Difference between the size of the Earth and other planets!
Earth is the third planet
of the sun.
Did you know that the earth was one of the smallest planets in the
solar system?
There are nine
planets in solar system that travel around the sun. In order of
distance they consist of Pluto, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter,
Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury. Totally they make up our solar
system.
All the planets in solar system are in motion and travel around the
sun in oval shaped paths called orbits. Each planet travels its own
orbit and also rotates on an axis, which means it spins around its
centerline.
The Earth is one of the smaller planets although it is pretty large at
7,926 miles in diameter. It takes almost exactly 24 hours to rotate.
The sun is not a planet but a star, like the stars you see at night.
Though it is more than 100 times larger than earth it has just average
size for a star.
The
moon is another body in our solar system that is covered by deep
pockets called craters. However the earth turns on its own orbit but
just one side of the moon is always facing to the earth.
The moon has no light of it’s own. It only reflects the light from the
sun.
The light of the moon is called a moons phase. The moon has many
phases such as the full moon and new moon. It takes 27 days for it to
travel through all of them. That is how we calculate our months!
People in different countries are located opposite each other on the
globe, such as the United States and Japan. So when Japanese have
night, American have day. Around we go.
No matter where we all live on earth we share the same sun and moon.
|
Comets, Satelites,
Asteroids |
As
you know there are thousands of objects in the space that orbit around
the sun and moon. Most of them are asteroids, comets and satellites.
Comets are composed of dust, rock and ice that move so fast that they
form a tail of gas. The gassy tail becomes stronger when it get closer
to the sun.
There are famous comets that have been discovered during time like
Haley’s comet. They come around many times for example Haley’s comet
will reappear in 2062.
Asteroids that are larger than comets are considered minor planets.
The largest one is Ceres at 600 miles. They are often made up of small
chunks of rock or metal.
Like the planets orbiting around the sun, satellites move in their
orbits around planets. Satellites are not just manmade objects, but
moons are natural satellites too!
| .EXERCISE Your KNOWLEDGE: |
Why there is
not a play about the solar system and the size of the planets.
Have the
student learn facts about their solar body just by assigning a planet
to each kid...extras can be moon, stars, comets, satellites or
asteroids. Each person then takes their place and rotates around each
other, reviewing their knowledge.
