Name: ____________________ Date: ___________________ Building
Our Solar System Profile
Asteroid Belt
Rocky or Terrestrial planets
Use the provided information page to summarize key features of the 8 planets of our solar system.
Color your each planet in each box (planet size is not to scale). The numbers represent the order of
the planets from the Sun
1. Mercury
3. Earth
- Solid planet; has crater surface
like Earth’s moon
- closest to Sun
- slighly larger than Earth’s moon
- high temp fluctation between
day (430oC)
- no atm to trap the heat, night temp drop to 280oC
- such huge difference in day and nigh temperature
causes rocks to expand and contract forming
immense cracks on Mercury’s surface
- our home
- just the right distane from
Sun to support life
- ¾ water
- water found in 3 phases: s,
l and g
- atm. Contains N2, O2, and
H2O vapour
1. Venus
4. Mars
Earth’s twin: because it’s
similar in size, mass,
density, and distance to the
Sun compared to Earth
- cloudy atmosphere mainly
of CO2 and N2
- lots of acid rain
-its thick cloud reflect
sunlight  Venus appears as the brightest planet
- have areas with volcanoes, lava and cracks called
rifts
-
- crust covered with iron 
appears red
- high wind speed (4x that on
Earth)
- intense volcano activity
- 2 polar ice caps
- thin atm of mostly CO2
- experienced largest flood occurred 3.5 bil. Years ago
but H2O has diappeared. Reason unknown.
- located between Mars and Jupiter
- rocky remains from formation of our solar system 4.6 bil. Years ago
- rocks of various sizes: a few feet to several miles in diameter
-Ceres: largest asteroid 950 km wide
-Jupiter and Mars can absorb these asteroids or fling them into orbits of other planets
Gas giants
5.Jupiter
7. Uranus
- largest planet
- mass = 2.5x sum of
mass of all planets
- has a great red spot
(size= 3 Earths
combined) for > 300
years = storm of H2 and
He
- rotates every 10 hrs
 shortest day
- has a very thin ring of ice particles; can’t be seen
from Earth
- atm of H2 and He
-has such high pressure that H2 turns into liquid
and metal (!) deep in core
- ring system of ice and dust
- CH4 (methan) in atm  appear
blue green
- Atm composed of CH4, H2, and H
- unsual orbit: flipped on its side
6.Saturn
8. Neptune
- wide, thin ring
made of ice
particles
- composed mainly
of H2 and He
- Largest gap in
rings called Cassini
division
- thin ring of ice particles
- atm contains CH4 just like
Uranus but appears depper blue
- components that cause
Neptune’s color remains
unknown
- has 6 rings of various thickness
An easy phrase to remember the order of the planet:
“MY VERY EXCITED MOTHER JUST SENT US NACHOS”
Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune