Research Rack: Did You Know?

• The largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter. If it were hollow, 1,000 planet Earths could fit inside it.
  
• Mercury and the Moon look very much alike, but Mercury is much hotter.
  
• Saturn is so light that it could float in water! This is because it is made up mainly of hydrogen and helium gases, which are both lighter than water.
  
• Our Earth spins with the sun at a speed of 500,000 mph around our galaxy.
  
• The correct name for a star cloud is nebula. It comes from the ancient Roman word, which means cloud.
  
• The gas tail of a comet always points away from the sun.
  
• The smallest planet is Pluto.

• Neptune has the strongest winds of any planet in our solar system.
  
• It can get as hot as 800 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius) on the planet Mercury. The sun’s rays are 7 times as strong as they are on Earth.