2. Our Solar System
The center of our solar
system is the sun.
The sun is massive! It is
so big that all of the other
planets combined only
make up 0.14% of the
sun’s mass!
All of the planets, comets,
and meteors revolve
around the sun because
of the gravitational pull
created by this huge
mass.
3. Planets
There are 8 planets in our
solar system revolving
around the sun.
Planets - bodies that
move around the sun and
do not give off their own
radiation (their own light).
We can see the planets
because the sun’s light
reflects off of them
4. The eight planets are:
My
Very
Eager
Mother
Just
Served
Us
Nachos!
MERCURYVENUSEARTHMARSJUPITERSATURNURANUSNEPTUNE
5. Rocky planets
The four planets
closest to the sun are
rocky planets.
Mercury, Venus,
Earth and Mars all
have rocky crusts.
6. Gas Giants
The next four planets
are all made of gas
and are called the gas
giants because of
how big they are.
Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus and Neptune
are all made of gas.
7. Moons
All of the planets,
except for Mercury
and Venus, have at
least one moon.
Moon – a body that
revolves around a
planet instead of the
sun. Moons do not
give off their own
radiation (their own
light) either.
8. Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors
There are other
bodies trapped by the
sun’s gravity besides
planets.
Asteroids, comets,
and meteors also
revolve around the
sun.
9. Asteroids
Asteroid - one of the
many small or minor
rocky planetoids that
are members of the
solar system and that
move in elliptical
orbits primarily
between the orbits of
Mars and Jupiter.
10. Meteoroid
Meteoroid - solid body
orbiting the sun,
becoming a meteor, or
shooting star, if it enters
the earth's atmosphere.
The vast majority of
meteroids are the size of
grains of dust, but they
range upward in size
without any definite limit.
The largest can have
masses of thousands of
tons.
11. Meteors and Meteorites
Technically, a meteor is merely
the streak of light we see
trailing a meteoroid.
A meteoroid is any
interplanetary object bigger
than a speck of dust and
smaller than an asteroid.
Once it hits Earth, a meteoroid
suffers an identity crisis and
becomes a meteorite.
12. Comets
Comet - a relatively
small, icy body revolving
around the Sun.
When a comet nears the
Sun, some of the ice in
the comet turns into gas.
The gas and loose dust
freed from the ice create
a long, glowing tail that
streams behind the
comet.
13. Solar System Jigsaw – test yourself!
Make a solar system!
Solar System animation
