SOLAR SYSTEMvocabulary

Solar System

Our solar system includes the sun, the planets and many smaller objects.

The inner planets The inner

planets are the four planets nearest to the sun.

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

The outer planets The outer

planets are the four planets farthest from the sun.

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune

satellites

A satellite is a smaller body that revolves around a larger body.

The moon is a natural satellite of the Earth.

Comets

A comet is a body of ice, rock and dust that was formed in the cold outer solar system and orbits the sun.

A comet’s orbital path

Asteroids

Asteroids are small rocky bodies that orbit the sun, found mainly in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroid Belt

Meteoroids A meteoroid is

a rocky body smaller than an asteroid. Meteors burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Meteorites do not burn up entirely and strike the ground.

Kuiper belt

Oort Cloud

SOLAR SYSTEMRelative distances

Astronomical Unit (AU) A U = the

average distance of Earth from the sun

AU=149,600,000 kilometers

AU=92,957,000 miles

Distances from the sun in AU’s Sun 0.0 AU Mercury 0.4 AU Venus 0.7 AU Earth 1.0 AU Mars 1.5 AU Asteroid Belt 2.8

AU Jupiter 5.2 AU Saturn 9.6 AU Uranus 19.2 AU Neptune 30.0 AU

Distances if 1AU=10cm• Sun =0 cm• Mercury =4 cm• Venus =7 cm• Earth =10 cm• Mars =15 cm• Asteroid Belt =28

cm• Jupiter =52 cm• Saturn =96 cm• Uranus =192 cm• Neptune =300 cm