NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
MERCURY☿
In Roman mythology, Mercury is the god of commerce, travel and thievery, the Roman
counterpart of the Greek god Hermes, the messenger of the Gods. The planet probably received
this name because it moves so quickly across the sky. The planet’s existence has been known
since to at least the first millennium BC.

Mercury is the first and smallest planet of our solar system. Mercury revolves around the
sun every 88 days and rotates every 58 days. Mercury is very similar to the Earth’s moon – dry
and dead. Something that is interesting is that the surface of Mercury that is facing Sun is 700˚F.
On the other hand, the planet’s surface that is not facing the Sun (its dark-side) is -300˚F.
Between night and day, that’s a temperature change of 1000˚! So, you’re either on fire or you’re
a block of ice. The reason for this is because Mercury has no atmosphere. The Sun’s heat is not
trapped in an atmosphere like other planets, so the temperature is not stable. Here on Earth, we
have an atmosphere… During the day, it can be 75˚F and then at night, it can be 40˚F… that’s
only a change of 35˚. For life to exist, a stable atmosphere is a big deal!

Mercury has been now been visited by two space probes, Mariner 10 and MESSENGER.
Mariner 10 flew by three times in 1974 and 1975. Only 45% of the surface was mapped.
MESSENGER was launched by NASA in 2004 and will orbit Mercury starting in 2011 after
several flybys. Its first flyby in Jan 2008 provided new high quality images of some of the terrain
not seen by Mariner 10. Unfortunately, Mercury is too close to the Sun to be safely viewed by
the Hubble Space Telescope to take easy images… It’d be like taking binoculars and looking
right at the Sun!

Questions about Mercury

1. What was Mercury named after?
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2. What are some reasons why we would not be able to live on the planet?
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3. What space probe is the one most recently to visit the planet and take pictures?
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4. Why can’t the Hubble Space Telescope just take pictures of the planet?
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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
VENUS
The second planet of the solar system is called Venus. Venus is named after the Roman
goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky,
bright enough to cast shadows. Venus is also known as the ‘Morning Star’ and the ‘Evening
Star’. In the early morning, look to the East and you’ll see what looks like a star. That’s Venus.
In the early night, look to the West and you’ll see what looks like a star. That’s also Venus. The
Earth has just rotated and so Venus looks to be in a different spot.

Venus has a thick atmosphere of sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide. Because of this, heat
from the Sun is trapped within and causes a temperature that is higher than Mercury’s even
though Venus is farther away from the sun. The Mariner 2 space probe measured a surface
temperature of 932˚F and also measured that the atmosphere was 90-95% carbon dioxide. The
Russian space program sent out many space probes under the name of Venera to take samples of
air and soil, take pictures of the surface, and to map the surface from space using radar.
Underneath the clouds, Venus has rough and rocky terrain with many craters. It has ongoing
volcanic activity and thunderstorms. Overall, Venus is very active, but certainly not a place for
humans to live.

An odd fact about is that Venus is a planet with a retrograde rotation… which is opposite
to most of the other planets in the solar system. Another odd fact about Venus is that its period of
rotation is 243 days... and its period of revolution is 224 days. That means that one single
‘Venus’ day takes longer than one single ‘Venus’ year.

Questions about Venus

1. What was Venus named after?
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2. What are some reasons why we would not be able to live on the planet?
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3. Which space probes helped us to know and understand Venus a little better?
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4. Why does the Sun rise in the West and set in the East for the planet Venus?
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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
EARTH
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight
planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is
sometimes referred to as the world, the Blue Planet, or by its Latin name, Terra. At present,
Earth’s period of rotation is 23 hours 56 minutes and its period of revolution is 365.26 days.

Earth has one moon in orbit that is commonly known as ‘The Moon’, but its Latin name
is ‘Luna’ and its Greek name is ‘Selene’. The Moon has a synchronous orbit which means the
amount of time it takes to rotate itself is the same amount of time that it takes to rotate around the
Earth. Because of this, we only see one side of the Moon.
The Earth’s surface is build of seven major tectonic plates which move across the planet
because of the constant flowing of magma beneath the surface. The atmosphere of the planet is
primarily made up of nitrogen and then oxygen. The Earth’s surface is covered mostly by water.
Earth formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago by accretion from the solar nebula,
and life appeared on its surface within one billion years. The planet is home to millions of
species, including humans. Since the existence of humans, the population was stable under 1
billion. At the beginning of the 19th Century (1800), human population began to increase at an
exponential rate. After just 200 years, the population has increased to 7 billion because of
advancement in medicine.

Questions about Earth

1. List some traits about Earth that make it different than the other planets of the Solar System?
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2. What are two other names that also have been used in naming the Earth?
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3. Why do we only see one side of the Moon?

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4. What is the world’s human population? How many years did it take the human population to
grow from 1 billion to 7 billion? What are some problems that could happen because of this?
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5. What is the period of rotation of the Earth? What is Earth’s period of revolution around the
Sun? What do we do to the calendar every four years to make up for the extra quarter day we
have every year?
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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
MARS
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named after the Roman god
of war, Mars, it is often described as the "Red Planet" as the iron oxide (rust) prevalent on its
surface gives it a reddish appearance. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having
surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys,
deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth. The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are
likewise similar to those of Earth, as is the tilt that produces the seasons.
Mars has two relatively small natural moons, Phobos and Deimos, which orbit close to
the planet. Both of these moons are oddly shaped and are not exactly spherical like most moons.
The idea behind why this is thought to be because Mars’ gravitational pull captured in its orbit
what were originally asteroids. Because they now in Mars’ orbit, they are now considered
moons.
In January 2004, the NASA twin Mars Exploration Rovers named Spirit and Opportunity
landed on the surface of Mars. Among the most significant scientific returns has been conclusive
evidence that liquid water existed at some time in the past at both landing sites.
On March 10, 2006, the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) probe arrived in
orbit to conduct a two-year science survey. The orbiter began mapping the Martian terrain and
weather to find suitable landing sites for upcoming lander missions. The MRO snapped the first
image of a series of active avalanches near the planet's North Pole, scientists said March 3, 2008.
The Mars Science Laboratory, named Curiosity, launched on November 26, 2011, and is
expected to reach Mars in August 2012. It is larger and more advanced than the Mars
Exploration Rovers, with a movement rate of 90 . Experiments include a laser chemical
sampler that can deduce the make-up of rocks at a distance of 13 meters.

Questions about Mars

1. What was Mars named after? Why is Mars often called the ‘Red Planet’?
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2. What are the names of the moons of Mars? Why do the moons of Mars have a strange shape?
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3. What were the names of the first two rovers explored Mars? What did they both discover?
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4. What is the name of the rover that is currently on the way to Mars and when will it land?
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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
JUPITER
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is
a gas giant with mass one-thousandth ( ) that of the Sun. Three hundred Earths would be the
equivalent to the mass of Jupiter. The planet was known by astronomers of ancient times and
was associated with the mythology and religious beliefs of many cultures. The Romans named
the planet after the god Jupiter, who was king of the gods and god of the sky and thunder. Jupiter
was the equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

Jupiter is made up mostly of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium. The outer
atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence
and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result of these storms is the Great
Red Spot, a giant storm that is larger than the Earth.

There are also at least 64 moons, including the four largest moons called the Galilean
moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. These four moons are named Io,
Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Ganymede, the largest of these moons, has a diameter greater
than that of the planet Mercury!

Jupiter has been explored many times by robotic spacecraft, most notably during the early
Pioneer (1972) and Voyager (1977) space probes and later by the Galileo (1989). The most
recent probe to visit Jupiter was the Pluto-bound New Horizons (2007). Future targets for
exploration include the possible ice-covered liquid ocean on the moon Europa.

An interesting fact includes that the gravity of Jupiter is 2.5 times the amount here on
Earth. That means if you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 375 pounds on Jupiter.
Another interesting fact is that although Jupiter is the largest of the planets, Jupiter’s period of
rotation is the shortest at only 9.9 hours. Because of the planet’s large size and fast spin, Jupiter
actually bulges out at its equator.

Questions about Jupiter

1. What was Jupiter named after? How many Earths would be able to fit inside of Jupiter?
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2. What are the names of the Galilean Moons? When did Galileo discover these four moons?
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3. What space probes studied the planet Jupiter? When did the last one fly by Jupiter?
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4. If you were able to land on and walk on Jupiter, would you weigh more or less than you do on
Earth? Do the math and figure out how much you would weigh!
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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
SATURN
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System,
after Jupiter. Named after the Roman god Saturn, who was the god of the agricultural and
harvest. Saturn’s astronomical symbol (♄) represents the god's sickle. Saturn is a gas giant with
an average radius about nine times that of Earth and takes 29.5 years to orbit the Sun. While only
1/8 the average density of Earth, with its larger volume Saturn is just over 95 times more massive
than Earth.

Sixty-two known moons orbit the planet; fifty-three are officially named. Titan, Saturn's
largest and the Solar System's second largest moon is larger than the planet Mercury and is the
only moon in the Solar System to retain a substantial atmosphere. In 2004, the space probe
Cassini captured radar images of large lakes and their coastlines with numerous islands and
mountains.

Saturn is probably best known for its system of planetary rings, which makes it the most
visually remarkable object in the solar system. The rings extend from 6,630 km to 120,700 km
above Saturn's equator, average approximately 20 meters in thickness and are composed of 93%
water ice and 7% amorphous carbon. The particles that make up the rings range in size from
specks of dust up to 10 meters. There are two main theories regarding how the rings came to be.
One theory is that the rings are remnants of a destroyed moon of Saturn which spread and
flattened over time. The second theory is that the rings are left over from the original nebular
material from which Saturn formed. It is known that some ice in the central rings comes from the
moon Enceladus' ice volcanoes.

Questions about Saturn

1. What was Saturn named after? What does Saturn’s symbol represent?
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2. How does Saturn’s mass compare to the Earth’s mass?

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3. How many moons does Saturn have? What is the largest? What did the Cassini space probe
discover?
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4. What are Saturn’s rings made out of? How did Saturn get its rings?
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5. Where does some of the ice of the rings come from?

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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
URANUS
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is named after the ancient Greek god of the
sky, who was the father of Cronus (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter). Though it is visible
to the naked eye like the five classical planets, it was never recognized as a planet by ancient
observers because of its dimness and slow orbit. Uranus has 27 known natural moons. The
names for these moons are chosen from characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander
Pope. Some of the names of these moons include Ariel, Umbriel, Belinda, Titania, Oberon,
Puck, Ophelia, Juliet, and Cupid.

The Uranian system has a unique configuration among the planets because its axis of
rotation is tilted sideways, nearly into the plane of its revolution about the Sun. Its north and
south poles therefore lie where most other planets have their equators. Uranus has an axial tilt of
97.77˚, so its axis of rotation is approximately parallel with the plane of the Solar System. This
gives it seasonal changes completely unlike those of the other major planets. Other planets can
be visualized to rotate like tilted spinning tops on the plane of the Solar System, while Uranus
rotates more like a tilted rolling ball.

Uranus has a complicated planetary ring system, which was the second such system to be
discovered in the Solar System after Saturn's. The rings are composed of extremely dark
particles, which vary in size from micrometers to a fraction of a meter. Thirteen distinct rings are
presently known, the brightest being the ‘E’ ring. All except two rings of Uranus are extremely
narrow – they are usually a few kilometers wide. The rings are thought to be recently formed.
The observations considered indicate that they did not form with Uranus. The matter in the rings
may once have been part of a moon (or moons) that was shattered by high-speed impacts from
asteroids. The numerous pieces of debris that were left as a result of those impacts were then
formed into a limited number of stable zones corresponding to the present rings.

Questions about Uranus

1. What was Uranus named after? Where did they come up with the names of Uranus’ moons?
Which names have you heard of before?
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2. What makes Uranus so different than all the other planets? What does its rotation around the
Sun look like?
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3. How many rings does Uranus have?

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4. How did those rings form?

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NAME ____________________________

ABOUT
NEPTUNE
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the
Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass.
Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus,
which is 15 times the mass of Earth but not as dense. On average, Neptune orbits the Sun at a
distance of 30.1 AU, approximately 30 times the Earth–Sun distance. Its astronomical symbol is
a stylized version of the god Neptune's trident.

Neptune was the first planet found by mathematical prediction rather than by observation
of a telescope. Unexpected changes in the orbit of Uranus led astronomers to deduce that its orbit
was subject to gravitational pull by an unknown planet. Neptune was subsequently observed on
September 23, 1846 by Johann Galle within a degree of the position predicted by Urbain Le
Verrier. Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, was discovered shortly thereafter, though none of the
planet's remaining 12 moons were located by a telescope until the 20th century. Neptune has
been visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2, which flew by the planet on August 25, 1989.

In 1989, the Great Dark Spot, a storm system spanning 13000×6600 km, was discovered
by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft. The storm resembled the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Some five
years later, on November 2, 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope did not see the Great Dark Spot
on the planet. Instead, a new storm similar to the Great Dark Spot was found in the planet's
northern hemisphere.

Questions about Neptune

1. What was Neptune named after? What does Neptune’s symbol represent?
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2. How far away is Neptune from the Sun compared to the Earth?
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3. How was Neptune discovered?

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4. How many moons does Neptune have? What is the largest?

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5. What is the name of the large storm on Neptune? What space probe discovered that storm?
When was it discovered?
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