Solar System

Year 5Miss Van Haeften

https://www.tumblr.com/search/space%20crab

What Do You Already Know?

Activity:• Write down everything you know about the

solar system.

Planets

What is a Planet?

“The International Astronomical Union defined a planet as an object that:

• orbits the sun

• has sufficient mass to be round, or nearly round

• is not a satellite (moon) of another object

• has removed debris and small objects from the area around its orbit”

General Info:

• There are 8 planets in the solar system

• Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto (no longer

considered a planet)

(Britt, Robert Roy 2012)

QUIZ

Outer Space “We are the Planets,” The Solar System Song by StoryBots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAqT4hXnMw

Sun• The sun is the biggest star in the universe

• It is the Earth’s nearest star

• Its gravity holds together all of the planets in line

• It provides the Earth with its generated energy. The Earth uses

this energy to sustain life

• It is slowly becoming hotter (brightening)

– Its brightness has increased by 30% throughout the previous

4billion years

(NASA 2013)(Gravity Discovery Centre)

Mercury

• Mercury is the closest planet to the sun

• It is small in size - it is not much bigger than the Earth’s moon

• It rotates (spins) at a slow speed

• 1 day on Mercury is equivalent

to 2 months on Earth

• Its surface is rough and “pot marked

like the moon”

(Anne Astronomy News 2012)(Gravity Discovery Centre)

Venus• Venus has the closest orbit to Earth

– Its orbit is slow

– 1 day on Venus is equivalent to 243 days on Earth

• It is bright in colour - it can be seen during the day

• Known as the ‘Evening Star’

• Its sky is not blue like earth’s, but a bright orange

• “It has a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide heating up the planet by the ‘greenhouse

effect.’”

• Venus is the hottest planet

• It contains clouds - These clouds obtain sulphuric acid

• Its high atmosphere contains very strong winds (350kph)

(Wikipedia 2015)

(Gravity Discovery Centre)

Earth

(Wallpaper Converter 2015)

• Earth is the only planet known to man to contain living organisms/ life as

a whole

• It has only one moon

• The moon rotates once per orbit

• “The moon stabilises the spin axis of the earth”

• The moon is slowly moving further away from Earth

– 3cm per year

(Gravity Discovery Centre)

(Jolene Creighton 2014)

QUIZ

Mars

• Mars is seen as red in colour

• It is named after the Roman God of War

• 1 day on Mars is around the same time as a day on Earth

• Its orbit of the sun is slower than Earth’s - takes double the time

• Its surface temperature is below freezing

• It is nearly half the size of Earth

• The gravity on Mars is approx. 1/3 of Earth’s gravity - this means that you would

feel a lot lighter on Mars

• Unlike Earth, Mars has 2 moons (these moons are smaller than Earth’s)

– Phobos

– Deimos

(Trent Moore 2015)

(Gravity Discovery Centre)

Jupiter

• Jupiter is the biggest planet

• Jupiter rotates at a high speed

– 10 Earth hours

• Jupiter looks white in the sky but through the lenses of a telescope it is seen to be colourful

• Jupiter has a famous red spot

– This spot is due to the speed at which it rotates. This causes the red spot to emerge due to its

“extreme turbulence”

• Jupiter has 4 moons

– Europa

– Ganymede

– Titan

– Dione (Wikipedia 2015)

(Gravity Discovery Centre) QUIZ

Saturn

• Saturn is referred to as a “giant ball of bass held together by gravity”

• Saturn has many rings surrounding its core body

• The rings are thin

– 270 000km across, 100m thick

• The rings are made up of lumps of ice and rock

• Saturn has 4 moons

– Rhea

– Iapetus

– Titania

– Ariel

(Bob Moler 2013)(Gravity Discovery Centre)

QUIZ

Uranus

(Bob Moler 2013)

(Sea and Sky 2013)

• Uranus cannot be seen from

Earth by the naked eye without the utilisation of a telescope

• Uranus is a bluish green in colour

• Uranus also has rings - they are very faint

• Uranus has 5 moons

OberonTitania

Ubmriel

ArielMiranda

(Gravity Discovery Centre)

QUIZ

Neptune

• Neptune is a similar colour to Uranus, except it appears

to be bluer

• Neptune also has rings - they are very faint

• Neptune is the mother to many storms

• Neptune has 2 moons

– Triton

– Nereid

(NASA 2014)

Neptune’s Sounds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwnpXll_A_E (Gravity Discovery Centre)

Pluto

• Pluto is no longer considered a planet but rather a

‘dwarf planet’ since 2006

• Pluto takes 284.5 years to orbit around the sun

– In comparison, Earth requires only

one year to complete its orbit

• Pluto has 4 moons

(John Lester 2014)

(Britt, Robert Roy 2012)

(Planets For Kids 2014)

QUIZ

Quiz Time

1. How many planets are there?2. List the planets in order from the closest to t

he sun to the furthest from the sun.3. Which is the biggest planet?4. How many moons does Uranus have?5. Which is the only planet known to man that

can support life?6. What are Saturn’s rings made up of?7. What colour is Uranus?8. Is Pluto considered a planet? If not, what is it

labelled?

ReferencesInformation:

Britt, Robert Roy. 2012. “Solar System Planets: Order of the 8 (or 9) Planets.” Accessed March 28. http://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html .

Gravity Discovery Centre. “Teacher Resource Pack: Year 5/6.” Accessed March 28. http://www.gravitycentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Teacher-Resource-Pack-year56.pdf .

Planets For Kids. 2014. “Pluto.”Accessed March 28. http://www.planetsforkids.org/planet-pluto.html .

Pictures:Anne Astronomy News. 2012. “Characterising the Surface Composition of Mercury.” Image of Mercury. Accessed March 28.

http://annesastronomynews.com/characterizing-the-surface-composition-of-mercury/ .Bob Moler. 2013. “Ephemeris – Saturn at Opposition From the Sun.” Image of Saturn. Accessed March 28.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140822-the-mission-to-an-un-loved-planet . Britt, Robert Roy. 2012. “Solar System Planets: Order of the 8 (or 9) Planets.” Image of the planets of the solar system. Accessed

March 28. http://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html .IMG Kid. 2015. “Sun with Smiley Face.” Image of a cartoon sun. Accessed March 28.

http://imgkid.com/sun-with-smiley-face.shtml . • http://www.space.com/16080-solar-system-planets.html . John Lester. 2014. “Pluto Planet on True Definition Up For Debate.” Image of Pluto. Accessed March 28.

http://www.newsoxy.com/science/pluto-planet-on-true-definition-up-for-debate-172760.html . Jolene Creighton. 2014. “Scientists Discover Massive “Ocean” Near Earth’s Core.” Image of the Earth’s surface. Accessed March

28. http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/scientists-discover-massive-ocean-near-earths-core3657686/ .

Reference List ContinuedNASA. 2014. “Neptune: Overview.” Accessed March 28. Image of Neptune.

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Neptune Sea and Sky. 2013. “Uranian System.” Image of Uranu’s moons. Accessed March 28.

http://www.seasky.org/solar-system/uranus-menu.html . Trent Moore. 2015. “Scientists believe a 2011 meteorite could be 4.4 billion year old piece of Martian crust.”

Image of Mars. Accessed March 28. http://www.blastr.com/2015-2-2/scientists-believe-2011-meteorite-could-be-44-billion-year-old-piece-martian-crust.

Tumblr User. 2015. “Noble Gas Molecule Discovered in Space.” Image of the Crab Nebula. Accessed March 28. https://www.tumblr.com/search/space%20crab .

Wallpaper Converter. 2015. “Sun and Earth Wallpaper.” Image of Earth. Accessed March 28. http://www.wallconvert.com/wallpapers/space/sun-and-earth-18505.html .

Wikipedia. 2015. “Jupiter.” Image of Jupiter. Accessed March 28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter.jpg . Wikipedia. 2015. “Venus.” Image of Venus. Accessed March 28. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus .

YouTube Videos:Story Bots. 2013. “Outer Space: "We are the Planets," The Solar System Song.” Accessed March 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAqT4hXnMw . Vladimir Ilitch (YouTube user). 2009. “The Neptune’s Sounds.” Accessed March 28.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwnpXll_A_E