Listen to part of the story on the solar system from
The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System
You may follow along with written text below if you would like.
Far behind, in the black sky, we saw the planet Earth getting smaller and smaller. We were traveling in space! We had become astronauts! The Friz said our first stop would be the
Moon
. We got off the bus and looked around. There was no air, no water, no sign of life. All we saw were dust and rock and lots and lots of
craters
. It was fun on the Moon. We wanted to play, but Ms. Frizzle said it was time to go. So we got back on the bus. "We'll start with the
Sun
, the center of the solar system," said the Friz, and we blasted off.
We zoomed toward the Sun, the biggest, brightest, and hottest object in the solar system. Jets of super-hot gases shot out at us from the surface. Thank goodness Ms. Frizzle didn't get too close! She steered around to the other side and pulled away. "We'll be seeing all the planets in order, class," explained Frizzie.
"
Mercury
is the first planet, the closest to the Sun." Mercury was a dead, sun-baked planet. "This planet is a lot like our Moon. There is no water and hardly any air," said the Friz. "Notice the craters on its surface as we pass by." Before long, we felt ourselves being pulled in by the
gravity
of Venus--the second planet from the Sun.
Venus
was completely covered by a thick layer of yellowish clouds.
"We will now explore the surface of Venus," said Ms. Frizzle. Below the clouds, Venus was as dry as a
desert
. The ground was covered with rocks. And it was HOT! It was about 460 degrees Celsius! That's much hotter than an oven baking cookies! The air was so heavy we could feel it pressing down on us! Ms. Frizzle said there might be an active
volcano
. around, too. We said, "Let's get out of here!"
"Our next stop is
Mars
, the red planet, fourth from the Sun," announced the Friz. "On our way, we'll be passing through the
orbit
of
Earth
, the third planet." The bus lifted off with a roar. As we came close to Mars, we passed its two moons, which are called Phobos and Deimos. Compared to our Moon, they were tiny. And they weren't even round! Looking down, we saw a huge
canyon
. Ms. Frizzle said it was as long as the United States. There was a volcano three times taller than the tallest volcano on Earth. And all around, there were channels that looked like dried-up
riverbeds
. Ice can be found under the soil. We landed and started walking around. Suddenly a huge
dust storm
blew up. Ms. Frizzle said dust storms on Mars can last for months. They may cover the whole planet. We scrambled back on the bus and headed out! "Mars is the last of what we call the
inner planets
!" Ms. Frizzle shouted above the roar of the rockets.
"We will now be going through the
asteroid belt
to the
outer planets
!" Thousands of
asteroids
were spinning all around us. All at once, we heard the tinkling of broken glass. One of our taillights had been hit by an asteroid. Ms. Frizzle put the bus on
autopilot
and went out to take a look. She kept on talking about asteroids over the bus radio. Suddenly there was a snap. Ms. Frizzle's tether line had broken! Without warning, the rockets fired up, and the bus zoomed away! The autopilot was
malfunctioning
. Most of us were too scared to move. But Janet started searching the bus. In the glove compartment she found Ms. Frizzle's lesson book. As she began reading from it, a huge planet came into view. "Class, this is
Jupiter
," Janet read. "It's the first of the outer planets, and the largest planet in the solar system." We thought the school bus was going to land. But there was no solid ground to land on. Jupiter is a "gas giant"--a planet made almost entirely of gas. As we left Jupiter, we wondered and worried. Would we ever get home?
The next sight made us forget our troubles. It was
Saturn
, a gas planet like Jupiter. It had swirling clouds and lots of moons. But the most incredible thing about Saturn was its rings. It was the most beautiful planet in the solar system! Next was
Uranus
, a blue-green gas planet wiht faint gray rings and moons. Some scientists think they might be made of chunks of graphite--the material used in pencils on Earth.
The bus was going faster and faster, and we couldn't control the autopilot. We swept past stormy Neptune, another blue-green planet--eighth from the Sun. All we could think about was finding Ms. Frizzle! We were going so fast, we almost missed seeing
Pluto
and its moons. Charon is the biggest one, and Hydra and Nix are smaller. We were so far away form the sun that it didn't look big anymore. It just looked like a very, very bright star. Janet flipped rapidly through Ms. Frizzle's book. Suddenly she found something new--the instructions for the autopilot. We punched in ASTEROID BELT on the control panel. Slowly the bus turned around. It was working! We were going back!
When we reached the asteroid belt, there was Ms. Frizzle! With Frizzie back at the wheel, the bus headed straight for Earth. We reentered the atmosphere, landed with a thump, and looked around. We were in the school parking lot again. The rockets were gone. The space suits were gone. The bus was a wreck. Everything was back to normal.
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