Morning Starters: Spring 2 - Solar System
Did You Know?
Like Jupiter, its fellow gas giant, Saturn is a massive ball of hydrogen and helium. It is the furthest planet away from Earth that is visible to the human eye. Saturn’s immense gravitational force caused one of its many moons to crash into it. The moon shattered into trillions of pieces of rock and ice, which formed the planet’s iconic rings.
Credit: BBC Two - The Planets
Word Challenge
Record the antonym of each word underlined in the ‘Did you know? paragraph.
Example: furthest – nearest
Note: An antonym is a word with the opposite meaning of another word.
Grammar Challenge
Rewrite the following sentence with a relative clause.
Saturn orbits the sun at a distance of around 1.4 billion kilometres.
Example: Saturn, which is a gas giant, orbits the sun at a distance of around 1.4 billion kilometres.
Number Challenge
- Saturn takes about 29.5 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun.
How many Earth days does it take for Saturn to complete one orbit around the Sun.
Note: Assume that one Earth year is equal to 365 days.
Critical Thinking
Why do you think the planets were named after Greek and Roman gods and goddesses?