Showing posts with label Planets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planets. Show all posts

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Mars


The first planet on the other side of Earth further from the sun is Mars.

Mars is sometimes called the red planet, and you can see why!
mars
(from: wikipedia - mars)

Mars is the second smallest planet in our solar system,
the temperatures are as cold as −225°F and hot as 95°F.
but it's possible that astronauts could survive in space suits on the planet's surface.

Scientists have been very curious about Mars, since it's so close.

There are two robotic machines on Mars right now:

NASA's Opportunity rover, which landed on January 25, 2004
opportunity rover
(from: wikipedia - opportunity rover)

NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on August 6, 2012
curiosity rover
(from: wikipedia - curiosity rover)

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Earth


We just learned about Venus.

Since we're learning about all the planets, we can't skip the best one... Earth!

earth
(from: wikipedia - earth)

Earth is sometimes known as the Blue Planet because from outer space it is blue from all the water.

Well over half of the planet is water, unlike any other planet in our solar system.

It is the 3rd closest to the sun, and the 5th largest planet.

And as far as we can tell so far, Earth is the only planet in our solar system with life!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Planet Venus


We've already learned about the planet Mercury,
so let's move on to the next planet in our solar system: Venus!
venus
(from: wikipedia - venus)

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun, right between Earth and Mercury.

It's the hottest planet in our solar system, at over 850 °F!

Even though it's close to the same size as Earth, you wouldn't want to live there.
The clouds around the planet are made of sulfuric acid which would burn your skin if you touched them.

Besides the moon, Venus is the brightest planet in our sky at night.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Planet Mercury


We just learned about ISS - International Space Station.

We know that to remember the eight planets in our solar system we can remember the words:
My very educated mother just served us nachos.

The My in that sentence is for the planet Mercury.
mercury
(from: wikipedia - mercury (planet)

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun,
and it's also the smallest of all the eight planets.

Earth orbits around the sun every year, which is 365 days.
Mercury's orbit or year is only 88 days!

The planet has very strange days too.
It takes two whole Mercury years for it to finish one whole day and night.

That means it's daytime and sunny for a whole 88 days (3 months!)
and then totally dark for another 88 days.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Earth's Seasons


The earth's seasons, spring, summer, fall and winter, are all different temperatures because of the way the earth is tilted and how the sunlight shines on it.

When the top of the earth (where North America is) is tilted at the sun, that's when it is summer, the hottest time of the year.

When the top of the earth is tilted away from the sun, that's winter, the coldest time of the year.

earth tilt
(from: wikipedia - season)

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Orbit


We just learned a little about our Solar System.

Let's learn about Orbit!

The earth orbits around the sun, which means that it spins around the sun kind of like the outside of a ferris wheel or merry go round.
It takes one year for the earth to do a full orbit around the sun.
earth orbit
(From: Wikipedia - Solar System)

The moon orbits around the earth, and we see a full moon about every 27 days, almost a whole month.
If there are two full moons in one month, that is called a blue moon.
full moon
(From: Wikipedia - Lunar Month)

The earth spins (rotates) and when it does a full spin around that takes one day.
earth spin
(From: Wikipedia - Earth's Rotation)

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Solar System


Our sun and the planets that spin around it are called our "Solar System"
solar system

There are other stars in the universe that have planets around them called "Planetary Systems", but the word "Solar" is just for our sun.

(From: Wikipedia - Solar System)

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Planet Names


An easy way to remember the planet's names is to remember a funny thing to say:
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos

The first letter from each of those words matches up with the first letter of a planet!
My - M - Mercury
Very - V - Venus
Educated - E - Earth
Mother - M - Mars
Just - J - Jupiter
Served - S - Saturn
Us - U - Uranus
Nachos - N - Neptune

This is also the right order for the planets too, from the closest to the sun (Mercury) to the farthest away (Neptune)
planets
(From: Wikipedia - Solar System)

Remember that Pluto is still out there, but it's not a planet anymore!

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Saturn's Rings


Saturn has 12 rings, made up mostly of chunks of rock and ice.

saturn's rings
(From: Wikipedia - rings of saturn)