Take a tour of our solar system and learn fascinating details and observations about the planets.

This is a useful resource for facts and images pertaining to the planet Mercury.

Part of the National Air and Space Museum's online exhibition about Exploring Planets, this describes and gives visuals of telescopes, probes and fly-by aircrafts, orbiters, and landers as current methods for earth and airborne...

This section of the exhibition gives the history of the discovery and study of space starting with the Greeks and Romans through to the early 1900's.

This survey of the planets includes all the basics, size, mass, atmosphere, length of day, and the like. It features interactive activities and learning exercises and compares all of the planets in colorful tables.

Collection of images, with vocalized explanatory captions, of the planets acquired by NASA as part of its exploratory space programs.

Precipitation affects many aspects of our lives, from drinking water and food to devastating rain or snow storms. NASA gathered information from satellites to study factors that influence precipitation. View these narrated and unnarrated...

Get the facts on Venus. Resource offers a variety of satellite images and facts about the structure and features of Venus.

Students will study planets and moons in our solar system by working online and other resources. This lesson has students working together to generate a spreadsheet of data found. Students will use this information to describe why Earth...

Download free curriculum with three modules on soil and plant science: elementary, middle, or high school. Each module includes hands-on investigations to help learners understand the importance of healthy soil and thriving plant...

As technology has advanced, so do our views and understanding of the solar system. No longer do we have to rely on our unaided eyes to observe planets. View these high-quality images of planets provided by NASA spacecraft.

This activity explores the relative size of the eight planets that circle around the Sun.

This illustration from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Note that the planets are not shown at appropriate distances from the Sun.

Use the following lithographs to envision the scale of our solar system. View different models of planets at different scales, an infographic about the relative sizes of the planets and distance from the sun, and images of the largest...

In this Solar System Investigate, students will determine ways to order the planets. Teacher directed inquiry will suggest that they first order the planets according to their distance from the sun. Students will then work on their own...

Answer questions about the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. Play along as you learn more about Juno and its mission to Jupiter.

The plate tectonics and other features of the Earth's lithosphere are explained and illustrated. Has links to definitions of the magnetosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere.

[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about the layers of the Earth and a place near the Canary Islands where there is a hole in the crust. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading...

Resource explores the solar system, with an in depth discussion of each of the planets and their properties.

Biographies of people throughout history who looked at the sky and wondered what was there. Links to a detailed description of the planets and interactive activities.

In ancient times only five planets were known: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Learn about Greek astronomer Ptolemy's theory for the solar system that was to survive for fourteen centuries.

NASA offers a photo gallery of Neptune images. Each image includes a detailed caption describing what the image is of, and the captions are also available in streaming audio.

Find out how astronomers locate new planets by observing the traits of the stars they orbit. Get some tips at locating stars with the help of star maps.

Download free curriculum with three modules on soil and plant science: elementary, middle, or high school. Each module includes hands-on investigations to help learners understand the importance of healthy soil and thriving plant...