, the time it takes to orbit around a planet is called a lunar year, our lunar year is about 28 days.

• There are over 130 moons in the solar system altogether.

• Moons can be huge, even bigger than dwarf planets! In fact the solar system’s biggest moon, Titan, is bigger than Mercury!