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MercuryMercury is gray. It is cold on one side and on the other side it is hot. It turns on its axis very slowly every 6 weeks. It is the first planet in the solar system and by the sun. It’s about 1,250 feet away from the sun. It has no water and no one lives there because nothing exists there. If you lived on the hot part there wouldn’t be any water. If you lived on the cold part you would have no heat. Mercury is made of small bubbles and rocks. |
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VenusVenus is the sixth largest planet of the solar system. Years ago Venus had large amounts of water like Earth, but it boiled away. A spacecraft landed on Venus and they found a desert like Earth, but even hotter. Venus has no life or moons. Venus has 225 Earth days in one year and Venus is almost as big as Earth. In the morning Venus is very bright like a star. |
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EarthThe Earth is the third planet from the sun. Itis the only planet that has oxygen. Planet Earth is the planet that has the most water. There is life on Earth. |
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MarsMars is the 4th closest planet to the sun. Mars has 2 moons. It is smaller than the Earth. Mars has bacteria. Mars is hot and sometimes is cold in the night. |
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JupiterJupiter is the largest planet of the solar system. Jupiter’s distance from the sun is 483 million miles. Its diameter is 88,736 miles. The length of a year in Jupiter is 4,333 Earth days. The temperature on Jupiter is 278 F. Jupiter has 16 moons. |
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SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the sun and it is the second biggest planet of the solar system. Saturn has one of the biggest families of moons. It has 18 moons and the biggest of them is Titan. Saturn was discovered by Voyager 1 and now they are sending the Cassanini to Saturn which will reach there in the year 2004 and to one of its moons.The storms in Saturn are very powerful. The lightning in Saturn is so powerful that it is 10 times more powerful than Earth’s lightning.Saturn’s rings are made out of icy rocks. Scientists didn’t know where the rings came from, but a lot of them think the rings came from the moons because of their strong gravity. |
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UranusUranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel in his large telescope. He also discovered it had rings around it, but no one really knew about it because William Herschel didn’t tell anyone. He just kept it to himself because he didn’t like to tell people things because he thought they would put it in the newspaper and copy him. He thought if he told anyone they would tell everyone. |
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NeptuneNeptune has 6 rings. It is the 4th largest planet in the solar system. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium and other gases. Neptune is 4,8 billion kilometers from the sun (2.4 billion miles). Neptune has nine moons. Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun and sometimes the 9th. Neptune has dark spots that are thought to be huge storms. Neptune was visited by only one space craft called Voyager 2. One of Neptune’s moons is called Triton. |
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PlutoPluto is the ninth planet and the farthest planet from the sun. It is also the smallest planet in the solar system. It is the outerimost known member of the solar system. An astmomer named Percival Lowell discovered Pluto. Pluto got its name because there was a contest and a girl suggested naming it Pluto because the PL in pluto were the initials of Percival Lowell. In roman mythology, Pluto is the name of an underworld god. The girl’s name was Venita Burney.Unfortunately, Percival Lowell died, but Clyde William Tombaugh continued his research. Clyde W. Tombaugh did a very careful sky survey which turned up Pluto where Percival Lowell had said it was. Pluto was discoverad in 1930. Pluto takes 247.7 Earth years to orbit around the sun. Pluto takes 6 days, 9 hours and 18 minutes to rotate. Pluto is 70% rock and 30% ice water. Pluto has one satellite moon. It’s name is Charon |
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