Solar System
What is the 6th closest planet to the sun?
Saturn
If the Northern hemisphere is having the season of spring, what season is the Southern hemisphere having?
Autumn
How many moon phases are there?
8
What are the names of the two types of Eclipses?
Lunar Eclipse and Solar Eclipse
Why is the moon and not the sun the main cause of the Earth's tides?
The sun is larger than the moon but is much further away meaning it has less gravitational pull
How many planets are there in our Solar System?
8
Identify two factors that make summer warmer than winter
More direct sunlight (more sunlight intensity)
More daylight hours (longer days)
How much of the moon can be seen at a Quarter Moon?
Half of the moon
What Phase of the Moon occurs when a Lunar Eclipse is seen?
Full Moon
How many low tides are there in 24 hours?
2 (because the earth rotates once in 24rs, passing through 2 high and 2 low tides)
It was discovered that the planet Jupitar has small rings. How many other planets in our Solar System has rings, and what are they?
3
Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
What are three things Native Australian people use to determine the change of a season?
Any three of:
The position of stars in the sky
Animal cycles (coming and going of species sightings)
Plant cycles (coming and going of species sightings)
Amount of Rainfall
Weather
What two phases of the lunar cycle when the Moon, Earth and Sun are in a straight line?
New Moon and Full Moon
Why there are only one or two lunar eclipses per year even though there are about 12 full moons in that time?
The Earth, Moon and Sun to line up exactly. But the orbit of the Moon on the Earth is on a slight tilt, which means that the Moon is often a little above or below Earth's shadow. At these times we see a full moon instead of a lunar eclipse.
What angle are the sun and moon at when a neap tide occurs?
90o (right angles)
What two planets is the Asteroid Belt between?
Mars and Jupiter
What is an Equinox?
When the daylight hours are the same
12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness
In the Moon phases, when the bright part appears to be shrinking across a few days, the moon is said to be what?
Waning
What are the positions of the Earth, Sun and Moon in a Solar Eclipse?
The Moon is positioned directly between the Sun and the Earth.
What is a spring tide, and what happens when is occurs?
The moon and sun are aligned (new moon and full moon). The gravitational pull is combined and so the high and low tides are more extreme.
Why the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System, with all other objects orbiting around it?
The Sun has the largest mass and so the largest gravitational pull of all of the objects in the Solar System.
How is the Earth's axis tilted during spring and autumn?
Tilted to the side, neither towards nor away from the Sun
Why the Moon appears dark during a new moon phase?
It lies between the Sun and the Earth so we can only see its shadowed side in daylight, and at night it is on the opposite side of the earth
Why is a solar eclipse so rare?
The moon is a lot smaller than the sun and the moons orbit has to align perfectly to cover the sun.
Also, the moon casts only a small shadow on the Earth where is can be seen
Name three things that would happen to the Earth's tides if the moon suddenly became much smaller?
The gravitational pull on the Earth would be smaller
The sun would then have the biggest effect on tides.
There still be 2 high tides a day but there wouldn't be as high
There would be no spring/neap tides.