In Science this term, Rochedale State School Year 5 students have been studying our Solar System and its planets. Read further to see what information we have gathered.

 

The sun and its family of planets, moons, asteroids and comets is at present the only solar system we know. When you look at the sky at night, most of the "little lights" you see are stars - distant suns. Suns ?!? Yes - our Sun is just one of many millions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. So far, no other star has been found to have planets. This isn't as strange as it may seem at first. Planets are small and don't give off their own light - they only reflect light from their parent star. Currently, the world's largest telescopes couldn't detect planets, if there were any, orbiting even the nearest stars.

The Solar System has a well defined layout; the Sun in the centre, then - in order - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Comets come from even further out. You can make up a code to remember the order of the planets like: My Very Elegant Mother Just Sat Upon Nanna's Puppy.

 The first four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are relatively small and rocky. They are called the terrestrial planets. Out beyond the asteroid belt, the planets are quite different - big, light and gassy - the giant gas planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto seems to be different again - small and icy; it could even have once been a moon of Neptune. Spacecraft couldn't land on the giant gas planets; there is no solid surface. But the giant planets have plenty of moons, and the moons are solid. So if people travel to Jupiter in the future, they could land on - for example - the moon Ganymede.

Click on the Planet's name below to see some general information about the planets in our Solar System.
 

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto
 

Here's some of the kid's projects on the planets. You will find more information and pictures here than in the pages above.
 

Pluto by Sarah J.

Saturn by Mathew

Uranus by Alyce

Mars by Joanna
 
Year 6 have some great Space Facts in their Space Fact File written after a talk by a visitor from NASA. Click here to read their very informative Fact File.
 

10 June, 1998 - Our Solar System pages have been selected as the Astronomical Society of Tasmania's Hotlink for the week. Thanks Astronomical Society of Tasmania.

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