20 Things About Stuff - your
kids might not know
20 THINGS THEY SHOULD KNOW
ABOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM
-
The Earth’s moon is 1/400th the size of the sun and at this place in time. When a solar eclipse occurs, the moon covers the face of the sun. This was not always the case. At present, the Moon gets 3.8 cm further away from Earth every year. It was much closer to Earth in prehistoric times.
-
The moon originates from earth. It was blasted off earth in a collision with a planetoid when the earth was being formed.
-
The moon always shows the same face to the earth.
-
The moon is 384,000 kilometers from the earth.
-
The sun is 150 million kilometers from earth.
-
The closest planet to the sun is Mercury.
-
Even though mercury is closest to the sun, it is not the hottest.
-
The hottest planet in our solar system is Venus due to a very high Carbon Dioxide level in its atmosphere.
-
The most distant planet from the sun is Neptune. It used to be Pluto. (See #9)
-
The only planets in our solar system without a moon are Mercury and Venus.
-
Our solar system has 8 planets. It used to have but tiny Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet. Scientists think there may be more of them out there.
-
Of the 8 planets in our solar system, only 4 are rocky planets.
-
The 4 rocky planets are closest to the sun.
-
Our solar system is 7.5 Billion kilometers across.
-
The Milky Way Galaxy where our solar system resides is 100,000 Light Years in diameter which means you would have to travel at 299,792 kms per second (186,00 miles per second) to cross in 100,000 years.
-
The sun makes up 99.86% of the mass of our solar system.
-
Our sun is a star. It gives off heat that warms the earth through nuclear fusion.
-
The planet with the most moons is Jupiter with 63 (so far).
-
Only 4 of our solar system’s planets have rings. Jupiter. Saturn. Uranus. Neptune.
-
The coldest planet is Neptune with an average temperature of Minus 353 F or Minus 214 C.
