Planet

=**//__Planet__//**=

A planet is a large object that travels around the sun, or any other star. The planets are much smaller than the star than they orbit. Unlike stars, planets do not emit their own light. Instead, planets relfect the light that hits the planet as it is produced by the star. All planets also contain some sort of atmosphere. The majority of planets have such a small atmosphere it is virtually undetectable. Earth's atmosphere is very unique. Earth's atmosphere contins a large amount of oxygen, a nessesary gas to support life.

There are two main types of planets. The first type are Terrestrial, or rocky planets with a crust on the outside containing many rocks and metals. Planets in our solar system that are Terrestrial planets are Mercury, Venus , Earth  and Mars.

The second type of planets are Jovian, or gas planets. Jovian planets are often very large and found further away from the sun than that of rocky planets. The planets in our solar system that are considered Jovian planets are Jupiter, Saturn , Uranus and Neptune. Jovian planets also commonly have rings surrounding them as seen by all of the the gas planets in our solar system. These rings contain materials such as rocks, metals, ice and gases.

//Earth, our home planet is the third planet from the sun.//

//Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun is home to the most noticable rings in our solar system.//

Refrences: 1.http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/wbkids/k_planet.html 2."Planet." The World Book Student Discovery Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2005. 3. Image 1:http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect19/earth-3d-space-tour-big.jpg 4. Image 2:http://www.oarval.org/saturn.jpg 1208454345