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Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth is. Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus. Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see.

Structure and Surface

Neptune is encircled by six rings.

Neptune, like Uranus, is an ice giant. It's similar to a gas giant. It is made of a thick soup of water, ammonia, and methane flowing over a solid core about the size of Earth.

Neptune has a thick, windy atmosphere.

Time on Neptune

One day on Neptune goes by in 16 hours.

Neptune has such a long journey around the Sun it takes 165 Earth years to go around once. That's a long year!

Neptune's Neighbors

Neptune has 14 moons.

Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet from the Sun. That means Uranus is Neptune's only neighboring planet.

Quick History

Neptune was discovered in 1846 by Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams, and Johann Galle.

Only Voyager 2 has visited Neptune.

What does Neptune look like?

For more information visit:
NASA Solar System Exploration

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Uranus is made of water, methane, and ammonia fluids above a small rocky center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen and helium like Jupiter and Saturn, but it also has methane. The methane makes Uranus blue.

Uranus also has faint rings. The inner rings are narrow and dark. The outer rings are brightly colored and easier to see. Like Venus, Uranus rotates in the opposite direction as most other planets. And unlike any other planet, Uranus rotates on its side.

Structure and Surface

Uranus is surrounded by a set of 13 rings.

Uranus is an ice giant (instead of a gas giant). It is mostly made of flowing icy materials above a solid core.

Uranus has a thick atmosphere made of methane, hydrogen, and helium.

Uranus is the only planet that spins on its side.

Uranus spins the opposite direction as Earth and most other planets.

Time on Uranus

One day on Uranus lasts a little over 17 hours (17 hours and 14 minutes, to be exact).

One year on Uranus is the same as 84 years on Earth. That's a long time to wait for a birthday cake.

Uranus' Neighbors

Uranus has 27 known moons.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. That means Saturn and Neptune are Uranus' neighboring planets.

Quick History

Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel in Great Britain.

Uranus has only been visited by Voyager 2.

What does Uranus look like?

For more information visit:
NASA Solar System Exploration

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All About Saturn | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

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Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It's similar to a star, but it never got massive enough to start burning. It is covered in swirling cloud stripes. It has big storms like the Great Red Spot, which has been going for hundreds of years. Jupiter is a gas giant and doesn't have a solid surface, but it may have a solid inner core about the size of Earth. Jupiter also has rings, but they're too faint to see very well.

Structure and Surface

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.

Jupiter is a gas giant. It is made mostly of hydrogen and helium.

Jupiter has a very thick atmosphere.

Jupiter has rings, but they're very hard to see.

Time on Jupiter

One day on Jupiter goes by in just 10 hours.

One year on Jupiter is the same as 11.8 Earth years.

Jupiter's Neighbors

Jupiter has 80 confirmed moons.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. That means Mars and Saturn are Jupiter's neighboring planets.

Quick History

Jupiter has been known since ancient times because it can be seen without advanced telescopes.

Jupiter has been visited or passed by several spacecraft, orbiters and probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini, New Horizons, and Juno.

What does Jupiter look like?

For more information visit:
NASA Solar System Exploration

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What are the Mars rovers?

Mars is a fascinating planet. It's icy cold and covered in reddish dust and dirt. Like Earth, it has volcanoes, gullies, and flat plains. Scientists can also see channels that look like they were carved by rivers and streams a long, long time ago. Over the years, we've sent four robotic vehicles, or rovers, to learn more about Mars. And NASA's fifth Mars rover, Perseverance, landed on the Red Planet in February 2021!

Meet the Team:

Click on each card below to find out what we've learned from each Mars rover.

Why are rovers so important?

Since the 1970s, scientists have been sending spacecraft to Mars. Several different types of spacecraft have been sent to the Red Planet over the years, and they all have different specialties. One type, called orbiters, orbit Mars, taking pictures as they zoom around the planet. Other spacecraft, called landers, provide photos and information from their landing spots on the surface of Mars.

Rovers have wheels and specialize in moving around. They land on the surface of Mars and drive around to different spots.

Rovers help scientists in their quest to understand what different parts of the planet are made of. Mars is made up of lots of different types of rocks, and each rock is made up of a mixture of chemicals. A rover can drive around to different areas, studying the different chemicals in each rock. These chemicals can tell scientists something about the environments that changed that rock over time.

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How do rovers help us learn more about the Red Planet?

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In July 2020, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA) launched a rocket that blasted off into space. This rocket carried a very special cargo - a new Mars rover called Perseverance. Carry on reading to learn more facts about Mars for kids, find out about the NASA robot rover Perseverance, and scroll to the end of this blog post to see a cool rocket craft to try in the classroom or at home! Then check out our other blog post on space facts for kids.
Check out other space related content:

About the NASA robot rover Perseverance

In February 2021, the special NASA robotic Mars rover Perseverance got to work on its very important mission. It's busy looking for evidence of ancient life, and collecting rock and soil samples, which may be brought back to Earth for scientists to investigate.

All life on Earth needs water to survive and scientists have found evidence of water on Mars. They think this means there may once have been living things on the planet Mars, and maybe one day humans could live there. Perseverance is the smartest rover NASA has built so far, and it will investigate if there once was life, and what it could be like when future astronauts live and work on Mars.

Once it launched into space, it took the Perseverance rover about eight months to reach Mars where it landed in the Jezero Crater. When Perseverance touched down, it released another amazing exploration robot, a helicopter named Ingenuity which whizzes around to see what it'll be like to fly drones on Mars in the future. See how it would look to fly on Mars!

10 facts about Mars for kids

Would you like to blast off into space and journey to Mars? Living there would be very different to Earth. Read these facts about Mars for kids and then imagine what it will be like if you had joined Perseverance on the Mission to Mars. Maybe you could write your own space story about it!

1. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is a terrestrial planet which means that like Earth it has a hard, rocky surface you can walk on.

2. Mars is called the Red Planet because of all the iron in the soil. This iron rusts and as a result, makes the surface and atmosphere look red.

3. Mars may look warm but it's very cold. The average temperature is -62 degrees Celsius. Yikes!

4. Mars has two moons, and their names are Phobos and Deimos.

5. Mars can have huge dust storms which last for months and can cover the entire planet.

6. A day on Mars is 24.6 hours, not much longer than an Earth day, but a year on Mars is 687 Earth days long. That's almost twice as long as an Earth year. (Imagine only celebrating your birthday every two Earth years!)

7. You'd be able to jump much higher on Mars because it has weaker gravity than Earth, and this means you'd weigh less too. Head to this website to find out how much you would weigh on Mars.

8. The atmosphere on Mars is about 100 times thinner than the Earth's atmosphere, and it has very little oxygen. You wouldn't be able to breath the Martian air and would need a spacesuit with oxygen when you went outdoors.

9. Humans haven't been to Mars yet, but NASA has sent several rovers there already, and Perseverance is the fifth. The first one was called Sojourner and it landed in 1997. Spirit and Opportunity landed in 2004, and the last time NASA landed a rover on Martian soil was in 2012. Visit NASA's Space Place landing page and learn more about what NASA Mars rovers do.

10. In 2018, NASA's Curiosity rover found signs which scientists think mean there once was life on Mars. Perseverance's job will be to dig deeper - literally - by drilling into the surface!

Mars craft: make your own rocket

Want to try your hand at some space-inspired learning and crafts? We loved NASA's straw rocket project you can do at home or in the classroom.

Shop our range of Earth and solar system toys and resources that make learning about our world and space come to life in children's imaginations.

Images published in this blog post are courtesy of NASA.

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Learning Resources | Learning Resources Facts About Dinosaurs For Kids

It's amazing to think that long before humans walked the Earth, mighty animals roamed the Earth's surfaces and oceans. The ancient Earth that they lived looked very different to the surface of the Earth we see today.

These roar-some creatures went extinct millions of years ago, but palaeontologists around the world continue to discover their fossilised remains. Each time a new fossil is found, we have the chance to learn more incredible facts about prehistoric Earth and unravel a little more about the mysteries of our planet. Carry on reading to find out some facts about dinosaurs for kids. See how many you know!
Check out other fascinating facts for kids:

Facts about dinosaurs for kids

What are dinosaurs? Many ancient animals roamed the Earth's surface millions of years ago, but not all ancient creatures are classified as dinosaurs. Scientists classify animals as dinosaurs if they stood upright, with legs perpendicular to their bodies. In other words, their bodies were positioned on top of their legs.

Dinosaurs lived on land, and like other reptiles, laid eggs. However, they also had two holes behind their eye sockets, through which string muscles attached their jaws to the tops of their skulls. This gave dinosaurs a super strong bite!

When did dinosaurs live? Dinosaurs lived during a period of Earth's history scientists call the Mesozoic Era. This was about between 245 and 66 million years ago. This era is divided into three periods - Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. This was long before humans existed.

Dinosaurs weren't the only animals that lived on Earth millions of years ago. Dinosaurs shared the Earth's surface with animals such as pterosaurs, while ancient creatures called ichthyosaurs lived in the oceans. Just like dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs were reptiles and are distant relatives of lizards and snakes. However, ichthyosaurs are not dinosaurs. The largest known ichthyosaur is Shastasaurus sikanniensis. This creature measured up to 21m long.

How many species of dinosaurs are there? Thanks to evidence from fossils, more than 1,000 species of dinosaurs are known. Some were small (less than 1m in length) while others were colossal and are thought to have measured up to 40m long.

What is the world's oldest dinosaur? The world's oldest dinosaur is believed to be Nyasasaurus parringtoni. Fossils have been found in Tanzania in Africa. When this dinosaur lived during the Triassic period, almost all the world's continents were joined in a super continent called Pangea. This is why dinosaur fossils have been found on all seven continents.

The largest land-living dinosaur that ever lived was Argentinosaurus and measured up to 40m long from head to tail, it is through to have weighed in at 70 metric tonnes! Although scientists continue to discover new fossils, so who knows, there may have been another even bigger dinosaur that lived millions of years ago.

Are birds dinosaurs? Believe it or not, but from the tall ostrich to the tiny hummingbird, the birds that live on Earth today are the descendants of dinosaurs! The big and small feathered friends that share our planet evolved from a group of meat-eating dinosaurs called theropods. The ferocious-looking Tyrannosaurus rex was also a theropod.

What is the longest dinosaur name? The longest dinosaur name is Micropachycephalosaurus which has 23 letters and means 'small thick-headed lizard'. Despite its long name, these dinosaurs were small, measuring between 0.5-1m long.

What was the first dinosaur to be discovered? The Megalosaurus was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered. It is a large theropod which is a carnivore that walked on two legs and was discovered in England.

Digging into dinosaurs is a great topic for inspiring young imaginations. Find roar-some dinosaur toys that help children learn through play. While you're here, download your FREE dinosaur printables.
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Facts about Mars for kids! Learn more about the Red Planet and the NASA robot Mars rover Perseverance! Learn more facts about Mars for kids and do a fun space craft perfect for trying in the classroom or at home.

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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.
Children love learning about our solar system. These Earth facts for kids are perfect for both the younger and older kids.

A large portion of science lessons and curriculum discuss our little part of the universe - Earth. While our planet is not as vast as the entire universe, it is still pretty amazing -and it is constantly changing! So, there is always something new to learn about our planet as well.

Below, there are several sections of earth facts for kids. The first section is a set of simple facts intended for younger children. For older children, you could use the simple fact as a base and dive a little bit deeper into that topic. The second section includes facts about the physical properties of Earth. The last sections are longer, interesting, facts for older elementary students.

Easy Earth Facts for Kids

First, I want to share some simple, easy-to-read facts for a younger crowd. Use these fun facts as a starting point, then have students research a little bit more about the topic!

Earth is our home planet!

Our Earth is around 4.5 billion years old! It has been around a long time!

Earth is the third planet from the Sun.

Earth goes around the sun in a circle!

Our solar system in outer space has 8 planets! (One more if you include Pluto!)

Earth is the fifth largest planet in our solar system!

Earth is the only known planet with humans!

Over 71% of Earth's surface is covered in water! That is more than half!

Earth spins like a ball over 365 times each year!

Earth makes one trip around the sun each year!

The first Earth Day was in 1970

Earth is called the blue planet or ocean planet, because we have so much water.

Earth's inner core is made of iron!

What's the great thing about our solar system and universe? It seemingly never ends. Scientists say it is constantly expanding! So, by that standard, there will always be something new to learn about and discover. When most parents and teachers were growing up, Pluto was considered a planet! Students used to learn that there were nine planets! Now, it is taught in school that there are only eight (sorry Pluto!). Scientists and experts are constantly learning something new about our planet and solar system.

These Building Sentences: Earth Facts for Kids are leveled worksheets to incorporate into your space lessons. Kids build the easy fact sentences, write the sentence, then draw a picture. Great for at home or in the classroom.

Quick Fire Earth Facts

Here are some numbers for the physical properties of earth. Your students' minds will be blown when they learn how much mass our planet is made up of!

Mass: 5,972,190,000,000,000 kg

Diameter: 12,742 km

Surface temperature: -88 to 58 degrees Celsius

Moons: 1

Year: 365.25 days

Day: 23.9 hours

Orbit Length (Time): 365.25 Earth days

Planet Type: Terrestrial

Interesting Earth Facts for Kids

These facts are longer and include more detail, but are constructed in simple sentences. These facts may be best suited for slightly older students, but they will learn a lot going through this list! Ever heard of an "oblate spheroid"? You will learn all about it below!

Earth is 93 million miles away from the sun!

The Earth has a diameter of 7,917.5 miles. The circumference is almost 25,000 miles!

While Earth is covered in water, only 3% of that water is fresh! This means 97% of it is salt water!

The air that we breathe is a mixture of gases. Those gases are nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. We could not live without them!

Earth's atmosphere has 6 layers. Those layers are called troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, and ionosphere.

Earth is a terrestrial planet. This means that it is a planet made up of rocks or metals and has a hard surface. Other terrestrial and rocky planets are: Venus, Mars, and Mercury.

While we may think the Earth's shape is a perfect sphere, it is not! The North Pole and South Pole are a little flat. This happens because of the force that Earth uses to rotate! Scientists call this shape an "oblate spheroid".

Earth only has one natural satellite - the Moon!

Where Did the Word Earth Come From

The word Earth has been around for over 1,000 years. It means "the ground" and is German.

While the word is over 1,000 years old, it was not used as the name for our planet until the 16th century.

The lowest point on earth? The Challenger Deep. This is the lowest point in the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is a gap between two tectonic plates in the western Pacific Ocean. It is known to be the deepest trench in all of the Earth's oceans.

Earth is the only planet in our solar system that is known to sustain life. This is because our planet has two extremely important requirements for human life: oxygen and water. It is also the perfect distance from the sun. It is not too hot and not too cold.

The body of planet earth is made up of layers. Those layers are the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust.

Humans live on the outer layer. This is called the Earth's crust!

The middle of the Earth is called the inner core. It is hotter than the sun!

More Interesting Facts about Earth

The outer core is made up of hot liquid rock!

The largest layer of Earth is the mantle. It is above the outer core and below the crust.

Why do we have seasons? Because Earth's axis is tilted. The tilt of the axis means that as the Earth rotates, we are a different distance from the sun during different parts of the year!

The tilted axis is caused by the gravity between Earth, Moon, and the Sun. This gravity not only plays a part in the tilted axis, but also our oceans tides! The way sea level rises and then falls is also caused by the tilt of the axis.

The highest point on Earth and Earth's highest mountain is Mount Everest. This mountain is located in Nepal and Tibet. It is a part of the Himalayan mountain range. It can be seen from space! The Himalayas are one of the high mountain ranges that astronauts can see from the space station.

The farthest distance Earth ever gets from the sun? 94.5 million miles. This is called Earth's aphelion. The closest distance Earth gets to the sun? 91 million miles. This is called Earth's perihelion.

Earth's moon is over 238,000 miles away from us.

Earth is the only planet not named after one of the Greek or Roman gods.

Earth is the most dense of all the planets in our solar system.

What is Earth Made Of

Our Earth is made of many different materials. Aluminum, calcium, nickel, Sulphur, magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and iron are the minerals that our planet is made up of!

Our Earth is estimated to have a surface area of approximately 510 million square kilometers. This is 196,900,000 square miles!

Earth is located in our solar system. Our solar system is located in the "Orion". Orion is located within the Milk Way Galaxy. It is one of the Milky Way's four spiral arms! The Universe is huge!

Earth's moon formed around the time Earth was formed - around 4.5 billion years ago!

The top part of the Earth is called the North Pole and the bottom point is called the South Pole.

The lowest elevation on land are the shores of the Dead Sea. They are 1,412 feet below sea level!

Some microscopic fossils make scientist believe the life on Earth started 3.465 billion years ago!

Many scientists think there are many other Earth-size planets in the Milk Way Galaxy - maybe even billions!

Earth is something many become interested in at a young age and many adults are still fascinated with later in life.

Before you go, here are more facts for kids:
51 Fun Mars Facts for Kids 25 Fun Snow Facts for Kids 50 Fun Winter Facts for Kids 31 Fun Penguin Facts for Kids 43 Fun Monkey Facts for Kids
Earth Facts for Kids

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53 Fun Earth Facts for Kids (Printables and Video) - Little Learning Corner

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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own. Children love learning about our solar system.

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Even though Venus isn't the closest planet to the Sun, it is still the hottest. It has a thick atmosphere full of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and clouds made of sulfuric acid. The gas traps heat and keeps Venus toasty warm. In fact, it's so hot on Venus, metals like lead would be puddles of melted liquid.

Venus looks like a very active planet. It has mountains and volcanoes. Venus is similar in size to Earth. Earth is just a little bit bigger.

Venus is unusual because it spins the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets. And its rotation is very slow. It takes about 243 Earth days to spin around just once. Because it's so close to the Sun, a year goes by fast. It takes 225 Earth days for Venus to go all the way around the Sun. That means that a day on Venus is a little longer than a year on Venus.

Since the day and year lengths are similar, one day on Venus is not like a day on Earth. Here, the Sun rises and sets once each day. But on Venus, the Sun rises every 117 Earth days. That means the Sun rises two times during each year on Venus, even though it is still the same day on Venus! And because Venus rotates backwards, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

Just like Mercury, Venus doesn't have any moons.

Structure and Surface

Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system.

Venus is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

Venus has a thick atmosphere. It traps heat and makes Venus very hot.

Venus has an active surface, including volcanoes!

Venus spins the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets.

Time on Venus

A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days.

A year on Venus lasts 225 Earth days.

Venus's Neighbors

Venus does not have any moons.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. That means Mercury and Earth are Venus's neighboring planets.

Quick History

Venus has been known since ancient times because it can be seen easily without a telescope.

Venus has been visited by several spacecraft: Mariner 2, Mariner 5, Mariner 10, Pioneer Venus 1, Pioneer Venus 2, and an orbiter called Magellan.

What does Venus look like?

For more information visit:
NASA Solar System Exploration

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Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system. It's just a little bigger than Earth's moon. It is the closest planet to the sun, but it's actually not the hottest. Venus is hotter.

Along with Venus, Earth, and Mars, Mercury is one of the rocky planets. It has a solid surface that is covered with craters. It has no atmosphere, and it doesn't have any moons. Mercury likes to keep things simple.

This small planet spins around slowly compared to Earth, so one day lasts a long time. Mercury takes 59 Earth days to make one full rotation. A year on Mercury goes by fast. Because it's the closest planet to the sun, it doesn't take very long to go all the way around. It completes one revolution around the sun in just 88 Earth days. If you lived on Mercury, you'd have a birthday every three months!

A day on Mercury is not like a day here on Earth. For us, the sun rises and sets each and every day. Because Mercury has a slow spin and short year, it takes a long time for the sun to rise and set there. Mercury only has one sunrise every 180 Earth days! Isn't that weird?

Structure and Surface

Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system.

Mercury is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

Mercury doesn't really have an atmosphere.

Time on Mercury

A day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days.

A year on Mercury lasts 88 Earth days.

Mercury's Neighbors

Mercury does not have any moons.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

Venus is Mercury's neighboring planet.

Quick History

Mercury has been known since ancient times because it can be seen without advanced telescopes.

Mercury has been visited by two spacecraft: Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.

What does Mercury look like?

For more information visit:
NASA Solar System Exploration

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Space Facts for Kids | Planets for Kids | Solar System

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10 Facts about Space! - National Geographic Kids

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Discover ten fascinating facts about space here at Nat Geo Kids. How big is the sun? What are comets made of? Find out the answers to these and more!

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Pluto Facts - Interesting Facts about Dwarf Planet Pluto

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Discovered in 1930, Pluto is the second closest dwarf planet to the Sun and was at one point classified as the ninth planet. Pluto is

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Science >> Physics >> Astronomy

Astronomy

Dwarf Planet Pluto.
Source: NASA.

Moons: 5 known

Mass: .2% of Earth's mass

Diameter: 1473 miles (2370 km)

Year: 248 Earth years

Day: 6.4 Earth days

Average Temperature: minus 388°F (-233°C)

Distance from the Sun: 3 - 5 billion miles from the sun (5 - 7.5 billion km)

What is Pluto Like?
Up until 2006, Pluto was considered the 9th planet of the Solar System. At that time the IAU (International Astronomical Union) gave an official definition of a planet. Pluto no longer qualified as a planet under this definition and was re-classified as a "dwarf planet".

Pluto is a relatively small planetoid, smaller than the Earth's moon. It is thought that Pluto is made up of a mantle of ice (mostly Nitrogen ice), which is about 50% of its mass, and a rocky core, which makes up the other 50% of its mass.

Pluto has a unique orbit around the sun. Rather than a round or circular orbit around the sun, like the 8 planets, Pluto's orbit is more egg-shaped. At its closest point to sun, Pluto is around 2.8 billion miles away. At its furthest point, it is around 5 billion miles from the sun. When Pluto is closest to the sun, it has a thin atmosphere. As Pluto moves away from the sun, it gets so cold that the atmosphere starts to freeze and fall to the ground.

Pluto and its largest moon Charon.
Source: NASA.

Pluto has five named moons: Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. The largest is Charon. Charon's diameter is around half the size of Pluto's. This makes it the largest moon in the Solar System in relation to the planet it orbits. Pluto and its moons are part of the Kuiper belt.

Pluto is much smaller than Earth
Source: NASA.

How does Pluto compare to Earth?
Pluto has a hard, rocky surface like Earth. It is much smaller than Earth. Pluto is so far away from the sun, that it gets very little energy from the sun and is extremely cold.

How do we know about Pluto?

For nearly 100 years scientists had suspected there was a 9th planet somewhere beyond Neptune. This was based on changes in Neptune's and Uranus' orbit that indicated a large mass was tugging on the planets. They called this mysterious 9th planet Planet X.

In 1930 a young astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, found Planet X after a year of searching.

Since then much more has been learned about Pluto using telescopes. The first space probe to visit Pluto was the New Horizons in 2015. The New Horizons flew past Pluto coming within 7,800 miles of the dwarf planet's surface. It took pictures and mapped the chemical compositions of the surface of Pluto and its moon Charon.

Giant mountains on the surface of Pluto.
Source: NASA. Picture taken by the New Horizons space probe.

Interesting Facts about the Dwarf Planet Pluto

Pluto's strange orbit around the sun crosses Neptune's orbit. As a result, for 20 years of its 248 year orbit around the sun, Pluto is closer to the sun than Neptune.

Pluto was named by an 11 year old girl, Venetia Burney. It gets its name from Pluto the Roman god of the Underworld.

It takes a radio signal moving at the speed of light around 4 hours to travel from Earth to Pluto.

Pluto has an interesting orbit in that it orbits on its side in relation to the Sun. Most planets, other than Uranus, orbit like a top in relation to the Sun.

A person standing on Pluto would weigh around 1/15th of what they weigh on Earth.

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Science >> Physics >> Astronomy

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Kids astronomy. What is Pluto like? How do we know about this dwarf planet? Why is Pluto no longer considered a full planet of the Solar System?

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How much do you know about the Sun? Here are some fascinating sun facts for kids:

1. There wouldn't be any life on Earth without the Sun. The Sun causes seasons, currents in the oceans, weather, and climates, among other phenomena.

2. The Sun's gravity is what keeps the Earth and other planets that make the solar system in orbit around it.

3. The Sun accounts for 99.8% of the mass of our solar system.

4. The two main gases that make up the Sun are helium and hydrogen. The composition of the Sun is 91% helium and 8.9% helium.

5. Hydrogen accounts for 70.6% of the Sun's mass, and helium accounts for 27.4%. The remaining 0.1% is a combination of different metals.

6. The Sun emits light in the form of photons. Photons are particles that carry electromagnetic energy.

7. The core represents 2% of the Sun's volume, but almost half of its mass. It has a density of 15 times the density of lead.

8. The reactions that happen in the Sun's core create light and energy. Photons travel away from the core, and it can take them up to a million years to reach the surface of the Sun.

9. The Sun is the largest object in our solar system. However, its size is average compared to other stars.

10. The surface area of the Sun is 11,990 times the surface area of the Earth.

11. The Sun is almost 110 times larger than the Earth, and you could fit one million planets the size of the Earth inside the Sun.

12. The Sun creates energy and warmth through thermonuclear fusion. This process combines atoms to form larger molecules.

13. There are darker areas on the surface of the Sun. They appear darker because of their colder temperature of 3,000°F.

14. It takes eight minutes for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth. This distance is the basis for establishing the speed of light.

15. Ancient civilizations believed that the Sun was a god.

16. More than 2,000 years ago, Aristarchus of Samos came up with the hypothesis that Earth revolved around the Sun instead of the other way around. Copernicus would eventually prove that theory.

17. There is a slight difference of 10 km between the Sun's polar and equatorial diameters. The Sun is almost a perfect sphere!

18. The name of the Sun comes from the Latin word 'sol.'

19. The Sun emits different kinds of electromagnetic radiation. Visible light, ultraviolet rays, and infrared rays make up 99% of those radiations.

20. A giant cloud of gas collapsed on itself to form the Sun approximately 4.5 billion years ago.

21. The Sun's gravity causes helium and hydrogen to heat up and fall toward the core as the gas particles combine and form denser elements.

22. The Sun's size will expand once it burns through the hydrogen and helium particles that are available. This process can take up to 130 million years. The Sun will then collapse and become a white dwarf, a small star with a high density.

23. The Sun orbits around the center of the Milky Way. It takes the Sun between 225 and 250 million years to complete an orbit, and it travels at a speed of 220 km per second.

24. The Sun has a strong magnetic field. This field causes differences in temperatures on the surface of the Sun as well as solar flares.

25. The Sun sometimes ejects plasma from its surface. Plasma can travel at speeds of 450 km per second and causes solar wind. When solar winds reach the Earth, they cause Aurora Borealis.

26. There are three inner layers inside of the Sun. The core has a radius of 86,000 miles, and the next layer, the radiative zone, expands 319,000 miles away from the core. The third layer, the convection zone, expands 432,000 miles upward.

27. There are three outer layers that make up the atmosphere of the Sun. The first one is the photosphere. It extends 250 miles up from the surface of the Sun. The chromosphere expands to 1,300 miles away from the surface. The transition region and the corona make up the third layer.

28. You can't see the corona by looking at the Sun. However, it becomes visible during an eclipse.

29. NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun. This probe will get seven times closer to the Sun than previous missions.

30. There are eight planets orbiting the Sun, including Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are also some dwarf planets, including Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

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42 Fun and Interesting Facts About the Sun for Kids - ChildFun

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Studying the Sun is fascinating. It sustains life on Earth by emitting light and warmth and is also the reason why there are seasons on Earth. Here are some interesting statistics and sun facts for kids. Source: Andrew Caw[...]

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Do you love swimming at the beach or playing outdoors with friends? How about the change in seasons? All these things are made possible by the Sun. The Sun is a star made of burning gas. It is closer to us than any other star. Without the Sun, the Earth would be a frozen wasteland. No life could survive here.

Sun Facts For Kids

The Sun is a star.

It's at the solar system's center.

Made mostly of hydrogen.

Sun's light takes 8 minutes to Earth.

Gives energy for life on Earth.

Has a surface called the photosphere.

About 4.6 billion years old.

It's almost a perfect sphere.

The Sun has dark spots sometimes.

It will become a red giant one day.

Solar energy

The Sun, an extraordinary dynamo, continuously showers us with solar energy, making it our most plentiful source of power. It is crucial for children learning about renewable resources to appreciate the Sun's crucial role as a massive, radiant gas orb that emits sufficient light and heat every second to meet global energy demands millions of times over.

This energy is harnessed by solar panels and transformed into electricity, powering our homes, educational institutions, and even electric vehicles. Therefore, sunlight should be perceived not only as a source of light and warmth but also as a renewable, eco-friendly energy source that contributes to our planet's protection.

Solar flares

Solar flares, captivating and potent phenomena occurring on the sun, resemble colossal explosions, unleashing energy equivalent to a billion atomic bombs. Such flares significantly impact Earth's atmosphere, creating magnificent light displays referred to as auroras.

These flares originate from the sun's magnetic field, propelling a large number of high-energy particles and radiation into space. Although they can disrupt satellites and electronic equipment on Earth, our planet's magnetic field and atmosphere shield us from their detrimental effects.

The presence of solar flares contributes to the sun's remarkable dynamism and fascination.

Sunspots

Sunspots, captivating features on the Sun's surface, can pique children's curiosity due to their unique characteristics. They manifest as dark spots, appearing cooler than their surrounding areas, yet still maintain an impressive temperature of approximately 3,500 degrees Celsius.

This contrasting coolness is attributed to the Sun's magnetic field's amplified strength in these regions. The size of sunspots can vary significantly, ranging from a mere 16 kilometers to an astounding 160,000 kilometers in diameter, thereby dwarfing the Earth in some instances.

Another intriguing aspect of sunspots is their cyclical nature, oscillating every 11 years in a pattern of increasing and decreasing numbers. Furthermore, they can incite solar storms capable of impacting Earth's electronics. Hence, sunspots provide a fascinating avenue for children to explore the Sun's dynamic and powerful attributes.

Solar system

The sun, a star that holds the distinguished title of being the nearest to our planet Earth, plays a crucial role in maintaining the balance of our solar system. With a size so gargantuan that it could encompass over a million Earths, the sun is primarily composed of scorching gases, predominantly hydrogen and helium.

Owing to a phenomenon known as nuclear fusion, the sun is a self-sufficient body that emits its own heat and light. Serving as the gravitational linchpin of our solar system, it ensures the steady orbital movement of all planets, including Earth.

The sun's significance extends beyond this cosmic role, as it is pivotal to life on Earth. It provides the indispensable heat and light required for the sustenance of plants, animals, and humans alike, confirming that without the sun, life as we comprehend it would cease to exist.

Photosynthesis

The sun is the linchpin in the crucial process of photosynthesis, a vital function for all plant life on our planet. During photosynthesis, plants harness the energy of sunlight to transform carbon dioxide and water into nourishment.

This process also produces oxygen as a by-product, an element indispensable for the respiration of all living organisms. Therefore, the sun is not only a source of light and heat, but it also indirectly helps to provide the oxygen necessary for life.

Without the sun's energy enabling plants to conduct photosynthesis, life on earth as we currently understand it would cease to exist!

Ultraviolet radiation

The sun, an intriguing celestial body, radiates Ultraviolet (UV) light, an invisible yet potent form of energy. This UV radiation, while unseen by human eyes, can cause sunburns when we expose ourselves to the sun without sufficient protection like sunscreen or clothing.

It also necessitates the use of sunglasses on bright days to shield our eyes from potential harm. Despite its risks, UV radiation in small quantities can be beneficial, aiding our bodies in the production of vitamin D, a vital element for maintaining healthy bones.

Nevertheless, overexposure to the sun's UV radiation can have detrimental effects, underscoring the importance of safeguarding our skin and eyes during outdoor activities in sunlight.

Heliosphere

The Sun, more than just a radiant celestial body illuminating our sky, generates an immense cosmic bubble, called the Heliosphere, encapsulating our entire solar system. This protective shield is birthed from the Sun's continuous emission of solar wind - a torrent of charged particles.

These particles journey far past the planets, creating a barrier that repels perilous cosmic radiation originating from the depths of space. Thus, the Sun's significance extends beyond its provision of light and warmth, serving as the indispensable guardian of our solar system.

Solar eclipse

A solar eclipse, a captivating celestial event, happens when the moon, despite being 400 times smaller than the Sun, appears similar in size due to its proximity, and aligns directly between the Earth and the Sun.

This alignment casts a shadow on Earth, transforming day into night for a brief period when the moon entirely obscures the Sun during a total solar eclipse. The remarkable interaction between these celestial bodies never fails to amaze, though it's crucial to safeguard our eyes with appropriate protection when observing an eclipse to avoid severe damage from direct sunlight.

Solar wind

The captivating concept of Solar wind, a unique characteristic of the Sun, is bound to intrigue young minds. Contrary to the popular belief that the Sun is merely a fiery sphere, it also emits a stream of charged particles into space known as the Solar wind.

This potent wind extends even beyond the most distant planet of our solar system, creating a sense of the Sun continuously inflating a colossal space bubble encompassing our solar system. The solar wind has a profound impact on Earth's magnetic field, and it is responsible for the mesmerizing light displays in our sky - the auroras.

Therefore, when one marvels at the stunning spectacle of the northern or southern lights, it's essential to remember that it's the solar wind from the Sun that makes this beautiful view possible.

Gothic and Romanesque Architecture

The sun has greatly influenced both Gothic and Romanesque architectural designs, serving as both a symbolic and practical component. In the sphere of Romanesque architecture, the sun's trajectory was a crucial factor in determining the orientation of buildings, with architects aligning the primary entrance to coincide with the sunrise.

This design not only ensured an abundance of natural light within the buildings but also held spiritual significance. Gothic architecture, on the other hand, harnessed the sun's power through the construction of intricate stained glass windows that would illuminate vibrantly under sunlight.

These windows, often portraying biblical narratives, signified the entry of divine light into the sacred premises when sunlight filtered through them. Consequently, the sun was more than just a light source; it served as a vital instrument in shaping these architectural styles.

The Sun controls our seasons. It controls how and when food grows. It even controls when we are asleep and awake. The Sun is the largest thing in our solar system. It makes up 98 percent of the matter in the solar system. Because of its size, it has a strong gravitational pull. It keeps the Earth, the stars, the moons and the other planets in line. Without the gravity of the Sun, the Earth would go spinning off into space.

Fun Facts about the Sun for Kids

The Sun is over 4.5 billion years old. It started as a cloud of dust and gas. It slowly formed a massive center and gained heat. It is made of hydrogen and helium gases.

The temperature of the Sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The inner core is much hotter. To put this in perspective, a day of 90 degree weather feels hot to us. Water boils at 212 degrees.

Some areas on the Sun's surface are cooler than others. These areas look darker. They are called sun spots.

Sometimes gases on the Sun's surface erupt, shooting far out into space. These eruptions look beautiful, but they can cause problems here on Earth. They can interfere with satellites. Our cell phones might not work. Our televisions might not work.

The Sun's light reaches the Earth in eight minutes. This is known as the speed of light.

Don't look directly at the Sun, which can hurt your eyes. Scientists study the Sun through special filtered telescopes.

Many ancient cultures thought the Sun was a god. The solar system is named for the ancient Roman word, Sol. Helio means sun in Greek.

Sun Vocabulary

Learn More All About the Sun, the Closest Star to Our Earth

Watch this fun video all about the Sun:

A video of fast facts about the Sun.

Sun Q&A

Question: How does the Sun burn?

Answer: The Sun burns through thermonuclear fusion. It is not on fire, but it is very hot. As the gas in the center heats up, it rises to the surface. There it cools and falls back to the center, where the process starts again.

Enjoyed the Easy Science for Kids Website all about the Sun info? Take the FREE & fun all about the Sun quiz and download FREE Sun worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.

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Sun Fun Facts for Kids (All You Need to Know!)

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Easy Science for Kids Sun - The Closest Star to Our Earth - learn fun facts about animals, the human body, our planet and much more. Fun free Sun - The Closest Star to Our Earth activities!

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Solar System Facts for Kids | Planets for Kids | Geography | Quiz

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Our Solar System Facts for Kids will provide interesting and fun facts about planets of our Sun. And here you will find our link to the solar systems quiz

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Top 10 facts

1. Everything in the Solar System revolves around the Sun. The Sun is a star - a massive ball of hot gas that gives off light and heat.

2. There are eight planets that orbit around the Sun.

3. The closest planet to the Sun is Mercury, and the farthest away is Neptune.

4. The biggest planet is Jupiter, and the smallest planet is Mercury.

5. The Earth is the only planet that we know has creatures living on it.

6. The Earth rotates as it orbits the Sun. It takes one day to complete a rotation.

7. It takes 365 days for the Earth to complete one circuit around the Sun. We call this a year.

8. The Sun is just one of hundreds of billions of stars in the galaxy that we live in, which is called the Milky Way. The whole Universe has at least 100 billion galaxies in it.

9. You are held onto the surface of the Earth by a force called gravity. This is the same force that keeps the Earth and the other planets orbiting around the Sun.

10. Not everything in the Solar system orbits directly around the Sun. The Moon orbits around the Earth.

Did you know?

The Sun is 93 million miles from the Earth. The light from the Sun only takes 8 minutes to travel to the Earth, but it would take Usain Bolt - the fastest man on Earth - 450 years to run from the Sun to the Earth.

The Earth travels around the Sun in a loop that is shaped a bit like an oval. We call this the Earth's orbit.

The Earth is always spinning around - sometimes from where you stand on the Earth you can see the Sun (this is the daytime) and sometimes the part of the Earth where you are is facing away from the Sun so it is dark (this is the nightime). It takes 24 hours for the Earth to spin all the way around, and we call this a day. Find out more about night and day.

There are eight planets that orbit around the Sun. In order, going from the closest planet to the Sun, to the one that is farthest away, they are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

All of the planets and the Sun are round, like balls.

There is a lot of difference between the planets. Some planets like Earth are made of rock, and some like Jupiter are made of gas. The hottest planet is Venus where the average temperature is 460°C, and the coldest is Uranus, which is -220°C.

Mars is sometimes the called 'the red planet' because the rocks that it is made from are red. It is the closest planet to Earth, and is slightly smaller than Earth.

The biggest planet is Jupiter. Jupiter is made of gas and is so big that you could fit 1,321 planets the size of Earth inside it. There is even a storm on Jupiter that is bigger than Earth - this storm has been blowing for hundreds of years and is called the 'Great Red Spot'.

Saturn is famous for having rings of small pieces of ice and dust around it. Like Jupiter, it is made of gas and is much bigger than Earth.

The Moon is a ball of rock that orbits around the Earth, in the same way that the Earth orbits around the Sun. It is much smaller than the Earth and takes 28 days to complete one orbit. The Moon is 239,000 miles away and is the only place in the Solar System that man has travelled to apart from Earth. Find out more about human space exploration.

Other planets have moons too. Jupiter has at least 66 of them!

Look through the gallery below and see if you can spot all of the following:

The planets which make up our Solar System

The Earth, seen from space

Mars

A Mars rover

The surface of Mars seen from the NASA rover 'Curiosity'

Jupiter

The Milky Way

The Solar System

Venus

An illustration of the planets in order

The Sun

Gallery

About

It takes just over 365 days for the Earth to travel all the way around the Sun. We call the length of time it takes to go around the Sun a year, but to make life easier, most years have 365 days and every 4th year has 366 days. We call a year with 366 days a leap year. The extra day is February 29th. 2012 was a leap year, and 2016 and 2020 will be leap years.

The same force that holds you on the surface of the Earth so that you don't float away when you jump, is what keeps the Moon revolving around the Earth and the Earth revolving around the Sun. This force is called gravity and the first man to discover that it existed was Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century.

Earth is the only planet on which we know that there have been plants and animals living. On some planets there is no air to breathe and on others it is either too hot or too cold. Some scientists think that creatures may have lived on Mars millions of years ago, when Mars was warmer and had more air - they try to find evidence to show this is true.

Until 2006, people thought that there were nine planets in the Solar System. The ninth planet was Pluto and it is even further away from the Sun than Neptune. Astronomers decided that Pluto was too small to be called a planet, so now there are only eight planets.

The Sun is a star, a huge ball of very hot gas. The temperature of the Sun is around 5,500°C - it's so hot that you can feel the heat from it on Earth, millions of miles away, and see by the light that it gives out. The Sun is about 4.5 billion years old and will last until it is about 10 billion years old.

There are more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way and there are many different types of star. Our Sun is of a type called a "yellow dwarf". Scientists group stars together by how big they are and how bright they are. Some examples are red dwarfs and supergiants. A red dwarf is a star about half the size of the Sun and a lot less bright than the Sun. A supergiant star is about 70 times as big as the Sun and can be 100,000 times as bright.

The nearest star to the Earth after the Sun is Proxima Centuri. It is red dwarf that is smaller and colder than our Sun and gives off a lot less light. Even though it is the closest star outside the Solar System, the light from it is too faint to see except with a telescope. Proxima Centuri is 24 trillion miles from Earth and light from it takes four years and three months to reach Earth.

The planets

Mercury - this is the closest planet to the Sun. It is the smallest planet and is made of rock. It is so close to the Sun that it only takes 88 days for it to complete its orbit and is much hotter than Earth.

Venus - Venus is the next planet from the Sun after Mercury. It is also made of rock. Like Earth, Venus has an atmosphere (air) around it, but it is a lot thicker than Earth's and Venus is permanently covered in clouds. Venus is the hottest planet and has an average temperature of 460°C. It is about the same size as Earth. It takes 225 days to travel around the Sun.

Earth - This is where we live! Earth is made of rock and is the only planet where water is liquid. The other planets are either too hot or too cold. Earth takes 365 days to travel around the Sun.

Mars - Mars is a little smaller than Earth, but a lot further out. It used to have an atmosphere like Earth and Venus, but it doesn't have very much anymore. Mars is reddish in colour and is sometimes called 'The Red Planet'. Mars takes 687 days to complete its orbit pf the Sun and the average temperature is -63°C.

Jupiter - Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. You could fit 1,321 Earths inside Jupiter. It is made of gas and is one of the four 'gas giants'. Jupiter has 66 moons; one of them, Ganymede, is bigger than Mercury. Jupiter is five times as far from the Sun as the Earth is and takes almost 12 years to travel around the Sun.

Saturn - Saturn is famous for its rings. The rings were first observed (with a telescope) in 1610 by Galileo and are made up of huge numbers of small lumps of ice and dust (mostly ice). The pieces in the rings may be as small as a millimetre or as large as a few metres across. Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System and is another one of the 'gas giants' like Jupiter. It takes 29.5 years to travel around the Sun.

Uranus - Uranus is another of the 'gas giants'. You could fit 63 planets the size of Earth inside Uranus. Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the Sun and is the coldest planet, with an average temperature of -220°C.

Neptune - Neptune is the farthest planet from the Sun. It is 30 times as far from the sun as Earth and takes 165 years to travel around the Sun. Neptune is the last of the four 'gas giants' and is 58 times the volume of Earth.

Words to know:

Asteroid - Asteroids are bodies of rock and ice in space. Millions of asteroids orbit the Sun -most between Mars and Jupiter. They vary in size between 1 metre across and 600 miles across.
Atmosphere - the layer of gas around a planet
Comet - a comet is a body of ice, dust and bits of rock that passes through space leaving a tail of ice and dust behind it. A comet may be up to 25 miles across.
Day - the length of time it takes the Earth to spin all the way around so that you get a night and a day - 24 hours
Galaxy - a large group of stars, all orbiting a central point.
Gravity - the force that attracts a moon to a planet, or a planet to a star
Light Year - the distance that light travels in one year. 5.9 trillion miles
Meteor - a small piece of debris in space, up to the size of a boulder
Milky Way - the galaxy that we live in
Moon - A moon is a smaller object orbiting a planet. Some planets have many moons. Earth has just one, called The Moon.
Orbit - the path that a planet takes around the Sun, or that a moon takes around a planet
Planet - a large body of either rock or gas that follows a consistent orbit around a star
Shooting star - This isn't really a star! A shooting star is a meteor that is passing through the Earth's atmosphere and has got so hot that it glows in the night sky.
Solar System - the Sun and the collection of stars
Star - A star is a huge ball of very hot gases, that gives off lots of light and heat. Some stars have planets orbiting around them, but not all do.
Sun - the star in our Solar System
Universe - The Universe is everything that exists: all the galaxies, all the stars, all the planets and everything in between
Year - the length of time it takes the Earth to travel around the Sun, 365 days

Related Videos

Just for fun...

Books about the solar system for children

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Teach your kids about the exciting world of space with our fun and informative solar system facts, images and videos about the solar system for kids.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars.

In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants.
In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun.

Neptune Statistics:

Distance from Sun: 2.793 billion mi

Rings: 5

Radius: 15,299 mi

Polar Diameter: 48,682 km

Orbital period: 165 years

Mass: 1.024 × 10^26 kg (17.15 M⊕)

Moons: (14, including Triton)

Date of Discovery: September 23, 1846 by Urbain Le Verrier & Johann Galle

How did Neptune get its name:

Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system and is known for its beautiful blue color. It was this color that was used to name it after the Roman god of the sea. The Greeks called their god of the sea, Poseidon. Neptune also has a diameter that makes it the 4th largest planet and it is third largest by mass.

Neptune wasn't located by just using sight, but instead became the first planet found using mathematical calculations.

Urbain Le Verrier had a series of predictions that were carried forth by Johann Galle in 1946. Le Verrier suggested that the planet be named after the Roman god of the sea.

Formation:

Our solar system went through a lot of changes as it was formed. Some of the larger planets are believed to have been closer to the sun and it's thought that other bodies may have been tossed out or crashed into existing planets to merge to the ones that we know today.

Around 4 billion years ago Neptune moved from the inner area of the solar system to its current position. It wasn't until 4.5 billion years ago that the planets finally settled to the configuration that we have now.

Structure and Surface:

Neptune is one of our solar system's two ice giants. Both Neptune and Uranus exist in the outer solar system. Around 80% of Neptune's mass consists of dense hot fluid of "icy" materials such as water, ammonia, and methane.

The fluids are around a rocky, small core. Neptune is considered to be one of the "giant" planets and yet is also the densest. Scientists have theorized that there might be a superhot water ocean under the cold clouds of Neptune that doesn't boil away due to the high pressure that locks it inside.

The planet doesn't really have a solid surface as most of its mass is made of gases.

The hydrogen, methane, and helium goes down to deep levels and merges with water and melted liquids that are over a solid core that has around the same mass as the Earth.

Neptune and Uranus have similarities when it comes to the inside of the planets. Both have two layers: a rocky core and a dense, hot liquid mantle made of water, ammonia, and methane.

The rocky core of Uranus is believed to be around 1.2 times the size of Earth's and the mantle is thought to be between 10-15 times that of Earth's mass.

While both Uranus and Neptune might share some characteristics and features, Uranus gives off as much heat as it receives from the sun and yet Neptune gives off around 2.61 times the heat that it gets.

This is unusual as both Neptune and Uranus have the same surface temperature.

Neptune only receives 40% of the sun's heat energy that Uranus gets. The excess amount of internal heat is thought to be what keeps the upper atmosphere wind speeds going.

Neptune spins rather quickly and has the third shortest "day" of any planet in the solar system. Its size and rotation mean that it takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to make a full orbit around the sun.

There are 14 moons around Neptune, and the largest moon is Triton, which is shaped like a sphere and has a rotation that is opposite that of Neptune.

Scientists think that at one time in history Triton was actually a dwarf planet that Neptune caught in its gravity.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Very similar to the planet Uranus, Neptune's upper atmosphere is made up of mostly hydrogen (80%), helium (19%), and trace amounts of the methane that gives it the blue coloring.

Neptune has a much deeper shade of blue that makes it different than Uranus in atmospheric composition.

While Neptune's ice giant neighbor, Uranus, is a blue-green color due to high levels of atmospheric methane, Neptune is mostly hydrogen and helium, giving it a brighter shade of blue.

Scientists believe that there may be an unknown element that causes Neptune to have a more intense color.

We give credit to the Voyager 2 spacecraft mission for discovering Neptune's "Dark Spots." These are similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter because they are large storms.

Additional research from the Hubble Space Telescope has shown that the storms on Neptune or "dark spots" have fairly short lives.

During the mission, Voyager 2 also found other weather patterns including a smaller, short-lived white storm that moved so fast that it was nicknamed "Scooter."

As a gas giant, Neptune shares the same atmospheric characteristic of being divided into two bands, but Neptune's bands have wind speeds that can reach up to 600 m/s.

At this speed Neptune has the fastest known winds of any planet within the solar system.A 1989 discovery of an oval-shaped storm in the southern hemisphere of Neptune was named its "Great Dark Spot."

This spot is big enough to hold the entire Earth, and while this one disappeared, others have shown up on various areas of the planet.

Neptune's magnetic field main axis is tipped to the side by around 47 degrees as compared to Neptune's planetary rotation axis.

Both Neptune and Uranus have magnetic axis that are tilted and the tilt causes wild variations as the planet rotates. Neptune's magnetic field is around 27 time stronger than that of Earth.

There are 13 known moons and one provisional moon around Neptune. Triton is the largest moon and was discovered in 1846, just 17 days after the discovery of the planet.

Since Neptune is the Roman god of the sea, all of the names of Neptune's moons are for Greek mythology nymphs or lesser sea gods.

Triton holds the distinction of being the only large moon within our solar system that circles its planet in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation.

This is called a retrograde orbit and is thought to be due to the idea that the moon was once an independent object that Neptune captured with its gravity.

Triton has surface temperatures that reach -391 degrees F/235 degrees C, and while extremely cold, Voyager 2 found geysers that spewed icy material up to 5 mi/8 km high.

Voyager also discovered that Triton has a thin atmosphere and while it has been detected numerous times since then, scientists aren't sure why it's getting warmer.

There are six known rings around Neptune, five are named and one remains unnamed. The named rings are Galle, Le Verrier, Lassell, Arago, and Adams.

Neptune's rings are believed to be relatively short-lived and young, and contain unusual collections of dust that are called "arcs." These are strange because the laws of motion indicate that they shouldn't be in clumps but should spread out evenly.

Scientists believe that they may be affected by the gravitational effects of the moon Galatea.

There are four notable arcs in Adam, Neptune's outer ring that have been named: Liberté (Liberty), Egalité (Equality), Fraternité (Fraternity), and Courage.

Could Life Exist on Neptune?

The extreme temperatures and pressures of Neptune are not conducive to allowing life as we know it to exist, adapt, and thrive.

Interesting Information:

While Pluto was once considered to be a planet, it has been downsized to a dwarf planet. Due to the elliptical orbit that Pluto has it is sometimes closer to both the sun and Earth than Neptune is.

One "Neptunian day" is 16 hours. That's how long it takes for Neptune to accomplish a complete rotation. However, a Neptunian year, which is the time that it takes Neptune to orbit the sun is around 165 Earth years.

Space Missions to Neptune:

In 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft studied Neptune up close. This was over 140 years after the predictions made by Le Verrier about Neptune. Voyager 2 remains the first-and-only spacecraft to study Neptune, and it sent back an incredible volume of information and data about the planet and its moons.

Voyager 2 also confirmed that the ice giant had faint rings like other gas giant planets. Since that time, scientists have relied on the Hubble Space Telescope for additional information about Neptune.

Important Events:

1612: Galileo uses his small telescope and makes an error by recording Neptune as a fixed star.
1846: Through the use of only mathematical calculations, astronomers increase the number of planets in our solar system to eight as they add Neptune. The same year, they discovered Triton, Neptune's biggest moon.
1983: Pioneer 10 becomes the first human-made spacecraft to travel beyond our solar system planets as it crosses the orbit of Neptune. The craft continues on its course as it heads to Aldebaran, a red star in the Taurus constellation, that it will pass in around 2,000,000 years.
1984: Astronomers studying Neptune discover evidence that Neptune has a ring system.
1989: Voyager 2 becomes the first and only spacecraft to visit Neptune. Voyager 2 passes Neptune at 2,983mi/4,800 km above Neptune's north pole.
2002: Astronomers discover four additional moons orbiting around Neptune and name them: Laomedia, Neso, Sao and Halimede.
2003: Using ground-based telescopes, astronomers discover Psamathe, another new moon around Neptune.
2005: Keck Observatory scientists discover deterioration in some of Neptune's rings.
2013: Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a scientist makes the discovery of a 14th Neptune moon and gives it the professional designation of S/2004 N 1.
2016: Using the Hubble Space Telescope scientists discover the 21st century's first new atmospheric vortex with a dark spot on Neptune.

Facts about Neptune for Kids:

Neptune's rings are so faint that prior to the Voyager 2 spacecraft mission, the rings weren't thought to be complete. Neptune has the faintest rings of all of the gas giants.

Even though Neptune is a gas giant it has the second largest gravity of all of the solar system planets.

Neptune has a Great Dark Spot that is the size of our Earth and a Small Dark Spot that is almost the size of our moon.

Our ancient ancestors didn't know that Neptune existed because it can't be seen with the naked eye or the telescopes that they developed.

The coldest known object in our solar system is Neptune's moon Triton that has temperatures on the surface that can dip down to -235 degrees C.

Only 17 days after the discovery of Neptune, astronomers discovered its moon Triton.

Pop Culture:

Neptune has been a frequent focus for quite a few science fiction and pop culture themes. The "Event Horizon" was a sci-fi/horror film in 1997 and Neptune was the backdrop for the storyline.

The animated series "Futurama" had Robot Santa Claus with a home based in the north pole of Neptune. The "Sleep No More" episode of Doctor Who was set on a space station that orbited around Neptune.

Star Trek: Enterprise had the episode "Broken Bow" where fans leaned that at the speed of warp 4.5 it would be possible to fly from Earth to Neptune and back in only six minutes.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/neptune/overview/

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Neptune Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Neptune

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Neptune is the eighth planet in our solar system and is known for its beautiful blue color. It was this color that was used to name it after the Roman god

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Uranus Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Uranus

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The planet Uranus is one of the gas giants and in our solar system, it’s huge diameter makes it the third largest and the fourth in mass.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star. It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars.

In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants.

In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun, as is most well-known for its spectacular array of beautiful rings.

Saturn Statistics:

Distance from Sun: 890.8 million mi

Rings: (30 or more - in 7 groups)

Radius: 36,184 mi

Polar Diameter: 108,728 km

Orbital period: 29 years

Mass: 5.68 × 10^26 kg (95 Earths)

Length of day: 0d 10h 42m

Surface area: 16.49 billion mi²

Moons: (62 including Titan, Enceladus, Iapetus & Rhea)

First Recorded: 8th Century BCE by the Assyrians

How did Saturn get its name:

Saturn has a diameter that is the second largest in our solar system. It is the 6th planet and since Saturn and Jupiter share so much of the makeup of their atmospheres and have similar rotations, they have been listed as "relatives." Saturn was given the name of the Roman father of the god Jupiter, who was also the god of agriculture.

Formation:

It took our solar system until 4.5 billion years ago to settle into its current rotation configuration.

Gravity pulled all of the dust and swirling gas together to form the gas giant of Saturn and around 4 billion years ago it settle to the location that we see today in the outer solar system.

Saturn, like Jupiter, is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, the same two major elements that make up our sun.

Structure and Surface:

Saturn is a gas giant like Jupiter and is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. Saturn's central core consists of dense metals such as nickel and iron and this is surrounded by rocky materials and other compounds that are solidified due to the intense heat and pressure.

Like Jupiter's core, there is an envelope around this area of liquid metallic hydrogen inside a layer of liquid hydrogen.

Just as with Jupiter, Saturn shares the same characteristics of a gas giant and doesn't have a true surface.

Saturn is mostly swirling liquids and gases deeper down and any spacecraft that was sent there wouldn't have any place to land. The pressures and temperatures on Saturn are so intense that any craft would be crushed, melted and vaporized.

If you combine Jupiter and Saturn together, they make up 92% of the entire mass of the Solar System. Saturn's interior is incredibly hot and can reach temperatures up to 21,000 degrees F (11,700 degrees C).

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Saturn's atmosphere consists of: 96% hydrogen, 4% helium, and trace amounts of acetylene, ethane, ammonia, methane, and phosphine.

There is a layer of atmosphere on Saturn that has wind speeds that are as high as 1,800 kph and are thought to be some of the solar system's fastest known wind speeds.

Although it can't really be seen, Saturn has a banded cloud patterns that are widest at the equator than those that are found on Jupiter. These were discovered during the Voyager missions in the 1970s. Saturn's clouds look like striped light jet streams and even storms with brown, grey, and yellow colors.

Jupiter is known for The Great Red Spot, but Saturn's atmosphere also has "great white spots." These are short-lived storms that seem to appear once every full Saturn orbit and are visible thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The velocity of the winds in Saturn's upper atmosphere around the equator can reach 1,600 feet per second/500 meters per second.

If you compare it to Earth's strongest hurricane-force winds that are 360 feet per second/110 meters per second, you can see that Saturn is really extreme.

The pressure within the gases is so powerful that if you could be within it you would feel as if you were diving deep underwater. Saturn's pressure is so great that it squeezes gas into a liquid form.

Although Saturn's magnetic field is smaller than Jupiter's, it's still 578 times more powerful than our Earth's.

Saturn and its rings as well as a lot of its satellites all exist within its enormous magnetosphere. Saturn's magnetosphere is in the region of space where electrically charged particles are influenced less by solar wind and instead, controlled by Saturn's magnetic field.

An aurorae happens when these charges particles enter the magnetic field lines in a planet's atmosphere.

On Earth, we have charged particles hitting our magnetic field from the solar wind. However, the Cassini spacecraft showed that, like Jupiter, some of Saturn's aurorae are unaffected by the solar wind.

Saturn's aurorae are caused by particles that originate in its moons, ejected by the magnetic field's fast rotation rate. Scientists are still studying what are known as "non-solar-originating" aurorae.

Saturn currently has 53 confirmed moons and an additional nine provisional moons that are waiting for confirmation.

Saturn has almost become a symbol for our solar system and is known as "The Ringed Planet." The rings that surround Saturn are absolutely beautiful and are made of chunks of ice and dust.

The rings expand out over 12,700 km from Saturn. The rings are only around 20 meters thick.

The rings of Saturn are believed to be pieces of asteroids, comets, or even shattered moons that broke up before they hit the planet, and became smaller pieces when torn apart due to the powerful gravity of the planet.

These are billions of pieces of ice that are coated with other dust materials. The particles range in size from the tiniest granules to large pieces as big as a house; and even a few as big as mountains.

Each ring orbits around Saturn at a different speed.

The ring system around Saturn expands out to 175,000 mi/282,000 km, however, the height of the main rings vertically is only around 30 ft/10m.

Scientists have named the rings in an alphabetic order based on when they were discovered. The rings are surprisingly close to each other, with the exception of a 2,920 mi/4,700 km gap called the Cassini Division that separates Rings A and B.

The main rings around Saturn are: A, B, and C. More recently discovered are the fainter rings of D, E, F, and G.

Could Life Exist on Saturn?

Temperatures and pressures, combined with the lack of actual surface on Saturn make this planet a condition not conducive to life as we know it. Like Jupiter, everything is too extreme for organisms to adapt to and thrive.

However, scientists are looking at some of Saturn's moons and satellites for potential life. Of great interest in Enceladus and Titan that have liquid water oceans inside.

Interesting Information:

Twice every 29 ½ years, Saturn appears to lose its rings. This is actually an optical illusion due to the fact that on Earth, we can't see the rings of Saturn when they are edge-on.

The rings are barely visible through some of our most powerful telescopes when in standard configuration.

Saturn is the only planet within our solar system that has an average density that is less than liquid water. This means that if you had a huge bathtub filled with water that was big enough, Saturn would float in it.

One of the most unusual features exists on Saturn's north pole. This atmospheric condition has a six-sided jet stream that creates a hexagon-shaped pattern.

This was first noted in Voyager I spacecraft images and then later observed more closely by the Cassini spacecraft. The hexagon spans around 20,000 mi/30,000 km across with a wave jet stream of 200 mph/322 kph and a huge center that rotates.

There is no weather feature like this anywhere in the known solar system.

Space Missions to Saturn:

So far, there have been four robotic spacecraft that have visited Saturn. The first look was NASA's Pioneer 11 in 1979.

Then in 1980 and 1981, NASA sent Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 for flybys. Each new trip exposed wonderful details about the ringed gas giant, however, it wasn't until 2004 with the international Cassini mission that we learned so much more.

Cassini remained in orbit for 13 years, studying Saturn. Cassini's last mission was to plunge it into the atmosphere of Saturn in 2017 to learn as much as possible. Cassini had also carried the Huygens probe that had previously landed in 2005 on Saturn's moon Titan.

Important Events:

700 BCE: The Assyrians are credited for documenting the oldest written records on Saturn. Their description of Saturn calls it a sparkle in the night and they named it "Star of Ninib."

400 BCE: The Ancient Greeks gave the name of the planet as Kronos, to honor their god of agriculture. Later the Romans changed it to Saturn, which is their god of agriculture.

1610: Galileo Galilei identifies Saturn's rings through a telescope, but thinks they are a triple planet.

1655: Christiaan Huygens discovers Saturn's rings as well as its moon, Titan.

1675: Astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini discovers a "division" between our currently identified A and B rings.

1979: Pioneer 11 becomes the first spacecraft to reach Saturn and discovers the F ring as well as another moon.

1980 and 1981: Voyager 1 does a flyby of Saturn in 1980 and shows the structure of Saturn's ring system which is made up of thousands of ringlets. The 1981 flyby of Voyager 2 includes a lot more detail of Saturn in images and data collected showed that some of the rings are very thin.

2004: NASA's Cassini spacecraft is the first to be devoted to a complete orbit of Saturn and devotes ten years to the study of Saturn, its rings, and its moons.

2005: The ESA (European Space Agency's) Huygens probe becomes the first to make a landing on the surface of another planet's moon, Titan. The probe sent information on Titan's atmosphere and images of the surface.

2006: Scientists discover a new ring around Saturn.

2009: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope sends data that shows that there is a large, low density ring associated with Saturn's moon Phoebe.

2017: Cassini's mission in orbit ends the 13 year study by sending the spacecraft into the atmosphere of Saturn while it collected and sent back data.

Facts about Saturn for Kids:

There are only five planets that can be seen from Earth with the naked eye, Saturn is one of them.

Most planets are somewhat spherical in shape, but Saturn is flatter; in fact it's the flattest of any planet in the solar system.

When you look at Saturn is has a color that's pale yellow. This is because its upper atmosphere contains a high quantity of ammonia crystals.

Saturn has storms that are oval in shape and similar to those on Jupiter.

Saturn is the one planet that has the most extensive system of rings in the entire solar system.

A year is the amount of time a planet takes to complete its orbit around the sun. It takes Saturn 29.4 Earth years to complete the orbit.

Saturn is made up of mostly hydrogen and is the least dense of all of the planets in the solar system.

Earth's magnetic field is just a little stronger than that of Saturn.

Pop Culture:

Saturn has played a role in many science fiction stories, television, movies, comics, and video games. The planet's usual rings have made it an icon for space travel.

Some of the pop culture references include: "Cthulhu Mythos, WALL-E, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Dead Space 2, and Final Fantasy VII.

Tim Burton created the movie "Beetlejuice" where a fictional Saturn is home to giant sandworms, and the 2014 movie "Interstellar," had a wormhole near Saturn that allowed astronauts to travel to another galaxy.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/overview/ https://space-facts.com/saturn/
Planets

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Saturn Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Saturn

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Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star. It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars. In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants.

Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants. In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun.

Jupiter Statistics:

Distance from Sun: 483.8 million mi

Rings: 4

Radius: 43,441 mi

Polar Diameter: 133,709 km

Orbital period: 12 years

Mass: 1.90 × 10^27 kg (318 Earths)

Length of day: 0d 9h 56m

Surface area: 23.71 billion mi²

Effective Temperature: -148 °C

Moons: (79, including (Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto)

First Recorded: 7th-8th Century BCE by Babylonian astronomers

How did Jupiter get its name:

Jupiter was named after the Roman king of the gods. It's the fifth planet from the sun in our solar system and the largest planet of all. To give you an idea of how big Jupiter is, you could line up 11 Earths, side-by-side just to stretch from one side of Jupiter to the other.

Jupiter's mass is incredibly large as well and it would take 317 Earths to match the mass of Jupiter.

Formation:

Around 4.5 billion years ago our solar system settled into the configuration that we know today. Jupiter settled in its position as the fifth planet about 4 billion years ago.

Gravity played a major part in creating the planets as it pulls dust and swirling gas together. Jupiter is one of the gas giants and it's believed that it took most of the mass that was left after the sun was formed.

This is why Jupiter has over twice the materials of all of the other bodies in the solar system combined. Jupiter has the same ingredients as our own sun and if it had grown just a bit larger it would have ignited to become a second sun in our solar system.

Structure and Surface:

Jupiter is made up of a composition of mostly hydrogen and helium that is very similar to our sun. As a gas giant you have to go deep into the atmosphere to find that temperature and pressure has increased so much that it has compressed the hydrogen gas into a liquid form.

That hydrogen liquid gives Jupiter the largest ocean in the entire solar system. Scientists believe that nearing halfway to Jupiter's center the pressure is so great that electrons are squeezed away from the hydrogen atoms.

This would put the liquid into a condition where it is electrically conductive, like metals. It's thought that the fast rotation of the planet is enough to drive electrical currents in this area so that it generates the incredibly powerful magnetic field.

Scientists speculate that Jupiter's interior is made up of three regions: a rocky core with a mass of between 12-45 times the size of the Earth that is made-up of mostly iron and silicate minerals.

It's thought to be as hot as possibly 90,032 F/50,000 degrees C. The second region makes up most of Jupiter's mass and it surrounds the core with a layer of liquid hydrogen that is electrically conductive.

The third region is made up of ordinary hydrogen with some helium traces and this transitions to the atmosphere of the planet.

Jupiter is a gas giant and as such, doesn't really have what we would call a real "surface." The planet is made up of gases and liquids that are constantly swirling around.

If we tried to send a spacecraft to Jupiter there wouldn't be a place for it to land. A spacecraft would also be unable to fly due to the extreme temperatures and pressures that would crush, vaporize, and melt the spacecraft.

Jupiter's storms are incredibly huge and they seem to be created on the edges of the darker and lighter horizontal bands of the planet.

The biggest storm is The Great Red Spot, and it's nearing 25,000 km across. The Great Red Spot has been going on for centuries and is big enough to hold two Earths

Scientists have discovered that Jupiter actually gives off more energy than it receives from the sun.

They have figured out that Jupiter is so large that its mass exerts such an incredible gravitational force on itself that it compresses or squashes the planet. This process makes such a great quantity of heat that it becomes overloaded and throws it out into space.

As the fifth planet in the solar system, Jupiter is a tad more than five times the distance of the sun than Earth is.

A year for a planet is the amount of time that it takes to complete an orbit around the sun, and for Jupiter this takes 4,333 Earth days.

A day for a planet is the amount of time it takes to make one entire rotation and Jupiter sets the record in the solar system for a bit less than ten hours. The incredibly fast rotation that Jupiter has is what makes the bulge near its equator.

This bulge also makes it look less like a sphere. The sheer size of the planet and the fact that it's mostly made up of gas, without a solid body, has created an odd situation in that not all parts of Jupiter rotate at the same time.

The rotation of Jupiter's polar atmosphere rotates five minutes slower than that of the equator.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Scientists have had a difficult time trying to define Jupiter's atmosphere. This is due to the fact that its outer zone of gas changes into a liquid layer as you get closer into the planet.

They estimate that the atmospheric pressure on the "surface" of Jupiter is around ten times that at sea level on Earth.

The gases in the atmosphere are almost the same that make up our sun: 90% hydrogen and 10% helium.

There are a lot of colors in Jupiter's cloud bands and spots, and may be plumes of sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases that rise from the intense heat of the interior of the planet. It's thought that Jupiter has three distinct cloud layers that make up its "skies."

When added together these cloud layers expand to around 44 mi/71 km. The top cloud layer is most likely made up of ammonia ice, the middle layer is likely to consist of ammonium hydrosulfide crystals, and the innermost layer may be vapor and water ice.

Jupiter's incredibly fast rotation allows it to complete a rotation every 10 hours and this creates strong jet streams that separate the clouds into bright areas and dark belts for long stretches.

The "spots" on Jupiter are actually massive storms that can live for many years. As smaller storms form they are often engulfed by larger ones.

The prevailing winds can reach up to 335 mph/539 kph at the equator. The most well-known is The Great Red Spot which is a swirl of oval clouds twice as wide as our Earth.

We know that we have been observing this spot for over 300 years. Most recently three smaller oval storms merged together to form the Little Red Spot which is half the size of The Great Red Spot.

Scientists continue to study Jupiter and yet are unsure if these planet-circling bands and ovals are deeply rooted or shallow to the planet's interior.

Jupiter has 79 confirmed moons and scientists have divided them up into three groups. The inner moons are those that are closest to Jupiter; the Galilean moons, Galileo Galilei; and Outer moons, these are the smallest and most distant from Jupiter.

The biggest of Jupiter's moons is Ganymede and it's also the biggest moon in the solar system. An interesting thing about Ganymede is that even though it's a moon, it's larger than the planet Mercury.

Europa is one of the large moons that many scientists are interested in because they believe that there might be a liquid-water ocean beneath the frozen crust.

Jupiter has other large moons including Callisto and Io. It's thought that Jupiter has enough moons that it could be a miniature solar system.

Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field that balloons 600,000 to 2 million mi/1-3 million km toward the sun.

This is 7-21 times the diameter of Jupiter itself and the field tapers into a tadpole-shaped tail that extends out behind the planet more than 600 million mi/1 billion km.

This extension goes as far as the orbit of Saturn. The intense magnetic field of Jupiter is 16-54 times as powerful as the magnetic field of Earth and rotates with the planet, picking up any particles that have an electric charge.

The magnetic field traps swarms of charged particles near the planet and then speeds them up to extremely high energies, creating high intensity radiation that bombards the innermost moons.

It's this radiation that can cause a lot of damage to any spacecraft and why much of the exploration of Jupiter is often done from a distance. The magnetic field does create some of the most beautiful aurorae at its poles.

In 1979 the NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered a ring around Jupiter. This discovery was a surprise because they are made up of small dark particles that are almost impossible to see except when they are backlit by the sun.

Data sent from the Galileo spacecraft confirmed that the ring of Jupiter is probably formed by dust kicked up as meteoroids crash into the many moons that orbit Jupiter.

Could Life Exist on Jupiter?

The environment within Jupiter is not conducive to life as we know it. The pressures and temperatures, along with materials of Jupiter are too volatile and extreme for life to adapt to.

While Jupiter itself can't be a location for life, some of its moons could be. Europa is thought to be one of the likeliest places that life may be found anywhere in our solar system so far.

Evidence is showing that there is a huge ocean beneath Europa's crust with liquid water that could possible support life.

Interesting Information:

Jupiter's intense magnetic field is thought to be a contributing factor in protecting Earth from a worse bombardment of meteorites.

As meteorites enter the solar system from the exterior areas they are caught up by Jupiter before they have a chance to get close to Earth.

Space Missions to Jupiter:

Jupiter has been studied for many years, with the first observations detailed in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. Since then, we have sent a number of spacecraft, probes, and orbiters to take detailed images and collect data from Jupiter.

In the 1970's we sent Pioneer 10 and 11 as well as Voyager 1 and 2 for flybys of Jupiter. The Galileo spacecraft orbited the gas giant and sent a probe into the atmosphere.

When Cassini was heading to Saturn it took an array of images of Jupiter, and New Horizon did the same as it headed to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. In 2016 NASA's June spacecraft arrived in the Jovian system to study the gas giant in orbit.

1610: Galileo Galilei creates his Jupiter observations.

1973: Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to get through the asteroid belt and does a flyby passed Jupiter.

1979: Voyager 1 and 2 missions find the faint rings of Jupiter, a number of new moons that were not know about before and the fact that Io has volcanic activity.

1992: Ulysses mission does a swing by so that the gravity bent the flight path of the spacraft allowing the probe to a last orbit that took it over the south and north poles of the sun.

1994: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 enters Jupiter's atmosphere, breaks up and then crashes into Jupiter.

1995-2003: The Galileo spacecraft places a probe into the atmosphere of Jupiter to accomplish observations of the planet and its rings and moons.

2000: Cassini's close approach to Jupiter enables it to take full color photos of Jupiter.

2007: NASA's New Horizons spacecraft takes pictures of Jupiter on its way to Pluto. The pictures offer new information and data on the atmospheric storms on Jupiter, it's rings, Io's volcanic activity and the ice on Europa.

2016: NASA's Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter and conducts studies of the planets magnetosphere, atmosphere, and deep structure to help understand Jupiter's evolution and origin.

Facts about Jupiter for Kids:

If Jupiter had been 80 times more massive it would have become our second sun in the solar system.

Jupiter holds the title of being the solar system's fourth brightest object.

Jupiter's clouds are made up of mostly ammonia crystals, sulfur and mixtures of both of these.

As asteroids and comets have impacted Jupiter they kick up dust particles that have created a very faint ring around Jupiter.

The discovery of Jupiter's 4 moons by Galileo was the first proof that the Earth was not the center of the universe and evidence that planets orbited the sun.

We can only see five planets with the naked eye and Jupiter is one of them.

Pop Culture:

Jupiter has made a presence in many television shows, movies, comics, and video games. In the science fiction "Jupiter Ascending" it was the main destination. Jupiter's moons have also been noted in "Cloud Atlas, Futurama, Power Rangers, and Halo."

You might remember "Men in Black" when Will Smith, playing Agent J, comments that he thought his teacher was from Venus and Tommy Lee Jones, playing Agent K, corrects him to say that she was really from one of Jupiter's Moons.

In the movie "2010: The Year we Make Contact," Jupiter was ignited to become the second sun in our solar system and its moon Io was to be left alone to allow life to progress.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/
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Jupiter Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Jupiter

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Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star. It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars.

In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets.

Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants.

In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun.

Mars Statistics:

View on Maps: google.com/maps/space/mars

Distance from Sun: 141.6 million mi

Radius: 2,106 mi

Polar Diameter: 6,752 km

Orbital Period: 6.42 x 10^23 kg (10.7% Earth)

Mass: 6.39 × 10^23 kg 0.107 M⊕

Surface pressure: -153 to 20 °C

Moons: (2) Phobos, Deimos

First Recorded: 2nd Millennium BCE by Egyptian astronomers

How did Mars get its name:

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is one of the terrestrial planets. It has a distinctive red color and was therefore associated with battles and war and named after the Roman god of war.

The surface of Mars is a reddish-brown color due to the rusting process of the surface minerals. Another name for Mars is "The Red Planet." Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and Mars is the second smallest planet.

Other civilizations throughout history have also named the planet due to its color. The Ancient Egyptians called Mars "Her Desher," which translates to "the red one."

Today we often call Mars the "Red Planet" due to the iron minerals on the surface. It's the iron in the Martian dirt that has oxidized or rusted that causes it to look red.

Formation:

Around 4.5 billion years ago our solar system settled into the configuration that we see today.

Mars was formed when the swirling gas and dust coalesced due to gravitational pull and created the fourth plant from the sun.

As we explore other solar systems we see that many of their larger gas giants are those closer to the inner orbits of the sun and our solar system differs as we have terrestrial planets that are closer.

Mars is a terrestrial planet with a central core, rocky mantle, and a solid crust.

Structure and Surface:

The core at Mars' center is very dense and is between 930 and 1,300 mi/1,500 to 2,100 km in radius.

The core is made up of iron, nickel and sulfur. Surrounding the core is the planet's rocky mantle which is between 770-1,170 mi/1,240-1,880 km thick.

Above the rocky mantle is the crust made up of iron, magnesium, aluminum, calcium, and potassium. The crust is between 6-30 mi/10-50 km deep.

The Mars surface is divided by the hemisphere of the planet and is in two distinct types of features.

Thanks to the Mars Rovers we have been able to see the smooth look of the northern hemisphere and can see that it doesn't have very many craters.

However, the southern hemisphere is the exact opposite, with a lot more craters as well as highlands. The craters on Mars range in sizes but it also has the biggest known crater in the solar system, called Valles Marineris.

You could stretch the crater from the U.S. West Coast all the way to the East Coast. Mars is also home to the largest known volcano in the solar system called Olympus Mons.

One of the most distinctive features on Mars is its "channels." These channels look like they could have been made by running water.

Mars actually has many more colors than just the "red" that most people use to describe it. At the surface we see colors such as gold, tan, and brown.

The red color is due to oxidization or rusting of the iron rocks and as it rusts it creates the Martian "soil" which is called regolith.

This soil is dusty and when it is kicked into the atmosphere during storms the planet turns a reddish color.

Mars is only half of Earth's diameter and its surface has many appearances as the dry land on Earth.

Mars has volcanoes, crust movement, impact craters, and atmospheric conditions such as dust storms that, over the years, has changed the landscape.

Valles Marineris is a large canyon system on Mars whose length is long enough to stretch from New York to California on Earth; with a distance of over 3,000 mi/4,800 km.

At its widest point, the canyon is 200 mi/320 km and 4.3 mi/7 km at its deepest. To compare this to Earth, it is nearing ten times the size of the Grand Canyon.

Mars also has the solar system's largest volcano, Olympus Mons. The volcano is three times taller than Mt. Everest on Earth and has a base that is the size of the state of New Mexico.

Thanks to the incredible Mars rovers, we believe that Mars had water on its surface in the past.

There is evidence of ancient river valley networks, lakebeds, and deltas as well as minerals and rocks on the surface that are only formed when there is liquid water.

Some of the features on the surface of Mars suggest that around 3.5 billion years ago, the planet experienced huge floods.

Today, any water that is found on Mars is in the form of water-ice just below the surface in the polar regions, as well as salty or briny water which flows down some of the crater walls and hillsides at various times of the year.

The atmosphere on Mars is too thin for liquid water to remain on the surface.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

The atmosphere of Mars is made up of 95% carbon dioxide, which is very similar to the atmosphere of Venus, which is 97% carbon dioxide. However, the difference between Mars and Venus is the temperature.

The runaway greenhouse effect that Venus experiences makes temperatures incredibly hot, reaching over 480 degrees C.

The temperature on Mars never goes any higher than 20 degrees C. The temperature differences are due to the density of the two atmospheres.

The atmosphere on Mars is very thin while there is a thick atmosphere on Venus.

Scientists have done a lot of research on Mars and they also think that the atmosphere may have caused the loss of any liquid water that was once on the planet.

Orbiting spacecraft has shown that Mars does have frozen water in its polar caps and there is some evidence that indicates that there might be liquid water under Mars' surface.

Scientists think that at one time in its history, Mars might have had a good enough atmosphere to have water on the surface.

The Mars temperature can reach as high as 70 degrees F/20 degrees C and as low as -225 degrees F/-153 degrees C.

The atmosphere is so thin that any heat from the sun quickly escapes the planet.

If you were standing on Mars it would appear as a hazy red color. The Mars winds can create incredibly strong dust storms that cover a lot of the planet.

They can be so strong that it can take months before all of the dust settles.Today, Mars doesn't have a magnetic field.

However, there are areas of the Martian crust in the southern hemisphere that are very highly magnetized.

This indicates that there are traces of what once was a magnetic field around 4 billion years ago.

Mars does have two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. It's believed that these may have actually been asteroids that were captured.

The moons are shaped like potatoes and have such a small mass that their own gravity can't make them spherical like our Earth's moon.

The moons were named for the horses that pulled that chariots for Ares, the Greek god of war. In Ancient Greek, the word "Phobos" translates to "flight," and "Deimos" translates to "fear."

Phobos is the largest moon and the one closest to Mars. It's heavily cratered with many deep surface grooves.

It is moving slowly toward Mars and it's believed that in about 50 million years it will either break apart or crash into Mars.

Deimos is around half the size of Phobos and its orbit is 2 ½ times farther away. Deimos is strangely shaped and is covered in loose dirt that sometimes fills in the craters on its surface.

It's due to this odd situation that it often looks smoother than Phobos.Mars doesn't have any rings, however, it's thought that in 50 million years, when Phobos either breaks apart or crashes into Mars, it might create a dusty ring around Mars.

Could Life Exist on Mars?

Scientists don't think that they will ever find living things on Mars as the conditions aren't good enough for life to thrive. However, they are seeking signs that life might have existed on the planet a long time ago when Mars was warmer and had liquid water covering its surface.

Interesting Information:

During the 19th century it was popular to think that Mars had life and civilizations populating it. The reason for this belief was mainly caused by an error and some really imaginative people.

Astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli looked through a telescope in 1877 and saw lines on the surface of Mars that he called "canalis" and that he thought were created by living creatures.

Other people called the lines "canals" and that became the source of stories and science fiction ideas about life on Mars.

These ideas continued until new telescopes were developed that were more powerful and let astronomers see that the lines were really just a natural part of the surface and caused those in the past to have optical illusions.

The atmosphere on Mars is so thin that the heat from the sun quickly escapes. If you were to stand on the surface of Mars on the equator at noon, it would feel like spring at your feet (75 degrees F/24 degrees C and winter at your head 32 degrees F/0 degrees C.

Space Missions to Mars:

Of all of the planets and bodies in our solar system, Mars is the most explored and the only planet that we have sent rovers to travel the landscape and collect samples and data.

NASA, India, and ESA (European Space Agency) have spacecraft orbiting above Mars.

The robotic explorers have found a lot of evidence that at one time, billions of years ago, Mars was warmer and wetter, with a thicker atmosphere.

Recorded observations reach back as far as 4,000 years when the Ancient Egyptians charted Mars' movements across the sky.

We have had an international fleet of spacecraft that have orbited and some that have landed on Mars, including the robotic rovers.

Strangely, there have been many attempts at sending robotic spacecraft that have failed, but we are pleased to say that many also succeeded including:

Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, Opportunity rover, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Curiosity rover, Mars Orbiter Mission, MAVEN and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

NASA's InSight arrived on November 26, 2018, with communications support from the twin MarCO cubesats, the first CubeSats sent into Deep Space.

Important Events:

1659: Christiaan Huygens draws the Syrtis Major on Mars as dark markings.

1877: Giovanni Schiaparelli creates a map of Mars that includes his idea of "canalis"

1877: Asaph Hall discovers Mars' two moons: Phobos and Deimos.

1965: NASA's Mariner 4 sends the first up close images of Mars in 22 photos.

1971: Mariner 9 is first spacecraft to orbit Mars and completes the mapping of almost all of the Mars surface.

1976: Viking 1 and 2 land on the Mars surface.

1997: Mars Pathfinder lands and sends out Sojourner, the first wheeled rover to explore the surface of Mars.

2002: Mars Odyssey mission makes Mars observations to locate water ice that may be buried on Mars.

2004: Twin Mars Exploration Rovers named Spirit and Opportunity are dispatched to do scientific experiments, finding evidence that long ago Mars had liquid water on its surface.

2006: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sends back images of Mars that are high-resolution and studies the Mars seasonal changes and water history of Mars.

2008: Phoenix mission presence of liquid water and good soil chemistry as part of its mission for potential future habitation.

2012: NASA's Mars rover Curiosity finds conditions in Gale Crater that indicate they may have once been suitable for microbial life in the past.

Facts about Mars for Kids:

There have been 40 missions to Mars, but only 18 of the missions were successful.

The dust storms on Mars are so large that they are considered to be the biggest in the solar system.

Meteorites that have been ejected from Mars have been found all over the Earth.

Of all of the planets in the solar system, only Earth has confirmed life and Mars is believed to possibly be hospital for life.

Earth and Mars are the only to planets in the solar system with polar ice caps.

Mars does have seasons but they are twice as long as the seasons on Earth due to Mars' axis tilt.

If you were standing on Mars and looked at the sun it would appear half the size as compared to looking at the sun from Earth.

Pop Culture:

It can be easily said that Mars has captured the collective imagination of humans more than any other planet.

In the 1800s, when people first thought that there were canal-like features on the surface of Mars, they thought that these were the proof that intelligent alien species lived on the planet.

These ideas led to more stories, books, movies, and television shows than any other planet. The most notable of the situations was the 1938 radio drama of the H.G. Wells book, "The War of the Worlds."

The broadcast was so realistic that many listeners though that there really was an invasion of Earth by Martians, and went into a panic.

Television has also picked up on the idea of intelligent creatures on Mars with the 1966 series "My Favorite Martian."

Another Mars tale on television and in books was "The Expanse." Other stories that have taken place on Mars were transitioned to movies such as the 1990 "Total Recall" and the remake in 2012.

In this version, the ultimate tale involved terraforming Mars and a colony struggling due to lack of air.

The 2014 novel that became the movie adaptation in 2015 of "The Martian" involved a botanist that was left stranded on Mars and his struggle to survive while he awaits rescue.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mars/overview/
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Mars Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Mars

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Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star. It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it.

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars. In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets. Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants.

In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets." These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Earth is the third planet from the sun.

Earth Statistics:

Population: 7.53 billion (2017) Trending, World Bank

View on Maps: google.com/maps/space/earth

Distance from Sun: 92.96 million mi

Radius: 3,959 mi

Polar Diameter: 12,714 km

Orbital Period: 265.24 days

Mass: 5.972 × 10^24 kg

Number of Moons: 1

Age: 4.543 billion years

How did Earth get its name:

It's believed that the name "Earth" is around 1,000 years old. If you notice, except for Earth, all of the planets in our solar system are named after Roman and Greek gods and goddesses. One idea of the source of the name is that the word "Earth" is an old Germanic word that really just means "the ground."

Another thought is that the name "Earth" is derived from the Old English word "ertha" as well as the Anglo-Saxon word "erda", which means soil or ground.

Earth is the only known planet to support life and was formed around 4.54 billion years ago.

Astronomers of ancient times thought that the Earth was the center of the universe and the sun as well as all of the planets orbited around Earth.

They also thought that the Earth was static and never changed or moved. This idea was part of many cultures for over 2,000 years. It wasn't until 1543 when Copernicus created his published work of the Sun-centered Solar System model that fellow scientists realized that the sun was the center of the solar system and Earth revolved around it.

Formation:

About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system settled into the layout that we see today. It's believed that Earth formed when gravity began pulling dust and swirling gas together, and the Earth became the third planet from the sun. Earth is one of the terrestrial planets, which means it has a central core, rocky mantle, and a crust that is solid.

Our Earth orbits the sun every 23.9 hours and it takes 365.23 days to complete an entire trip around the sun. The axis of rotation of the Earth is tilted 23.4 degrees and it's this tilt that gives us our seasonal cycles every year.

Structure and Surface:

The Earth is made up of four main layers, beginning with the planet's inner core which is enveloped by the outer core, then the mantle, and finally the crust. The inner core is around 759 mi/1,221 km in radius and is a solid sphere of nickel and iron metals.

The temperature of the inner core is as high as 9,800 degrees F/5,400 degrees C. Surrounding the inner core is the outer core, which is 1,400 mi/2,300 km thick. The outer core is made up of iron and nickel fluids.

Wedged in between the outer core and the crust is the mantle which is the thickest of all of the layers. This is a hot, thick mixture of molten rock that has the consistency of caramel and is around 1,800 mi/2,900 km thick.

The Earth's crust is the outermost layer and is an average of about 19 mi/30 km deep on land. The ocean's bottom has a thinner crust and it extends about 3 mi/5 km from the floor of the sea to the top of the mantle.

Just like Venus and Mars, Earth has mountains, volcanoes, and valleys. The "lithosphere" of the Earth includes both the oceanic and continental crust as well as the upper mantle.

It is divided into huge plates called "tectonic plates" that are constantly in motion. This movement causes the plates to collide to create mountains, split or separate, or rub against each other and create earthquakes.

The Earth has an ocean that covers almost 70% of the surface of the planet. The average depth of the ocean is around 2.5 mi/4 km and contains 97% of the water on the Earth.

Almost every one of the volcanoes on Earth is hidden under these oceans. The Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii is taller from the base to the top than Mount Everest, but a majority of the volcano is underwater.

The longest mountain range on Earth is also underwater, at the bottom of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. This mountain range is four times longer than the Rockies, Andes, and Himalayas all combined.

The land masses that make up 30% of the Earth's surface are incredibly varied. Land has continents, islands, and other land masses as well as sources of fresh water.

Many scientists believe that water was delivered to the Earth by comets and asteroids as it was forming and that much of the water was inside the planet and then brought up to the surface during volcanic activity.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

Earth's atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and trace amounts of other gases including carbon dioxide, argon, and neon. We give credit to the plant life on Earth for generating the large amount of oxygen.

During the photosynthesis process, plants consume carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Earth's Ozone layer consists of a special kind of oxygen that helps to absorb the harmful UV rays from the sun.

The Ozone layer protects Earth and life from the extremes of solar radiation. Our atmosphere is also responsible for both short-term and long-term weather effects on the Earth.

The atmosphere acts as a protective barrier, shielding the Earth from the impacts of meteoroids as many burn up before they have a chance to hit Earth's surface.

The magnetic field of Earth is incredibly powerful and also plays a big part in protecting our planet from the effects of solar wind. It's though that the Earth's magnetic field is due to the planet's core, which is made up of nickel-iron, combined with the fast rotation of the Earth.

It's important to realize that the rotation of the Earth is slowing down at nearing 17 milliseconds for every 100 years. The slowing down process will have an effect on the length of our days, however, it will take around 140 million years before we see a day change from 24 hours to 25 hours.

The solar wind distorts the magnetic field so that if you looked at it in space it would be a teardrop shape. The solar wind is a constant stream of charged particles that the sun ejects.

When these particles are trapped in the magnetic field of the Earth they collide with the molecules in the air above the Earth's magnetic poles. This collusion causes the molecules in the air to glow and this is known as the Aurora Borealis or northern and southern lights.

It's the Earth's magnetic field that causes the compass needles to point to the North Pole, no matter which way that you turn. However, the magnetic polarity of the Earth doesn't always stay the same, and the magnetic field can flip.

Scientists studying geological records have seen that there is a magnetic reversal every 400,000 years or so. As far as anyone knows, this flip hasn't caused harm to Earth's life, and another one isn't likely to happen for at least another thousand years.

It's guessed that when a flip does occur, compass needles will point in many different directions for a few centuries until everything settles down; and then the compasses will point south instead of north.

Earth has one moon and no rings.

Could Life Exist?

If you look around our Earth you can see that we have an incredible amount of life that exists on both the land and within the waterways and seas. Scientists have always based our definition of "life" as the carbon-based type that we have around us, including ourselves.

They established three rules that are required for life: liquid water, some source of energy such as our sun, and a source of food. However, in the past number of years experts have discovered Earth lifeforms that live outside of these ideas.

These lifeforms live in conditions that were previously thought to be uninhabitable, and they are called "extremophiles."

Scientists believe that life not only developed but adapted and thrived on Earth because of our uniquely perfect distance from the sun and the gravitational effects that the moon had on the planet.

Earth isn't too hot and isn't too cold, and this is often called the "Goldilocks distance." Our moon has created the tides on Earth, which in turn has helped life to develop.

The rotation of the moon around the Earth has caused an effect that is called being "tidally locked" so that the orbit and rotation periods are the same. This lock is what causes the moon to always be facing the same way to Earth.

The size of the Earth and the distance from the sun is critical to life on Earth. The Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets at 3,959 mi/6,371 km radius, and the fifth largest overall planet in our solar system.

Earth is an average distance of 93 million mi/150 million km from the sun or one AU (astronomical unit). An AU is the distance from the Sun to the Earth. It takes around eight minutes for light that leaves the sun to reach the Earth.

Space Visits:

We have thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth to study specific areas as well as the entire Earth as a whole. These satellites observe the atmosphere, glaciers, oceans, and the solid earth.

Many of these satellites are also communication satellites, bringing us our cable television and our cell phone service.

Facts about Earth for Kids:

The shape of the Earth is actually closer to a squashed sphere. It's fatter in the middle near the equator where gravity pushes to create a bulge.

Even though you might think you are standing still, the Earth is turning. The speed at the equator is around 1,000 mph.

The Earth is also moving through the solar system at around 67,000 mph/107,826 kph.

Earth is constantly recycling its material through tectonic movement which drags surface rocks back down below the surface to become magma and then is spewed back out from volcanoes.

Earthquakes are the result of tectonic plate movement on the planet. The largest earthquake recorded in the U.S. was in 2016 in Alaska, registered at 9.2 on the Richter Scale; with the largest global earthquake recorded in 1960 in Chile, registering 9.5 on the Richter Scale.

The hottest recorded temperature location on the Earth is in El Azizia, Libya with temperatures hitting 136 degrees F/57.8 degrees C in 1922.

The coldest temperature location is in Antarctica with temperatures reaching -100 degrees F/-73 degrees

Pop Culture:

Discovering the nature of our home planet has been the topic of many books, movies, and television shows.

The well-known movie (and its sequels) "Planet of the Apes" occurs in a future where our astronauts find that intelligent apes have taken over the world and the primitive animals are the human beings.

The long-running television series and its remake "Battlestar Galactica" include a band of a war against the highly evolved cylon robots, while they search to find the long lost colony of Earth.

In many tales, writers have left the Earth as destroyed or abandoned. The television series "Firefly" and the book and film adaptation "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" are two such stories. "Titan A.E.," the animated feature shows Earth's destruction by a species of aliens, however, a well-placed planet builder then recreates the planet and all of the species that live on it.

Earth has remained as a base for other space exploration stories, including the iconic "Star Trek" series. Originally created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek uses Earth as a leading member of The Federation of Planets and the many spaceships that head out to explore galaxies and beyond.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/ https://www.livescience.com/19102-amazing-facts-earth.html livingcosmos

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Earth Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Earth

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Earth is around 1,000 years old. If you notice, except for Earth, all of the planets in our solar system are named after Roman and Greek gods and goddesses

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Introduction:

Each time you look up to the sky and see a star you are looking at a sun in another galaxy. If you were on another planet looking back at our solar system, you would see our sun as a star.

It's believed that every sun has planets orbiting it. Our Milky Way galaxy has more planets than it has stars. In our solar system we have eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are the inner rocky planets.

Jupiter and Saturn are the outer gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are the outer ice giants. In recent years, astronomers have designed a new class called the "dwarf planets."

These are smaller worlds, not quite big enough to be considered a standard planet, and include Pluto. Venus is the second planet from the sun.

Venus Statistics:

View on Maps: google.com/maps/space/venus

Distance from Sun: 67.24 million mi

Radius: 3,760 mi

Diameter: 7,520.8 mi

Orbital period: 225 days

Mass: 4.867 × 10^24 kg 0.815 M⊕

Surface Temperature: 462 °C

Number of Moons: None

First Recorded: 17th century BCE by Babylon astronomers

How did Venus get its name:

Throughout history, Venus was one of the planets that many civilizations recognized. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty, it was also known by the Greeks as Aphrodite. All of the planets in our solar system are named after male gods or mythological creatures, with the exception of Venus.

It is the only planet named after a female and it's thought that it was because it is the brightest planet.

At one time, some of the astronomers in the ancient past thought that Venus was actually two stars.

This was due to the fact that it appeared as both the morning and the evening star. Because it was so bright, astronomers assumed that the planet itself must be beautiful.

However, once space exploration began, scientists realized that the planet had a horrible environment.

Many missions have been sent to Venus but it's almost impossible to get to the surface of the planet due to its extremely hot temperatures.

Formation and Rotation:

Around 4.5 billion years ago our solar system finally settled into its current configuration. What this means is that there were quite a few planets that were relocating from one place to another.

Scientists have a theory that we may have had other planets that were either thrown out into the universe or that collided and merged to create the current planets.

Venus formed when swirling gas and dust was pulled by gravity. Venus is a "terrestrial planet" and therefore has a central core, a rocky mantle and a solid crust.

Because they share similar gravity, composition, density, mass, and size, Earth and Venus have often been referred to as "twins." However, those are the only similarities between the two planets.

Venus' heat, combined with the inner pressures have given the planet over 1,600 volcanoes. While scientists think that most are dormant, there are some that may still be active.

Venus has the honor of being the only single planet in our solar system, other than our Earth, to have volcanic activity and the Venus has the most volcanoes. This makes it the single planet with the most volcanoes in the solar system.

Due to its slow rotation on its axis, one day on Venus takes 243 Earth-days to complete one rotation.

It is thought that billions of years ago, Venus might have had a similar climate as the one on Earth. Scientists think that there may have been large amounts of water, even big enough to create oceans on Venus.

However, the high temperatures on Venus that produce the extreme greenhouse effect, allowed the water to boil off. This left a planet that is too hostile and hot to sustain life as we know it.

Structure and Surface:

There are a lot of similarities between Venice and Earth, and one of the most notable is its structure. Venus has a 2,000 mi/3,200 km radius iron core.

Above the core is a mantle that consists of hot rock similar to lava that churns slowly due to the interior heat of the planet.

The surface is a bulging thin rock crust that moves as the mantle shifts. This movement creates the volcanoes.

Looking at Venus from out in space it appears as a very bright white color. This tone is due to the fact that Venus is covered in a thick layer of clouds that reflect the sunlight.

Peering through the clouds shows that the surface is covered in rocks and volcanoes. The rocks are various shades of grey and appear to be similar to those on Earth.

However, the thick atmosphere causes the sunlight and if you were standing on Venus, the rocks would look orange.

Venus is covered in valleys, mountains and tens of thousands of volcanoes. The tallest mountain on Venus is Maxwell Montes, standing over 20,000 ft/8.8 km high.

It is similar to Earth's highest mountain, Mount Everest. The landscape is rather dusty and the temperatures on the surface can reach as high as 880 degrees F/471 degrees C.

Scientists believe that the surface of Venus was completely changed as volcanic activity occurred 300-500 million years ago. Venus has two highland areas:

Ishtar Terra in the northern polar region, about the size of Australia; and Aphrodite Terra near the equator, about the size of South America. Aphrodite Terra is around 6,000 mi/10,000 km.

There are an enormous number of craters on Venus, however, none seem to be smaller than 0.9-1.2 mi (1.5-2 km) across.

The craters are caused by meteoroids striking the surface and since the smaller ones burn up in the dense atmosphere, only the biggest ones make it through to hit the surface.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

There are two broad layers of atmosphere on Venus including one layer that is a cloud bank covering the entire plant, and another that includes everything that is below the cloud bank.

The consistency of the clouds is very dense and they are made up of sulfuric acid and Sulphur dioxide. Between the mixtures and density, the clouds reflect around 60% of the sunlight that hits Venus back out into space.

Even though it's the second planet closest to the sun, it is the single hottest planet within our solar system.

The atmosphere of Venus is mostly made up of carbon dioxide and has clouds of sulfuric acid droplets. This thick atmosphere is responsible for trapping the heat of the sun and creates the intensely hot surface temperature of up to 880 degrees F/470 degrees C.

The atmosphere itself consists of many layers and the temperatures vary within each layer. Around 30 mi from the surface, the clouds have about the same temperature as we find on Earth's surface.

If you could stand on the ground on Venus, you would look around and it would appear like a very overcast and hazy day on Earth, however, due to the heavy atmosphere, you would feel like you were 1 mi/1.6 km under water.

One of the astounding things about Venus is that as it moves forward in its orbit around the sun combined with a backwards axis rotation, the clouds in the top level whip around the planet every 4 Earth days at hurricane-force winds of 224 mi/360 km per hour.

The lightning bursts in the atmosphere light up the clouds. The closer you get to the surface, the slower the cloud speed becomes so that those closest to the surface are only moving at a few mph.

The slow rotation of Venus makes the magnetic field a lot weaker than on Earth. Even though Earth and Venus share similar size and seem to have similarly-sized iron cores, Earth's faster rotation allows us a stronger magnetosphere.

Venus doesn't have any moons or rings.

Could Life Exist on Venus?

There have been no humans that have visited Venus, but there have been a few spacecraft that have been sent to the surface. Due to the extreme heat, the spacecraft have not survived very long as they overheat all of the electronics on the crafts.

These high temperatures are the reason that we don't believe that life could exist on the surface, however there are some scientists that speculate that there may be a possibility of life in the top cloud layers of the atmosphere of Venus. These upper cloud layers have less extreme temperatures.

Interesting Information:

As the second planet from the Sun, Venus is our closest neighbor in our solar system. Although very similar in size and structure to our Earth, Venus spins more slowly and in the opposite direction than most of the planets in our solar system.

Venus has a thick atmosphere that traps the heat from the sun giving it a "runaway greenhouse effect." It is the hottest planet in the solar system with surface temperatures hot in enough to melt lead and other metals.

The few glimpses that we have had of Venus below its dense clouds have shown badly deformed mountains and volcanoes.

Scientists have noted a rather odd thing about the rotation of Venus. It's rotation is in the opposite directions of most of the other planets, with only Uranus and Venus rotating clockwise.

This is called a "retrograde rotation," and is thought to have occurred when collisions happened back in its history of formation.

A collision with a major object could have been strong enough to change the rotations of the planets.

Venus is the only planet in our solar system named for a female, and to do this honor justice, almost all of the surface features on Venus carry the name for both real and mythological women of Earth.

There is a volcanic crater named for Sacajawea, the Native American woman who played a key role in guiding the Lewis and Clark exploration in America, and a deep canyon is called "Diana," after the Roman goddess of the hunt.

Space Missions to Venus:

Akatsuki 2010: The Venus Climate Orbiter mission (PLANET-C), or "AKATSUKI", is studying Venus' atmospheric circulation.

Venus Express 2005: The (ESA) European Space Agency's Venus Express is studying the Venus atmosphere including the surface to the ionosphere.

Galileo 1989: The orbiter included ten science instruments as well as an atmospheric probe to study Jupiter, its moons, and the magnetosphere as it orbited.

Magellan 1989: Accomplished its mission as the first to ever arrive and map Venus' entire surface.

Vega 2 1984: The sister spacecraft to Vega 1, with an almost identical mission as Vega 1.

Vega 1 1984: The most ambitious deep space mission by the Soviets with twin spacecraft designed with redundant mission goals.

Venera 16 1983: Soviet twins Venera 15 and 16 orbiters, the mission was to use radar to create a detailed map of the surface of Venus with a resolution of 1-2 km or around 1 mile.

Venera 15 1983: Soviet twins Venera 15 and 16 orbiters, the mission was to use radar to create a detailed map of the surface of Venus with a resolution of 1-2 km or around 1 mile.

Venera 14 1981: Identical to its twin, Venera 13, the Soviet mission of the spacecraft was carried out as it had three corrections midcourse on its way to Venus.

Venera 13 1981: Designed similarly to the previous Soviet twin missions, Venera 13 and 14 were spacecraft to accomplish Venus flybys.

Venera 12 1978: Soviet mission with a twin Venera 11, to accomplish a flyby and then a lander to explore the ionosphere, atmosphere, and surface of Venus.

Important Events:

On January 31, 2019, a research group from Japan identified a huge streak structure amidst the Venus clouds.

Using the observations from the Japanese spacecraft, Akatuski, the team used large-scale climate simulations to discover the origins of the structure.

Facts about Venus for Kids:

Venus has over 1,600 volcanoes, the most of any planet within the solar system.

It takes Venus 243 Earth days to make one complete rotation.

Compared to Earth's 365 days, it takes Venus only 224.7 Earth days to make one rotation around the sun.

The surface of Venus is so hot that it would melt lead and scientists call it a "runaway greenhouse effect."

If you could stand on the surface of Venus, the air pressure would be so extreme, that it would be like being under Earth's ocean half a mile down.

The only planets that we can visibly see cross in front of the sun called "transits" are Mercury and Venus.

Venus has wind storms that can get up to 450 mph/724 kph, which is faster than the largest Earth tornado.

Pop Culture:

Venus was named after the goddess of love and beauty, and the name has become synonymous in our society with "women."

An example of this was the book was written in 1992 by author John Gray, entitled "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus," where Gray referenced the two planets as a relationship guide for men and women.

Early 20th century science fiction writers also loved using Venus as a popular destination in their books.

This was, of course, before science had discovered how horrible the surface and atmosphere was.

In today's video games, Venus has been used as a backdrop for such games as Transhuman Space, Battlezone, and Destiny.

Even Disney fans will remember the animated film "The Princess and the Frog," where the firefly, Ray falls in love with Venus, "the evening star", whom he mistakes as another firefly.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/ https://www.space.com/15988-venus-planet-weird-facts.html

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Venus Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Venus

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Venus was one of the planets that many civilizations recognized. Named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty

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Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and is located closest to the Sun. It has a thin atmosphere and a rocky surface with many craters. Mercury has a very slow rotation, taking 59 Earth days to complete one day. It also has a high-temperature range, with scorching hot temperatures during the day and freezing cold temperatures at night. The planet has no moons and no rings.

Mercury Facts for Kids

Closest planet to the Sun.

Smallest planet in the solar system.

Has no atmosphere to sustain life.

Named after the Roman messenger god.

One day lasts 59 Earth days.

Surface temperatures range from -290°F to 800°F.

Has no moons or rings.

The largest known crater is the Caloris Basin.

Orbits the Sun in just 88 Earth days.

Made mostly of iron and nickel.

Space Missions to Mercury

1974-1975 Mariner 10

The spacecraft orbited Mercury three times and mapped around half of the surface of Mercury. During the Mariner 10 mission, it discovered evidence that Mercury has a magnetic field.

Comparisons have shown that the magnetic field is only around 1% of Earth's, but it's highly active, being responsible for the solar wind tornados on the surface of Mercury.

The images that Mariner took covered around 45% of the surface of Mercury and prompted interest in launching later missions.

2004 Messenger Probe

The MESSENGER Probe was a robot spaceship sent by NASA to study Mercury. It launched in 2004 and took 6.5 years to reach the planet. MESSENGER was the first probe to orbit Mercury, and it did so for four years.

It sent back lots of data and pictures, helping scientists learn about Mercury's surface, thin atmosphere, and the ice at its poles. In 2015, after running out of fuel, MESSENGER crashed into Mercury, still sending back valuable information until the end.

2018 BepiColombo

The ESA (European Space Agency) launched BepiColombo as part of their first mission for the exploration of Mercury.

Even with the intense heat and temperature fluctuations, there are still locations on Mercury that are permanently shaded from the Sun's heat. In 2012, NASA's spacecraft MESSENGER found water ice in the craters around the north pole of Mercury.

There may be other areas that have water ice, however, the orbit of MESSENGER didn't include probing the southern pole. It's believed that meteorites or comets may be responsible for delivering ice to these locations or water vapor may have been outgassed from the interior of the planet and then out to the poles.

How did Mercury get its Name

It's thought that many civilizations recognized the planet Mercury as far back as 5,000 years. It was named after the Roman messenger god who was known for moving fast because the planet orbited the sun more quickly than other planets.

For many years it was believed that Earth was the center of our solar system with both the sun and other planets orbiting Earth.

The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus was the first to indicate that the Sun was the center, with both Mercury and Venus orbiting it instead of Earth.

Formation:

Planets are created when gravity pulls dust and swirling gas together. Mercury was formed around 4.5 billion years ago and became the small planet that is closest to our sun. It's considered to be a "terrestrial planet" because Mercury has a central core, a rock mantle, and a solid crust.

Structure and Surface:

After Earth, Mercury is the second densest planet in our solar system. Mercury's core is metallic with a radius of around 1,289 mi/2,074 km, which is about 85% of the planet's entire radius.

Scientists believe that they have found evidence that shows that part of the metallic core is molten or liquid. The outer shell or mantle and crust is around 250 mi/400 km thick.

When you stare at the surface of Mercury, you can't help but realize that it resembles that of our moon. The surface is covered with a lot of craters that that were caused by collisions with comets and meteoroids.

We have named a lot of these craters for famous people, including authors, musicians, and artists. Two of the craters are named for Dr. Seuss, famous author of children's books and Alvin Ailey, a pioneer in dance.

The crater Caloris Basin is the result of an asteroid around 60 mi wide hitting Mercury; large enough to fit the state of Texas. It's almost 960 miles wide and scientists believe that the impact could be compared to 1 trillion 1-megeton bombs going off.

It's thought that an impact of this magnitude may have been the cause of Mercury's odd spin.

Mercury's surface is covered with what are called "lobe-shaped" cliffs. These can reach up to a mile high and run hundreds of miles throughout Mercury. The cliffs were created billions of years ago as Mercury went through a cooling process.

A majority of the surface of Mercury would look like a kind of greyish-brown color to the human eye. There are bright streaks that are called "crater rays," caused when a comet or asteroid hits the surface.

The intense energy that is released upon impact not only digs a huge hole in the ground while crushing a large amount of rock at the impact point.

When some of the crushed rock and material is thrown away from the impact crater it falls to the surface so that it creates a kind of "ray" effect.

The crushed rock particles are a lot more reflective than the bigger pieces, so that these rays appear to be brighter. Over time, solar-wind particles and dust in the environment will cause the rays to darken a bit.

The planet Mercury is the closest to the sun and zips around its orbit very quickly. It has a very thin atmosphere, but not enough to reflect the sun's intense heat.

The lack of a significant atmosphere also doesn't protect it from the impacts of the many space objects. The surface of Mercury shows evidence of impacts, with craters of all sizes.

Since there isn't any weather or seasons, scientists can observe the craters and try to learn about the history of Mercury.

Mercury isn't just extremely hot, it is also extremely cold. The high 840 degree temperatures are reached during the day but during the night, the surface temperature drops to -290 degrees F (- 180 degrees C).

It's thought that Mercury may have water ice deep inside the craters at its south and north poles, but only within those areas that are in a constant shadow.

The permanent shadow would be cold enough to keep water ice, even when the rest of the planet is intensely hot.

Atmosphere. Magnetosphere, and Moon Status:

While some planets do have an atmosphere, Mercury doesn't have one. Instead it has a thin "exosphere" which consists of atoms that are created with meteoroids hit the surface and the solar wind catches them and blasts them upwards.

The exosphere of Mercury is made up of mostly oxygen, sodium, hydrogen, helium, and potassium.

Mercury's magnetic field is relative to the equator of the planet. While it has just 1% of the strength of our Earth's magnetosphere, it does interact with the solar wind magnetic field so that it can create really intense magnetic tornadoes.

These storms funnel the hot solar wind plasma down to the planet's surface. Once the ions hit the surface, they imbalance the atoms that are neutrally charged and quickly send them back into the sky.

Mercury doesn't have a moon or rings.

Mercury Statistics:

View on Maps: google.com/maps/space/mercury

Moons: None

Distance from Sun: 35.98 million mi

Radius: 1,516 mi

Diameter: 4,879 km

Orbital period: 88 days

Mass: 3.285 × 10^23 kg (0.055 M⊕)

Surface Temperature: -173 to 427°C

Number of Moons: None

First Record: 14th century BCE by Assyrian astronomers

Could Life Exist on Mercury?

The solar radiation and temperatures on Mercury are not conducive to life as we know it. The planet has too many extremes for organisms to be able to adapt to.

Interesting Information:

Mercury is not only the planet that is the smallest in our solar system, it's also the planet that is closest to the sun. When you look at Mercury's size you will see that it's only a little bit larger than the Earth's moon.

If you were standing on Mercury's surface, the sun would look three times as large as it does when you see it from Earth, and the sunlight would be seven times brighter.

You would think that being the closest to the sun, Mercury would be the hottest planet in our solar system, however, that's not the case. Due to the dense atmosphere, Venus holds the title of being the hottest planet in our solar system.

Due to Mercury's odd elliptical orbit and slow speed of rotation, both sunrise and sunset would appear strange to us. If we watched the sunrise, it would appear to rise, set and then rise up again.

The same thing happens during sunset. It's difficult to look directly at Mercury from Earth because it's so close to the sun. However, 13 times every century, an event called a "transit" occurs where we can watch as Mercury passes across the face of the sun.

Important Events:

1631: Galileo Galilei and Thomas Harriot had invented a new telescope that gave them the ability to observe Mercury.

1965: Astronomers use radar to discover that the previous theory of the same side of Mercury constantly facing the sun was incorrect. The radar proved that Mercury rotates three times for every two orbits.

1974-1975: The Mariner 10 mission sent images back to Earth of around 43% of the surface of Mercury as it accomplished three flybys.

1991: Scientist made use of Earth-based radar to discover that Mecury's shadow areas in their craters within the polar-regions showed signs of permanently locked ice.

2008-2009: The MESSENGER probe accomplishes three flybys of Mercury.

2011: The MESSENGER probe orbits around Mercury, sending an incredible array of images and compositional data about the planet.

2015: The MESSENGER probe was sent to Mercury to crash into the surface. Scientists made sure that all of the propellant was expended prior to the crash as the mission was ended.

2018: The BepiColombo mission was launched by the European Space Agency.

Facts about Mercury:

Mercury may be the closest planet to the sun but it experiences temperature changes that are the most extreme of any planet in the solar system, including dropping to -275 F/-170 C.

Mercury is only slightly larger than the Earth's moon.

Mercury travels around the sun more quickly than any of the other planets in the solar system.

One Mercury year is equal to only 88 Earth days.

The core at Mercury's center is mostly made up of iron and takes up about 75% of the planet's radius.

Mercury does have a very thin atmosphere called an exosphere.

Mercury seems to have a stream of particles that appear to expand out from the surface giving it a look like it has "tails."

Pop Culture:

While many of our planets have played a part in legend and stories, Mercury seems to have been a focus of our collective imaginations.

There are a lot of science fiction writers that have used the smallest planet in our solar system for inspiration for their novels.

The list of authors include: Isaac Asimov, C.S. Lewis, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, and Arthur C. Clarke. TV and movie writers also seemed to be enthralled with the little planet as part of their scripts.

The animated television show "Invader Zim," has Mercury being changed into a giant ship prototype spaceship by an extinct group of Martians.

In film called "Sunshine", released in 2007, a spacecraft called the "Icarus II" orbits around Mercury to meet up with the Icarus I.

Even the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" has mention of Mercury. In one of the series Calvin and his friend Susie give a class presentation about Mercury, and Calvin fills the presentation with very questionable information such as: "The planet Mercury was named after a Roman god with winged feet," says Calvin.

"Mercury was the god of flowers and bouquets, which is why today he is a registered trademark of FTD florists. Why they named a planet after this guy, I can't imagine."
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/ https://www.space.com/27013-strange-mercury-facts-photos.html

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Mercury Facts for Kids - Interesting Facts about Planet Mercury

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It's thought that many civilizations recognized the planet Mercury as far back as 5,000 years. It was named about the Roman messenger god that was known for moving fast