Our solar system is made up of the Sun and everything that orbits around it, including eight planets. The planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Earth is the third planet from the Sun and is the only known planet capable of supporting life. The Earth spins on its axis, causing day and night, and orbits the Sun once a year, causing the changing of seasons as the Earth's distance from the Sun varies over the course of the year. Other objects in our solar system include asteroids, meteoroids, and comets.

1. Exploring Earth Science
The Earth and Moon

2. Travel along and we will find out where
we live in space and what we can see
in space.

3. Do you know
what a solar
system is?
Do you know
what is in our
solar system?

4. Our solar system is made up of an
enormous sun and everything that
travels around it.

5. The closest planet
to the sun.

6. The beautiful
planet.

7. The planet we
live on.

8. The red planet.

9. The biggest
planet.

10. The king of rings.

11. A planet made
of gases.

12. The coldest
planet.

13. Planet
A large ball of rock or
gas that moves around
the sun.

14. We live on one
of the nine
planets in our
system. Other
small bodies
called asteroids
and comets can
be found in our
system also.

15. Draw the path of the
earth around the sun.

16. Orbit
The planets move in a path around the sun.

17. Stars
A huge ball of hot gases.
(Sun is the nearest star to earth)

18. • Sunlight comes from the sun to the
Earth. The sunlight that warms our
faces right now left the sun over eight
minutes ago. The sun warms the Earth.

19. What causes
daytime and
night time on the
Earth?
What causes the
changing of our
seasons?

20. The spinning
around like a
top is called
rotation. As it
spins only one
side faces the
sun. Day
begins when
our part of the
world turns to
face the sun.

21. Night falls when our part of the Earth
turns away from the sun. The side
facing away from the sun has
nighttime.

22. This rotation or spinning of Earth
causes day and night. The Earth
rotates on its axis. The axis is an
imaginary line through its center. It
rotates once every 24 hours causing
day and night.

23. Every day the
Earth travels
around the
sun. The
Earth and the
moon travel
together in an
orbit around
the sun once a
year.

24. One revolution around the sun equals
365 days. This revolution causes the
changing of the seasons.
• http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/earth/seasons/Earth

25. When the Earth moves closer to the
sun, summer returns. When the Earth
moves farther away from the sun in its
orbit, winter returns.

26. Asteroids
• Rocks that revolve around the sun.

27. Meteoroids
• Very small objects in space.