6.

1 The Solar System

1.The Sun is a star. The Sun is located at the centre of the Solar System. 2. Planets are objects which move around the Sun at different distances from it. 3. There are nine planets in the Solar System.

4. The planets arranged in order of increasing distance from the Sun, are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

5. The figure below shows the nine planets which move around the Sun in the Solar System.

The nine planets which move around the Sun in the Solar System

1 - Mercury

4 - Mars

7 - Uranus

2 3 -

Venus
Earth

5 - Jupiter
6 - Saturn

8 - Neptune
9 - Pluto 9

8 3 6 4 7 1

2 5

6. The pull from the Suns gravity keeps all the planets in their orbits. 7. The planets all move around the Sun in a large oval path. 8. The further the planet is from the Sun, the bigger the path of the planet is. 9. Besides planets, the Solar System also contains other objects, which are natural satellites, asteroids, meteors and comets.

1.Moons are natural satellites because they are natural objects which orbit around planets. 2. The planets have different numbers of natural satellites orbiting them.

1. Asteroids are the many small rocky or metallic objects in the Solar System. 2. Asteroids are mostly found in a belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Asteroid

Mars

Jupiter

1.Meteoroids are small stones or metallic objects that are floating in space. 2.Meteors are streaks of light produced when meteoroid enter the Earths atmosphere.

3. A meteorite is a that hits the surface of the Earth or other planets. 4. A meteorite that hits the surface of the Earth forms a crater. An example is the crater in Arizona, United States.

1. Comets are small lumps of ice and dust in orbit around of the Sun. 2. A comet has a head and a long glowing tail. 3. Some comets shine spectacularly as they approach the Sun and ice burns off as gas, forming a tail of up to 300 million km long.

1. The Sun is much bigger than the Earth and the Moon. 2. The Sun looks very small in the sky because it is very far from the Earth, while the Moon looks bigger than the Sun in the sky because the Moon is nearer to the Earth.

The distance between the Sun and the Earth is about 150 million kilometres, while the distance between the Moon and the Earth is about 384 000 km.

The size of the Sun is 100 times bigger than the size of the Earth and 400 times bigger than the size of the Moon.

The size of the Earth is 4 times bigger than the size of the Moon. The size of the Moon, the Earth and the Sun are in the ratio:

The figure below shows the comparison of the size of the Earth, the Moon and the Sun.

1. The distance of the Earth from the Sun is just right for it to receive enough heat to support life. 2. The other planets either receive too much or too little heat. 3. The Earths surface contains enough water for living things to survive.

4. The Earth also contains suitable gases in the right composition to support life. 5. As far as we know, the Earth is the only planet in the Solar System that has living things. 6. This is because the Earth is the only planet that has water, air and the right amount of heat for living things to survive.