Planet Introduction
Investigate each planet in our solar system.
Describe the land features and physical characteristics for each
planet.
http://www.planetsforkids.org/
Mercury
Planet closest to sun
Orbital path around sun is 88 days long
Named after messenger of the Roman god
Mercury aka Hermes because he was known to
have wings on his helmet
and sandals
Has no moons
Has no atmosphere to protect it
from the sun or to retain any heat
when it rotates
Venus
 Is the brightest planet and can be seen
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in the daytime if you know where to look
Shows itself as phases like the Earth’s moon
Named after the Roman god of love and beauty
The planet closest to earth
Covered in clouds of water vapor and sulphuric
acid
Atmosphere is made of carbon dioxide
Earth
 Unlike every other planet in that Earth
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contains 21% oxygen
The only planet that has liquid water on
surface
Has one large satellite, the moon
The only planet to show life on its surface
From outer space, much of the surface
cannot be seen because of clouds of water
vapor
Mars
Typical year or orbit around the sun is 1 year 320 days, or
the time it takes for one revolution
Day is 24 hours 39 minutes or the time it takes for one
rotation
Has a change of seasons which relate to its orbital path.
However, high temperature duriong summer day is a chilly
23’ F.
Known as the red planet because of its color surface
It has no atmosphere but it does have dust storms
Has 2 moons of its own
Jupiter
The giant of the solar system
in that it is 300 times the mass of the Earth
Takes 11 years to orbit the sun
Rotation or time to spin causing day and night
takes only 9 Earth hours!
Has a great “red spot” and shows many storms of
gas. Has 64 moons
Discovered by Galileo in mid 1500’s
Saturn
Rings named A, B and C with A
being the outermost ring
Rings orbit Saturn at different speeds because
distance from the center determines the orbital
path
Rings first seen by Galileo in 1610
2nd largest planet and its mass is 95 times more
than mass of Earth
Rotation is 10 hours, meaning one day starts
every 10 hours
Uranus
Has 27 moons
Known as a “gas giant” as most of its surface is
made of frozen ammonia and methane.
Ammonia and methane give Uranus the blue-green
color
Takes 84 Earth years to orbit the sun
and takes 17 years to make one rotational spin
In 2003-2005 scientists found faint rings around
Uranus
Neptune
Has 13 moons
Neptune was named after the Greek god of
the Sea and all the moons are named after
ancient Greek gods of the sea
Made of a ball of hydrogen and helium
Orbital path is 164 earth years and
rotational period is 19 hours
Pluto
Never again will Pluto be the ninth planet, or the littlest
planet, or the most distant planet. But don't sell Pluto
short
It has an atmosphere and weather, geology and possibly
liquid water, and as many moons as Mercury, Venus,
Earth and Mars put together.
Planets must clear the neighborhood around their orbit.
Pluto’s orbital path sometimes overlaps with that path of
Neptune. This overlap made Pluto lose its status as
planet.