THE SOLAR SYSTEM FOR KIDS LEARNING ACTIVITY

The solar system is our local neighborhood in space, centered around the Sun, and made up of various celestial bodies that orbit it due to its strong gravitational pull. Here's an overview of its main components:

🌞 The Sun

• A medium-sized yellow dwarf star
• Contains 99.8% of the solar system's mass
• Powers the solar system with light and heat through nuclear fusion

🪐 The 8 Planets (in order from the Sun)

1. Mercury
   • Smallest planet
   • Closest to the Sun
   • No atmosphere, very hot and cold
2. Venus
   • Similar in size to Earth
   • Thick, toxic atmosphere (mostly CO₂)
   • Hottest planet due to a runaway greenhouse effect
3. Earth 🌍
   • Our home
   • Only known planet with liquid water and life
   • One moon
4. Mars
   • The "Red Planet" (iron oxide on surface)
   • Thin atmosphere
   • Potential target for human exploration
5. Jupiter
   • Largest planet
   • Gas giant with dozens of moons (including Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system)
   • Known for its Great Red Spot (a massive storm)
6. Saturn
   • Gas giant famous for its spectacular rings
   • Has over 100 moons
7. Uranus
   • Ice giant with a pale blue color
   • Rotates on its side (tilted ~98 degrees)
   • Has faint rings
8. Neptune
   • Deep blue ice giant
   • Known for supersonic winds
   • Farthest official planet from the Sun

🌑 Dwarf Planets

• Pluto (formerly the 9th planet)
• Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Eris
• Orbit the Sun but haven’t "cleared their neighborhood" of other objects

🪨 Other Solar System Objects

• Moons: Over 200 known, orbiting various planets
• Asteroids: Mostly found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
• Comets: Icy bodies from the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, develop tails when near the Sun
• Meteoroids: Small space rocks; become meteors ("shooting stars") when they enter Earth’s atmosphere

🌌 Fun Facts

• The Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million km) from Earth.
• Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth.
• The solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago