The Earth's Neighbours Planet

The Earth’s Neighbours Planet

 

Venus and Mars are the nearest planets to the Earth

Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth while Mars is farther away. Each takes a different amount of time to circle the Sun and we call this its year. A year on Venus is 225 days, on Earth 365 days and on Mars 687 days.

(All we can see of Venus from space are the tops of its clouds. They take Just four days to race right around the planet.)

Venus has poisonous clouds with drops of acid that would burn your skin.

They are not like clouds on Earth, which are made of droplets of water. These thick clouds do not let much sunshine reach the surface of Venus.

(Under its clouds, Venus has hundreds of volcanoes, large and small, all over its surface. We do not know if any of them are still erupting.)

Venus isthe hottest planet.

It is hotter than Mercury, although Mercury is closer to the Sun and gets more of the Sun’s heat. Heat builds up on Venus because it is completely covered by clouds which trap the heat, like the glass in a greenhouse.

Winds on Mars whip up huge dust storms that can cover the whole planet.

Mars is very dry, like a desert, and covered in red dust. When a space probe called Mariner 9 arrived there in 1971, the whole planet was hidden by dust clouds.

(Mariner 9 was the first space probe to circle another planet. it sent back over 7000 pictures of Mars showing giant volcanoes, valleys, ice caps and dried-”Up river beds.)

Mars has the longest volcano in the Solar System.

It is called Olympus Mons and is three times as high as Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth. Olympus Mons is an old volcano and it has not erupted for millions of years.

There are plans to send I astronauts to Mars but the journey would take six months or more.

The astronauts would have to take with them everything they need for the journey there and back and for their stay on Mars.

Venus  or Mars

VIDEO

Birth Of Mars

The Earth’s Neighbour

The Earth's Neighbours Planet

Spinning planet(Science project)

Spinning planet(Science project)

The Earth is like a giant ball spinning in the darkness of Space.

The only light falling on it is the light of the Sun glowing 150 million kilometers away.

The Earth turns once a day, and it orbits the Sun once a year.

The experiments on these pages investigate the two ways of moving, and explain why night and day, and the seasons, occur.

The ball represents the Earth and the torch the Sun.

In the final project, you can make a simple thermometer using water to record changes in temperature from night to day and from season to season.

Variable sunlight

The Sun’s light does not fall evenly over the Earth because our planet is round.

Imagine three identical beams of sunlight falling on the Earth. One falls on the Equator and the others on the North and South Poles.

The beam falling on the Equator covers a much smaller area, so its energy is more concentrated and the temperature Is higher.

YOU WILL NEED

Night and day: felt-tipped pen, plastic ball, piece of thin string, non­-hardening modelling material, torch.

Night and day

(1)

Draw or stick a shape on the ball to
represent your country. Stick the string to the ball with modelling
material.Tie the string to a rail, such as
a towel rail, so that the ball hangs freely.

(2)

Shine the torch on the ball. If the
country you live in is on the half

of the ball in shadow on the far side,
then it is night because it is facing
away from the Sun.

(3)

Your home country may be on the
half of the ball lit by the torch

instead. If so, it must be daytime here
because it is facing the Sun. Keep the
torch level, aimed at the middle.

(4)

Turn the ball from left to right. As
you turn the ball, your country will

move from the light half to the dark
half.You can see how the Sun comes
up and goes down as the. Earth turns.

Solar power

The Sun pours energy on to the Earth as heat and light.

The amount of energy received in any one place on the Earth changes with the seasons.

This is because the Earth’s axis is tilted. In summer, one half of the Earth tilts towards the Sun, and is warmer.

In the winter, it tilts away from the Sun and is colder.

The seasons

YOU WILL NEED

The seasons: felt-tipped pen, plastic ball, bowl just big enough for the ball to sit on, torch, books or a box to set the torch on.

(1)

Use the felt-tipped pen to draw a
line around the middle of the ball.

This represents the Equator. Sit the
ball on top of the bowl so that the
Equator line is sloping gently.

(2)

Put the torch on the books so it
shines just above the Equator. It is

summer on the half of the ball above
the Equator where the torch is shining,
and winter on the other half of the world.

(3)

Shine the torch on the Equator. It
sheds equal light in each hemisphere.

This is the equivalent of spring and
autumn, when days and nights are of
similar length throughout the world.

Make a thermometer

YOU WILL NEED

Make a thermometer: water, bottle, food colouring, clear straw, reusable adhesive, card, scissors, felt-tipped pen.

(1)

Pour cold water into the bottle until it is about two-thirds full. Add some food colouring. Dip the straw into the water and seal the neck tightly with reusable adhesive.

(2)

Blow down the straw to force
some extra air into the bottle.

After a few seconds, the extra air
pressure inside will force the water
level to rise up the straw.

(3)

Cut the card and slot it over the
straw. Let the bottle stand for a

while. Make a mark on the card by the
water level to show room temperature.
Take your thermometer outside.

(4)

On a hot day, the Sun’s heat will make the air and water expand,forcing the water level in the straw

above the room temperature mark.Cool the thermometer in the fridge. Mark the different levels.

Family of planets

A family of planets

The Sun is surrounded by a family of circling planets called the Solar System.

This family is held together by an invisible force called gravity, which pulls things towards each other. It is the same force that pulls us down to the ground and stops us from floating away.The Sun’s gravity pulls on the planets and keeps them circling around it.

The Earth is one of eight planets in the Sun’s -family.

They all circle the Sun tic different distances from it.The four planets nearest to the Sun are all balls of rock. The next four planets are much bigger and are made of gas and liquid. The tiny dwarf planet at the edge of the Solar System, Pluto, is a solid, icy ball.

Moons circle the planets, travelling with them round the Sun. Earth has one Moon.

It circles the Earth while the Earth circles round the Sun. Dwarf planet Pluto also has one moon. Mars has two tiny moons but Mercury and Venus have none at all. I here tire large families of moons, like miniature solar systems, around all the large gas planets.

A The eight planets are all different. Mercury, nearest the Sun, is small and hot.

Then Venus, Earth and Mars are rocky and cooler. Beyond them Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are large and cold. Dwarf planet Pluto is tiny and icy.

There are millions of smaller members in the Sun’s family.

Some are tiny specks of dust speeding through space between the planets. Larger chunks of rock, many as large as mountains, are

called asteroids. Comets come from the edge of the Solar System, skimming past the Sun before they disappear again.

I DON’T BELIEVE IT !

If the Sun was the site of a large beach ball, the Earth would be as small as a pea, and the Moon would look like a pinhead.

o Thank You o

Family of planets