| Planet | Distance from the Sun (Astronomical Units miles km) | Period of Revolution Around the Sun (1 planetary year) | Period of Rotation (1 planetary day) | Mass (kg) | Diameter (miles km) | Apparent size from Earth | Temperature (K Range or Average) | Number of Moons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 0.39 AU, 36 million miles 57.9 million km | 87.96 Earth days | 58.7 Earth days | 3.3 x 1023 | 3,031 miles 4,878 km | 5-13 arc seconds | 100-700 K mean=452 K | 0 |
| Venus | 0.723 AU 67.2 million miles 108.2 million km | 224.68 Earth days | 243 Earth days | 4.87 x 1024 | 7,521 miles 12,104 km | 10-64 arc seconds | 726 K | 0 |
| Earth | 1 AU 93 million miles 149.6 million km | 365.26 days | 24 hours | 5.98 x 1024 | 7,926 miles 12,756 km | Not Applicable | 260-310 K | 1 |
| Mars | 1.524 AU 141.6 million miles 227.9 million km | 686.98 Earth days | 24.6 Earth hours =1.026 Earth days | 6.42 x 1023 | 4,222 miles 6,787 km | 4-25 arc seconds | 150-310 K | 2 |
| Jupiter | 5.203 AU 483.6 million miles 778.3 million km | 11.862 Earth years | 9.84 Earth hours | 1.90 x 1027 | 88,729 miles 142,796 km | 31-48 arc seconds | 120 K (cloud tops) | 18 named (plus many smaller ones) |
| Saturn | 9.539 AU 886.7 million miles 1,427.0 million km | 29.456 Earth years | 10.2 Earth hours | 5.69 x 1026 | 74,600 miles 120,660 km | 15-21 arc seconds excluding rings | 88 K | 18+ |
| Uranus | 19.18 AU 1,784.0 million miles 2,871.0 million km | 84.07 Earth years | 17.9 Earth hours | 8.68 x 1025 | 32,600 miles 51,118 km | 3-4 arc seconds | 59 K | 15 |
| Neptune | 30.06 AU 2,794.4 million miles 4,497.1 million km | 164.81 Earth years | 19.1 Earth hours | 1.02 x 1026 | 30,200 miles 48,600 km | 2.5 arc seconds | 48 K | 2 |
| Pluto (a dwarf planet) | 39.53 AU 3,674.5 million miles 5,913 million km | 247.7 years | 6.39 Earth days | 1.29 x 1022 | 1,413 miles 2,274 km | 0.04 arc seconds | 37 K | 1 large (plus 2 tiny) |
| Planet | Distance from the Sun (Astronomical Units miles km) | Period of Revolution Around the Sun (1 planetary year) | Period of Rotation (1 planetary day) | Mass (kg) | Diameter (miles km) | Apparent size from Earth | Temperature (K Range or Average) | Number of Moons |
Monday, September 7, 2009
The Planets in Our Solar System
Planet Activities and QuizzesPlanet Activities and Quizzes
Planet Coloring pages
Enchanted Learning®
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An interactive puzzle on the Solar System.
Find It!, a quiz on the planets.
A fill-in-the-blank (cloze) activity on the Solar System - or go to the answers.
Solar System calendar to print out and color.
How to write a report on a planet - plus a rubric.
 Astronomy: K-3 Theme Page Activities, quizzes, books to print, and printouts. |  Nine Planets A Book With Tabs An activity book on the Solar System to print for fluent readers. The book contains information, pictures, and questions to answer. |  The Solar System Book A simple printable coloring book about the Solar System to print (for early readers). Pages on the Solar System, the sun, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. | Solar System Coloring Book Color and learn about our Solar System, the Sun, the planets, asteroids, comets, and our moon. |
 Solar System Diagram Label the Sun and planets. Answers |  Earth's Atmosphere Label the atmospheric layers of the Earth. Answers |  Earth Diagram Label the inside of the Earth. Answers |  Celsius Bar Graph Questions #2: Printable Worksheet A printable activity worksheet in which the student reads a bar graph of the average temperatures of the planets to answer questions, for example, "On average, is it warmer on Jupiter or Mars?" Or go to the answers. Go to a pdf version of the worksheet. |
 Moon Phases Diagram Label the phases of the waxing and waning moon. Answers |  Lunar Eclipse Diagram Label the lunar eclipse. Answers |  Planet-Sun Orbital Diagram Label the aphelion (farthest point in orbit) and perihelion (closest point in orbit) of a planet in orbit. Answers |
 Put 10 Planet Words in Alphabetical Order - Worksheet Put 10 planet words in alphabetical order. The words are: Earth, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, moon, Neptune, Pluto, Saturn, Uranus, Venus. Go to the answers. |  The Planets in English A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in English. Answers | The Planets in French A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in French. Answers |
The Planets in German A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in German. Answers | The Planets in Italian A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in Italian. Answers | The Planets in Portuguese Label the planets in Portuguese. Answers | The Planets in Spanish A Label Me! Printout Label the Solar System in Spanish. Answers |
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The Planets (plus the Dwarf Planet Pluto)
Our solar system consists of the sun, eight planets, moons, dwarf planets (or plutoids), an asteroid belt, comets, meteors, and others. The sun is the center of our solar system; the planets, their moons, the asteroids, comets, and other rocks and gas all orbit the sun. 
The largest planet is Jupiter. It is followed by Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and finally, tiny Pluto (a dwarf planet). Jupiter is so big that all the other planets could fit inside it.
The Inner Planets vs. the Outer Planets
The inner planets (those planets that orbit close to the sun) are quite different from the outer planets (those planets that orbit far from the sun).
Temperatures on the Planets
Generally, the farther from the Sun, the cooler the planet. Differences occur when the greenhouse effect warms a planet (like Venus) surrounded by a thick atmosphere.
Density of the Planets
The outer, gaseous planets are much less dense than the inner, rocky planets.
The Earth is the densest planet. Saturn is the least dense planet; it would float on water.
The Mass of the Planets
Jupiter is by far the most massive planet; Saturn trails it. Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Pluto are orders of magnitude less massive.
Gravitational Forces on the Planets
The planet with the strongest gravitational attraction at its surface is Jupiter. Although Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are also very massive planets, their gravitational forces are about the same as Earth. This is because the gravitational force a planet exerts upon an object at the planet's surface is proportional to its mass and to the inverse of the planet's radius squared.
A Day on Each of the Planets
A day is the length of time that it takes a planet to rotate on its axis (360°). A day on Earth takes almost 24 hours.
The planet with the longest day is Venus; a day on Venus takes 243 Earth days. (A day on Venus is longer than its year; a year on Venus takes only 224.7 Earth days).
The planet with the shortest day is Jupiter; a day on Jupiter only takes 9.8 Earth hours! When you observe Jupiter from Earth, you can see some of its features change.
The Average Orbital Speed of the Planets
As the planets orbit the Sun, they travel at different speeds. Each planet speeds up when it is nearer the Sun and travels more slowly when it is far from the Sun (this is Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion).
The nine planets that orbit the sun are (in order from the sun): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (a dwarf planet or plutoid). A belt of asteroids (minor planets made of rock and metal) lies between Mars and Jupiter. These objects all orbit the sun in roughly circular orbits that lie in the same plane, the ecliptic (Pluto is an exception; it has an elliptical orbit tilted over 17° from the ecliptic).
Easy ways to remember the order of the planets (and Pluto) are the mnemonics: "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas" and "My Very Easy Method Just Simplifies Us Naming Planets" The first letter of each of these words represents a planet - in the correct order.
The largest planet is Jupiter. It is followed by Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and finally, tiny Pluto (a dwarf planet). Jupiter is so big that all the other planets could fit inside it.
The Inner Planets vs. the Outer Planets
The inner planets (those planets that orbit close to the sun) are quite different from the outer planets (those planets that orbit far from the sun).
- The inner planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. They are relatively small, composed mostly of rock, and have few or no moons.
- The outer planets include: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (a dwarf planet). They are mostly huge, mostly gaseous, ringed, and have many moons (again, the exception is Pluto, the dwarf planet, which is small, rocky, and has one large moon plus two tiny ones).
Temperatures on the Planets
Generally, the farther from the Sun, the cooler the planet. Differences occur when the greenhouse effect warms a planet (like Venus) surrounded by a thick atmosphere. Density of the Planets
The outer, gaseous planets are much less dense than the inner, rocky planets.The Earth is the densest planet. Saturn is the least dense planet; it would float on water.
The Mass of the Planets
Jupiter is by far the most massive planet; Saturn trails it. Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Pluto are orders of magnitude less massive. Gravitational Forces on the Planets
The planet with the strongest gravitational attraction at its surface is Jupiter. Although Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are also very massive planets, their gravitational forces are about the same as Earth. This is because the gravitational force a planet exerts upon an object at the planet's surface is proportional to its mass and to the inverse of the planet's radius squared. A Day on Each of the Planets
A day is the length of time that it takes a planet to rotate on its axis (360°). A day on Earth takes almost 24 hours.The planet with the longest day is Venus; a day on Venus takes 243 Earth days. (A day on Venus is longer than its year; a year on Venus takes only 224.7 Earth days).
The planet with the shortest day is Jupiter; a day on Jupiter only takes 9.8 Earth hours! When you observe Jupiter from Earth, you can see some of its features change.
The Average Orbital Speed of the Planets
As the planets orbit the Sun, they travel at different speeds. Each planet speeds up when it is nearer the Sun and travels more slowly when it is far from the Sun (this is Kepler's Second Law of Planetary Motion).
This is a collection of many of the best images from NASA's planetary exploration program. The collection has been extracted from the interactive program "Welcome to the Planets" which was distributed on the Planetary Data System Educational CD-ROM Version 1.5 in December 1995. It has also been updated with the addition of more recent images. Please note: This collection replaces the former on-line version of Welcome to the Planets. Internal links within this site are not identical to the old site, so please adjust any links to this site accordingly.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Did you know, monkeys have 12 hairs at any one time
Did you know, monkeys have 12 hairs at any one time
Monday, August 31, 2009
Chandrayaan pictures
The instrument is an improved
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web.ift.uib.no
Chandrayaan-1
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Chandrayaan-I sending
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pragmaticideas.wordpress...
Chandrayaan-1
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Chandrayaan-1
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gyandotcom.wordpress.com
Chandrayaan-1 to moon
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whataindia.wordpress.com
Obama sees Chandrayaan
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lordoftheweb.info
Chandrayaan project
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Chandrayaan-2 : India's
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Chandrayaan-1
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cira.colostate.edu
First Picture by
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travelindia-guide.com
will launch Chandrayaan-1
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thehindu.com
Space Applications Centre.
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sac.gov.in
The objective of
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howyoudoin.wordpress.com
by the Chandrayaan-1's TMC
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dancewithshadows.com
Chandrayaan-2 Scientific
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With barely 24 hours
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Page : Chandrayaan's first
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thehindu.com
Chandrayaan-1 launch
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dancewithshadows.com
Chandrayaan-1
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whatwherewhohow.wordpres...
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