William B. Rice
Consultant
Publishing Credits
Dona Herweck Rice, Editor-in-Chief ; Lee Aucoin ,
JoBea Holt, Ph.D.
Creative Director ; Don Tran, Print Production
The Climate Project
Manager; Timothy J. Bradley, Illustration Manager ;
Nashville, Tennessee
Chris McIntyre, Editorial Director ; James Anderson,
Associate Editor ; Jamey Acosta, Associate Editor ;
Jane Gould, Editor ; Peter Balaskas, Editorial
Administrator ; Neri Garcia, Senior Designer ;
Stephanie Reid, Photo Editor ; Rachelle Cracchiolo,
M.S.Ed. , Publisher
Image Credits
cover L. Cook/Photo Researchers, Inc.; p.1 L. Cook/Photo Researchers, Inc.; p.5 Jurgen Ziewe/
Shutterstock; p.6 Sebastian Kaulitzki/Shutterstock; p.7 NASA; p.8 magaliB/iStockphoto;
p.1011 Stephanie Reid; p.1213 Andrea Danti/Shutterstock; p.14 Craig Wactor/Shutterstock;
p.15 bicubic/Shutterstock; p.16 NASA p.17 NASA; p.18 Jaan-Martin Juusmann/Shutterstock;
p.19 (top) Jordan James Munyon Martin/Shutterstock, (bottom) NASA; p.20 (top) Plutonius
3d/Shutterstock, (bottom) NASA; p.21 (top) peresanz/Shutterstock, (bottom) July Flower/
Shutterstock; p.22 (left) Stephen Girimont/Shutterstock, (right) NASA; p.23 (left) NASA, (right)
Sabino Parente/Shutterstock; p.24 (top) NASA, (bottom) bluecrayola/Shutterstock; p.25 (top)
NASA, (bottom) Michael Taylor/Shutterstock; p.26 Dagadu/Dreamstime; p.27 Alex Staroseltsev/
Shutterstock; p.28 Rocket400 Studio/Shutterstock; p.29 Karen Lowe; p.32 McMullan Co./
Newscom
Teacher Created Materials
5301 Oceanus Drive
Huntington Beach, CA 92649-1030
http://www.tcmpub.com
ISBN 978-1-4333-1422-3
ePUB ISBN 978-1-5457-0670-1
2011 Teacher Created Materials, Inc.
Space is a big place. It has trillions of
stars and planets! Our sun is just one of
those stars. Eight planets move around
our sun.
The planets orbit the sun.
To orbit means to move
around something.
The sun and its planets are called the
solar system .
sun
We live on one of the planets. Our
planet is Earth. Earth is the third planet
from the sun.
sun
Earth
Earth
Mercury is the first planet. It is close to
the sun. Neptune is the eighth planet. It is
very far away.
Jupiter
Mars
Mercury
Earth
sun
Venus
A Long Year
Neptune is so far away
that it takes 165 Earth
years to go around the
sun just one time!
Neptune
Each planet moves
in its own orbit , or
path.
Saturn
Uranus
All planets move the same way around
the sun. They move counterclockwise. Each
planet also spins as it moves.
moon
Earth
clockwise
sun
counterclockwise
Each planet is its own size. Mercury is
small. Two and one half Mercurys could fit
inside Earth. Jupiter is big. About 1,300
Earths could fit inside Jupiter!
sun
Jupiter
Mars
Venus
Earth
Mercury
Mercury is about 36 million
miles from the sun. Earth
is about 93 million miles
from the sun.
Saturn
Neptune
Uranus
The sun is really big! It is bigger than all
the planets. Imagine that the solar system
was the same as 100 pennies. Then, the sun
would be the same as 98 of those pennies.
Everything else in the solar system would
be just the 2 pennies that are left!
Each planet is made in its own way.
Some planets are hard and rocky. They are
made of rock and metal .
Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars
are the rocky
planets.
the surface of Mars
Mars
Some planets are made mainly of gas .
They are like big, heavy rain clouds.
Jupiter
Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, and