The Sun

Without the Sun there would be no life

in our Solar System.

The Sun is absolutely huge! The Earth

can fit into the Sun over 1 million times.

The surface of the Sun is about 5000ºc. But deep inside the Sun
temperatures can reach 15 million degrees!

A long time in the future the Sun will grow really big, covering all the
inner planets, including Earth. Once it runs out of energy it will
collapse in on itself to form very small dense sphere called a white
dwarf. A 1cm cube of this would weigh as much as two elephants!
Mercury
The closest planet to the sun, a year on
Mercury is just 88 days (which means
you’d get a lot more birthdays!)

Although it is the closest planet to the

Sun it is not the hottest (that honour
goes to Venus).

It is the smallest planet in the solar system. Some believe that’s

because something smashed into it a long time ago and knocked a
big chunk of the surface off.
Venus
Although similar in size and mass to Earth,
Venus is anything but attractive to
humans. Within minutes of landing you’d
be fried, choked and dissolved by the
acidic atmosphere which can reach 500º

The only thing brighter in the night sky is

the moon – it is known as the morning star (although it’s NOT a star)
and can often be seen even when it is still daytime.

It was named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Earth
Our home planet. At time of writing it is
the only place in the whole Universe that
is known to support life.

Even today some people still believe that

the Earth is flat. Mr Connor says he would
be more than happy to have a chat with
these people to see if he could change their minds.

There are more trees on Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way.
 Mars
The 4th planet from the Sun, Mars is likely
to be the first planet visited by a human
being – maybe it’ll be someone from
Neilsland Primary!

Scientists think there may be a lot of

water beneath the surface of Mars – this
may also lead to basic life being discovered there.

Mars is home to Olympus Mons – the tallest volcano in the Solar

System – it is over 21km high (Mt Everest is 9km high)
 Jupiter
Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the
Solar System. You could fit all of the
other planets inside it.

It has a bright red spot which is actually

a storm which has been raging for over
300 years. You could fit the Earth inside this spot.

Jupiter is a gas giant but because it is so massive you’d weigh about

3 times what you do on Earth. If you landed there you’d survive
about a day before your heart gave out from overwork.
 Saturn
Saturn is the second largest planet in
the Solar System but it is also the lightest
It is in fact so light that if you put the
planet on water it would float!

Saturn has a beautiful ring system,

made from ice and rocks. The actual
ring system is only about 1km thick.
It is held in place by the position of the moons around the planet.

Saturn’s largest moon ‘Titan’ is actually bigger than Mercury!

 Uranus
Uranus, an ice giant, is the coldest
planet in the Solar System – it can reach
Temperatures of -224ºC.

It is the only planet in the Solar System

that is tilted on its side.

It has a small number of rings (a bit like Saturn does).

If you know where to look and have a perfectly clear dark night you
can actually see Uranus without a telescope.
 Neptune
Neptune is the 8th and final planet of
the Solar System. It is the smallest of the
gas-giant planets (but it’s still very big).

It is very stormy and is the windiest place

in the whole Solar System with storms
travelling at 600m per second.

It takes Neptune 164 years to go round the Sun which means before
you got to your first birthday you’d be over 163 Earth years old! 