Hai Solar System! Track 01
Race in Space (Solar System)
Eight planets. One race around the Sun. Who do you think wins?
Race in Space Discovery Guide
Play the song first — the whole way through, loud. Then come back and find out what was hiding in it. There are no right answers on this page, only better questions.
Discovery
The title is a secret code
"Maximum Velocity — Ellis Mo's Journey Starts Up Now." Take the first letter of every word and you get all eight planets, in order, out from the Sun.
Source: NASA Science — Solar System Facts
Questie
If the planets raced round the Sun, which one wins?
Spin like a top for nights and days
Listen in the chorus
A planet's spin on its axis is what makes its day. That one line is doing the whole job of explaining what a day actually is.
For grown-ups · Grown-up cheat code
If they ask why a day and a year are different lengths: a day is one spin, a year is one lap round the Sun. Two completely separate movements happening at once — which is why every planet has its own version of both.
Spin for the day, run for the year
Spin on the spot — that's one day. Now run a big circle round a grown-up standing still as the Sun — that's one year. Try doing both at once. That's what Earth is doing right now.
When you hear the chorus
Discovery
A dying star may have started everything
4.6 billion years ago a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed — possibly pushed by the shockwave of a nearby exploding star. Everything here came out of that.
Source: NASA Science — Solar System FactsHow old are you in space?
A year is just one lap round the Sun — and every planet takes a different amount of time. So your age changes depending on where you're standing.
🚀 Try the Space CalculatorDiscovery
We live inside a giant space croissant
The solar wind blows a bubble around the whole Solar System called the heliosphere, and it absorbs about three-quarters of the cosmic rays coming at us. Scientists think it's shaped like a crescent — a croissant, basically.
Source: NASA — Uncovering Our Solar System's ShapeQuestie
How would you work out the shape of something you are inside?
Can you say all eight planets in order, out from the Sun, without looking?
Show me
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
Questie
If you were building a solar system, what would you do differently — and what would go wrong?
Keep exploring
Curious what Saturn's rings are actually made of?Where the facts come from
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