Planets in Our Solar System
Look up at night. That tiny bright dot might not be a star at all. It could be a whole planet, so big you could never count all the way around it! Eight planets zoom in big circles around our Sun. Some are small and rocky like the ground you walk on. Some are giant balls of gas, bigger than a thousand Earths put together. Let's meet them!
What You'll Learn
Today you will be able to: - Name some of the eight planets that go around the Sun. - Tell that Earth is our home planet. - Say which planet is the biggest and which is closest to the Sun. - Show how planets move in a big circle around the Sun.
The Sun Is the Boss
The Sun is a giant, hot star in the middle. It is so big that more than a million Earths could fit inside it! All eight planets travel around the Sun. Going around one time is called an orbit. Earth takes one whole year to go around the Sun one time. That is why we have a birthday every year!
From the Sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Try this: My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Names. The first letter of each word helps you remember each planet!
Rocky Planets and Giant Planets
The four planets closest to the Sun are small and made of rock: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. You could stand on them, just like you stand on the ground. The four far-away planets are huge and made mostly of gas: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They are so puffy you could not stand on them at all. Jupiter is the biggest planet of all. Saturn wears beautiful rings made of ice and rock, like a hula hoop!
Earth Is Special
Earth is our home. It is the only planet we know that has water you can drink, air you can breathe, and lots and lots of living things, from ants to elephants to you! From space, Earth looks blue and green and white. The blue is oceans, the green is land, and the white is fluffy clouds. That is why people call Earth the blue planet.
Match each planet to something special about it.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Which planet is our home, where people, animals, and plants live?
What is it called when a planet travels all the way around the Sun one time?
Make a Planet Parade
Get 8 things of different sizes: a tiny bead or pebble for the small rocky planets and bigger balls like an orange or a ball for Jupiter and Saturn. Put a lamp or a yellow ball in the middle to be the Sun. Line up your planets in order from the Sun. Then walk one planet slowly in a big circle around the Sun to show an orbit. Deliverable: line up your 8 planets in the right order and tell a grown-up which one is Earth and which is the biggest.
Neptune is the farthest planet. It is so far from the Sun that it takes 165 Earth years to go around just one time! A person born on Neptune would not have their first birthday for a very, very long time.
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