Mercury and Venus
Students compare Mercury and Venus to discover why atmosphere, not just distance from the Sun, controls a planet's temperature and climate.
Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops
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What students will see and do
Students start beside the Sun, then fly three stops at Mercury (its fast orbit, fire and ice, and iron core) and three at Venus (its backward spin, runaway greenhouse and volcanic surface) before returning to Earth. The class pauses to predict which planet is hotter at the Sun stop and to compare Earth with Venus at the final Earth stop.
Learning objectives
- Compare the size, distance, orbit and day length of Mercury and Venus using scale data
- Explain why Mercury has extreme temperature swings while Venus stays hot everywhere
- Describe how the greenhouse effect works and how a runaway greenhouse heats Venus
- Use evidence from spacecraft such as MESSENGER, Magellan and Venera to support claims about these planets
NGSS connections
| MS-ESS1-3 | Students analyze data on distance, size, orbital period, rotation and temperature to compare Mercury, Venus and Earth. |
|---|---|
| MS-ESS2-6 | Students connect atmospheric circulation and heat transfer on Venus to how atmospheres move energy and shape climate on Earth. |
Stops on this journey
- The Inner Lanes (discussion stop)
- The Swift Planet
- Fire and Ice
- A Shrinking Iron World
- Earth's Strange Twin
- The Runaway Greenhouse
- Beneath the Clouds
- Back to the Middle World (discussion stop)
Vocabulary
- orbit
- rotation
- retrograde
- atmosphere
- greenhouse effect
- runaway greenhouse
- impact crater
- radar