The Solar System
By: Jonathan Abraham
The Solar System consists of the Sun, moons, asteroids and more.
Did you know the Sun could squish over one million Earths inside if it was hollow. The sun is a giant ball of flaming gas and its surface is 9932 F. The sun was alive for 4.5 billion years and will live for about 4.5 billion years more. Right now the sun is in the yellow dwarf stage. Mercury takes more time to orbit the sun then it takes to make a full rotation in other words mercury’s day is longer than it’s year. During the day temperatures can get up to 840 F but at night temperatures drop down to -225 F because Mercury has no atmosphere. Mercury is also the smallest planet in the solar system. Venus is the hottest planet of the solar system because the atmosphere is 90 times as strong and traps all the heat. This is called the Greenhouse Effect. The air on Venus is carbon dioxide which is impossible to breathe. And there are huge volcanoes and lava lakes. The moon is a lot like Mercury it has no atmosphere, craters and they are about the same size. The moons gravitational pull causes high tides and low tides. The moon is actually drifting away 3.8 cm every year. Only twelve humans ever
walked the moon. Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk the moon. Mars is a lot like Earth, it has canals and polar ice caps. Mars also has the solar system’s largest volcano it is three times the size of Mt. Everest. Iron compounds inside the dirt rust and turn red. Between Mars and Jupiter is the dwarf planet Ceres and the Asteroid Belt. If the asteroids formed a planet it would be four times the size of Earth. The largest asteroids are Vesta, Palles and Hygeia; they all are over 250 ft. long. Johann Titus found an asteroid and called it a planet then others found a hundred more they called these asteroids. Jupiter is the largest planet. It also is extra large at it’s equator caused by it’s rotational speed. One day on Jupiter is less than ten Earth hours. Also there is a spot on Jupiter called the great red spot it is a storm three times the size of Earth. Also four of Jupiter’s sixteen moons are larger than Pluto. There are thousands of rings around Saturn. One of Saturn’s moons, Titan, has a thick atmosphere an dense orange clouds. Saturn can float in water because it is made of gas. It is a gas Giant like Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus. Uranus is the only planet tilted on it’s side while it orbits the sun. It is mostly made of water and no surface and a few clouds. It has 10 rings. Voyager 2 has found ten moons orbiting Uranus. Neptune and Uranus were nicknamed twin planets because they have similar size and shape. There is a giant storm called the great dark spot. Triton one of Neptune’s moons is the coldest place in the solar system. Pluto is tipped on it’s side like Uranus. Sunlight is 1,000 times fainter on Pluto than Earth. Pluto’s surface is made of nitrogen ice. The atmosphere is made of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide. Pluto has five moons. The largest moon is Charon. As you’ve just read the solar system has a wide range of unique objects. Some of them are the sun, moons, planets and dwarf planets like Pluto.