the solar system

21st Century Solar System

21st Century Solar System

Objects Percent of total mass _____________ __________________

Sun 99.8%

Jupiter 0.1%

Other planets 0.05%

Everything else 0.05%

• The sun is the biggest, brightest, and hottest object in the solar system.

• A middle-aged, average star.

• The sun is an ordinary star.

• The sun is made of about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium

• Mercury is solid and is covered with craters.

• Mercury has almost no atmosphere.

• Mercury is the eighth largest planet.

• Mercury is the second densest major body in the solar system, after Earth.

• Venus is the sixth largest planet. It’s about three-fourths the size of earth.

• The surface is rocky and very hot. The atmosphere completely hides the surface and traps the heat.

• Venus has no satellites

• Is the planet we live in.• Earth is the fifth largest

planet and the third from the sun.

• Liquid covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface.

• The Earth has one moon.

• Mars is the fourth planet from the sun.

• Mars has a thin atmosphere that contains mostly carbon dioxide.

• Mars has two small moons.

Phobos

Deimos

• Jupiter is the largest planet and is the fifth closest to the sun.

• Jupiter does not have a solid surface. The planet is a ball of liquid surrounded by gas.

• The Great Red Spot, a huge storm of swirling gas that has lasted for hundreds of years.

• Saturn is the second largest planet and the sixth from the sun.

• Saturn is made of materials that are lighter than water. If you could fit Saturn in a lake, it would float!

• Saturn’s rings are not solid; they are composed of small countless particles.

• Uranus is the third largest planet and the seventh from the sun.

• Uranus is one of the giant gas planets.

• Uranus is blue-green because of the methane in its atmosphere.

• Neptune is the fourth largest planet and the eight from the sun.

• Because of the orbits, from 1979 to 1999, Neptune was the ninth planet.

• Like Uranus, the methane gives Neptune its color.