Planets around the Sun - The Center for Mathematics and Science ...

Uranus' 27 known moons were discovered as recently as 2003. There may be moreundiscovered moons out there!NEPTUNE: Most of the time Neptune is the eighth planet from our Sun.Sometimes Pluto's odd orbit brings it closer to the Sun. For the next 230 years orso, all you have to remember is that Neptune is the eighth planet. It takes a longtime for these distant planets to travel around the sun.Neptune is the fourth largest planet in our solar system. About 60 Earths could fitinside it. Neptune may be the windiest planet in the solar system. Winds tearthrough the clouds at more than 1,200 mph (2,000 kph).Neptune gets its blue color from a layer of methane gas above the clouds. Methaneabsorbs red light so only blue colors show up when we look at Neptune. Neptune hasfour rings and 13 known moons. Neptune's largest moon, Triton, gets colder thanPluto.PLUTO: Pluto and its moon – Charon – travel on an odd, slow orbit around the Sun.For 20 years, from 1979 to 1999, it was actually closer to the Sun than Neptune,but it will be more than 230 years before Pluto and Neptune trade places again.There is no air to breathe on Pluto, so you would need a spacesuit to explore it.Pluto and Charon are so far away they are difficult to see - even with powerfultelescopes. Even the best pictures are very fuzzy. We can only guess what Pluto'ssurface looks like. It is probably covered with frost. Some areas may be brighterthan snow, while others are very dark.COMETS orbit the Sun like planets. Most comets orbit way out beyond the orbit ofPluto. It can take a comet hundreds or even millions of years to go once around theSun (remember, on Earth it only takes 365 days). A few comets are close enoughfor us to see from Earth. When Earth passes through the tail of a comet, we see ameteor shower.ASTEROIDS are the biggest space rocks. Asteroids are made up of rock and iron,just like the four planets closest to our Sun. They are different from comets,which are mostly rock and ice and have tails. Asteroids are more like planets andmoons. Scientists often call asteroids minor planets. Most asteroids orbit the SunNSF North Mississippi GK-8 6