Moon Phases
Earth spinning on its axis once every 24 hours is called this, which causes our day and night cycle.
What is rotation?
A massive system containing billions of stars, gas, and dust all held together in space.
What is a galaxy?
The inner planets are primarily made of this solid material, which is why they are called terrestrial planets.
What is rock?
The outer planets are mostly made of these substances, which gives them their famous nickname.
What are gases? (Accept: Gas Giants).
This massive, glowing ball of gas sits at the center of our solar system and is actually a medium-sized star.
What is the Sun?
Earth traveling all the way around the Sun once every 365 days is called this.
What is a revolution?
The name of the specific cosmic home galaxy that our solar system belongs to.
What is the Milky Way?
This is the hottest planet in the solar system because its thick atmosphere traps heat like a greenhouse.
What is Venus?
This is the absolute largest planet in our entire solar system, famous for its giant storm called the Great Red Spot.
What is Jupiter?
Large rocky objects, mostly found in a "belt" between Mars and Jupiter, that are too small to be considered planets.
What are asteroids?
If the Moon is a New Moon tonight, this is the phase it will be in exactly two weeks (half a cycle) from now.
What is a Full Moon?
This is the invisible pulling force that keeps all the stars, planets, gas, and dust inside a galaxy from drifting away.
What is gravity?
Name all four inner planets in order, starting closest to the Sun.
What are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars?
Every single outer planet shares this distinct physical feature made of ice, dust, and rock orbiting around them
What are rings?
A cosmic ball of ice, dust, and rock that develops a glowing tail of gas as it gets close to the heat of the Sun.
What is a comet?
This is the lunar phase where the Moon is positioned between the Earth and the Sun.
What is a New Moon?
True or False: The Milky Way galaxy contains only our one Sun and its eight planets.
What is False? (It contains billions of other stars and solar systems).
Unlike the gas giants, the inner planets have very few of these natural satellites orbiting them.
What are moons?
This icy blue outer planet is unique because it rotates completely on its side like a bowling ball.
What is Uranus?
This is the primary orbital difference between a planet and a moon.
What is a planet orbits the Sun, while a moon orbits a planet?
If the Moon is a Waxing Crescent tonight, this is the phase it will be in exactly two weeks (half a cycle) from now.
What is a Waning Gibbous?
Based on its shape, the Milky Way is classified as this specific type of galaxy.
What is a spiral galaxy? (Accept: Barred spiral).
This inner planet is nicknamed the "Red Planet" because its surface is covered in iron oxide (rust).
What is Mars?
Because they are so far away from the Sun, the outer planets take a much longer time to complete this orbital motion compared to inner planets.
What is a revolution? (Accept: A year).
The Sun appears much bigger and brighter to us than other stars in the galaxy for this specific reason.
What is because it is the closest star to Earth?