Summary
Compares the atmospheres of Mercury, Venus, and Mars — explaining why each planet has such extreme conditions — and shows what weather means (or doesn't mean) on worlds very different from Earth.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
- Why does Venus have a much hotter surface than Mercury, even though Mercury is closer to the sun?
- What is the atmosphere of Mars like? Could a human survive there without equipment?
- Why does Mercury have almost no atmosphere?
- What does comparing Earth to other rocky planets tell us about what makes Earth habitable?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: atmosphere, greenhouse effect, rocky planet, pressure, temperature, habitable.
Try it: Create a comparison table for the four rocky planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Columns: average surface temperature, atmospheric pressure, main gas in atmosphere, one weather feature. What pattern do you see?