Outer World Expedition
Moving inward from deep space, list the four outer gas giant planets in correct order.
What are Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter?
This law states that an object in motion stays in motion in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by an outside force.
What is Newton's First Law of Motion (Law of Inertia)
Most asteroids in our solar system are located in a belt between these two planets.
What are Mars and Jupiter?
Beyond size and brightness, astronomers primarily use these two characteristics to classify stars.
What are color and surface temperature?
On an H-R diagram, the x-axis for surface temperature runs in this non-traditional direction.
What is hot on the left to cool on the right?
This giant high-pressure storm system on Jupiter has been active for hundreds of years and is larger in diameter than Earth itself.
What is the Great Red Spot?
In the "Tennis Ball on a String" model, these three components represent the Sun, gravity, and a planet.
What are the hand (Sun), string (gravity), and tennis ball (planet)?
Using the class memory rule, this is what you call a space rock while it is floating OUT in deep space.
What is a meteoroid?
This color represents stars with the hottest surface temperatures, while this color represents the coolest.
What is blue/white (hottest) and red (coolest)?
Roughly 90% of all stars, including our Sun, are located in this diagonal band across the H-R diagram.
What is the Main Sequence?
Unlike the closely packed terrestrial planets, neighboring orbits of the outer gas giants are spaced apart by this range of Astronomical Units (AU).
What is 5 to 10+ AU?
According to Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation, these two factors determine the strength of gravitational pull between objects.
What are mass and distance?
A glowing streak in the night sky ("shooting star") caused by a rock burning IN Earth's atmosphere.
What is a meteor?
The term for how bright a star appears when viewed directly from Earth.
What is apparent brightness?
These stars are located in the bottom-left of the H-R diagram because they are very hot but dim due to their small size.
What are White Dwarfs?
Outer gas giants dominate the Solar System in total moon count due to this primary physical reason.
What is their immense mass creating strong gravitational fields to capture bodies?
In the paper plate marble lab, the marble travels in this specific path the moment it hits the gap where the rim wall ends.
What is a straight line tangent to the curve?
A space rock that survives its passage through the atmosphere and rests on Earth's surface ("IT hit the ground!").
What is a meteorite?
The true total amount of light and energy emitted by a star from its surface regardless of distance.
What is luminosity (or absolute brightness)?
Cool red stars located at the top-right of the H-R diagram have high luminosity because of this structural feature.
What is their immense surface area / enormous size?
Contrasted with inner planets, gas giants possess these three physical traits regarding composition, density, and structure.
What are hydrogen/helium gas composition, low density, and ring systems?
An object's inertia depends directly on this physical property, explaining why a massive starship requires more force to change direction than a small probe.
What is mass?
A comet's tail always points in this direction relative to the Sun, regardless of which way the comet is traveling.
What is directly away from the Sun (due to solar wind and radiation pressure)?
This nuclear reaction powers stars in their core while maintaining stability on the Main Sequence.
What is hydrogen fusion into helium?
On an H-R diagram, you would find the hottest, most luminous Main Sequence stars in this corner.
What is the top-left corner?