Transcript Our Solar System

4th Grade
P.S. #1
Edythe Gologorsky
Steve Turner
Sun
Our Brightest Star
• Approximately one million Earths
can fit inside the Sun.
• The center of the Sun, is made of
helium.
• There are dark blotches on the
Sun's surface called Sunspots.
These are cooler areas of the Sun.
• 4.5 pounds of sunlight hit Earth
every second.
Our Solar System
• Consists of nine planets.
• All revolve around the Sun, which is the main source of light and
heat for these nine planets.
• It is the Sun's strong pull of gravity which keeps the planets in orbit
around it.
Mercury
Our Fastest Planet
• The closest Planet to the Sun.
• Only a little larger than our
moon.
• It is covered by dust, rocks,
and craters.
• It takes 59 days for it to rotate
once around its axis.
• Mercury can reach a high of
800 degrees and a low of
about 300 degrees
Fahrenheit.
Venus
Our Hottest Planet
• It takes longer to rotate once
around its axis than to revolve
once around the sun.
• On Venus a day is slightly more
than a year.
• About the same size as Earth.
• Has mountains, valleys, and
plains.
• The heat is about 450 degrees
Celsius.
• Has no water.
• Life as we know it could not
survive here. Only rocks can
handle the high temperature and
crushing pressure.
Earth
Our Mother Planet
• 70% of its surface is water& the
other 30% is land.
• It’s tilt causes the seasons on the
planet.
• Earth is the only planet in the
universe which is known to
support life.
• Earth is almost five billion years
old.
• The center of the Earth, its core,
is molten.
• Earth is the only planet in the
Solar System known to be
geologically active.
Mars
Our Angry Red Planet
• The largest volcano in the Solar
System is on Mars, called Olympus
Mons.
• Mars has seasons like Earth. This
is caused by the tilt of the planet's
axis, at a similar angle to the tilt of
Earth's axis
• Rocks from Mars have landed on
Earth from meteorite impacts
blasting debris through space.
• The average temperature on Mars
is about -67 °F.
Jupiter
Our Largest Planet
• Earth could fit into Jupiter over
1300 times!
• Jupiter is made up almost entirely
of gas.
• Jupiter's famous Red Spot is a
great storm that has raged for at
least four hundred years.
• Jupiter has a thin set of rings,
hardly visible from Earth.
• Jupiter has the strongest pull of
gravity in the Solar System.
• If we were able to stand on the
surface of Jupiter, we would
weigh three times as much as we
would on Earth.
Saturn
Rings of Beauty
• Saturn is the second largest planet.
• The many moons of Saturn are as
different as fire and ice. There are at
least 24 of them.
• Saturn's rings are believed to be the
particles of an old moon orbiting the
planet, smashed apart in a collision
about 50 million years ago. A year on
Saturn would take almost thirty Earth
years.
• Saturn is twice as far away from the
Sun as Jupiter is.
Uranus
• It takes just over 84 years on Earth
for Uranus to orbit the Sun.
• Uranus is the only planet in our
solar system to rotate on its side.
• If we were able to see Uranus'
moons orbiting the planet, they
would go over and under the planet
like lights on a ferris wheel.
• Uranus' pale blue color is caused by
the methane in its atmosphere which
filters out red light.
Neptune
• Neptune sometimes orbits the Sun
further away than Pluto making it the
most distant planet in the Solar
System.
• Since its discovery in 1846, Neptune
has not yet completed a full orbit. In
fact, it takes 165 years for the planet
to go around the Sun.
• Neptune has the strongest winds in
the Solar System, and a dark spot,
similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot.
Pluto
Our Tiniest Planet
• Pluto has its own moon, Charon,
which was discovered in 1978.
• Pluto is the only planet in the
Solar System which has not yet
been visited by any space craft.
• Pluto is the smallest planet in the
Solar System.
• Pluto's journey around the Sun
takes 248 Earth years.
• A day on Pluto lasts for 6 days
and 9 hours.
Solar Eclipse
• A total solar eclipse is not
noticeable until the Sun is more
than 90-percent covered by the
Moon. At 99-percent coverage,
daytime lighting resembles
twilight.
• The longest duration for a total
solar eclipse is 7.5 minutes.
• At any specific geographic
location on the globe, a total solar
eclipse can occur only once every
360 years, on average.
• Local animals and birds often
prepare for sleep or behave
confusedly during a total solar
eclipse. Local temperatures often
drop 20 degrees or more near
totality.
Lunar Eclipse
• A lunar eclipse happens when the
Moon passes through the Earth's
shadow.
• Lunar eclipses can only occur at full
Moon.
• Lunar eclipses can last for more than
three hours because the Moon and the
Earth are moving slowly in relation to
each other, and the shadow cast by the
Earth is so large.
• Lunar eclipses are visible over an
entire hemisphere, and can never
happen more than three times a year.