Once upon a time, a curious little boy named Cameron saw a bright shooting star from his window and wished upon it that he could be a part of outer space. He then crawled snuggly into bed and dozed off while looking out his window at the stars.

In his dream that night, his wish came true and he began his journey to travel through space to decide what planet he wanted to be... but how could the planets be characterized based on their properties?

His first stop on this exciting new journey of his was the Sun. Cameron felt very small and fragile compared to the enormous ball of light. Additionally, he noticed that he felt very hot when he got too close to the giant star.

"It is pretty cool though how all the planets are orbiting around it! If I became the Sun, I would have a pull on all the other planets!" he exclaimed.

The composition of the Sun appeared to be made of gas and light. However, as he flew away from the Sun, he noticed that it got colder as he travelled further from it. He promptly wrote down these findings in his journal to make sure he could recall these observations later.

And with that, Cameron continued on his exploration...

Knowing that he's always admired Venus with it's rich color, high temperature and iron core, he decided to fly past Mercury and straight on to Venus.

"I feel bigger next to Venus than when I was next to the Sun! There aren't any moons here though, and I would like to be a planet that has moons."

"I should write down that these planets closer to the Sun seem to be rocky with less moons. It's important to write down my observations so that I can keep track of my data. This planet also seems to be warmer, maybe because it is near the hot Sun? I should write that down as a hypothesis."

"I think I want to fly past Earth for now. I'm too familiar with it. I mean there's no way it can be cooler than the other planets right?" Cameron wondered.

And so Cameron flew past his home planet and continued to travel through outer space....

"I am thinking that I am also going to fly past Mars for now, I'm too excited to get to Jupiter! However, I will note that Mars' temperature is lower than the other planets I have been to and also seems to be smaller than Venus and Earth which likely means it has a lower mass and density. The composition also appears to be mainly iron based on my observations." Cameron then jotted these notes down.

"Wow!" he exclaimed. "Jupiter definitely has the largest diameter of all the planets I've travelled to so far! This likely means that there is also a higher mass. I also count 67 moons! That is so many compared to the previous planets that I have seen on my journey! I have to make sure to write that in my journal."

"It really does feel much colder at this planet though" he said with curiosity in his voice. "Maybe that's because we are much further away from the Sun than we were before?"

With excitement in his young voice he squeaked "Look at Saturn's rings! I would love to be a planet with rings." However with a bit of hesitation he noticed that "this planet is quite cold though, I'm not sure I would like to be this far away from the Sun."

"Based on my observations and testing, this planets seems to be made out of Hydrogen, Helium, rocks and metals. As we get further away from the Sun, the planets appear to be becoming more gaseous. I should write this down so I can look back on it later!" I am able to collect evidence about the planets by making observations about their properties and then writing them down.