3. PLANETS IN SOLAR SYSTEM
MERCURY
VENUS
EARTH
MARS
JUPITER
SATURN
URANUS
NEPTUNE
4. FACTS ABOUT MERCURY
Mercury has no atmosphere at all. Sunlight
reflects off its surface, similar to how light is
reflected directly off the Moon's surface.The lack
of atmosphere means that sunlight cannot be
spread through the atmosphere.The planet's sky
is dark, just like the Moon's and, if you were able
to stand on the side of the planet not facing
the Sun, you would be able to see billions of stars
in the sky.
5. FACTS ABOUT VENUS
If you were able to stand on the surface of
Venus, it would feel like being 1 kilometre
under the sea on Earth, a depth deep enough
to sink a submarine. A person or a creature
would immediately be crushed byVenus'
amazingly strong pressure.
6. FACTS ABOUT EARTH
The length of time it takes for Earth to orbit
the Sun is 365 and a quarter days.To make up
this extra quarter which isn't counted at the
end of a year, we have an extra day every four
years on 29th February.The next LeapYear
will be in 2012.
7. FACTS ABOUT MARS
TheValles Marineris, the greatest gorge on
any planet in the Solar System, was caused
when volcanoes erupting around it tore up
the land, leaving a huge valley.
8. FACTS ABOUT JUPITER
Jupiter takes only 9 hours and 55 minutes to
spin on its axis.This means a day on Jupiter is
less than 10 hours long. Its fast rotation
causes the planet to be squashed, being
wider at the equator than from North to
South.
9. FACTS ABOUT SATURN
Saturn is the second largest planet in the
Solar System after Jupiter. It is so big
that Earth could fit into it 755 times.
10. FACTS ABOUT URANUS
After Saturn, a space-craft would have to
travel 1,500,000,000 kilometres to reach
Uranus.This means the planet is almost twice
the distance from the Sun than Saturn is.
11. FACTS ABOUT NEPTURN
Neptune's moon,Triton, is slowly getting
closer to Neptune. Eventually, it will get so
close that it may get torn apart by Neptune's
gravity and possibly form rings more
spectacular than Saturn's.
12. DWARF PLANET
Discovered in 1930, Pluto was long considered our
solar system's ninth planet. But after the discovery
of similar intriguing worlds deeper in the distant
Kuiper Belt, icy Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf
planet.This new class of worlds may offer some of
the best evidence about the origins of our solar
system. Pluto is also a member of a group of objects
that orbit in a disc-like zone beyond the orbit
of Neptune called the Kuiper Belt.This distant realm
is populated with thousands of miniature icy worlds,
which formed early in the history of our solar
system.These icy, rocky bodies are called Kuiper
Belt objects or transneptunian objects.
