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The Solar System consists of the Sun,
9 planets - Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto, 63 planetary satellites and a large number of small
bodies (comets and asteroids). |
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ORBIT
The orbits of the planets are ellipses, though apart from Mercury
and Pluto they are very nearly circular. The planets all
orbit in the same direction, anti-clockwise if you were looking down from above the Sun's
north pole. All the planets apart from Venus and Uranus rotate in that direction as well. |
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RELATIVE SIZE
To try to understand the relative sizes of the planets, imagine the Sun being 1.50 metres in diameter, then the Earth would be a mere
1.3cm in diameter, Jupiter would be 15cm, Saturn
about 8cm. |
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CLASSIFICATION
Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars can be thought of as the rocky
planets. These planets are composed mainly of rock and metal,
rotate slowly, have solid surfaces, rotate slowly and have few satellites.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are usually
described as gas planets. These planets are made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, rotate at high speed,
have deep atmospheres, rings and lots of satellites. |
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