Show:
How does Earth move?
What is a star?
What are the inner planets?
What are the outer planets?
What are asteroids,meteors, comets, and moons?
100
What is an axis?
The imaginary line that a planet(object) rotates around(spins).
100
What is a constellation?
A constellation is a group of stars that forms a pattern.
100
Name all of the inner planets (in order from the sun).
Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
100
Name all of the outer planets (in order closest to the sun).
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
100
What is an asteroid?
A rocky mass up to several hundred kilometers wide that revolves around the sun.
200
If Earth did not rotate, would we have days and nights?
If Earth did not rotate we would not have days and nights. The sun would always be shining on one part of Earth.
200
Name the innermost layer of the sun that gives off the light energy see.
The Photosphere
200
What do all the inner planets have in common?
They all have rocky surfaces.
200
What do all four outer planets have in common?
They are all gaseous planets (gas giants). We only see the atmospheres of the outer planets.
200
What do planets and asteroids have in common?
They both revolve around the sun.
300
What is a revolution and how long is Earth's revolution?
A revolution is one full orbit of an object around another object. It takes Earth a few hours longer than 365 days (or 12 months) to revolve around the sun.
300
Answer the following question and fill in the blank. What is a solar flare? Solar flares are similar to ___________here on Earth.
A solar flare is an explosive eruption of wave particles into space. Solar flares are similar to volcanoes here on Earth.
300
What makes Mercury so cold at night?
It has almost no atmosphere!
300
Who was the first person to see the four largest moons of Jupiter. This person also saw Saturn's rings (a planet with handles!)
Galileo
300
In what order does a meteoroid go from being a meteoroid to a meteorite?
Meteoroid --> Meteor --> Meteorite
400
How are the orbits of Earth and the moon alike? How are they different? (Name one similarity and one difference).
Both Earth and the moon have an elliptical orbit. However, Earth orbits the sun and the moon orbits Earth.
400
Why do both the sun and stars appear to move across the sky?
Both the stars and sun appear to move across the sky because Earth rotates on its axis.
400
Which planet is most like Earth? Give one reason why.
Mars! Mars has seasons and even a canyon that is nearly 10 times longer than the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Scientists have also found evidence that Mars has frozen water and it once had liquid water.
400
What is similar about the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune?
Both Uranus and Neptune have methane which give each planet a bluish color.
400
What is a dwarf planet and name one fact you know about the dwarf planet, Pluto.
A dwarf planet is a large, round object that revolves around the sun but has not cleared the region around its orbit. Pluto has an icy, cold surface and an odd tilt.
500
How does Earth's revolution around the sun cause seasons?
The amount of sunlight an area receives determines its weather. Earth's tilt affects how much sunlight parts of Earth get. As Earth revolves around the sun, different parts of Earth receive more or less sunlight. When the parts of Earth receive less sunlight, they have winter. When they receive more sunlight, it is summer.
500
What is Polaris and what is its significance?
Polaris is the North Star because it is almost directly about the North Pole. Polaris does not seem to move as Earth rotates. This helped navigators determine directions, such as North, when traveling.
500
What is a space probe? How has technology allowed people to explore space?
A space probe is a spacecraft that gathers data without a crew. Space probes and robot rovers collect data from planets that people cannot go to.
500
What might be the coldest object in the solar system?
Neptune has 13 moons. The largest one, Triton, may be the coldest object in the solar system.
500
Someone you know says they saw a shooting star. Explain what they really saw.
They probably saw a meteor shower. When loose pieces of comets collide with Earth's atmosphere they cause a meteor shower. A meteor gets so hot when it shoots through the air that it glows like a streak of light. These streaks are what they saw.