Table Of ContentSpace
Infographics
By Harriet Brundle
Designed by Matt Rumbelow
Space
Infographics
Contents
Page 4-5 The Solar System
Page 6-7 The Sun
Page 8-9 Mercury
Page 10-11 Venus
Page 12-13 Earth
Page 14-15 Mars
Page 16-17 Jupiter
Page 18-19 Saturn
Page 20-21 Uranus
Page 22-23 Neptune
Page 24-25 Dwarf Planets
Page 26-27 Moons
Words that
Page 28-29 Asteroids are underlined
can be found in
©2017 Written by: A catalogue record
Book Life Harriet Brundle for this book is Page 30 Activities the glossary on
available from
King’s Lynn
Norfolk PE30 4LS Edited by: the British Library. BookLife page 31.
Charlie Ogden Publishing Page 31 Glossary
ISBN: 978-1-78637-080-8
.com
Designed by:
All rights reserved
Printed in Malaysia Matt Rumbelow Page 32 Index
4,600,000,000
Astronomers estimate that the Solar System is 4.6 billion years old.
For many years, humans were unaware of the Solar System and
The Solar
thought that planet Earth was at the centre of the universe.
System
The Solar System is made up of the Sun as well as smaller parts
that include planets, moons, asteroids, dwarf planets and comets.
The planets orbit 53
around the Sun..
Moons orbit
Earth
around their
The Sun The Moon Comet
planets.
Mercury Uranus
Saturn has 53
Saturn named moons.
Jupiter Neptune The largest is
called Titan.
Venus Mars Saturn Pluto
Titan
The Sun
Asteroids The Sun contains
99.86% of the
Mass of
Solar System’s mass.
the Sun
The remaining 0.14%
is mostly made up
by the planets.
Planets
Dwarf Planet
Mass of
The Solar
everything
System is
else
shaped like
an egg, with
the Sun at When we see a “shooting star”,
the centre. it is actually a meteor flashing
through the sky.
4 5
The temperature at the centre of the Sun is
15,000,000oC.
The Sun
The Sun is a star at the
centre of the Solar System.
It is the largest object in
the Solar System The Sun is 149 million kilometres away from Earth.
The Sun is one of
It takes 8 minutes for light from the
around 100 billion
The Sun The Solar The Galaxy surface of the Sun to travel to Earth.
stars in our Galaxy.
System
100,000,000,000
It would take 1.3
million planets
the size of Earth
The Sun is a ball of gas that to fill the volume
gives off light and heat. of the Sun.
The Sun is the most important
source of energy and light for
life on Earth.
70%
28%
Hydrogen
Helium
2%
Metals
6 7
4,880
Mercury is the smallest planet in
the Solar System. It has a diameter
of 4,880 km, making it around
a third of the size of Earth.
Mercur y
10-15
Mercury is the planet closest to
the Sun. It can be seen with the
naked eye and is visible from
Earth for much of the year.
Once every ten to fifteen years,
Mercury can be seen crossing
Mercury has the
in front of the Sun. This event
widest temperature
is known as a transit.
-173 427 extremes of all the
Mercury orbits the Sun once
planets, with possible
every 88 Earth days. It travels
temperatures ranging
faster than any other planet
from -173oC to 427oC.
at 50km per second.
Mercury’s surface is covered
in craters. It has a thick, partly
molten core and a thin outer 15,000,000
crust. The surface looks very
similar to the Earth’s moon.
Mercury is 15 million km from the Sun. 1974 2009
Only two spacecraft have ever
visited Mercury. It is very difficult
to reach Mercury because it is so
close to the Sun.
(Venus has had 32 visits.)
Mercury has
no atmosphere,
which means that
there is no weather
on the planet at all.
8 9
Venus and Earth
are very similar in
terms of size and
mass.
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is the
brightest of all the planets and can be seen from
Earth with the naked eye.
12,104km
The temperature on Venus is so hot that diameter
465oC probes sent by scientists can only last
of Venus
2 or 3 hours before they are destroyed
by the heat.
Venus has an extremely dense
atmosphere that traps heat
Venus
from the Sun. Temperatures
on Venus can reach as high
as 465oC, making it the
hottest planet in the
Solar System.
It takes Venus
Atmosphere 225 Earth days
to orbit around
Trapped heat
from the sun the Sun.
The surface of the planet is
extremely dry and is covered
in craters, mountains and
volcanoes, some of which
are active today.
The planet
Venus is named
after the Roman
Venus is 108 million km
goddess of love
from the Sun.
and beauty.
10 11
The Earth is constantly spinning on its axis and does one full
rotation every 24 hours. This is why we have night and day.
Ear th
Earth is the third planet from America in daylight Europe in daylight
the Sun and is believed to be
the only planet in the Solar System
that can support life. Earth is the
largest of the terrestrial planets. 27
The Earth has one
moon. It takes the
Inner Core
days moon 27 days to
Outer Core complete a full
orbit of the Earth.
Lower Mantle
Upper Mantle
Crust
78% Nitrogen
21% Oxygen
1% Argon
The Earth’s crust is split into parts, called tectonic
The atmosphere on
plates, that float on the mantle. Tectonic plates
Earth has remained
move between 2cm and 5cm per year.
largely the same
for the last 200
30%
million years.
365 149m
70%
4,500,000,000
70% of the Earth’s
surface is covered
The Earth takes 365 days
Earth is 149 million km from the Sun.
to orbit the Sun. by water. Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago.
12 13
It takes Mars 686 Earth days to orbit the Sun.
Mars is the second most
hospitable planet after
Earth. Space missions
are being planned and
undertaken to increase
Mars our understanding
of Mars.
The average
temperature on
Mars is -55oC.
Mars is the fourth planet from
the Sun. It is often referred to
as ‘the red planet’ because of
its red appearance.
The diameter
227.9m
of Mars is 6,779 km.
It is approximately
Mars is 227.9 million 6 times smaller
km from the Sun. than Earth.
Mars has clouds and wind, just like
Earth. At times, the wind can blow
Mars is
the dust on the surface into a storm
named after
so big that it covers the entire planet!
the Roman
The surface of Mars is dry
god of war.
and dusty. There are craters,
canyons, volcanoes and
mountains covering it.
27 km
Mars is home to the biggest volcano
in the Solar System, called Olympus
Mons. It is 27 km high and three
times the size of Mount Everest.
Mt Everest Olympus Mons
14 15
Jupiter spins faster than any other planet.
It completes a full rotation in just under 10 hours.
It takes Jupiter 4,330 Earth days to orbit the Sun.
Jupiter
365 Days
Jupiter is the fifth planet from
the Sun and is the biggest planet
in the Solar System.
4,330 Days
139,822 km
Jupiter has over 60 known moons. Jupiter’s largest moon is also
Jupiter is 2.5 the largest moon in the entire Solar System – it is called Ganymede.
times bigger
than all of the
other planets
in the Solar
System put
together.
More than 1000 Earths would fit inside Jupiter.
Jupiter is a gas planet. Its atmosphere is made
mostly out of hydrogen and helium gas and
the surface is covered in thick clouds.
Jupiter has narrow rings that are made
out of dust and small pieces of rock.
The Great Red Spot is a storm similar
to a hurricane that appeared on Jupiter
around 400 years ago. The storm is
large enough to be viewed from Earth
with a telescope.
16 17
Saturn completes an orbit of the Sun every 10,755 Earth days.
Earth’s orbit of the Sun
Saturn’s orbit of the Sun
Saturn
Saturn travels at an average speed of 13,445 km per hour.
That’s 400 times faster than a jumbo jet.
Saturn is the sixth planet
from the Sun and is the
second largest planet
in the Solar System. It is
the furthest planet from
Earth that can be seen
with the naked eye.
Saturn has over 60
moons, the largest of
Saturn is known for its impressive rings, which which is called Titan.
are mostly made out of billions of pieces of ice,
dust and rocks. The rings were first discovered Saturn is spinning on an axis,
by Galileo Galilei over 400 years ago and just like Earth, meaning that
stretch more than 12,700km from the planet. it too experiences seasons.
However, due to its distance
Like Jupiter, Saturn is from the Sun, the seasons are
H
also a gas planet that He much more subtle than Earth’s.
H H H
is made almost entirely
H
out of hydrogen and He He H He
helium. He H
He
H He H
Hydrogen H H He
H H
Galileo Helium H He Saturn is 1.429 billion km from the Sun.
He
H
H
He
H
H
80 mins
H
The rings H
H
circle around
Saturn at Saturn is so far from the Sun that it
8 mins
takes sunlight around an hour and
2,850 km
twenty minutes to reach the planet.
per hour.
18 19
