Class-6: Ncert Geography Notes for UPSC or Other State Exam 

NCERT Geography Class 6^th Notes

Chapter: 1 Eearth in our Solar System

* The sun, the moon and all those heavy bodies shining in the night sky called celestial bodies.

* Stars: Celestial bodies which are huge in size and have temperatures, emitting their own lilght and temperature in large amounts. They are made gases. A common example is our Sun.

* Apart from the sun, there are other numberous such stars in the solar system  but is incomprehensible to our naked ecys due to their distant location from the earth .

* There are various pattern formed by differnet groups of stars . There are called constellations . Ursa Major or Big Bear is one such constellations . One of the most easily recognizable consellations is the Saptarishi. It is a group of seven satars and forms a part of the Ursa Major.

* The full moon only once in about a month’s time. It is Full moon night or Poornima. A fortnight later, you cannot see it at all. It is a New moon night or Amavasya. On this day, you can watch the night sky best, provided it is a clear night.

* Stars have been an integral part of our transportation mediums as their locations have been used to determine directions, since ancient times.

* An example of such is the Pole Star which always remains in the same position in the night sky which of indicative of the North direction and hence it is also called North Star. The location of the Pole Star can be determined by locating the Saptarishi constellation.

* The Earth is one such example of Planet . It gets all of its heat and light from the neartest star, Sun. The Earth is accompined by a satellite body which we called Moon. A full moon is seen only once in about a month’s time or Poornima. A fortnight later, You cannot see it all. It is a New moon night or Amavasya.

* The Sun, eight planets, satellite and some other celestial bodies known as asteroids and meteoroids from the solar system. We oftern call it a solar family, with the sun as its Head.

* The Sun is the centre of the solar system . It is huge and made up of extremely hot gases. It provides the pulling force that binds the solar system and is the ultimate source of the light and heat in our system. The sun is about 150 millians km away.

* There a total of 8 planets in our solar system . In order of their distance from the sun, they are: Mercury , Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Nepture.

Note: In August 2006, Pluto was also considered a planet . However, in a meeting of the international Astronomical Union, a decision was taken that Pluto like other celestial objects (Ceres, 2003UB313) discovered in recent past may be called “dwarf planets”.

* The Sun

·  The sun is in the center of the solar system.

·   It is made up of extremely hot gases.

·  The sun is about 150 million km away from the earth.

Planets

·  There are nine planets in our solar system.

·  The nine planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

·  Planets move around the sun in a fixed orbit.

·   Mercury is the nearest planet.

Earth

·  Conditions favourable to support life are probably found only on the earth . The earth is neither too hot nor too cold. It has water and air, which are very essential for our survival. This is known as the Goldilocks Zone which is the optimum zone of survival for Earth.

·  It is the third nearest planet to the sun and fifth largest planet of our solar system.

·  The earth is a unique planet because it supports life.

·  It is also called the blue planet.

·  Its shape is Geoid.

The Moon

·  It is the only satellite of the earth.

·  Its diameter is one-quarter of the earth. ‘

·  It is about 3.84,400 km away from us.

·  It moves around the earth in about 27 days.

·  Only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth.

·   No life exists on moon as it has neither water nor air.

·   The Moon’s surface is dotted by Plains, Mountains and Depressions.

Asteroids

·  They are numerous tiny bodies which move around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

·  The largest asteroid is the Ceres.

Meteoroids

·  The small pieces of rocks which move around the sun are called meteoroids.

·   A Galaxy is a huge system of billiaons of stars, and clouds of dust and gases. There are millians of such galaxies in the universe and our solar system is a part of one such galaxy called Akash Ganga or Milky Way galaxy.

·   Milky Way galaxy was named Akash Ganga.

·   There are millions of galaxies that make the Universe.

The Stars and the Moon are celestial bodies which are visible only at night in the sky. During daytime, the power of the sun’s light renders them invisible.

All the planets of the solar system are listed below:

(in the order of their distance from sun)

·    Mercury (planet nearest to the Sun)

·    Venus

·    Earth

·    Mars

·    Jupiter

·    Saturn

·    Uranus

·    Neptune

An easy way to memorise the name of the planets in order of their distance from the sun is:

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