Page 48 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

Organisation of the Solar System
Although early astronomers believed the Earth to be the center of the universe and that everything rotated around it, we have known since the days of such scientists as Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo that the Earth is just a small satellite of the Sun.
The Earth and the other planets all move in
elliptical (oval) paths around the Sun, traveling in a counterclockwise direction. The planets do not all orbit in quite the same plane. That is, if we took a line through the Sun and the Earth, we would find that the orbits of other planets cut across this line. The plane of Pluto’s orbit is the most extreme, lying at 17° compared to that of the
Earth.
Each planet also spins on an axis
condense To make something more concentrated or compact.
meteoroid A small body moving in the Solar System that becomes a meteor if it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
satellite An object that is in an orbit around another object, usually a planet.
Mars
Venus
Earth
Sun
Mercury
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