*Scribbles Down Notes*

This is what I know about the Inner Planets, Proffesor:

Mercury -
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is 36 million miles from the Sun. Mercury is a small dry planet. The side of Mercury that faces the Sun is 932 degrees F. This is hot enough to melt lead. As the planet turns away from the Sun the night time temperatue drops to minus 328 degrees F. Because it is the closest planet to the sun it is the hottest by day. But at night it gets very, very cold. Its dusty surface has many big holes. They were made by asteroids and comets crashing into its surface. Mercury has no air or life on it. There is no atmosphere to block out the Sun's rays. Mercury is 3,000 miles(4,900 km) across. It has no moons or rings.

Venus -
Venus is 67 million miles (108 million km) away from the sun. It is the 2nd planet from the sun. Venus doesn't have any satellites. It is closer to the Earth than any other planet. It is very different from Earth.
Venus's atmosphere has a lot of carbon dioxide gases in it. It never rains on Venus because it is too hot for rain to form. It's about the same size as Earth.
Venus's clouds are made mostly of a deadly yellow poison called sulfuric acid. Venus can be seen as a star and is sometimes called "The Evening Star".

Earth -
The two planets closest to the Sun is Mercury and Venus. Then comes Earth. It is the 3rd planet from the Sun. The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. We know more about Earth than any other planet. Living things as we know them need sunlight, water, and certain gases. We know that Earth has all of these. There is about three times as much water as there is land. Earth has the gases that plants and animals need to live. The earth has 1 moon. It has no rings around it.

Mars -
Mars is the 4th planet from the Sun. It is called the red planet. It is about 142 million miles from the Sun. Mars is made of rock that has lots of iron in it. The iron in the rock and soil make the planet look red.Astronauts haven't walked on Mars, but space probes have landed there. Viking I was the first probe and it landed in 1976. They were looking for signs of life. Some scientists think they found a kind of life form called microbes in the rock samples. Mars has the biggest volcano in the solar system. It's much higher than the tallest volcano on earth. Mars looks like a red star in the night sky.