7.9A Properties of Our Solar System

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is shown in the picture?

• Earth's revolution

• A month on Earth

• A year on Earth

• Earth's rotation

Multiple Choice

List the following items from smallest to largest.

• universe, solar system, galaxy

• galaxy, solar system, universe

• solar system, galaxy, universe

• solar system, universe, galaxy

Multiple Choice

What shape of orbit does the Earth have? This was proven by astronomer Johannes Kepler.

• An elliptical orbit around the moon.

• An elliptical orbit around the Sun.

• A circular orbit around the moon.

• A circular orbit around the Sun.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following amounts of time has gone by when the Moon makes 1 revolution around the Earth?

• 1 month on Earth

• 1 year on Earth

• 1 day on Earth

• 1 week on Earth

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is CLOSEST to planet Earth:

• Jupiter

• Andromeda Galaxy

• Earth's moon

• the Sun

Units for Distance and Size in Astronomy

• Astronomical Units (AU)

• Light-years (ly)

Astronomical Units

• An astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun:

• 1 AU = 93 million miles

• Jupiter is about 5.2 AU from the Sun and Pluto is about 39.5 AU from the Sun.

• The distance from the Sun to the center of the Milky Way is approximately 1.7 x 10⁹ AU.

Multiple Select

1 A.U. =

• 1.5 x 10¹² m

• 93 million miles

• 9.3 x 10⁷

• 93,000,000 miles

Multiple Choice

Which unit of measurement is used to measure distances within our solar system?

• inches

• kilometers

• miles

• astronomical units

Multiple Choice

Why do we use light years and astronomical units to measure distances in space?

• Scientists want to sound smart.

• Hubble discovered these units and wanted to use them.

• Space is too small to use miles, it wouldn't make sense.

• Space is too big to use traditional units, like miles.

Multiple Choice

What is Astronomical Unit?

• 1000 km

• The size of our solar system

• The average distance between Earth and the Sun

• The average distance between Earth and Moon

Multiple Choice

What is Light Year?

• The distance travelled by sound in a year

• The distance travelled by light in a year

• The distance travelled by sound in a minute

• The distance travelled by light in a decade

Multiple Choice

Day and night are caused by _______________.

• Earth's rotation

• Earth's revolution

• Moon's revolution

• Moon's rotation

Light-years (ly)

• A light-year is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year

• 1 ly = 6 trillion miles = 63,240 AU

• Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to Earth (other than the Sun) and is 4.2 light-years away. This means light from Proxima Centauri takes 4.2 years to travel to Earth.

Multiple Choice

What do we use astronomical units to measure?

• distances in our solar system

• How far our solar system is from others in our galaxy.

• The distances between galaxies.

• The distance from one side of the universe to the other.

Multiple Choice

Scientists use the light-year to describe the relationships between objects in space. What does a light-year measure?

• the distance that light can travel in one year

• the brightness of light that travels through space

• the number of years it takes light to travel to Earth

• the time it takes light to travel 1 million km

Multiple Choice

What is the time taken for the light to travel from the Sun to Earth?

• 4 minutes

• 8 minutes

• 12 minutes

• 2 minutes

Inner Planets

• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth

• Mars

Multiple Choice

What is located in between the Inner planets & the Outer planets?

• The Sun

• The Asteroid Belt

• The Kuiper Belt

• The Oort Cloud

Outer Planets

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

Multiple Select

The inner planets are considered terrestrial or rocky planets. Which of these planets are considered "gas giants"?

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

Multiple Select

Which of these planets is considered "ice giants"?

• Jupiter

• Saturn

• Uranus

• Neptune

Beyond Neptune...

The Edge of the Solar System

Multiple Choice

What about Pluto??

Pluto is technically classified as a.....

• Planet

• Dwarf Planet

• Asteroid

Pluto

Classified as a Dwarf Planet, Pluto resides beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt region. Pluto is not considered a planet because it does not have a clear path in its orbit, instead it's path is filled with debris from the Kuiper Belt.

Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO's)

• Pluto

• Eris

• Makemake

• Haumea

• And many more...
  

Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) & the Heliosphere

The solar wind streams out into space and carves out a protective bubble around the solar system called the heliosphere. The heliosphere encases all the planets in our solar system and much of the space beyond them, separating the domain of our Sun from that of interstellar space.

Multiple Choice

Solar wind from the Sun creates the heliosphere, the "bubble" that protects us from galactic cosmic rays (radiation).

• True

• False

The Oort Cloud

• Collection of icy objects

• Spherical layer between 2,000 - 100,000 AU from the Sun

• Long-period comets originate from here

• Objects held in place by Sun's gravity

• Has not been visually seen, but we know it exists because of comets

• No missions have been sent to explore the Oort Cloud yet, but five spacecraft will eventually get there. They are Voyager 1 and 2, New Horizons, and Pioneer 10 and 11. The Oort Cloud is so distant, however, that the power sources for all five spacecraft will be dead centuries before they reach its inner edge.

  ***It will take 300 years for Voyagers to reach the Oort cloud!!