The Solar System

There are many interesting objects in the universe. But to some people, our Solar System is the most amazing. Let’s visit our heavenly bodies in the Solar System. We’ll journey out far to the Sun first.


The Sun

The Sun is a medium-sized star 115 million km from Earth, or I should say about 50 million miles from Earth.



Isn’t it amazing that the Sun’s photosphere (surface) is 6,000 degrees Celsius and that it’s core is 15,000,000 degrees Celsius. Did you know that the Sun takes up 99.8% of the Solar System? That’s a lot! The sun is mostly made of gases called hydrogen and helium. The gravitational field of the sun causes nuclear fusion where two hydrogen atoms fuse into a helium atom, thus making massive amounts of energy. Ok now let’s visit Mercury.

Mercury



Mercury is the closest planet from the Sun even though the distance between is 36 million miles. Mercury has no moons. It’s day is 59 Earth days but it’s year is only 88 Earth days. I can’t believe that a full 2 days (on Mercury) is longer than it’s year! Also one side is really hot and the other side is super cold. Now I think it would be cool to visit Venus.

Venus



Venus is the second planet from the Sun and is named after the Roman Goddess of Beauty. Did you know that Venus is the brightest object in the night sky? But isn’t Venus weird? A year on Venus would be 225 Earth days but a day on Venus is even longer. And Venus is hotter than Mercury even though Mercury is closer to the sun. Carbon and sulfuric acid traps heat. Temperature on Venus can come up to 400 degrees Celsius. I want to see our planet now.

Earth



Earth is the most suitable planet for life in our Solar System. It is never too hot or too cold. It is filled with 75% of water and 25% of land. Earth is so suitable for life that millions of species survived. It has enough gravity to keep us down but not too much to crush us. Earth has one moon. I wonder what is so cool about the moon?

The Earth’s Moon



The moon orbits Earth and also like Earth has mountains. But too bad there is no oxygen on the moon. The moon is also called Luna. Did you know that just recently, we had discovered ice on the moon. We had crashed a rocket into Luna and observed that there was frozen ice under the surface. Luna also causes tides. A tide is when the moon tugs on Earth’s water. In the night (or whenever the moon is up) there are high tides. In the day there is usually low tides. Now I want to observe Mars.

Mars



Mars is also known as the red planet. If Earth wasn’t in our Solar System, Mars would be the best place for life even though there are many solar winds.

Some people also believe that there are extra-terrestrials on Mars, known as Martians. Isn’t that crazy? Did you know that Mars’ temperature can rise up to only 27 degrees Fahrenheit, but can decrease down to -133 degrees Fahrenheit. Did you know that Mars might have had water flowing in canals? People believe this because rovers found ice under the surface.





Now, I want to see Jupiter, or should we do the asteroid belt first.

The Asteroid Belt



The asteroid belt is located between Mars and Jupiter. The reason we call it The Asteroid Belt is because there are millions of huge asteroids orbiting the sun in a circle shaped



belt. It’s kind of like rings orbiting Saturn but they’re much farther apart. The biggest asteroid we know is called Ceres. Ceres is 933 km long. So they call it a dwarf planet because of the asteroids large size. Did you know that asteroids sometimes visit Earth. But they rarely come along. Maybe they don’t like us. I think we should check out Jupiter.

Jupiter



Out of all the planets I think Jupiter is the most weirdest. Jupiter looks like a star in the night sky. It’s the 5th planet from the sun. Did you know that Jupiter is 480 million miles from the Sun? Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System. Isn’t it amazing that you can fit 1,300 Earths in Jupiter. I can’t believe Jupiter takes 12 Earth years to orbit the sun. Did you know that “The Great Red Spot” is actually a raging storm going on for more than 3 centuries. You can fit an entire Earth in “The Great Red Spot”. Jupiter has many moons and has been observed by Pioneer, Voyager, and Galileo missions. I think we should see Saturn now.



Saturn



Saturn also looks like a faint star in the night sky. Did you know that Saturn was named after The Roman God of Farming. I thought that it was named after the Roman Goddess of Beauty. Saturn is the 6th planet from the Sun. Isn’t it amazing that Saturn is 890 million miles from the Sun. I can’t believe that it takes more than 30 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. So this means you can’t stand on Saturn. Saturn has way more mass than Earth. Did you know you can fit 750 Earths into Saturn. Also a day on Saturn would be 10 hours long. Isn’t that time consuming! Also your weight would be just a little more on Saturn than on Earth. I can’t believe Saturn’s rings are made out of dust and rocks. Titan, Saturn’s moon is the second largest moon in our Solar System. Did you know that since Saturn isn’t that dense, it can float on water if you can find an ocean large enough. Let’s head on to Uranus.





Uranus

Uranus is the 7th planet from the Sun. Did you know that Uranus is a tilted planet. People think that Uranus got hit by a huge asteroid. But Uranus doesn’t rotate sideways since it’s tilted. It’s axis is horizontal. Uranus has a year which is long as 84 Earth years. Since Uranus is tilted, one side doesn’t get light for 42 Earth years. It’s core is surrounded by hydrogen, helium, and methane, which makes a mushy sea.













Neptune



Neptune takes 250 Earth years to orbit the Sun. Neptune is slightly smaller than Uranus. Neptune is 4 times the diameter of Earth. Neptune is really cold. Did you know that Neptune was predicted before seen. People saw Uranus moving weirdly and thought gravity from another planet was causing Uranus to be pulled.

Pluto



Pluto was the 9th planet from the Sun until it was deducted as a dwarf planet in 2006. Pluto is very, very, very cold! Did you know Pluto has an elliptical orbit. So sometimes it comes closer to the sun than Neptune. Pluto’s size is a quarter of Earth’s. Some scientists call Pluto a twin planet because it has a moon about the same size.

Space is a very interesting place where you can find many mind blowing objects. One time I saw a meteor off in the sky while I was near a temple. It was going down so fast. I could see a tail of flames. I think space is a really cool topic to talk about.