Here are some websites to help you with your love and passion of Space and Astronomy. Enjoy!

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/overview/

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/overview/

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/

https://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/special/planets.htm

Jupiter Facts and Information

• 5th Planet from the Sun

• Orbits the sun every 11.8 Earth years

• Largest Planet in our Solar System

• 89,365 miles in diameter

• Approx. 79 moons

• Cloud Temp: -234℉

• Above Jupiter Temp: 1,334℉

• Average Distance from our sun is approximately 483 million miles

• 90% Hydrogen (H) and 10% Helium (He) with Rocky Core (GAS GIANT)

• If your weight on Earth is 100 lbs, you will weigh 252.8 lbs on Jupiter

Earth has a diameter of 7,917.5 miles, whereas Jupiter has a diameter of about 89,365 miles. This means that Jupiter is almost 11 times the size of Earth, and just under 318 times as massive. 1,000 Earths can fit into 1 Jupiter.

However, Earth’s density is significantly higher, since Earth is a terrestrial planet Jupiter is a Gas Giant.

Jupiter is composed primarily of gaseous and liquid matter which is divided between a gaseous outer atmosphere and a denser interior.

Jupiter has 53 named moons. Others are awaiting official names. Combined, scientists now think Jupiter has 79 moons.

There are many interesting moons orbiting the planet, but the ones of most scientific interest are the first four moons discovered beyond Earth—the Galilean satellites.

The Galilean Moons

The planet Jupiter's four largest moons are called the Galilean satellites after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610. The German astronomer Simon Marius claimed to have seen the moons around the same time, but he did not publish his observations and so Galileo is given the credit for their discovery. These large moons, named Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, are each distinctive worlds

Crash Course: Jupiter

Mars Facts and Information

• 4th Planet from the Sun

• Orbits the sun every 686 Earth days

• Has seans and polar ice caps

• 4,200 miles in diameter

• 2 moons but more like Asteroids caught in Mars' gravitational pull

• Surface Temp: -225℉ to 70℉

• Average Distance from our sun is approximately 141 million miles

• Thin atmosphere (1% of Earth), mostly Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)

• If your weight on Earth is 100 lbs, you will weigh 37.7 lbs on Mars

Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, is the second smallest planet in the solar system; only Mercury is smaller. Mars is about half (53 percent) the size of Earth, but because Mars is a desert planet, it has the same amount of dry land as Earth.

Earth has a diameter of 7,917.5 miles, whereas Venus has a diameter of about 4,200 miles. This means that Venus is roughly 0.9499 the size of Earth.

Mars is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley in the solar system. Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest. It is also one of the largest volcanoes in the solar system. It is about 370 miles (600 kilometers) in diameter, wide enough to cover the entire state of New Mexico.

The Valles Marineris system of valleys — named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971 — can go as deep as 6 miles (10 kilometers) and runs east-west for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers), about one-fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia or the distance from Philadelphia to San Diego.

Crash Course: Mars

The Planets in Our Solar System: MERCURY

Mercury Facts and Information

• Closest Planet to the Sun

• Orbits once every 88 days

• Smallest planet in the Solar System

• 3,031 miles in diameter

• Surface Temp: 197℉ to +801℉

• Average Distance from our sun is approximately 16.4 million miles

• If your weight on Earth is 100 lbs, you will weigh 37.8 lbs on Mercury

The diameter of Mercury is 4,879 km (3,031 miles), which is approximately 38% the diameter of Earth. In other words, if you put three (3) Mercurys side by side, they would be a little larger than the Earth from end to end. While this makes Mercury smaller than the largest natural satellites in our system – such as Ganymede and Titan – it is more massive and far more dense than they are.

rash Course: Mercury

The Planets in Our Solar System: EARTH

Earth Facts and Information

• 3rd Closest Planet to the Sun

• Orbits the sun every 365 days

• Known as the Blue Planet and the Goldilocks Planet

• 7,917.5 miles in diameter

• Average Distance from our sun is approximately 93 million miles

• Oceans at least 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) deep cover nearly 70 percent of Earth's surface.

• The minimum weather temperature on Earth is -126 degrees Fahrenheit (-87.8 degrees Celsius) and the maximum weather temperature on Earth is 136 degrees Fahrenheit (57.8 degrees Celsius).

• Earth has ONE (1) Moon

Earth and Moon Facts

• The diameter of the Moon is 2,158 miles. Now, let’s compare this to the Earth. The diameter of the Earth is 7,917.5 miles. This means that the Moon is approximately 27% the size of the Earth.

• The Moon was created 4.6 Billion Years ago - which is the same as Earth

• Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 (Saturn V Rocket)

• It is the fifth largest moon in the Solar System.

• The average distance from the Moon to the Earth is 238,857 miles.

• The Moon orbits the Earth every 27.3 days.

• If your weight on Earth is 100 lbs, you will weigh 17 lbs on the moon

Crash Course: The Earth

How did the planets get their names?

MYTHOLOGY (my·thol·o·gy)

məˈTHäləjē/

noun

noun: mythology; plural noun: mythologies

1. a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition.

All of the planets, except for Earth, were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus and Mercury were given their names thousands of years ago. The other planets were not discovered until much later, after telescopes were invented. The tradition of naming the planets after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses was carried on for the other planets discovered as well.

• Mercury was named after the Roman god of travel.

• Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.

• Mars was the Roman god of War.

• Jupiter was the king of the Roman gods

• Saturn was the Roman god of agriculture.

• Uranus (Ouranus) was named after an ancient Greek king of the gods.

• Neptune was the Roman god of the Sea.

• Pluto, which is now classified as a dwarf planet, was the Roman god of the underworld.

• The name Earth is an English/German name which simply means the ground.

The 4th Grade classes will be Exploring the Solar System this year in the Makerspace. Today, students were introduced to their first lesson asking: What is a Planet?

Vocabulary/Terms

• Asteroid

• Comet

• Dwarf Planet

• Inertia

• Kuiper Belt

• Mass

• Oort Cloud

• Orbit

• Planet

• Plutoid

List of Planets in our Solar System

• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth

• Mars

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

What is a Planet?

Everyone knows that Earth, Mars and Jupiter are planets. At least, they are for now. Both Pluto and Ceres were once considered planets until new discoveries triggered scientific debate about how to best describe them—a vigorous debate that continues to this day. The most recent definition of a planet was adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. It says a planet must do three things:

1. It must orbit a star (in our cosmic neighborhood, the Sun).

2. It must be big enough to have enough gravity to force it into a spherical shape.

3. It must be big enough that its gravity cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit around the Sun.

Homework: Color and Cut out the Solar System Image that I printed for you, then paste it in your STEM Notebook.