SPACE PAGE

T My topic at school in term 4 1999 will be space. So I have decided to make a project on our solar system. e size, color or font.

This is a picture of our Solar System.
There are 9 planets in our solar system orbiting the sun,
(this does not include moons)
Our Sun is not a planet it is star

The 9 Planets are :-
Inner planets
(nearest to the Sun)
Mercury,
Venus,
Earth,
Mars.
Outer planets:
(furthest away from The SUN)
Jupiter,
Saturn,
Uranus,
Neptune
Pluto

MERCURY Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun. It was once believed that there was no water on Mercury, but this turned out to be false. Recent Radar information shows evidence of ice at Mercury's north pole! The ice hasn't melted because it is protected from the Sun's heat by shadows of some craters. Unlike many of our 9 planets, Mercury has NO moons.

Venus: Venus is a small rocky planet, blanketed in a thick layer of yellowish clouds. These clouds are not made of water (like the ones here on Earth ) instead they are formed from a poison called Sulfuric acid.
Venus's surface is very hot about 400 degrees celsius!
Venus has no moons.

Earth: Earth is a small rocky planet which supports a variety of life! As far as we know, Earth is differant from all other planets in this respect. Temperatures at Earth's centre (called the "core") maybe as high as 7,500k. That's hotter than the surface of the Sun! The Earth is 4.5 to 4.6 billion years old, but the oldest known rocks are at least 4 billion years old. Rocks older than 3 billion years are rare. The oldest fossils of living organisms are less than 3.9 billion years old!( that is real old!!!)

MOON: Earth's moon is mostly covered wiith fine dust and rocky debris (called regolith). The moon has no atmosphere and no gravity. The Gravitational forces between Earth and the Moon, cause our ocean tides.Man first landed on the moon in 1969

MARS: Mars is a small, rocky planet which is cold and lifeless.
Very strong winds and vast dust storms sometimes blow through the entire planet for months. Mars has 2 tiny moons called Phobos & Deimos.
Mars Pathfinder landed sucessfully on Mars on July 4th, 1997

JUPITER: Jupiter is a giant gas planet which is made up of about 90% hydrogen & 10% helium.Jupiter is so big you could cram 1,000 Earths inside of it. The spacecraft Galileo is currently orbiting Jupiter sending back information to Earth. Jupiter has 16 known moons. There are 4 large "Galilean" moons and 12 smaller ones

SATURN: Saturn is a another Giant gas planet. It is most famous for it's beautiful rings.These rings are mostly made up of water ice, but they may also include rocky particles with icy coatings.Saturn is made of materials which are lighter than water, so if Saturn was placed in a big pond Saturn would float!!!Saturn has 18 known moons- more than any other planet

URANUS: Uranus is another giant gas planet which is made up of mostly rock and various ices. Uranus spins differently from most planets. It seems to be tilted "sideways" instead of right-side up.Uranus has 15 known moons.Voyager 2 in 1986 discovered 10 small moons in addition to the 5 large ones already known.

NEPTUNE: Neptune is a giant gas planet which is mostly made up of various "ices"  and rock. Neptune has only been visited by one spacecraft, Voyager 2 on Aug 25th 1989. Almost everything we know about Neptune comes from this one visit. Neptune has 8 known moons; 7 small ones and a large moon called "Triton".

PLUTO: Pluto is a small rocky planet. Scientists are still unsure as to what it is made of. Pluto is the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft. Pluto's orbit is kind of wacky, and it sometimes crosses in front of Neptune. When Pluto does this, Neptune is behind Pluto- and Pluto becomes the 8th planet for a short time. Pluto has one moon. It's called "Charon".

THE SUN: The sun is a star - it is not a planet. Our Sun is just like the stars we see in the night sky. The Sun is the only star we see during the daytime. The Sun is so big you could fit more than 1 MILLION Earths inside of it! It measures more than a million kilometers across.The Sun is so hot that planets millions of kilometers away can feel it's heat.The Sun generates 386 billion billion megawatts of energy. Eat your heart out Power New Zealand!!!!!!

Check out these links:-
NASA Kids Club: This is a neat site where you can join a club, and there is loads of projects and pictures. The nice people at NASA send you emails about what is happening in Space at the moment.

I got a lot of my pictures and information from a site called 9 planets for kids go visit them at
9 PLANETS FOR KIDS.

Visit The Auckland Observatory and Stardome site
for a New Zealand view of space, at www.stardome.org.nz/

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