Celestial Bodies

Grade 9 Science

Earth

Our home

Sometimes we see it in a different

way…

Like at night!

The Moon

This is still the moon…can you guess what is hiding behind it?

A Moon HaloThese happen

quite often. Look for them when

there are lots of high, but thin

clouds in the sky

Can you see another celestial

body in the picture?

The Other Planets

Mercury

Small, hot and very

close to the Sun

Looks much like our Moon

It is quite easy to see Mercury. Notice the path it follows

Venus

‘Sister’ to the Earth.

Venus is also visible from Earth.

Mars

The Red Planet…except it

doesn’t really look red

The Mcmurdo pan on Mars. It doesn’t look too much different from parts of

Earth

Here you can see the path that Mars follows as viewed from

Earth

Jupiter

The Failed

Star with the Great Red Spot

The rings of Jupiter.

Barely visible as they reflect little light

Although much larger, Jupiter is less visible than

Venus

Jupiter

Venus

Saturn

The ringed planet

Uranus…

…also has rings.

It’s also tilted

(compared to the other

planets), it flies

through space on its side.

Neptune

The Great Dark Spot

The Dwarf PlanetsCeres

Found between Mars and

Jupiter

Pluto

Found past Neptune

Eris

The largest Dwarf Planet

and even further from the Sun

than Pluto

Other bodies in our Solar System

AsteroidsAsteroids come in all

shapes and sizes. Most are found in the

Asteroid Belt, between Mars and Jupiter

They can be as small as a pebble and as large as 1000 km across

Most are made of silicate (stone), but some are made of iron or nickel.

Meteors (or Shooting

Stars)

Each streak is a piece of rock or dust burning up as it enters our atmosphere. The rock is a meteoroid. They are

travelling between 10 and 70 kilometres per second.

Some are larger though. If it’s too large and hits…

…we have a meteorite

But if they’re even bigger…

This can happen!

This crater in Arizona is 1200 m wide, 200 m deep and was made by a meteorite about 40 m wide.

Comets

Big Dirty Snowballs

Comets actually have two tails. The dust tail (yellow) and the ion tail (blue)

The Sun

The Sun provides our world with the warmth and light

needed to survive.

Our Sun is an average sized, middle age (4.5

billion years old) star

Features of the Sun

Sun spots

They may appear dark, but they are actually brighter than a full moon

They can also cause…

Solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections

This is a CME. The Sun throws out particles. If

they hit the Earth they can

cause blackouts, fry satellites and kill astronauts

in space.

The Solar System

And if we put it all together we have…

This is a picture (a model) of the solar system. It is NOT to scale.

These are the true scales.The rocky planets.

The Gas Giants

Everything