A
Name two planets made of a mixture of rocks, dirt, and minerals that are closest to the Sun.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
When was Pluto declared not a planet?
August 24, 2006
What is a dwarf planet?
Orbits the sun, be round, not be a moon or satellite of another planet.
What is the name of Pluto's moon?
Charon
When was Pluto discovered?
1930
Name three planets made up of mostly gas with a rocky core that are the farthest away from the Sun.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
My very eager mother just served us what?
Nine Pizzas
How does Pluto's orbit different from the other planets?
Pluto crosses Neptune's path, oval-shaped orbit, and stretched-out oblong.
What surrounds the core of a terrestrial planet?
Mantle
When did New Horizons reach Pluto and Charon to start sending data back to Earth?
2015
Most scientists believe our solar system began as a space cloud called a what?
Nebula
How many stars are in the Milky Way?
200 billion stars
What mission did NASA launch in 2006?
New Horizons
What orbits the sun between Earth and Mars?
The asteroid belt
What is the original definition of a planet?
A large celestial body that circles around the Sun or another star.
The Sun eventually grew big enough that high temperatures and extreme pressure caused what element to begin to fuse into helium and release energy as light?
Hydrogen
What are the terrestrial planets?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
What is Pluto's diameter in miles?
1,440 miles
What is the IAU's definition of a planet?
Orbits the sun, is round or nearly round because its gravity has pulled it into that shape, is big enough and has enough gravity to "clear the neighborhood" around it's orbit.
What controls the Oschin telescope and it's camera?
Robots
What is a protoplanetary disk?
A disk that is hottest where the Sun is and coolest at it's outer edges.
The Sun's gravity tugged at the materials until they formed clumps of material called planets.
What are the gas giants?
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
How far away is the Orion Nebula?
1,500 light years
What surrounds the core of a gas giant?
Metallic Hydrogen
What is the most distant object ever seen in orbit around the Sun?