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Our planet, Earth... 

is one of nine classical planets 

in our solar system. It is the 

third planet from the sun and 

the fifth largest in size. Before 

astronomer, Nicolaus 

Copernicus' discoveries, people 

believed Earth to be the center 

of the universe.

Earth is made up of several 

layers: the crust, mantel, outer 

core, and inner core. Unlike the 

other planets, Earth is made up 

of several plates that float 

around on top of the mantel. 

These are known as tectonic 

plates. The plates move slowly 

on the planet and give us such 

things as tsunamis and 

earthquakes. Earth is the only 

planet known to have water on its 

surface.

Fun Facts About Earth:

Average distance from the Sun: 93 million miles 

(150 million km); 1 AU (astronomical unit).

Diameter: 7,927 miles (12,756 km.)

Average temperature: 50 degrees Fahrenheit 

(15 degrees Celsius)

Length of year: 356.242 Earth days

Atmosphere: Oxygen and Nitrogen

Moons: One

After learning about planet Earth, Ethan and Grace decided they 

wanted to learn more about where their planet came from? What 

better way to learn than to take a trip into space? Upon their arrival, 

they stumbled across many new discoveries. Their biggest discovery...

Our Gigantic Universe

Our universe is made up 

of many stuctures.  

Ethan and Grace found 

billions of   galaxies 

within our universe. A 

galaxy is a great island 

of stars in space, 

containing between a few 

hundred million and a 

trillion or more stars. 

We belong to the Milky 

Way Galaxy. The Milky 

Way Galaxy is a huge, 

disk-shaped collection of 

stars which contains our 

solar system.

Next Stop: The Solar System

Our solar system is located about 27,000 

light-years from the center of the Milky 

Way Galaxy. The Solar System is made up of 

all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition 

to planets, the Solar System also consists of 

other celestial objects such as moons, 

comets, asteroids, minor planets, and dust and 

gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or 

revolves around the Sun. The Sun contains 

around 98% of all the material in the Solar 

System. The larger an object is, the more 

gravity it has. Because the Sun is so large, its 

powerful gravity attracts all the other objects 

in the Solar System towards it. At the same 

time, these objects try to escape   by pulling 

away from the Sun. As a result, they get stuck 

somewhere in between and spend   eternity 

orbiting around their parent star.

Formation of the Solar 

System

Around 1755, German philosopher, Immanuel Kant 

proposed that our solar system formed from the 

gravitational collapse of an interstellar cloud of 

gas. Because an interstellar cloud is usually called 

a nebula, his hypothesis became known as the 

nebular hypothesis. Over many, many years of 

research, significant evidence had accumulated in 

favor of the nebular hypothesis that it achieved 

the status of a scientific theory- the nebular 

theory of our solar system's birth.  

The Nebular Theory...

Begins with the idea that our solar system was born from the gravitational collapse of an 

interstellar cloud of gas called the solar-nebular, that collapsed under its own gravity.This 

cloud gave birth to the sun at its center and the planets in a spinning disk that formed around 

the sun. The gas that made up the solar nebula is said to have been the product of billions of 

years of galactic recycling that occurred before the sun and planets were born. Recall that the 

universe as a whole is thought to have been born in the Big Bang which essentially produced 

only two chemical elements: hydrogen and helium. By studying the composition of the sun, 

other stars of the same age, and interstellar gas clouds, we have learned that the gas that made 

up the solar nebula contained about 98% hydrogen and helium and 2% all other elements 

combined. The Sun and   larger planets were born from this gas, while Earth and other 

terrestrial worlds were made primarily from the heavier elements such as rock and mineral.

Fun ON the Sun! 

Grace was intrigued by all of this information, and convinced Ethan to take a trip to the Sun. While they 

were there, they found:

That it is indeed primarily made of hydrogen and helium, that its light and heat come from a nuclear 

reaction at its core called nuclear fusion. This happens when two hydrogen atoms collide and stick to each 

other. While on the sun they noticed a convective zone and radiative zone. The convective zone forms the 

outer shell of the sun. The atoms in this layer have electrons because the temperature is not hot enough to 

take them away, like it does in the core. In the convective zone energy is transferred very quickly. 

Radiation in the radiative zone is very important. It's what makes the sun transfer energy out into space. 

The energy made in the core is in the form of photons (subatomic or itty bitty particles that travel at the 

speed of light. In radiation, energy spreads out from the core through these photons. They move at the 

speed of light but they bounce off all kinds of other particles. It takes hundreds of thousands of years for 

the photons to get through the radiative zone. Speed of light = 186,282,397 miles per second 

(299,792,458 meters per second) (Meter is the accepted unit of measure in terms of the speed of light. 

While visiting the Sun, Ethan and Grace 

explored all of its parts. During their 

observations, they found and recorded 

the following:

The chromosome is a small region above the photosphere.

The photosphere is the surface of the Sun.

The corona extends millions of miles away from the Sun into 

space, but we can see it only when there's a total solar 

eclipse. Temperatures in the corona are more than 1 million 

degrees kelvin.

The corona hole is a hole in the Sun's atmosphere. Scientists 

believe that solar winds start in these holes.

A prominence is a large, bright characteristic that extends 

from, but is anchored to the Sun's surface, often in a loop. A 

prominence can last for several months. 

Sunspots are cool regions (still highly flammable!) on the 

sun's surface.

The Sun releases plumes of energy that contain photons, x-

rays, and charged protons and electrons. Flare activity 

increases as sunspot activity decreases.

Ethan and Grace Visit the The Inner 

Solar System

A lot of astronomers like to think of the Solar System as 

two parts, the inner and outer:

The inner solar system consists of Mercury, Venus, Earth, 

and Mars. These are closest to the sun and are called 

terrestrial planets simply because the have very solid 

surfaces composed of rock and metal.   The reason these 

planets are so much smaller than the others is because rock 

and metal made up such a small amount of material in the 

solar nebula. The process by which these planets were 

formed is called accretion. It began with the microscopic 

solid particles that condensed from the gas of the solar 

nebula. These particles orbited the sun with the same 

orderly, circular paths as the gas from which they 

condensed. Individual particles therefore moved at nearly 

the same rate of speed as neighboring particles causing them 

to collide, and stick together using electrostatic forces., 

thus producing planetesimals which would grow larger after 

time into what we now call terrestrial planets.

Now off to The Outer Solar System

Consists of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These are sometimes 

called the gas giants. The leading model for jovian planet formation 

holds that these planets formed as gravity drew gas around ice rich 

planetesimals much more massive than Earth. Because of their large 

masses, these planetesimals had gravity strong enough to capture 

some of the hydrogen and helium gas that made up the vast majority 

of the surrounding solar nebula. This added gas made their gravity even 

stronger, allowing them to capture even more gas. Ultimately, the 

jovian planets accreted so much gas that they bore little resemblance 

to the icy seed from which they grew. 

Dwarf planets are celestial bodies that: orbit the sun,

have sufficient mass and gravity for assuming a 

hydrostatic equlibrium,

has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit,

is not a satellite .

As of now, there are four dwarf planets in our solar 

system:

Pluto-made of nitrogen and methane ice.

Charon-Described as smaller than the 7 moons in our 

solar system.

Eris--Is defined as the tenth planet.

Ceres-Data suggests liquid oceans are believed to have 

been on Ceres.

Grace has a deep passion for meteorology. Although she has sat through many meteor showers in the 

past and observed meteorites as they jet through the dark sky, on this visit she would react with 

great joy to have such rare view of something so significant to her area of study,   as they had never 

been so visible. During her observations, she designed a chart where she would record any data she 

found interesting.

Meteors are small pieces of iron or rock. When one of the pieces enters the Earth's atmosphere, it 

heats up and looks like a streak of light in the sky, sometimes called a shooting star. Very small 

rocks orbiting the Sun are sometimes called meteoroids so scientists can tell them apart from the 

larger asteroids, as they can be very similar looking. If a piece of it survives to reach Earth's 

surface, it's called a meteorite. While most burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, millions actually 

really hit the surface. Meteorites contain a lot of information about our solar system.

The asteroid belt lies 

between the orbits of 

Mars and Jupiter. 

Asteroids are irregularly 

shaped objects that orbit 

our stars like our Sun. 

The asteroid belt is 

occupied by a bunch of 

asteroids and one dwarf 

planet.

The asteroids sometimes 

leave their orbits 

because of the strong 

pull of Jupiter's 

gravity. Asteroids can be 

made of rocks, metals, 

or a combination of the 

two. They come in 

different colors, shapes, 

and sizes. Collisions 

occur all the time in 

the asteroid belt. 

Sometimes debris from 

these collisions reach 

Earth's atmosphere as 

meteoroids. When an 

asteroid collides with 

another object, it may 

create a crater, break 

into smaller pieces, or 

scatter the asteroid out 

of its orbit. The 

surfaces of Earth, the 

Moon, and other planets 

are covered with craters. 

However much of the 

processes that occur on 

Earth help keep its 

surface crater free. 

Erosion, for example 

wears down the ground and 

can break a crater down 

to virtually nothing. The 

moon on the other hand 

has almost no erosion 

because it has no 

atmosphere. Plate 

tectonics too, help keep 

our Earth's surface 

crater free! Volcanism 

also helps in keeping our 

Earth crater free, as 

volcanic flow can cover 

up impact craters. 

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