Space Project

By Jack A, Jack T and Alex

The Solar System

The Solar System is made up of 8 planets and the Sun

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn Uranus

Neptune

Pluto

Sun

The Sun

The Sun keeps us alive, without it we would die. The Sun is huge! Its diameter is 1,390,000 km. Guess how hot it is on the Sun? It’s about 5800˚C on the surface and about 15,600,000˚C in the core! The Earth orbits around the Sun making day and night, because when we face the Sun we have day and when we face the other way we have night.

Mercury

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and the eighth largest. Mercury is about 57,910,000 km from the Sun and its diameter is around 4,880 km. Mercury actually has a very thin atmosphere consisting of atoms blasted off its surface by the Solar wind.

Venus

Venus’s orbit is the most nearly circular of that of any planet, with an eccentricity of less then 1%. In 1962 Venus was first visited by Mariner 2. Venus is a whitish, brown. Venus has a north pole just like Earth, it looks like this:

Earth

Earth is the most important planet, because we live on it! Earth is the only planet with oxygen and life… so far. Earth is blue, brown and white. The brown is land, the blue is sea and the white is clouds. A Solar Eclipse is when the Moon blocks out the Sun and makes everything dark. A Luna Eclipse is when the Sun blocks the Moon, it makes the same effect only backwards.

The Moon

The moon doesn’t actually orbit the Sun, but orbits Earth. The Moon was first visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 in 1959. The Moon isn’t that big its diameter is only about 3476 km. It isn’t far from Earth either, it’s only 384,400 km. This is the view to Earth from Luna 2:

Mars

Mars is the most likely to have life. Its orbit is about 227,940,000 km from the Sun. The name of the month March derives from Mars. Mars is the god of war. The planet probably got its name because of its red color; Mars is sometimes referred as the Red Planet.

Jupiter

The Red Storm, is a orangey, brown oval on the bottom of Jupiter called The Red Strom. Jupiter is very stripy, it has brown, orange and white stripes. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, its diameter is about 142,984 km.

Saturn

Saturn is most remembered by its rings. The rings aren’t solid there made of ice, rock and dust. Saturn is the root of the English word “Saturday”.

Uranus

Uranus has been visited by one spacecraft, Voyager 2 on January 24th 1986. Uranus is a gas planet like Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Careful pronunciation may be necessary to avoid embarrassment; say “YOOR a nus”, not “your anus”.

Neptune

In 1613, Galileo observed Neptune when it happened to be very near Jupiter, But he thought it was just a star. Neptune has been visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, just like Uranus. At the time of the Voyager encounter, Neptune’s most prominent feature was the Great Dark Spot in the southern hemisphere.

Dwarf PlanetsDwarf planets are the planets that aren’t planets

(I know that’s confusing). There are 3 dwarf planets Pluto, Eris and Ceres. Eris is the largest dwarf planet. The dwarf planets started Pluto became the first.

Comets

Comets aren’t like Meteors. Comets go around Earth, not crashing into Earth. The most famous comet is Halley's Comet.

AsteroidsAsteroids are big space rock. The asteroid belt is divided into an

inner belt and an outer belt. The inner belt which is made up of asteroids that are within 250 million miles of the Sun contains asteroids that are made of metals. The outer belt, which includes asteroids 250 million miles beyond the Sun, consists of rocky asteroids. These asteroids appear darker than the asteroids of the inner belt, and are rich in carbon.

Meteors, Meteorites and Impacts

Meteorites come crashing into Earth, like this:

A meteorite is an object from outer space such as a rock, that falls into the earth, and lands on its surface. And an meteor is a shooting star, observed when a particle of dust enters into the Earth's atmosphere.

Stars

ConA star is a self-luminous object that shines through the release of energy produced by nuclear reactions at its core. A grouping of stars that make a picture are called a Constellation. And sometimes stars shoot across the sky they are called Shooting Stars, shooting stars look something like this:

Galaxy's A galaxy is a group of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity. There are three types of galaxies spiral galaxies (such as the Milky Way), elliptical galaxies, irregular galaxies. Spiral galaxies look like spirals, elliptical galaxies that has a superficially smooth, featureless appearance and an ellipsoidal shape and irregular galaxies can look like almost anything.

Black HolesHave you ever had to vacuum your bed room? When you do, watch closely because you will see the dirt, and crumbs start to move towards the vacuum cleaner.  A black hole is similar to a vacuum cleaner, cleaning up debris left behind in outer space.It is not suction power that makes things fall into a black hole.  Suction would not be strong enough.  Instead a black hole uses the power of gravity to pull things towards it. 

The End

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