THE 8 PLANETS

The planets are divided according to their:

- COMPOSITION:

         Rocky Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.                 
         Gas Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

- SIZE:

         Small Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
         Giant Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
         Dwarf Planets: Pluto, Ceres and Eris.

MERCURY. 

Is the closest planet to the Sun, located in the Inner Solar System.

Is the smallest planet with the exception of the dwarf planets. 

Its surface is covered with craters, it has no water, no air and no moons and scientists think there is ice on its north pole.

Mercury takes 88 days to orbit around the sun.

VENUS

Is the second planet closest to the Sun. It is a small rocky planet very similar to the Earth.  It is called the Earth sister.

 It is the biggest planet in the Inner Solar System, the  hottest because of its materials and the brighest of all the planets. You can see Venus from the Earth, it looks like a star in the sky. It is often called the morning or the evening star.

The surface of Venus is covered with lava as there are a lot of volcanoes.

Venus orbits the sun in 225 days.

EARTH

Is the third rocky planet in the Inner Solar System next to the Sun. It is more than 1 million times smaller than the Sun. 

71% of its surface is covered with water.

It has one natural satellite called “Luna / Moon”.

The Earth takes 365 days to orbit around the Sun.

MARS

Is a red and rocky planet in the Inner Solar System. It is the fourth planet. It has two tiny moons called Phobos and Deimos.The poles are covered with ice.

There are strong winds and dust storms that sometimes blow through the entire planet for 4 months.Mars takes 687 days to orbit around the Sun.

 

The Asteroid Belt is a region of asteroids, between Mars and Jupiter. It separates the Inner Solar System from the Outer Solar System.

JUPITER

                                                                                             
Is the fifth planet in our Solar System and the first one in the Outer Solar System. It is a gas giant planet. It is the biggest planet in our Solar System. It has 65  moons and very thin rings. It takes 4,331 days to orbit the sun.

SATURN
Is the second planet in the Outer Solar System.This gas giant planet has more than one thousand rings made of ice and dust. It has 52 moons and orbits the sun in 10,759 days. 

URANUS

  Is the third planet in the Outer Solar System. This gas giant is blue because of its blue gas, methane. It has rings and 27 moons. It takes 30,687 days to orbit the sun.

NEPTUNE     

Is the eighth planet in our Solar System and the last gas giant.It has 13 moons and it takes 60,190 days to orbit the sun. It has rings and it is also blue.

                                                        
THE KUIPER BELT

CELESTIAL BODIES