Page 13 - Super Earth Encyclopedia
P. 13
The Kuiper Belt is
made of icy and rocky
fragments left over
from the formation
of the solar system.
Comets are balls of ice and dust
that swoop across the solar system, Neptune is the most
loop around the Sun, and then distant planet and takes
vanish beyond Neptune.
165 years to orbit the
Sun. It is mainly made
of various types of ice.
Uranus is covered in blue-green
clouds of methane and has a
faint ring system like Saturn’s.
With temperatures as low as
-371°F (-224°C), it is the coldest
planet in the solar system.
DWARF PLANETS
As well as the inner and outer
planets, the solar system also
contains at least five rocky dwarf
planets, including Pluto. Unlike
true planets, these share their
orbits around the Sun with
other objects such as asteroids.
Pluto is basically a very large,
spherical asteroid. It orbits the
Sun in the Kuiper Belt beyond
Neptune, alongside many smaller
rocky or icy asteroids.
Jupiter’s solid core is
surrounded by swirling “The colossal
bands of colored gas that
merge and turn into raging
storms. Orbited by 67
moons, it is the biggest gravity of Jupiter
planet in the solar system.
attracts many asteroids,
shielding Earth from
Outer planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are impacts that could
gigantic balls of gas, liquid, and ice, with
small rocky cores. They are far larger than UNIQUE EARTH
the inner planets—the biggest, Jupiter, destroy all life.”
is more than 1,300 times the size of Earth.
They are orbited by many moons, as well
as smaller fragments of rock and ice such
as those that form the rings of Saturn.
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