Name: ___________________________________________

The Inner Solar System

The inner solar system is the name of the terrestrial planets and asteroid belt.
Terrestrial is just a fancy way of saying rocky. Like the Earth, terrestrial planets
have a core of iron and rock.

At the center of the solar system is the Sun. The Sun is

a big ball of hydrogen powered by nuclear reactions.
Massive explosions are going on all of the time inside
the Sun. It’s what makes the light every day and
keeps our planet warm. Light zips from the Sun to us
in about eight minutes. The Sun is the most massive
thing in our solar system. It is so big you could fit about a
million Earths inside of it!
Closest to the Sun is the planet Mercury. You could squeeze about
eighteen Mercury’s inside of Earth. It is made of mostly rock, but it
has a huge iron core and it generates a big magnetic field. Speedy
little Mercury sails around the Sun in only eighty-eight days. Mercury was the
messenger of the gods in Roman mythology, known for his speed.
Second in line comes Venus, which is sometimes called Earth’s twin. It’s
about the same size as Earth, but that’s where the similarities
end. Venus is always covered in thick clouds full of sulfuric
acid. They whip around the planet at more than two
hundred twenty miles per hour. Violent winds shoot sand
made of silicate around Venus’s very dry, arid surface.
The temperature averages nine hundred degrees, and the
pressure’s ninety times that on Earth. It takes two hundred and
twenty four days to orbit the Sun. Like Mercury, Venus was also named after a
Roman Goddess, the Goddess of love.
You know what planet is next. You live on it! Yup, the Earth is number three.

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 We have a rocky iron core at the center of our planet. We
have liquid water, and our air is made of mostly nitrogen
and oxygen. It takes three hundred and sixty-five days for
us to circle the Sun. We only have one moon.
Next to us is Mars. Mars also has a core of rock and iron.
It is a little more than half the size of Earth. The most distinct
feature about Mars is its red color. Dust rich in iron oxide covers the planet.
It’s sort of like the planet is rusting. White caps at the poles are water, forever
frozen because of the colder temperatures further from the Sun.
The only place the temperature rises above freezing is at the
equator, or the middle of the planet. Mars has two moons,
Deimos and Phobos, but they are much smaller than our own
moon. It takes nearly twice as long for Mars to circle the Sun at
almost 684 days.
The last part of the inner solar system is called the Asteroid Belt. It’s the line
between the inner rocky planets and the outer gaseous planets. Unlike the
rest of the Inner Solar System, the Asteroid Belt isn’t a planet at all. It is a bunch
of large rocky chunks, mostly meteoroids. There’s also a dwarf planet named
Ceres in the asteroid belt. The rest aren’t very large.
The Earth is the only planet that we know of with life on it, but the universe
is a big place. Much of our solar system is still a mystery, there is still plenty to
explore.

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Name: ___________________________________________

The Inner Solar System

1. How does the size of Mercury compare to Earth?

a. Mercury is 18 times the size of Earth
1
b. Mercury is 18 the size of Earth.
1
c. Earth is 18 the size of Mercury.
d. Earth is 18 times smaller than Mercury.

2. Which statement about the inner planets’ orbits is true?

a. Venus orbits the Sun more quickly than Mercury.
b. Mercury orbits the Sun more slowly than Mars.
c. Earth orbits the Sun more quickly than Venus.
d. Mars orbits the Sun more slowly than Earth.

3. What two types of gas make up most of Earth’s atmosphere?

_______________________________ and _______________________________

4. According to information in the article, where would you find water on Mars?

________________________________________________________________________________

5. How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to the Earth?

________________________________________________________________________________

6. Which would be the most appropriate nickname for Venus?

a. the cold desert planet
b. the first inner planet
c. the windy planet
d. the triple mooned planet

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Name: ___________________________________________

The Inner Solar System

Fill in the missing letters to create a word from the

article. Then, write the full word on the line. Be sure you
spell each word correctly.

1. ____ i ____ ____ ____ ____ r ____ ____ ____ e ____

1. ____________________________
clue: likenesses

2. ____ a ____ ____ i ____ e

2. ____________________________
clue: containing a lot of mass; large

3. ____ a ____ e ____ u ____

3. ____________________________
clue: made of gas

4. ____ r i ____
4. ____________________________
clue: lacking water or rainfall

5. ____ e ____ ____ ____ s ____ ____ ____ a ____

5. ____________________________
clue: rocky

6. ____ ____ ____ r ____ ____ e ____

6. ____________________________
clue: most abundant gas on Earth

7. ____ ____ ____ a ____ ____ r

7. ____________________________
clue: an imaginary line around the center of
a planet

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 ANSWER KEY

The Inner
Solar System
By Leslie Cargile

1. How does the size of Mercury compare to Earth?

a. Mercury is 18 times the size of Earth
1
b. Mercury is 18 the size of Earth.
1
c. Earth is 18 the size of Mercury.
d. Earth is 18 times smaller than Mercury.

2. Which statement about the inner planets’ orbits is true?

a. Venus orbits the Sun more quickly than Mercury.
b. Mercury orbits the Sun more slowly than Mars.
c. Earth orbits the Sun more quickly than Venus.
d. Mars orbits the Sun more slowly than Earth.

3. What two types of gas make up most of Earth’s atmosphere?

nitrogen
_______________________________ oxygen
and _______________________________

4. According to information in the article, where would you find water on Mars?

You’d find water at the north and south poles.

________________________________________________________________________________

5. How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to the Earth?

It takes 8 minutes.
________________________________________________________________________________

6. Which would be the most appropriate nickname for Venus?

a. the cold desert planet
b. the first inner planet
c. the windy planet
d. the triple mooned planet

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 ANSWER KEY

The Inner
Solar System
By Leslie Cargile

Fill in the missing letters to create a word from the

article. Then, write the full word on the line. Be sure you
spell each word correctly.

1. s i ____
____ m ____
i ____
l ____
a r ____
i ____
t ____
i e ____
s similarities
1. ____________________________
clue: likenesses

2. m a ____
____ s ____
s i ____
v e massive
2. ____________________________
clue: containing a lot of mass; large

3. g a ____
____ s e ____
o u ____
s gaseous
3. ____________________________
clue: made of gas

4. a r i ____
____ d arid
4. ____________________________
clue: lacking water or rainfall

5. t e ____
____ r ____
r ____
e s ____
t ____
r ____
i a ____
l terrestrial
5. ____________________________
clue: rocky

6. n ____
____ i ____
t r ____
o ____
g e ____
n nitrogen
6. ____________________________
clue: most abundant gas on Earth

7. e ____
____ q ____
u a ____
t ____
o r equator
7. ____________________________
clue: an imaginary line around the center of
a planet

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