NSES Content Standard D
Earth and Space Science: Earth in the Solar System Grades 5-8, page 160 The Earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes
the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects,
such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central
and largest body in the solar system.
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Benchmark 4A The Physical Setting: The
Universe
Grades 6-8, page 64
Nine planets of very different size, composition, and surface features
move around the sun in nearly circular orbits. Some planets have a great
variety of moons and even flat rings of rock and ice particles orbiting
around them. Some of these planets and moons show evidence of geologic
activity. The earth is orbited by one moon, many artificial satellites,
and debris.
Benchmark 4A The Physical Setting: The
Universe
Grades 6-8, page 64
Large numbers of chunks of rock orbit the sun. Some of those that the
earth meets in its yearly orbit around the sun glow and disintegrate from
friction as they plunge through the atmosphere--and sometimes impact the
ground. Other chunks of rocks mixed with ice have long, off-center orbits
that carry them close to the sun, where the sun's radiation (of light and
particles) boils off frozen material from their surfaces and pushes it
into a long, illuminated tail.
Benchmark 4B The Physical Setting: The
Earth
Grades 6-8, page 68
We live on a relatively small planet, the third from the sun in the
only system of planets definitely known to exist (although other, similar
systems may be discovered in the universe).