The Sun is a star that is in the middle of the Solar System. Every star has its solar system which helps to keep the planets travelling around it using its gravity.
The light and heat created by the Sun help to keep every living plant and creature on Earth alive.
On the surface, it is around 5500 degrees Celsius which is 20 times hotter than an oven at its maximum setting. In the centre, it is about 15 million degrees Celsius.
The Sun is close to 150 million kilometres away from the Earth where we live. It takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for light to travel from the Sun to us.
Around 75% of the Sun’s mass is made of hydrogen (the same element that helps rockets fly). The rest of the mass is made of helium (the same element that makes balloons float and makes your voice sound squeaky). A small percentage of mass is carbon, iron, neon, and oxygen.
The photosphere is the first layer of the Sun, which is almost opaque so you can see through the Sun just a little bit (so it’s like a very blurry window). But the Sun is too bright so we can’t see it with our eyes.
The convective zone carries hot material and gases (hydrogen and helium) to the surface of the sun, which eventually cools down and sinks back deeper into the Sun.
The radiative zone carries heat from the core (centre of the Sun) to the convection zone.
The core is what makes the Sun very hot – it generates 99% of all the heat.
The Sun is so big that it can fit 1.3 million Earths.
It is one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way galaxy out of the other 85%.
It is one of the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way.
The second closest star to us is called Proxima Centauri which is over 4 light-years away from us, while the Sun is over 8 light minutes away from us.
It is the first planet from the Sun. Mercury moves around the Sun once every 88 days.
It is a small, rocky planet that is only as wide as the Atlantic Ocean. The surface of the moon is like the Moon.
The temperatures can go as high as 450 degrees Celsius during the day but at night it can be as cold as below -180 degrees Celsius.
The first layer the crust – it looks like the Moon. It is made of silicates which are rocks full of minerals.
The mantle is also made of silicates but it is much hotter as it is closer to the core.
The core is very large and made of molten iron.
18 Mercury’s would fit inside the Earth.
The planet is not only the smallest, but it is becoming even smaller. That’s why it has wrinkles.
It has the most craters in the Solar System.
The biggest crater can fit the entirety of Western Europe.
It is the second planet from the Sun. Venus moves around the Sun once every 225 days.
It is so bright that it can be seen in the night sky because of its clouds that reflect the sunlight and traps the heat from the Sun. Therefore Venus is hotter than Mercury. The clouds are made of sulphuric acid which is very toxic.
Venus can be considered as Earth’s twins and it is the same size and made of the same materials. It is also the closest planet to us compared to other planets. However, the atmosphere is covered with carbon dioxide, which is the same gas that we breathe out. The atmosphere is so heavy that it would feel like walking through water.
The surface of Venus shows thousands of volcanoes and craters like Mercury and the Moon.
The first layer called the crust is made of silicate which are rocks made of minerals, mostly called basalt – it is a black rock that can be found in volcanos.
In Venus, two types of cores heat the planet, the outer core, and the inner core. The outer core is made of molten iron and nickel (like the nickel coin in the US). The inner core is the same but solid.
Venus is the brightest object in the night sky apart from the Moon.
It has mountains that are taller than Mount Everest.
Venus spins clockwise compared to the other planets that spin anti-clockwise.
It has two sunrises in a year.
It is the third planet from the Sun. This is the planet that you are from. Currently, Earth is the only known planet that has life. It is the only planet that has liquid water on its surface.
It takes 365 days to complete one orbit around the Sun, which is why we call it a year. It moves around the sun at a speed of 30 kilometres a second.
Earth’s atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen, plenty of oxygen, and some other gases. It is the perfect amount of gas for us to breathe and live. The atmosphere saves us from meteoroids as it breaks them down before it reaches the surface.
The Earth is slightly tilted, which causes Earth to have 4 seasons. When the north pole points towards the Sun, it is summer in the northern hemisphere. When the north pole points away from the Sun, it is winter. The seasons are the exact opposite in the southern hemisphere.
The first layer called the crust is made of silicate which are rocks made of minerals, mostly called basalt – it is a black rock that can be found in volcanos. The crust has plates that move against each other that causing earthquakes and volcanos to form.
On Earth, two types of cores heat the planet, the outer core, and the inner core. The outer core is made of molten iron and nickel (like the nickel coin in the US). The inner core is the same but solid. The core is as hot as the surface of the Sun.
There is a force called “gravity” that pulls you down to Earth to help you not fly away.
If the Sun were as tall as a normal front door, the Earth would be the size of a nickel coin.
The rotation of the Earth is gradually slowing down and slowly making days longer. But it will take 3.3 million years to add one minute.
It is the fourth planet from the Sun, also known as the “Red Planet” because it appears in the sky as an orange/red star. The red appearance is because of the rusty iron in the ground – the same way something made of metal outside eventually turns orange because of the rust.
It is a cold Planet, on average being -62 degrees Celsius. During summer, it can be as warm as 20 degrees Celsius, but at night it goes all the way down to -73 degrees Celsius.
Mars has violent storms which carry clouds of dust. The storms quickly spread the dust around the whole Planet, causing the surface to be hidden from sight.
Mars’ first layer is the crust that is made up of iron, oxygen, aluminium, basalt (black rock found in volcanos) and other usual materials. Once we fly to Mars, we can use this iron to create buildings.
The mantle is made of silicate rocks which are full of different minerals.
The core is made of iron and nickel (the same nickel coin in the US). It is liquid and solid at the same time.
A long time ago, Mars used to have water. Now it is frozen deep underground.
We have pieces of Mars on Earth from asteroids hitting the planet a very long time ago.
Mars has very tall mountains and very deep canyons.
It is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter is the biggest and the fastest spinning planet in the solar system.
Jupiter can get as cold as -145 degrees Celsius.
It is a giant ball of gas with no surface. It has a cloudy atmosphere with colourful belts and spots, the biggest feature being the “Great Red Spot.” It is a giant storm that is several times larger than the size of Earth.
Jupiter has no surface, there’s nowhere to stand. The atmosphere is made of hydrogen (the same element used to make rockets fly up to space) and helium which makes your voice high pitched and balloons fly.
The mantle is made of hydrogen and helium as well but it is a metallic liquid.
We don’t know what the core is made of it might be solid rock.
Jupiter is so large that it could easily fit all the planets in the solar system inside (or more than 1300 Earths).
Once every 13 months, Jupiter is very bright in the night sky.
The “Great Red Spot” storm has been blowing non-stop for more than 300 years.
Jupiter has 79 neighbouring moons.
It is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is the second-largest planet, the first being Jupiter. Despite its size, Saturn spins in a little more than 10 hours. It spins so fast, that it bulges outwards at the equator like a ball being squished.
Saturn has no solid surface, instead are clouds being blown along by strong winds from the heat inside the planet that causes the winds to be strong. The planet produces more heat than it takes in from the Sun.
The atmosphere is very blurry with different kinds of colours spotted around the planet. The winds are five times as fast as the winds in Jupiter (100 meters per second). It is made of hydrogen (used to make rockets fly) and helium (for balloons).
The mantle is the same but as a liquid.
The core is made up of solid rock, we do not know what it is yet.
Saturn was thought to be the furthest planet from the Sun until the telescope was invented.
If you could put all the planets in a pool of water, Saturn would be the only one to float.
764 Earths could fit inside Saturn.
It is the seventh planet from the Sun. The temperature at the top of the clouds is -214 degrees Celsius. It takes 84 years for the planet to orbit around the Sun. It is the third largest and fastest planet in the Solar System. A day lasts only 17 hours and 14 minutes.
Uranus spins vertically compared to the rest of the planets, so each pole has a summer and a winter that lasts for 21 years. This makes both poles the hottest and the coldest places on the planet. It has thin, dark, and dusty rings that are also vertical.
The cyan colour of the planet is because of something called methane. The rest of the atmosphere is made of hydrogen (used for rockets to fly) and helium (which makes balloons float).
The mantle is made of water, ice, and methane. Strangely enough, it is also very hot there with ice.
The core is made of silicate rocks which are made of different minerals and are made up of iron and nickel (the same material used in nickel coins in the US).
Uranus has 27 moons.
It is the coldest planet in the Solar System because of its vertical tilt.
Deep within Uranus, it rains diamonds.
It is the furthest planet from the Sun. Neptune is an almost identical twin of Uranus. It is 57 times bigger than the Earth and spins fast as well. One day lasts only 16 hours and 7 minutes.
The average distance from the Sun is about 4500 million kilometres. This makes one year in Neptune last for almost 165 Earth years.
The same blue colour from Uranus is because of something called methane. Though it is much darker than Uranus because of something else we don’t know. The atmosphere is also made of hydrogen (used to make rockets fly) and helium (which makes balloons fly). Neptune has the fastest winds in the Solar System.
The mantle is made of water, ice, and methane. Strangely enough, it is also very hot there with ice.
The core is made of silicate rocks which are made of different minerals and are made up of iron and nickel (the same material used in nickel coins in the US).
The planet was discovered before it was seen because it was pulling on Uranus, making it slow down or speed up.
Just like Uranus, it rains diamonds.
Neptune has a very thin collection of rings.
It has the strongest winds in the Solar System, reaching above 1780 kilometres per hour.
It is a dwarf planet that is found in the Kuiper belt, an area full of icy bodies and other dwarf planets out past Neptune. It is very small, only about half the width of the United States. Pluto travels in an oval-shaped path, while all the planets travel in an almost circular path.
A year on Pluto lasts 248 Earth years, and a day on Pluto lasts about 6 Earth days.
The surface is far too cold, being around from -228 to -238 degrees Celsius.
The layers of Pluto have a very varied colour change from black, dark orange and white.
The crust is made up of nitrogen ice.
The mantle is made up of water and ice.
The core is a solid which is unknown what it is made up of.
The reason why Pluto is not considered a planet anymore is that a planet needs to meet 3 goals:
it must orbit a star,
it must be big enough to have enough gravity to make it a sphere,
and it must be big enough that its gravity swings objects (in the Kuiper Belt) away from its orbit.
Unfortunately, Pluto is not strong enough to swing objects away.
It is the largest object in the Kuiper Belt and the largest Dwarf Planet.
It can get closer to the Sun than Neptune due to its oval-shaped orbit path.