The Solar System
A TRUE BOOK The solar system
was formed 4.6 billion
years ago.
Contents
1 Welcome to the Solar System ..... 7
2 The Sun ..... 11
3 The Inner planets ..... 15
4 The Outer planets ..... 23
The Birth of a Star ..... 28
5 Not just planets ..... 31
6 Exploring the Solar System ..... 37
True Statistics . . . . . . . . 43
Resources . . . . . . . . 44
Important Words . . . . . . . . 46
Index . . . . . . . . 47
CHAPTER 1
Welcome to the Solar
System
Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
Thousands of years ago, people thought that Earth was the
centre of the universe. But now we know that’s not true. Our
planet is one part of our solar system. The solar system is
made up of everything in space that travels around our Sun.
Know the Solar System
Along with the Sun, eight planets make up our solar system.
These planets are very different from each other. Some are
so big that Earth would disappear in one of their storm
clouds. There are planets with rings of ice and dozens of
moons.
Planets names – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
How to remember the order of the planets – My Very
Excellent Mom Just Served Us Noodles.
The Sun is the closest star to Earth. It is 93 million miles
[ 150 million kilometres ] away from our planet.
But planets aren’t the only objects in the solar system.
Comets leave tails of glowing gas for millions of miles. The
moon and tiny meteoroids light up our sky. There is still
much to discover about our solar system.
CHAPTER 2
The Sun
The most important part of the solar system is the Sun. The
Sun is a star that gives off light. It’s also much bigger than
anything else in the solar system. The Sun makes up 99
percent of everything in the solar system. One million Earths
could fit inside the Sun. The Sun’s gravity is why the solar
system stays together.
It takes about 8 minutes 20 seconds for the Sun’s
light to reach Earth.
In Orbit
length of Orbit Around the Sun
Planet Earth Days
Mercury 88 days
Venus 225 days
Earth 365 days
Mars 687 days
Jupiter 12 years
Saturn 29 years
Uranus 84 years
Neptune 165 years
Each planet in our solar system travels around
the Sun at a different speed. At the same time a
planet orbits the Sun, it spins like a top. This
spinning is why there’s night and day on planets.
The Sun can also affect a planet’s temperature.
Mercury is very hot since it’s close to the Sun.
but Neptune is so far away from the Sun that it’s
nearly frozen.
CHAPTER 3
The Inner Planets
The inner planets are the four planets closest to the Sun.
Because they are solid like Earth and made of rock, they’re
called terrestrial [ tuh - RES – tree – uhl ] planets. These
planets are surrounded by layers of gas called atmosphere.
The inner four planets were formed during the first 100
million years of the solar system’s creation.
Mercury
Mercury is about 36 million mi. [ 58 million km ] from the
Sun. During the day, Mercury can get as hot as 870 o F [467 o
– C ]. But at night, the temperature can get as cold as -297 o F
[467 o C]. Mercury is the smallest planet. It goes around the
Sun so fast that its year is only 88 Earth days long.
Venus
Venus is the second closest planet to the Sun. Its atmosphere
is full of thick clouds which hold in heat and make it the
hottest planet. These clouds reflect sunlight and make Venus
shine brightly. Sometimes you can see Venus from Earth
during the day. Venus is covered with huge volcanoes that
spew poisonous gases.
Venus has more volcanoes than
any other planet.
The clouds over Venus help to keep the heat in. volcanoes shoot
out lava, or melted rock, from deep inside Venus.
