The Solar System PDF

# The Solar System ## Mercury Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and is the nearest planet to the Sun. It is grey and rocky. Mercury doesn't have any moons. ## Earth Earth is small and rocky and is the only planet to support life. Satellite pictures show it is light blue with whi...

# The Solar System ## Mercury Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and is the nearest planet to the Sun. It is grey and rocky. Mercury doesn't have any moons. ## Earth Earth is small and rocky and is the only planet to support life. Satellite pictures show it is light blue with white clouds. The Earth has one moon. ## Mars Mars is a red-orange colour. It is small, rocky and lifeless. It is also one of the driest planets. It has two small moons called Phobos and Deimos. ## Saturn Saturn is pale yellow. It's famous for its thousands of bright rings and is one of the most beautiful planets in the solar system. Saturn has 53 moons that we know of - more than any other planet! ## In our solar system, eight planets move around the Sun. The nearest planet to the Sun is Mercury followed by Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Scientists used to think Pluto was a planet, but it is now called a dwarf planet because it is so small. There are three other known dwarf planets. The Sun is in the middle of the solar system and the planets orbit it. The Earth takes 12 months to orbit the Sun. The Earth has one moon, sometimes called Luna by astronomers, which takes less than 28 days to travel around the Earth. ## Jupiter Jupiter is 318 times bigger than the Earth! ## Neptune Neptune is the fourth largest of the eight planets. ## New moons are discovered every year for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune! Neptune has winds that travel at 2000 km per hour! ## Venus Venus has got poisonous yellow clouds.