The Solar System (6th Grade)

The Earth only has __ moon orbiting it's surface.

1

Pluto is about _,____ miles (2,380 km) wide. That's about half the width of the United States, or 2/3 the width of Earth's moon.

1,400

The Great Red Spot has slowly changed over the years, and is currently about __.__ times as wide as our planet.

1.3

Jupiter rotates once about every ___ hours (a Jovian day).

10

Saturn takes about __._ hours (no one knows precisely) to rotate on its axis once—a Saturn "day"—.

10.7

It takes about ___ Earth years for Jupiter to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).

12

Uranus has ___ known rings. The inner rings are narrow and dark and the outer rings are brightly colored.

13

Neptune has ___ known moons which are named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology.

14

A day on Pluto lasts ____ hours, or about 6 Earth days.

153

Neptune takes about ___ hours to rotate once (a Neptunian day).

16

And about ____ Earth years to orbit the sun (a Neptunian year).

165

The Giant Red Spot is large enough to be visible through Earth-based telescopes and was probably first seen in _______.

1655

Uranus takes about ___ hours to rotate once (a Uranian day).

17

Saturn's ring system extends up to ____,____ miles (282,000 kilometers) from the planet

175,000

One day-night cycle on Mercury takes ________ Earth days.

175.97

The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in ______ by astronomer William Herschel and is the seventh planet from the sun.

1781

Mars has __ moons.

2,

Neptune orbits our Sun, a star, and is the eighth planet from the Sun at a distance of about _._ billion miles (4.5 billion kilometers).

2.8

One day on Mars takes a little over _____ hours.

24

One day on Venus lasts _____ Earth days because Venus spins backwards, with its sun rising in the west and setting in the east.

243

A year on Pluto is ____ Earth years.

248

Uranus has ___ known moons, most of which are named after literary characters.

27

It takes Saturn __ Earth years to orbit the sun.

29

The Great Red Spot has lasted at least _____ years.

340

One day on Mercury (the time it takes for Mercury to rotate or spin once with respect to the stars) takes ___ Earth days.

59

Mars makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Martian time) in _____ Earth days.

687

Jupiter has more than ___ moons. Jupiter is a gas ________ and so lacks an Earth-like surface.

75, giant

Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional 29 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery—that is a total of ___ moons.

82

And about __ Earth years to complete an orbit of the Sun (a Uranian year).

84

Mercury makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Mercury time) in just ___ Earth days.

88

If it has a solid inner core at all, it's likely only about the size of _______. (Jupiter)

Earth

_______ in line from the Sun is Jupiter.

Fifth

Mars is one of the most ______________ bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where we've sent rovers to roam the alien landscape.

explored

Venus has no moons, Venus' ___________ temperatures and acidic clouds make it an unlikely place for life as we know it.

extreme

While Earth is only the ________ largest planet in the solar system, it is the only world in our solar system with liquid water on the surface.

fifth

The _________ planet from the Sun, Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere.

fourth

Venus is the _____________ planet in our solar system.

hottest

Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for ___________ of years.

hundreds

The winds blow at __________________ force, sending clouds completely around the planet every five days. (Venus)

hurricane

Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of _____________ and __________.

hydrogen, helium

Mars is known as the Red Planet because _____ minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust, causing the soil and atmosphere to look red.

iron

Jupiter is the _____________ planet in the solar system - more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined.

largest

Mercury has no __________ orbiting it.

moons

The ring ______________ mostly range from tiny, dust-sized icy grains to chunks as big as a house. A few particles are as large as mountains. (Saturn's Rings)

particles

Our atmosphere ______________ us from incoming meteoroids, most of which break up in our atmosphere before they can strike the surface.

protects

(Pluto) This fascinating world has blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows - but the snow is _____.

red

Saturn's rings are thought to be pieces of comets, asteroids or ______________ moons that broke up before they reached the planet, torn apart by Saturn's powerful gravity.

shattered

Saturn is the ________ planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system.

sixth

The rings would look mostly white if you looked at them from the cloud tops of Saturn, and interestingly, each ring orbits at a different _________ around the planet.

speed

Mercury is a rocky planet, also known as a ________________ planet.

terrestrial

Our home planet is the ________ planet from the Sun, and the only place we know of so far that's inhabited by living things.

third

Adorned with _______________ of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets.

thousands

Venus has a thick, toxic _____________ filled with carbon dioxide and it's perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of mostly sulfuric acid.

atmosphere,

They are made of __________ of small chunks of ice and rock coated with another material such as dust. (Saturn's rings)

billions

Since 2006, per the International Astronomical Union's planetary criteria, Pluto isn't considered a planet because it hasn't _________ the neighborhood around its orbit of other objects.

cleared

The Great Red Spot is a storm in Jupiter's southern hemisphere with crimson-colored clouds that spin _________________ at wind speeds that exceed those in any storm on Earth.

counterclockwise

Venus has a thick, toxic atmosphere filled with carbon ____________ and it's perpetually shrouded in thick, yellowish clouds of mostly sulfuric _____.

dioxide, acid

Pluto is officially classified as a ______ planet.

dwarf

The smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun, _____________ is only slightly larger than Earth's Moon.

Mercury

Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant __________ is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system.

Neptune

________ - which is smaller than Earth's Moon - has a heart-shaped glacier that's the size of Texas and Oklahoma.

Pluto

It is not the only planet to have rings—made of chunks of ice and rock—but none are as spectacular or as complicated as __________'s.

Saturn

_________ is known as the "sideways planet" because it rotates on its side.

Uranus

Similar in size and structure to Earth, _______ has been called Earth's twin. These are not identical twins, however - there are radical __________________ between the two worlds.

Venus, differences

This dynamic planet has seasons, polar ice caps, canyons, extinct volcanoes, and evidence that it was even more ____ in the past. (Mars)

active