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Solar System


The Sun


The Sun
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   2.07

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    huge, directly, travels, heat, spin, center, million, breathe, sunlight, part, during, hides, system, ball, year, than


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The Sun
By Cindy Grigg
  

1     Our sun is a star. A star is a huge ball of hot gases that gives off heat and light. The sun is much bigger than the Earth. The sun is about 100 times bigger than Earth! It looks small to us because it is so far away, about 93 million miles away from Earth. The sun is the center of our solar system. The solar system is the sun and the system of planets that go around it.
 
2     There are eight planets in our solar system. Earth is the third planet from the sun. The Earth travels around the sun. This trip takes one year. The Earth spins around, too. One complete spin takes one day. When we have day, the sun is shining its light on the part of the Earth we are on. When we have night, the sun is still shining! It's because of the Earth's spin that we can't see it. The sun is shining its light on the other side of the Earth when we have night.
 
3     Why can we see the sun but not other stars during the day? Our sun makes so much light that it hides the other stars in the daytime. At night, when the sun is not in our part of the sky, we can see the other stars. This light can hurt your eyes. You should never look directly at the sun!

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
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