MS4Ed Educational Technology 2: The Solar System(handout)

   THE SOLAR SYSTEM
by:
Jay Ann C. Nitollano BEED 2B


Partido State University

Goa Camarines Sur

    Collage of Education

   A/Y 2012-2013

   nitollanojayann@gmail.com

Solar means dealing with the sun, Sol. Our sun is just a star, the closest one to Planet Earth.
The Solar System is everything that centers around the sun. That includes eight planets as well as some smaller objects such as asteroids, comets and meteoroids.
Our solar system consists of an average star we call the Sun, the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
The sun is at the center of the solar system. The solar system is also called the sun’s family.

What are the other members of the solar system?

1. Planet

There are large balls of matter that move around the sun.
These big balls of matter are called planets.
There are nine planets that move around the sun. Earth is one of these planets.
Some planets are very large like Jupiter and Saturn. Some are small like mercury, mars and Pluto.
Some planets are close to the sun like Mercury and Venus. Some are far away from the sun like Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
The sun is at the center of the solar system. Every planet moves around the sun. Each planet has its own path. The planets that are far away from the sun take a long time to go around the sun.

2. Moons

The moon is part of the solar system.
It is the nearest neighbor of the earth in space. The other planets have moons, too.
Jupiter, Saturn, mars and Neptune have moons that move around them.
Some of the moons are large. Other moons are small.
The natural satellite of the earth, visible (chiefly at night) by reflected light from the sun.

Our moon moves around the earth.

3. Comets

Have you seen a comet?
A comet is an interesting heavenly body. What is it made of?
A comet is a huge lump of ice that surrounds gas and particles of dust.
As comet approaches the sun, the ice melts so the gas and dust particles are released.
The comet’s body becomes its head. The gas and dust which are pushed out of the head form tail. The tail stretches to millions of kilometers in space.
Comets are often referred to as "dirty snowballs." They are left over from the formation of stars and planets billions of years ago.

4. Meteors

Sometimes, you see streaks of lights in the night sky.
There are meteors.
They are called shooting stars by many people.
Meteors, or shooting stars as they are more commonly known, are the streaks of light produced when a meteoroid burns up in the Earth's atmosphere. It looks like a star falling towards us as it momentarily flashes above us.
Meteors are made of rocks which fall into earth’s atmosphere. The meteoroids, which produce the meteors, are dust and rocks in space.
They burn up because of friction with the air.
Large meteors may not burn completely while falling, so they reach the ground.
They are called meteorites.

Shooting stars

Meteorite

5. Asteroids and Planetoids

Pieces of rocks can be found between the paths of mars and Jupiter.
These are called asteroids and planetoids. They also move around the sun.
The Asteroids or planetoids are irregular lumps of rocks that differ in size and brightness.these bodies,of around 25,000,are found between the orbits of mars and Jupiter. They are called asteroids because they looks stars,and planetoids because with a diameter of 940 km.