The Solar System
What is the center of our solar system?
Answer: The Sun
What do we call a large object that orbits a star?
Answer: Planet
What do we call a natural satellite that orbits a planet?
Answer: Moon
What are tides caused by?
Answer: The Moon's gravity pulling on Earth's water.
What is an astronomical unit?
Answer: A unit of distance equal to the average distance from Earth to the Sun (about 93 million miles).
What is the path an object takes around a star?
Answer: Orbit
Name two terrestrial planets.
Answer: Mercury, Venus, Earth,Mars
What is a meteor?
Answer: A space rock that enters Earth's atmosphere and burns up.
What is a solar eclipse?
Answer: When the Moon blocks the Sun, casting a shadow on Earth.
What is a light-year?
Answer: The distance light travels in one year (about 5.88 trillion miles).
Name the rocky planets in our solar system.
Answer: Mercury, Venus, Earth, or Mars
What is the axial tilt?
Answer: The angle at which a planet's axis is tilted
What is a meteorite?
Answer: A meteor that survives and lands on Earth's surface.
What is a lunar eclipse?
Answer: When Earth’s shadow covers the Moon.
What is the Kelvin scale used for?
Answer: Measuring temperature in science.
What is a large cloud of gas and dust where stars are born?
Answer: Nebula
What is the difference between rotation and revolution?
Answer: Rotation is the spinning of a planet on its axis; revolution is the movement around the Sun.
Where are most asteroids found in our solar system?
Answer: In the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
What are sunspots?
Answer: Dark, cooler spots on the Sun’s surface caused by magnetic activity.
What is the difference between absolute and relative measurement?
Answer: Absolute measurement has a fixed value; relative measurement compares one measurement to another.
What term describes the idea that our solar system formed from a spinning cloud of gas and dust?
Answer: Nebular Hypothesis
What is the term for the invisible area where gravity pulls on other objects?
Answer: Gravitational Field
What phenomenon occurs when Earth’s shadow covers the Moon?
Answer: Lunar Eclipse
What are the Northern Lights caused by?
Answer: Charged particles from the Sun interacting with Earth’s atmosphere.
What is evidence in science?
Answer: Data or facts that support a scientific explanation or theory.