The Big Book of Space (Ages 4-7)

## Contents

1. The Sun
2. Mercury
3. Venus
4. Earth
5. Moon
6. Mars
7. Jupiter
8. Saturn
9. Uranus
10. Neptune
11. Pluto
12. Dwarf Planets
13. Asteroids
14. Meteors
15. Comets
16. Stars
17. Galaxies
18. Universe

## The Sun

The **Sun** is a **star** in the sky, it is **bright** enough to hurt your eyes! Better watch out! The sun is much bigger than you can imagine with your eyes, you!

SPACE-O-FACT!

The **Sun** could fit right away one **million Earths**! That is a giant amount!

## Mercury

**Mercury** is the closest **planet** to the **Sun**, just **orbit**ing it within 88 days. It is burning hot at night, but yet it is cold at night. It is the only **surface**-walking (**rocky**) body with no **atmosphere**!

SPACE-O-FACT!

Mercury has such a **temperature** range it can get hotter and colder than **Earth**!

## Venus

**Venus** is the second planet to the **Sun**. But it's even hotter than **Mercury**! Nobody would like the conditions there! It has the thickest **atmosphere**. It is possible to see it in the night sky. It rotates slower than a year here.

SPACE-O-FACT!

**Venus** is the **brightest** light in the night sky. It is also known as the morning star!

A temperature on **Venus** can be nine times hotter than the hottest summer day on Earth!

## Earth

**Earth** is the third planet to the Sun. All the formed life exists here to this day, nowhere else. Maybe later! When you are reading this book, you are on here. You were born here, and probably die here. Yes, it's the best home imaginable.

SPACE-O-FCAT!

The Earth's middle has a **core,** which is as hot as the Sun!

## Moon

The **Moon** is a smaller object, or more scientific, **satellite,** orbiting our home. The Moon is the only body where **astronauts** have landed. We can only see one side of it. The other side is hidden forever in the night sky.

SPACE-O-FACT!

We know more about the Moon than the ocean!

## Mars

**Mars** is the fourth planet to the Sun. It has many features that are on Earth as well: **volcanoes, craters,**and **canyons.** The biggest canyon is Valles Marines. The biggest volcano is Olympus Mons, which is three times taller than the highest mountain on Earth.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Dust devils can possibly blanket the entire planet for several months!

## Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It has no surface to walk on. It has dozens of moons orbiting it. It has a storm called the Great Red Spot that can fit three Earths!

SPACE-O-FACT!

Over 1,300 Earths could fit inside Jupiter! Even though, Jupiter is much, much smaller than our Sun.

## Saturn

Saturn is known for its bright rings, however they cannot be seen from Earth without binoculars or telescopes. Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter, still can swallow hundreds of bodies that are the size of Earth! Saturn's rings are just chunks of rocks that range in all different sizes.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Most of Saturn's rings chunks are the size of a dust particle. But some can be as big as your car!

## Uranus

Uranus is titled upside-down. It was the first planet discovered with a telescope. All the others have been known for thousands of years. Uranus, along with Neptune, have been only known for a few hundred years.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Uranus has rings. However, they are faint due to the dark material they are made of!

## Neptune

Neptune is the furthest and perhaps the coldest planet. You wouldn't like the conditions there, however. Neptune has an average temperature of -353 Fahrenheit, or -214 Celsius. It is the windiest planet, more than a dozen times stronger than the strongest winds on Earth! Wow! It is the densest **gas** giant.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Neptune's winds can reach 2,000mph! It also has many storms.

## Pluto

Pluto is not a planet; a dwarf planet today. Four other dwarf planets meet. Few information is collected about Pluto because it is so far away from Earth. It is useless to see with binoculars and small telescopes, because it is so small and so far away a powerful telescope is required.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Pluto has a strange orbit that it sometimes crosses Neptune!

## Other Dwarf Planets

There are four other dwarf planets; Ceres; which had many classifications. Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. Makemake is unusally bright, while Eris is the furthest dwarf planet today.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Haumea rotates so fast it is shaped like an egg!

## Asteroids

Asteroids are giant rocks that are in the asteroid belt. They may range to 6 feet (2 m) in diameter to 950 kilometers. Ceres was the first asteroid discovered, in 1801. Today, we call this asteroid a "dwarf planet". Asteroids may be the remains of rocks that did not form the planets.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Some asteroids can have moons!

## Meteors

Meteors are rocks that burn in Earth's atmosphere. Meteors are meteoroids that don't make it. Meteorites are meteroids that come down to a planet's surface, forming a **crater.**Such as the Meteorite Crater, in Arizona on Earth here. Craters appear on rocky planets and moons. Even asteroids have them.

SPACE-O-FACT!

Meteors may be why dinosaurs had died out 66 million years ago!

## Comets

Comets are bright streaks of light in the night sky that can spread millions of miles into space. Comets, such as Halley's Comet, may be rare. The Halley's Comet is only seen every 76 years. Watch for the Halley's Comet in 2061!

SPACE-O-FACT!

Comets are often named "dirty snowballs"!

## Stars

Stars are bright lights in the night sky. However, they are hot giant gas balls. Stars are just like our Sun. These stars are much bigger than the biggest planet, Jupiter. Stars may be much hotter than the Sun, and much bigger.

SPACE-O-FACT!

The biggest star, if it were in the center of our Solar System, would almost touch Saturn's orbit!

## Galaxies

Galaxies are where stars are. Galaxies are blurry purple or red lights that appear in the night sky. We are in the Milky Way Galaxy, which contains 100 billion stars! Yet, the Milky Way Galaxy appears in a local group. A center of a galaxy may have a black hole with great mass.

SPACE-O-FACT!

The largest group of galaxies may contain as many or even over 2,500 galaxies!

## Universe

The Universe contains all the asteroids, planets, stars, comets, dwarf planets, and galaxies. There are more stars than the grains of sand on every single Earth's beach. There is 100 billion galaxies in the universe. There are eight planets we know of. And ... who knows, maybe *you* may study astronomy in the future!

## Glossary

Kids, know these words!

**Sun-a medium-sized yellow dwarf star that appears in space.**

**Mercury-a terrestrial planet that appears to have many craters.**

**Venus-the hottest terrestrial planet in the Solar System.**

**Earth-the planet where life exists.**

**Mars-a terrestrial planet with many features.**

**Jupiter-**