SOLAR SYSTEM

THE SUN- The Sun is a globe of gas, mostly hydrogen, measuring 1,392 thousand kilometres across, over a hundred times the diameter of the the Earth. It is the centre of the Solar System and gives the Earth and other planets light and heat.

MERCURY- Mercury is the first planet from the Sun. It is a small and rocky planet.

VENUS- Venus attains the greatest brilliance in the night sky, outshining all the stars, hence its poetic names 'morning/evening star'.There are no natural satellites of this planet.

EARTH- It is the planet which we live. It is a huge ball whose surface is two-thirds water and one-third land. It is surrounded by layers of air known as atmosphere.

MARS- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, the outermost of the terrestrial- type planets, with an eccentric orbit at a mean distance of 228 million km.

JUPITER- Jupiter is the largest planet. It is so large that a thousand Earths could fit inside it. But it spins so fast that its day is less than 10 hours long.

SATURN- Used to be known as the planet with 'the rings'. Ring system have now been discovered around its three neighbouring planets but Saturn's rings are by far and brightest.

URANUS- Uranus is surrounded by a thick atmosphere of helium, hydrogen an methane. But unlike the other 'cloudy' planets it has hardly any cloud markings.

NEPTUNE-  Neptune is discovered by German astronomers in 1846, the blue colour of Neptune is due to the presence of methane.

PLUTO- the smallest planet. Pluto is named after Greek God of the underworld.  It is the only planet in the Solar System which has not been visited by a spacecraft.