Name: __________________________________________

__________________

Date:

Grade 6 - Daily Handout (6.4.26) The Inner Four Planets

Do Now:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Use pages 62-69 in Astronomy to fill in the blanks.
Earth and the other three planets__________________, __________________ ,
and _____________________are more similar to each other than they are
to the five outer planets.
The four inner planets are ____________________ and have
________________________.
o These planets are often called the ________________________ planets.
1. Earth
o The ________________ that you need to live makes up about
__________________ of the gases in Earths atmosphere. Almost all the
rest is _________________ gas, with a small amount of carbon dioxide.
o Most of Earth, about _________________________, is covered with water.
o No other planet in our solar system has _________________ like
Earths.
o Earth has three main layersa _________________, a _________________,
and a _________________.
2. Mercury
o The planet closest to the sun is _________________.
o Mercury is not much larger than Earths moon and has
_________________ of its own.
o Like the moon, Mercury has many flat plains and many
_________________ on its surface.
o Mercury has an extremely _________________ atmosphere.
o It is so close to the sun that during the day, the side facing the sun
reaches temperatures of _________________.
o Because Mercury has almost no atmosphere, at night all the heat
_________________ into space. The temperature drops to
_________________.

o Mercury thus has a greater _________________ of temperatures than

any other planet in the solar system.
3. Venus
o Whenever you see a bright object in the west after sunset, it is
probably _________________.
o Stars shine with their own light, while Venus shines because it is
_________________ light from the sun, just as the other planets and
moons do.
o Venus is so similar in size to Earth that it is sometimes called Earths
_____________.
o Venus takes about _________________ Earth months to revolve around
the sun.
o It takes about ______months for Venus to rotate on its
___________________.
o Venus rotates so slowly that its _________________ is longer than its
_________________.
o Oddly Venus rotates from east to west, the _________________
direction from most other planets and moons. This type of rotation is
called _________________ rotation.
o The atmosphere of Venus is so thick that every day is a
_________________ one.
o You could not _________________ on Venus because its atmosphere is
mostly carbon dioxide.
o If you could stand on the surface of Venus, you would quickly be
_________________ by the weight of its atmosphere.
4. Mars
o Mars is called the _______________________ because it has a slightly
reddish tinge when you see it in the sky.
o The atmosphere of Mars is mostly _______________________ and has
only 1 percent the pressure of Earths atmosphere.
o Astronomers have found that some _______________________ remains
on Mars in the form of ice at its north pole.
o Because the axis of Mars is tilted, Mars has _______________________
just as Earth does.
o Mars has two very small moons.
_______________________ , the larger moon, is only 27 kilometers
in diameter, about the distance a car can travel on the highway
in 15 minutes.

 _______________________ is even smaller, only 15 kilometers in

diameter. Close-up views from space show that, like Earths
moon, Phobos and Deimos are covered with craters.

NAME: _______________________________________

DATE: __________________

The Inner Planets Questions (pages 62-69)

Solar System Mnemonic:

1. List the four inner planets. _________________________________________________________

2. What two things do all of the four inner planets have in common?

3. What name are the four inner planets often called? _____________________________________
4. What percent of the Earths atmosphere is made up of oxygen? Nitrogen?
______________________________________________________________________________
5. How much of Earth is covered by water? _______________________________
6. What are the three layers of the Earth?
7. Which planet is closest to the sun? __________________________________________________
8. What is the temperature range on Mercury?
___________________________________________
9. If you see a bright object in the west after sunset, what planet is it most likely to be? ___________
10. What is strange about the relationship between Venuss days and years?

11. How is Venuss atmosphere different from Mercurys atmosphere?

12. What is Mars nickname? Why is it called this? ________________________________________

13. Why does Mars have seasons? ____________________________________________________
14. How many moons does Mars have? What are their names?