Solar System
Card Game
A fun game of
thinking & linking!
Ages
+
7
LER 2891
Grades
+
2
™
Contents
45 Picture cards
45 Word cards
8 New Link cards
2 Super Link cards
Setup
• Shuffle the two decks together to mix word and picture
cards.
• Deal out five cards to each player.
• All players place their cards face up in front of them.
• Place the remainder of the deck face down in the middle
within reach of all players.
• Turn one card up and place it next to the middle pile.
Object of the Game
Be the first player to use all your cards.
How to Play the Game
• Play begins with the first player to the dealer’s left.
• On your turn, try to find a card that shares an attribute
with the top card on the discard pile. Place your card
atop the pile.
Examples:
Place the picture card of Earth atop the word card
rocky planet, or vice versa.
Place the word card larger than the Sun atop the picture
card of The Milky Way, or vice versa.
• You can only match a word card from your pile on top of a
picture card.
• You can only match a picture card from your pile on top of a
word card.
• If you make a match, it is now the next player’s turn (play
advances clockwise).
• If you cannot make a match, draw one new card from the
deck*. If that new card makes a match, you may place it on
the pile.
• If you still cannot make a match, put the card in your pile.
It is now the next player’s turn.
• You may only play one card on one pile for any given turn
except if playing a Super Link card.
• Be the first player to use all of your cards and win the game!
*If the draw deck runs out of cards, leave the last linked card
facing up on all the discard piles and shuffle the other cards to
reestablish a draw deck.
Special Cards
New Link
Play this card at any time to create an additional discard pile.
You may place any card (word or picture) from your hand atop
the New Link card to start an additional discard pile.
Play continues on any of the discard piles. However, players may
only play on one pile at a time for any given turn.
Super Link
Play this card at any time to create an additional discard pile.
You may place any card (word or picture) from your hand atop
the Super Link card to start an additional discard pile.
You may then also play as many cards from your pile as possible on
any of the discard piles. You may keep playing cards until you are
either out (and win the game) or can no longer make a match.
Play continues on any of the discard piles. However, players may
only play on one pile at a time for any given turn.
Challenging a Match
Any player may challenge a match before the next player makes
a play. Use the Answer Key as a guide.
If a challenge reveals an incorrect match, return the incorrectly
played card to the player’s pile. Play advances to the next player.
Answers May Vary
Matches were assigned using the general characteristics pictured
on the cards. There are often exceptions and new discoveries
that may change the interpretation of data. Players should use
disagreements as an opportunity to research and learn more
about the solar system and to work together to arrive at a fair
conclusion.
Good to Know!
Asteroid—Large space rocks covered with craters. Most
asteroids orbit the Sun in the asteroid "belt" located between
Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids can be as small as a 200 m wide to as
big as 600 km wide.
Comet—A mixture of dust and ice that failed to form a planet.
Comets are often compared to “dirty snowballs.” Comets orbit
the Sun and become visible when the Sun's heat changes the
comet's ice into gas. The cores of comets can be as small as 3 km
wide and as big as 80 km wide. The tails of gas and dust coming
off comets can stretch for millions of kilometers in the solar wind.
Constellation—One of 88 groups, or regions, of stars that form
a pattern, or picture, in the sky.
Dwarf Planet —Objects orbiting the Sun that are big and heavy
enough to resemble a planet, but not quite big enough to have
their own clear orbit around the sun. Example: Pluto
Galaxy—A grouping of billions of stars held together by
gravity. Overall shapes of galaxies include spiral, elliptical, and
irregular.
Gas Planet —Planets made of mostly gas and lacking a clearly
defined surface. The gas planets are sometimes called the Jovian,
or giant, planets. The gas planets in our solar system include
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus.
Inner Planet—The first four planets orbiting the Sun before the
asteroid belt. The inner planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth,
and Mars.
Moon—A natural satellite orbiting a planet.
Orbit—The path followed by planets and other space objects
as they revolve around objects that have a larger gravity, like
the Sun.
Outer Planet —Any of the planets that orbit the Sun outside
the asteroid belt. Outer planets include Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto (dwarf planet).
Rocky Planet —Any of the planets that has a solid surface.
Rocky planets are also called terrestrial planets. The rocky
planets include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.
Star—Giant burning balls of hydrogen and helium gas that give
off both light and heat. Red and orange stars are cooler than
hotter white or blue colored (coloured) stars. The Sun, although
large to everyone on Earth, is considered to be an average star
in size (about 1,392,000 km or 864,000 miles across). Many dwarf
stars are smaller than the Sun. Larger stars can be 100, 300, and
even 1,000 times larger than the Sun. Polaris (the North Star) is
about 46 times bigger than the Sun. Sirius (the brightest star in
the northern hemisphere) is actually two stars (Sirius A and B)
that are close together. Sirius A is about 1.7 times the diameter
of the Sun. Sirius B is much smaller, with a diameter that is about
10% less than Earth's.
Average Distance Approximate ApproximateVolume Number of Planet Type Rings
from the Sun Diameter (Compared to Earth) Known Moons
The Sun n/a
Inner Planets
Mercury
Venus
Outer Planets
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
(Dwarf Planet) (3.67 trillion miles) (1,491 miles) of Earth's
5.79 million km 4,879 km
(35 million miles) (3,032 miles)
108 million km 12,104 km
(67 million miles) (7,521 miles)
Earth
Mars
Pluto 5.9 trillion km 2,390 km Less than 1%
149 million km 12,756 km 1.08 x 1012 km3
(93 million miles) (7,926 miles) (261 billion cubic miles)
227 million km 6,792 km
(141 million miles) (4,222 miles) About 15% of Earth's
778 million km 142,984 km About 1,316 times
(483 million miles) (88,846 miles) greater than Earth's
1.4 trillion km 120,536 km About 752 times
(886 million miles) (72,367 miles) greater than Earth's
2.8 trillion km 57,118 km About 67 times
(1.78 trillion miles) (31,518 miles) greater than Earth's
4.5 trillion km 49,528 km About 54 times
(2.79 trillion miles) (30,601 miles) greater than Earth's
1,392,000 km About 1,300,000 times
(864,000 miles) greater than Earth's
About 6% of Earth's 0 Rocky/Terrestrial No
About 86% of Earth's 0 Rocky/Terrestrial No
© Photography by © 2009 Jupiter Images Corporation, © Shutterstock Images
LLC, © 1999-2009 Getty Images, Inc., and Images courtesy of NASA.
(as of 2009)
n/a n/a n/a
1 Rocky/Terrestrial No
2 Rocky/Terrestrial No
63 Mostly Gas Yes
60 Mostly Gas Yes
27 Mostly Gas Yes
13 Mostly Gas Yes
3 Mostly Gas & Ice No
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