There are eight planets and one dwarf planet in our solar system.

Our sun is at the center of our solar system.

A way to remember the order of the planets is “My Very Excited Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas.”

Solar Systemby Alexa Sitzer

Our sun is actually a star.

The sun is extremely hot, on its surface and in its core.

Sun

• Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

• Earth’s moon is the same size as Mercury.

• Also, Mercury is covered in craters.

Mercury

o Venus is very close to the same size as the earth. It is sometimes called the earth’s “sister planet” because of this.

o Another fact about Venus is that it’s the second farthest planet from the sun.

Venus

Earth is the only planet to support life that we know of.

The earth has 4 layers : its crust, its mantle, its outer core, and its inner core.

Earth is about 70% covered in water.

EARTH

Mars is sometimes called the Red Planet because it looks red from Earth.

Mars has huge dust storms that can last for many months.

Mars

o The asteroid belt goes between Mars and Jupiter.

o Asteroids are similar to rocks, but are out in space.

Asteroid Belt

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.

Jupiter has at least 63 moons.

For over 300 years, a storm similar to a hurricane has stayed on Jupiter. This is called the Great Red Spot.

Jupiter

• Saturn has rings made of dust, ice, and rock.

• It has at least about 31 moons.

• We do not know of any solid surface on Saturn.

Saturn

Uranus is called a gas giant.

Unlike any other planet in our solar system, Uranus rotates on its side.

Uranus has around 27 moons.

Uranus

Neptune is a very windy planet.

It has somewhere around 13 moons.

Hydrogen and helium make up Neptune.

Neptune

At first, Pluto was called a real planet. In 2006, it was no longer considered a planet, but was a dwarf planet.

Pluto was first seen through a telescope in 1930.

Also, it takes Pluto 248 and one half Earth years to orbit the sun.

In 2005, NASA sent a spacecraft with no people on it to Pluto, but it will not reach Pluto until 2015.

PLUTO

Comets are balls of rock, ice, and frozen gases.

A few comets, such as Halley’s comet, sometimes become famous because their orbit brings them close to Earth.

This is a picture of Halley’s comet.

COMETS

o A galaxy is an extremely large system of gases, dust, and several stars.

o The galaxy that our solar system is in is called the Milky Way.

Galaxy

• Constellations are groups of stars that make up imaginary pictures in the sky.

• The Big Dipper constellation is part of a bigger group of stars called the Ursa Major, which means “Big Bear.”

Ursa Major

Constellations

Stars are huge balls of superheated gases.

Our sun is an average-sized yellow star.

The color of a star tells us how hot it is, with red being the coolest and blue being the hottest. Yellow is somewhere in the middle.

Stars