The Planetarium & The Planets By MONICA

On the 29th of July 2016, Year 4 Blue went on an incursion to the Planetarium. The incursion took place at 9:00am in the school hall.

Firstly we walked to the school hall and took off our shoes. Then we crawled into the dome and sat and listened to our instructor Geoff talk about space. Now here is some info about the solar system, stars, the planets and more interesting space information.

The sun is known as a huge,flaming ball of gas. Although that is only compared to the planets that we know of. There is a star called Antares and Antares is a red star. Antares is 64 million times bigger than not the earth but the sun. There is another star called Betelgeuse which could also fit 64 million suns in it.

Most stars are a lot bigger than the sun but the stars are much farther away from Earth than the sun so from our view. The sun is bigger. The sun is mainly composed of helium and hydrogen. The sun’s gravitational pull is what makes all of the planets orbit around it. It is also what gives gravity to all the planets. The sun was formed 4.7 billion years ago.

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. It is also the smallest planet. Although it is the closest to the sun it is not the hottest because the atmosphere does not retain the heat which makes Venus, the second planet from the sun, the hottest because Venus’ atmosphere retains the heat. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system and its colour is a light shade of brown. It takes Mercury 88 days to orbit the sun.

As explained above, Venus is the second planet from the sun and its atmosphere retains the heat, so Venus is the hottest planet. Venus is a terrestrial or rocky planet and mainly composed of silicate rock and metal. Venus is coloured a light shade of orange. Venus orbits the sun every 224.7 earth days. It is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon.

Earth is a terrestrial planet and it has a nickname which is The Goldilocks Planet. Now that's enough about Earth, we live here.

The 4th planet from the sun is none other than Mars. Mars is a terrestrial planet and it is often referred as the red planet because of its reddish colour. It is reddish because of the rust and the rust is because of the iron oxide. Mars has a thin atmosphere.

The 5th planet from the sun is Jupiter. Jupiter has the biggest planetary mass in The Solar System. Well, of course excluding the sun. Jupiter is a gas giant along with Saturn. It is mainly composed of hydrogen, although a quarter of its mass is helium. Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky, after the moon and Venus.

The 6th planet from the sun is Saturn. Saturn is the 2nd largest planet after Jupiter. It is a gas giant. Saturn is named after the Roman God of Agriculture.

The 7th planet from the sun is Uranus. Uranus is an ice giant. It cannot be seen by the naked eye and was the first planet to be seen by a telescope. It was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. Its degrees plummets to -224 Celsius which is its minimum temperature.

The 8th and farthest planet from the sun is Neptune. It has the 3rd most planetary mass in the solar system. It is only slightly bigger than its twin Uranus.

Pluto is not a real planet, it is a dwarf planet and it was discovered in the 1930s and made a dwarf planet because it is too small.

Constellations are groups of stars that make an object. For example, if I were to go outside in summer at approximately 7:00pm you would see the constellations of The Summer Night Sky. There are lots of different constellations in both The Summer and Winter Night Skies.

Stars are objects in the solar system that you probably think are smaller than The Sun. This is where you are wrong. Most Stars could fit about 60 million Suns in them but The Stars are much farther away from The Earth than the sun, so from our view the sun is bigger but up in space the stars are a lot bigger.

Fun Fact - All of the stars are different colours.

Conclusion - I hope that from this report you have learnt a lot about The Solar System and The Stars. I also hope that this report has inspired you to take your own space risk and find out about Space. It could only be going to The Planetarium or just looking at The Night Sky. Either way I would definitely recommend The Planetarium, it is the best space experience and Geoff our Space Instructor taught us more about the Solar System than we could have ever learnt on our own !

The End