Orbit
This is a path a body follows as it travels around another body in space
What is Orbit?
This is the distance light travels in one year, approximately 9.46 trillion km.
What is a light year?
Solar system models often fail to represent this aspect accurately due to the vast distances between celestial bodies.
What is scale?
Gravity keeps objects from floating away on this celestial body, which we call home.
What is Earth?
This celestial body orbits a larger body and is also known as a natural satellite.
What is a moon?
The solar system's largest object, this body contains 99.8% of its total mass.
What is the Sun?
In most models, the planets are shown as perfect circles, which is inaccurate because their actual orbits have this shape.
What is elliptical?
This force keeps planets in orbit around the Sun and moons orbiting their planets.
What is gravity?
This icy body follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun and leaves a trail of gas and dust as it approaches it.
What is a comet?
The region of the solar system is located just beyond Neptune and is home to icy bodies and dwarf planets.
These models cannot capture the vast size differences between the Sun and planets. For example, the Sun is over 300,000 times the mass of Earth.
What is relative size?
Without gravity, astronauts in space experience this condition, causing their bodies to float freely.
What is weightlessness?
The region beyond Neptune contains dwarf planets and other icy bodies that orbit the Sun.
What is the Kuiper Belt?
This is the name given to the second smallest planet in the solar system, known for its reddish appearance.
What is Mars?
Dynamic phenomena like planetary rotation or revolution are often oversimplified or left out in static solar system models.
What is motion?
Gravity influences the tides on Earth, which are caused by the gravitational pull of this celestial body.
What is the Moon?
This spherical region surrounds the solar system and contains billions of comets, extending almost halfway to the nearest star.
What is the Oort Cloud?
If the Sun were the size of a basketball, Earth would be the size of this object and located 26 meters away.
What is a marble?
Solar system models often exclude this massive spherical region that surrounds the solar system and contains billions of comets.
What is the Oort Cloud?
Gravity played a crucial role in the formation of the solar system by pulling together gas and dust to form these celestial bodies.
What are planets and stars?