Our Solar System

Mercury's position is so close to the sun that there's no atmosphere or water. The planet has a rocky surface, just like our moon. There are much craters of metorites and maria. There aren't vulcanic activities anymore and no atmosphere. The planet has a very large, vast core. The temperature can go up to +430 degrees Celcius and it could be as cold as 180 -degrees.

The earth has got an atmosphere with air. The planet has also got seas filled with water. The average temperature from earth is 22 degrees Celcius. Without air and water there will be no live possible on earth. When the earth was hotter, the water would vaporise, and when the earth was colder, the water would freeze.

How much we can see of the moon we see depends on the angle between the sun, moon and earth.
The slow turning moon turns as fast as the times it takes for one orbit, so the side we see is always the same.

The scientists think that the moon is made from the earth. When the earth was still young (4.6 billion years ago) they was bombed by meteorites. A meteor with the size of mars would blow a piece of earth in the space and so the moon came.
The other parts which orbits the earth bombed the moon for 600 million years. When the bombs stopped, the moon was zwaar geschonden. There were giant bekkens surrounded by mountains. At some places the hot lava came at the top. These maria(Seas) changed the look of the moon; the inner part of the moon cooled down. Smaller meteorites bombed the moon surface and pulverised the surface rock. The moon is now covered by dust and small stones

Mars is a small, dry planet with a red, rocky surface. The planet is cold - approx. -23 degrees Celcius - and has got two polar icecaps from ice and frozen gasses.

There orbit two small moons around the planet: Phobos and Deimos. It probably are astroids which were captured by mars. The largest of the two, orbits at 6000 km above mars and this cannot have a good ending. It will once fall down on Mars. The surface of Mars has got the deepest gap, the heigest mountain (Olympus Mons, 24 km high) the biggest inslagbekken (The Hellas-bassin, with a radius of 1000 km and 6 km deep) of our solar system.

At the north part of mars you can see flat grounds (new surface by vulcanic activity) On the south part of Mars there is an old, with craters covered highland. At the equator there is a very large slenk (The Valles Marineris) which is about 4000 k.metres long and sometimes 7 km deep.
Mars has a skinny atmosphere. The reddish color of the surface of mars is there because there are much iron-oxides in the ground.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. He has got 16 moons. Above Jupiter's surface is a belt from gasses. The planet exists for the largest part of liquids and gasses. Jupiter is cold and is surrounded by a belt of dust.

Jupiter is the first of 4 gas planets in our solar system. The other planets are saturn, uranus and neptune. Gas planets haven't got a solid shape. They're made from gasses; much hydrogen, a little bit helium and methan. The deeper in the planet the gas is getting closer. There are winds in the gasses which blow with very high speeds(650 km/h). The gas planets have rings and a lot of moons and a strong magnetic field.

If Jupiter was a bit bigger, it probably would be evolved to a star, with four planets. Specific for Jupiter are the belt structures in the cloud and the mysterious red spot.

Saturn is the second largest planet. Arount the planet are circling clouds which look like rings. Saturn has got a hard core surrounded with ice and hydrogen. Saturn has got more moons than all other planets. Astronoms think that it are more than 20.

Saturn's rings are builded from billions with ice covered pieces of rock, which float in space. It isn't clear how the rings are made. Maybe at the same time as the planet. But it could be pieces of an exploded ice-moon.

The other planets in our solar system orbit as a turnpin around the sun. The north and south poles pointed up and down. The axe of Uranus is were our earth's equator is. The scientist think that a large thing Uranus did topple over.

The inner part of uranus would exist of rock, ice and some hydrogen and helium. Uranus is very cold, about -214 degrees C. The atmosphere exists from 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methan. The methan is responsible for the blue-green color of the planet. There orbit 11 thin rings around the planet.

Neptune has got a clear blue atmosphere which exists from hydrogen and clouds methangas. The rocky core is allmost as big as earth. Neptune has got three rings and eight moons.

The atmosphere is comparable with the one from Uranus. The winds on Neptune are the fastest in our solar system, 2.000 km/h. White clouds and dark spots are very good visible. The magnetic field has, just as Uranus a strange orientation. The magnetic field aren't generated from the core but from the surface.

Between Neptune and Pluto there is a zone where are small meteorites. They are called short-period comets. because they visit us often. They are throwen away by large gas planets.

The diameter of the smallest planet Pluto is only one-fifth of that of the earth. With a temperature of approx -230 degrees C it is the coldest planet in the solar system. The planet has got one moon, half as big as Pluto itself.

One lightyear behind pluto there is a dangerous area with ice bodies or comets. There are long-period comets, which take million of years to reach us.