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What do you know about planets?

L A N E T S

http://hubblesite.org/The Hubble Space Telescope hovers at the boundary of Earth and space in this picture, taken after Hubble’s second servicing mission in 1997. Hubble drifts 353 miles (569 km) above the Earth’s surface, where it can avoid the atmosphere and clearly see objects in space.

The universe is made up of trillions of stars. These stars are organized into GALAXIES

Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), P. Natarajan (Yale University), and J.-P. Kneib (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, CNRS, France)

Our galaxy is called the MILKY WAY

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

One of the stars in our galaxy is the SUNSun/Earth ComparisonThe sun is a very active place. The circular feature shooting out from the sun is an eruption. The little picture of Earth has been placed next to this eruption to show how big these eruptions are. (Earth is not really that close to the sun!) The sun is bright orange in this view. It was taken in the extreme ultraviolet, a wavelength of light that our eyes cannot see but spacecraft instruments can. Scientists use this view to reveal activity at the sun that would otherwise go unnoticed. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory took this image.

9 planets orbit or REVOLVE around our sun

The time it takes for one REVOLUTION around the sun would mark a planet’s YEAR.Earth’s Year = 365 days

Planets can be made of SOLIDS and GAS.

Each planet also ROTATES on its own axis.

The time it takes for one

ROTATION would

mark a planet’s DAY.

How long does it take for Earth to rotate? (think hours in the day) 24 hours.

Questions

• Which was the largest planet in our solar system model?

• What did you notice about the distances from the Sun to the inner planets versus the distance to the outer planets?

• What do you think happens to the temperatures as you get farther from the Sun?

Jupiter.

The inner terrestrial planets — Earth, Mercury, Mars, and Venus — are much closer together. The giant planets get farther and farther apart.

In general, the greater the distance the colder the temperature!