The Solar System

   1. The Solar System

    The Solar System is an ensemble of celestial bodies in the Milky Way Galaxy made up of the Sun, nine planets, twenty seven satellites, many asteroids and comets that all revolve around the Sun. The planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

   2. The Sun
      The Sun is the central star of the Solar System. It has its own light and gives us on Earth both light and warmth, as well as to all other celestial bodies of the System.

    The size of the Sun is immense. If we pretend that the Sun is a sphere of one meter in diameter, the Earth would be the size of a pellet.

    The Sun is a yellow star composed of hydrogen (81 percent), heliuam (18 percent), and other gases. It is made up of the following parts:

    - The nucleus, which has a very high temperature.

    - The photosphere, which is a gaseous mass that wraps the nucleus and where big sized spots have been discovered.    - The chromosphere, which is reddish in color and where there are huge suppliers of incandescent gas, called solar protuberances.

    - The crown, which is the external wrap of the gases.    Apparently, the Sun revolves around the Earth, but backwards. Earth and all other celestial bodies of the System revolve around the Sun. It has a translational movement towards the Lyra star, and it also rotates on its own axis.

   A) Indicate whether the following statements are true or false

The photosphere is a part of the Sun

The Sun is located in the Lira Galaxy

The Solar System is located in the Milky Way

The Earth is bigger than the Sun

The nucleus of the Sun is cold

Solar protuberances are produces in the chromosphere

The Sun is a red star

The Sun rotates around the Earth

The Sun gives us light and warmth

The spots are produced in the photosphere

    3. The Planets

   The planets of the Solar System revolve around the Sun following elliptical orbits.

    There are nine in total, and from the closest to the Sun they are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

    - The Earth is the planet on which we live in.

    - Venus is the most beautiful one and is also known as Morning Star, because it can be seen when the Sun rises and sets.

    - Mars is the red planet, with an atmosphere, seas, and mountains. Some scientists believe that there could be life on Mars, but they have not yet found.

    - Jupiter is the biggest planet.

    - Mercury is the smallest planet.

    - There are other planets that are very small, and are called asteroids.

  B) Indicate to which celestial body is each sentence referring to (Earth, Mars, Venus, the Sun, Jupiter or Mercury)

It is enormous beauty

We live on this planet

It is of reddish color

It has its own light

It is the biggest of the planets

It is the smallest of the planets

It gives us light and warmth

    4. The Moon

   The Moon is the only satellite of Earth, and it does not have either its own light or warmth. The white color it has is due to the reflection of the Sun’s light.

    It is fifty times smaller than the Earth and it is located 385,000 km away from Earth. Flying on an airplane at 800 km per hour, we would take twenty days to reach the Moon.

    The Moon has two movements: the rotation on its own axis, and the translation movement around the Earth. These two movements are synchronous with that of Earth’s, in other words, the movements of both celestial bodies have the same duration (28 days). That is why we always see the same side of the Moon.



   5. Phases of the Moon

    We never see the Moon with the same aspect. This is due because from the Earth we can see the Moon change its luminous surface every day.

    The Moon has four main phases:

    1. The new moon, which is when the moon is completely dark.

    2. The waxing crescent, which is when the Moon increases its visibility with each day from the zone that faces the Sun.

    3. The full moon, which is when we see the Moon completely illuminated.

    4. The waning crescent, which is when the Moon begins to decrease its visibility.

   C) Indicate whether the following sentences are true or false:

The Moon has its own light

It makes one turn in 28 days

We can see both sides of the Moon

The new moon is completely illuminated

During the waxing crescent is when we see the Moon biggest

The Moon is smaller than the Earth

During the waning crescent we see the Moon begins to increase its visibility

When it is full moon the Moon is completely illuminated

   6. The Eclipses

   An eclipse is the complete or partial concealment of a celestial body due to the interposition of another.

   On the drawing above, from Earth the Moon cannot be seen because the light of the Sun cannot reach it since Earth is in the middle and covers the sun’s light. This is called a lunar eclipse. There are also partial lunar eclipses.

    On the drawing below, from a dark side of the Earth we cannot see the Sun because it is being covered by the Moon. In this case, part of the Earth becomes dark because the sun’s light cannot reach it since the Moon is in between both. This is called a solar eclipse.

 
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®Arturo Ramo García.-Record of intellectual property of Teruel (Spain) No 141, of 29-IX-1999
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