Video Transcript
In our solar system, what type of
planets are found closest to the Sun?
Okay, so to answer this question,
we’re going to need to know about the different types of planets in our solar
system. Now, in general, a planet is a body
that orbits around a star, in our case, our Sun. But not all planets are the
same. We’ve classified them according to
their types. In our solar system, there are
three types of full-sized planets. First, there are rocky planets,
these are planets made mostly of rock or metal. They’re also called terrestrial
planets. Then, there are planets known as
gas giants. This term describes large planets
that have a low density. And typically, these planets are
made of hydrogen and helium. And then, finally, some planets in
our solar system are ice giants. These masses are made of elements
that are heavier than helium and hydrogen.
So these are the types of planets
that we find in our solar system. But we want to know which type of
planet is found a closest to our Sun. Now, at this point, we’d like to be
able to recall the different planets in our solar system and the order that they
appear from the Sun. To do that, we can recall this
memory aid. It goes like this: “My Very
Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos.” The first letter in each one of
these words stands for the name of a planet in its order from the Sun. Since there are eight words in that
sentence, we know that there are eight planets we want to write down.
And the first one — the one closest
to the Sun — starts with an M and its name is Mercury. So let’s say that’s Mercury. Then comes the planet starting with
V. That’s Venus. There we go with Venus. Next comes our favorite planet of
all, planet Earth. And after that, another planet
starting with M. This is Mars. Then, the one starting with J. That’s Jupiter, the biggest of the
planets. Then S stands for Saturn, the
planet with rings. U stands for Uranus. And lastly, N — in nachos — stands
for Neptune.
Now that we have the planets in our
solar system in order, we can divide them up according to their type. Starting from the ones furthest
from the Sun, Uranus and Neptune, these are both ice giant planets. Then, the next two in Jupiter and
Saturn are gas giants. And lastly, the next four planets,
the ones that are closest to the Sun, are known as rocky planets. So that includes Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars. But our question just wants to know
what type of planets are found closest to the Sun. And we can now answer that
question. Rocky planets are the planet type
found closest to our Sun.
