Solar System

The solar system
The solar system

Our solar neighbourhood is an exciting place. The Solar System is full of planets, moons, asteroids, comets, minor planets, and many other exciting objects.
Scientists believe that the Solar System evolved from a giant cloud of dust and gas. They believe that this dust and gas began to collapse under the weight of its own gravity. As it did so, the mattercontained within this could begin moving in a giant circle, much like the water in a drain moves around the center of the drain in a circle.

At the center of this spinning cloud, a small star began to form. This star grew larger and larger as it collected more and more of the dust and gas that collapsed into it.

Further away from the center of this mass where the star was forming, there weresmaller clumps of dust and gas that were also collapsing. The star in the center eventually ignited forming our Sun, while the smaller clumps became the planets, minor planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.
Our solar system has 9 planets:
* Mercury
* Venus
* Earth
* Mars
* Jupiter
* Saturn
* Uranus
* Neptune
* Pluto

Mercury |
Mercury means:Mercury was theRoman version of the god Hermes. He was the messenger for the other gods, and for this reason Mercury is often depicted in pictures with winged sandals. In addition to delivering messages, he was also the protector of travelers and merchants.The Planet:Mercury is a world of extremes.  Because it is so close to the Sun a visitor could easily cook to death.  However, because mercury spins so slowlyit gets very cold in the night time, which means a visitor could also freeze to death. We are just starting to understand this world. It looks a lot like our moon, because it has craters and basins. Scientists used to think it acted like the Moon, but we are now learning that Mercury is in fact very different.  In March of 2011, NASAs Messenger probe entered Mercury's orbit. It will soon givescientists a lot of new information about Mercury.Moons:Mercury has no moons.Mercury is so close to the Sun and so small that it has only a very small atmosphere. It has been blown away by the Sun's solar winds. That means that there is almost no air on Mercury. | Mercury |
1 Orbit of Sun | 87.969 Days |
1 Rotation | 58.6461 Days |
Mass | 5% of Earth |
Volume | 5% of Earth |
EscapeVelocity | 15,450 km/h
(9,600 mph) |
Distance From Sun | 57 million kilometers
(36 million miles) |
Maximum Temperature | 465°C
(870° F) |
Minimum Temperature | -184°C
-300° F |
Atmosphere | Hydrogen, Helium |
Diameter | 4876 kilometers
(3030 Miles) |
|

Venus |
Venus means:Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Greek her name was Aphrodite.The Planet:Venus is a hostileplanet.  Its thick cloud cover makes it impossible to see the surface, and traps much of the Sun's heat.   This extra heat gives Venus the hottest average temperature of all the planets. In many ways Venus is similar to the Earth.  It has active volcanoes, Venus quakes, mountains and valleys.  The major difference is that Venus' atmosphere makes the planet far too hot for life. Moons:Venus has nomoons.Because Venus and the Earth are the same size, scientists call Venus Earth's sister planet. For a long time most scientists thought that Venus had plants, animals, and possibly even people. However, because Venus is so hot, we now know that it is impossible for anything to live there. | Venus |
1 Orbit of Sun | 224.701 Days |
1 Rotation | 243.16 Days |
Mass | 81% of Earth |
Volume| 86% of Earth |
Escape Velocity | 37,498 km/h
(23,300 mph) |
Distance From Sun | 107 million kilometers
(67 million miles) |
Average Temperature | 449°C
(850° F) |
Atmosphere | carbon dioxide, nitrogen, |
Diameter | 12,107 kilometers
(7,523 Miles) |
|

Earth |
Earth means:Her name in Greek was Gaea. Earth was the mother of the mountains, valleys, streams and all other land...