Planets+and+the+Solar+System

=Order of planets from Earth=

Order of the Planets: An astronomy primer
The order of the planets, starting at the sun and moving outwards is as follows: **Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto** If you want to remember the Order of Planets, it is easy to remember a rhyme such as //"__M__y __V__ery __E__asy __M__ethod __J__ust __S__imply __U__ses __N__ine __P__lanets"// This gives you the initial letters of the nine planets of the solar system in order. There is now evidence that either Pluto is too small to be a planet or that there are hundreds of other small planets the same size as Pluto further out in space so the list of planets could get longer. In fact we now know there are countless numbers of planets around other stars, but thankfully nobody asks us to remember the names of planets outside our solar system. The earth is orbiting around the sun at about 90 miles per second. Mercury, the first planet is a tiny ball, not that much larger than our moon. Saturn, the biggest planet is more than ten times larger than the Earth.
 * [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x1.gif width="48" height="59" caption="planet mercury"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x2.gif width="56" height="59" caption="planet venus"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x3.gif width="40" height="59" caption="planet earth"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x4.gif width="35" height="59" caption="planet mars"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x5.gif width="54" height="59" caption="planet jupiter"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x6.gif width="52" height="59" caption="planet saturn"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x7.gif width="57" height="59" caption="planet uranus"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x8.gif width="50" height="59" caption="planet neptune"]] || [[image:http://travel.newarchaeology.com/planets_1x9.gif width="51" height="59" caption="planet pluto"]] ||

Distance from the Sun of Each of the Planets of our solar system:

 * Mercury - 35,983,610 million miles
 * Venus - 67,232,360 million miles
 * Earth - 92,957,100 million miles
 * Mars - 141,635,300 million miles
 * Jupiter - 483,632,000 million miles
 * Saturn - 888,188,000 million miles
 * Uranus - 1,783,950,000 million miles
 * Neptune - 2,798,842,000 million miles
 * Pluto - 3,674,491,000 million miles

Size of the Planets

 * Mercury - 3,045 miles in Diameter
 * Venus - 7,518 miles in Diameter
 * Earth - 7,953 miles in Diameter
 * Mars - 4,225 miles in Diameter
 * Jupiter - 88,856 miles in Diameter
 * Saturn - 77,671 miles in Diameter
 * Uranus - 31,752 miles in Diameter
 * Neptune - 30,757 miles in Diameter
 * Pluto - 1,429 miles in Diameter

Is Pluto a Planet?
In the Summer of 2006 The The International Astronomical Union (IAU) finally settled the question of whether Pluto, which was first spotted in 1930 is really a planet or just an asteroid. Pluto is very small and there are bigger objects (such as 2003 UB313 - nicknamed Xena - discovered by by Professor Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology) out in our solar system. The IAU ruled that Pluto is not a planet because it has not 'cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.' which means it has not got enough gravity to attract all the asteroids in the area to itself.

=Space Mission Project: = 1. You will choose a space mission: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/space_missions/manned_table.html 2. After choosing a space mission, you will recreate the mission on iMovie using the following rubric:

__Choose from the following projects__:
= PLANETS AND THE SOLAR SYSTEM PROJECTS TO CHOOSE FROM: = = =

PROJECT #1: Children's Book (An Individual Project) :
Rubric You will create a children's book on iPhoto+Photobook using the rubric above as your guideline

PROJECT #2: Planet Vacation (2 Students per Group) :
http://planetwebquest.ed-tech.ca/

PROJECT #3: Group Planet Project (4 Students per Group) :
http://www.asdk12.org/depts/Science/PlanetWalkWEBQUEST.HTM#introduction

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= Great Websites to See Planet and Solar System Stuff: = http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar