Planets
The largest planet in the solar system.
What is Jupiter?
The number of planets in our solar system.
What is 8?
A giant ball of gas undergoing nuclear reactions and releasing massive amounts of energy. Our Sun is one of billions.
What is a star?
A device used for viewing objects in the universe that are very far away.
What is a telescope?
The time taken for Earth to orbit the Sun once.
What is a year/365.25 days?
The object that provides the light the Moon reflects since the Moon does not produce light itself.
What is the Sun?
The red planet named for the Roman god of war, source of many alien stories.
What is Mars?
The four planets closest to the Sun, on the near side of the asteroid belt.
What are the inner planets?
The time of day that occurs when your part of Earth is facing away from the Sun.
What is night time?
The force that keeps planets in orbit around stars and which holds solar systems and galaxies together.
What is gravity?
The time taken for Earth to complete one rotation (spin) on its own axis.
What is a day/24 hours?
The phase of the Earth where the Moon appears like a circle because it is on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. Lots of light reflects from the Moon to the Earth.
What is full moon?
The chemical compound found as a gas, liquid and solid on Earth, the reason why Earth is called the blue planet.
What is water/H2O?
The object that all the planets in our solar system orbit around.
What is the Sun?
The rate at which light travels.
What is the speed of light/300 000 km/s?
The two most abundant elements in the universe.
What are hydrogen and helium?
The movement of the Earth around the Sun in an orbit.
What is revolution?
The phase of the Moon where it cannot be seen directly because it is in between the Sun and Earth. No light reflects from the Moon to Earth.
What is new moon?
A planet with a solid rocky or metallic surface similar to Earth.
What is a terrestrial planet?
The closest planet to the Sun.
What is Mercury?
The process Earth undergoes which makes it seem like the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West (even though the Sun is not really moving).
What is Earth's rotation?
A planet that is outside of our solar system.
What is an exoplanet?
The curved path an object follows around another object that it is attracted to by the force of gravity. e.g. The _____ of the Moon around Earth
What is an orbit?
The time taken for the Moon to orbit the Earth once.
What is a lunar month / 29.5 days?
A large planet composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with relatively low density.
What is a gas giant?
The planets beyond the asteroid belt near Mars.
What are the outer planets?
Different stages in the year when the same part of Earth experiences varying amounts of direct sunlight because of its tilt and revolution.
What are seasons?
Objects in the universe that are so dense that their gravity is strong enough to 'capture' light. They are at the centre of many galaxies.
What is a black hole?
The imaginary line running north-south through the centre of the Earth, around which Earth rotates.
What is Earth's axis?
The two words used to describe the way the shape of the moon changes over a month. One refers to the shape growing, the other refers to the shape shrinking.
What are waxing and waning?