Ancient Astronomy
What does everything orbit around in the geocentric model?
The Earth
What creates our days and nights?
The Earth's rotation, or the Earth spinning.
What is something we experience on Earth that is caused by the Moon's gravitational pull?
The tides
What are the planets in order from closest to the Sun to furthest?
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
What are comets made of?
Ice and dust
Which model of the solar system has Earth as the 3rd planet away from the center?
The Heliocentric model
One orbit of Earth around the Sun is also called?
A revolution, or year
Lets say we are experiencing a full moon right now. What would be the next three phases of the moon that we would see?
Waning gibbous, 3rd/last quarter, waning crescent
What are 3 key differences between the rocky planets and the gas giants?
1. Their composition (rocky planets are rocky, gas giants are made of gas)
2. Gas giants have more moons and rings
3. The gas giants are larger than the rocky planets
4. The rocky planets rotate slower and have shorter orbits
What kind of star is our Sun?
yellow dwarf
What are two things you could do to a pair of objects to DECREASE the strength of gravity between them?
increase distance between them, or decrease the mass
What is one of the seasons that are created from Earth being at an "equinox"
Spring or Fall
How many total people have walked on the Moon?
12
Why isn't Mercury the hottest planet?
It doesn't have an atmosphere to trap heat, so Venus is hotter
What requirement to be a planet did Pluto not meet?
It hasn't cleared its orbital path
Who formulated the law of universal gravitation?
Sir Isaac Newton
Exactly how many days does it take for Earth to revolve around the Sun?
365.25 days
Why do we see more lunar eclipses then solar eclipses?
Because the Earth is so much bigger than the Moon, it also has a much bigger shadow for the Moon to be covered by.
Explain what creates shooting stars
When our atmosphere burns up meteors as they get closer to Earth.
How many dwarf planets have we found so far in our solar system? Name three of them.
5
Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake, Haumea
What did Aristotle do? (relating to space)
He proposed the geocentric model of the solar system
Explain why we have different seasons
Why does the Moon turn red during a lunar eclipse?
Only the longer wavelengths of light (red and orange) are able to make it through Earth's atmosphere and shine on the Moon during a lunar eclipse
Which planet is credited with having the solar systems largest ocean? Which planet has the largest volcano? Which planet is tilted on its side?
Jupiter, Mars, Uranus
Explain why after a certain distance, we can't see any further out into the universe.
Light travels at a speed. We can only see light that's had time to travel to us since the beginning of the universe. Any light further out then that distance hasn't had time to reach us yet.