G5_Science_Astronomy

Can you remember all their names?

​

Scientists think the solar system is about 4.7 billion years old, and the universe is 13.7 billion years old!

Welcome to the Solar System!

How big is the sun?

 

The Sun is very big - much, MUCH bigger than the Earth! It is 1,392,000 km or 109 Earths across and contains more than 99.9% of the solar system's mass. If you could somehow stand on the surface of the Sun, you would weigh 28 times as much. A grown person would weigh as much as a car. More than a million Earths could fit into the volume of the sun! It doesn't look that big from where we stand, though. That's because the sun is about 150,000,000 km away. At that distance, it takes light from the sun over eight minutes to reach the Earth. 

The Sun

The Sun is a large ball of very hot gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. It is

the power house of the Solar System. It's our nearest star. Scientists can tell what is going on inside a star from its color. Without the sun there would be no life on Earth. 

Who discovered it? 

Galileo Galilei first turned a telescope on the sky and began to write down what he saw. Among the things he saw were four moons orbiting Jupiter. As time passed and the telescope was improved, more objects were found. In 1655, Christiaan Huygens discovered the moon Titan orbiting Saturn. In 1781 Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus. In 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid. Many more asteroids were later discovered by astronomers. The discovery of the planet Neptune did not come by chance, but was found using math.

Who discovered it? 

Prior to 1781, there were only seven known bodies in our solar system, besides the Earth. These seven were the Sun, our Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. These had been known since humans first began to observe the sky at night. There were also visitors called comets that would appeared in the sky for a time, then fade away. 

SOLAR SYSTEM

People have been watching the sky

for thousands of years and

wondered exactly what is out there.

With advances in telescopes as well

as spaceships which have physically

 traveled to various planets, a

considerable amount of knowledge

 has been obtained to better

understand the universe near to us.

The name of our system comes from the old latin word for the Sun: Sol. Because the Sun is the largest object in the system and all the other bodies orbit around it, it became known as the Solar system.

I'm Mercury! I'm the smallest planet
and closest to the Sun.

Mercury

Mercury is about 4879 km in diameter, which makes it a little over a third as big as the Earth is across. It's small enough that eighteen balls of modeling clay the size of Mercury could be rolled together to make one the size of Earth. In fact, the diameter of Mercury is only about one and a half times the diameter of our moon. It is the second smallest planet in the Solar System, just larger than Pluto. The small size and how close it is to the Sun sometimes make it difficult to observe Mercury in the sky, especially without a telescope or binoculars.

I'm Venus! I'm the hottest planet in
the Solar System. Ouch!

Venus

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun, and was named after the Roman goddess called Venus. It is in a category called terrestrial planets, this means that it is very similar in size and was created close to the same way as our planet Earth. In fact, sometimes it is called Earth's "sister planet" as they are somewhat alike in both size and roughly a similar distance from the sun.

I'm Earth! You call me home. I'm also
the only planet with liquid!

Earth

Earth is the planet we live on. It is the only planet in the solar system with liquid water. It's also the only one known to have Scientific evidence shows that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old. Earth's surface is made of continents and oceans. There are also islands in the oceans. The top layer of Earth is called the crust. It divided into pieces called tectonic plates. They move very slowly, carrying continents with them.

Moon

The Moon is Earth's only permanent natural satellite.

Twelve people landed and walked on it in the 1960s and 1970s. They collected and brought back rocks that were studied to find more about the Moon

Many other planets in the solar system have moons, and our moon is not the largest one in the solar system. Jupiter's moon, Ganymede, is the largest.

​

However, Ganymede is less than 2% the size of Jupiter, while the Moon is a bit more than 27% the size of Earth. Next to Earth, the Moon is very, very large!​ How can this be?

The moon has a radius of 1,635 miles!

The Mystery of the Moon

I'm Earth! You call me home. I'm also
the only planet with liquid!

I'm Mars! I'm really dusty and cold
with a thin atmosphere.

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. It is a terrestrial planet, because it is very similar to the Earth in terms of atmosphere and

surface features.

I'm Jupiter! I'm twice the size of
other planets so they call me giant!

Jupiter

Jupiter is by far the largest planet within our solar system: two and a half times larger

 than all of the other planets put together. It is the fifth planet from the Sun and one

of the brightest planets. Jupiter is sometimes called a "gas giant“ because most of this planet is made up of liquid and gas.

I'm Saturn! I'm surrounded by a
series of icy rings.

Saturn

Saturn is 120,536 km or 9.449 Earths in diameter at the equator. It is only 108,728 km or 8.552 Earths in diameter from pole to pole. It is bigger at the equator because it spins fast enough to budge out.

I'm Uranus! I rotate on a tilt so I
look like I'm sideways.

Uranus

Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun, was discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1781. It is a gas giant and the third largest planet in the Solar System.

I'm Neptune! I'm the smallest gas
giant and farthest from the Sun.

Neptune

Neptune is very similar to Uranus, but it is slightly smaller in diameter and more Massive Neptune has a diameter of 49,528 km across at the equator and 48,681 km from pole to pole. It is almost as big as four Earths in a row. It bulges out a little at the equator because of its rotation, but not as much as Jupiter and Saturn.

Multiple Choice

The sun is at the center of

• the universe

• our solar system

• the Milky Way Galaxy

Multiple Choice

Which planet is the closest to the sun?

• Mars

• Mercury

• Venus

Multiple Choice

Which planet is the "red planet"?

• Mars

• jupiter

• Saturn

Multiple Choice

Name the 4 outer planets

• Mercury

  Venus

  Earth 

  Mars

• Saturn 

  Mercury

  Jupiter

  Neptune

• Jupiter

  Saturn

  Uranus

  Neptune

Multiple Choice

What is the NICKNAME gicen to the outer planets

• Gas Giants

• Terrestrial Planets

• Gigantic Planets

Multiple Choice

Which planet is known for its amazing ring system

• Jupiter

• Neptune

• Saturn

Multiple Choice

The red spot on Jupiter is a 

• giant lake

• giant storm

• red ocean

Multiple Choice

Which planet seems to be rotating on its side

• Mercury

• Uranus

• Venus

Multiple Choice

True or False:

all of the gas giants have rings composed of ice and rock

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Which planet is the hottest

• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth

Multiple Choice

Our sun is made mostly of

• Hydrogen and Helium

• Oxygen and Carbon dioxide

• Helium and Oxygen

Multiple Choice

The region of our sun that makes an enormous amount of energy through nuclear fusion

• core

• radiation zone

• convection zone

Multiple Choice

The white halo that forms the outermost layer of the atmosphere is known as the

• corona

• photosphere

• chr

Multiple Choice

The region of our sun where heat flows as electromagnetic radiation

• core

• radiation zone

• convection zone

Multiple Choice

Identify the feature of the sun shown in the image

• prominence

• solar flare

• sunspot

Multiple Choice

The small, mostly rocky objects that orbit the sun

• asteroids

• comets

• meteors

Multiple Choice

The region of the sun where energy rises and sinks in currents due to unequal heating between the core and surface of the sun

• core

• radiation zone

• convection zone

Multiple Choice

Sunspots are regions on the surface of the sun that are

• cooler than the surrounding areas

• hotter that the surrounding areas

Multiple Choice

huge loops of plasma on the suns surface

• prominence

• solar flares

• sunspots

Multiple Choice

When loops on the sun connect they release a large amount of magnetic energy. These bursts that erupt into space are called.....

• prominence

• solar flares

• sunspots

Multiple Choice

TRUE or FALSE:

Chunks of rock or dust smaller than asteroids are called meteors

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

A streak of light produced from the friction of a chunk of rock from space entering our atmosphere is known as

• asteroid

• meteor

• meteoroid

Multiple Choice

Loose balls of ice and rock that have very long and narrow orbits around the sun

• asteroid

• meteor 

• comet

Multiple Choice

Many asteroids can be founbd orbiting between which two planets?

• Mars and Mercury

• Mars and Venus

• Mars and Jupiter

Multiple Choice

Pluto was reclassified as a ____?_____ because it does not have enough gravity/mass to clear its orbit path of smaller objects

• an asteroid

• meteoroid

• dwarf planet

Multiple Choice

This is a

• surface

• star

• planet

• asteroid

Multiple Choice

How many planets are in our solar system?

• 8

• 9

• 4

• 12

Multiple Choice

A large planet with no rocky ground, like Jupiter or Saturn, is called a

• planetoid

• star

• aqueous planet

• gas giant

Multiple Choice

Our Sun is not a planet. It is a

• star

• nebula

• galaxy

• asteroid

Multiple Choice

This is a space rock. The correct word for it is

• meteor

• asteroid

• moonlet

• rock 'n roll

Multiple Choice

Earth has just one, but many of the other planets have more.

• Core

• Continents

• Atmosphere

• Moon

Multiple Choice

This is the force that pulls you down onto the earth. All planets have it.

• electricity

• gravity

• plasma

• synergy

Multiple Choice

The Moon moves in a ring around the Earth. This ring is called the

• system

• gravity

• orbit

• atmosphere

Some scientists think that maybe when the Earth was first made from gas and rock, it was spinning so fast a large piece of it broke off! And this piece became the Moon.

​

The problem is: Earth has never been spinning fast enough for this to happen.​

​

The Earth rotates at a speed of about 1,000 miles an hour

Theory No.1:

The Spinner

​

Some other scientists think that maybe the Moon used to be an independent, free-moving planet that got caught in Earth's gravity and after a long time, got into an orbit.

​

That seems unlikely too. Earth's gravity would have been too weak at that time. Also, the gravity of the Sun is much, much stronger.​

Theory No.2:

The Rogue Planet

​

Scientists think there may be billions of rogue planets!

Some others think that when the Earth was formed, TWO worlds were formed. Earth and the Moon have always been together.

​

However, rocks brought back from the Moon show this isn't true. If Earth and the Moon were brothers, they would be made of the same metals​!

Theory No.3:

Earth's Twin

​

Moon rocks come in two kinds: highland rocks and sea basalts

Multiple Choice

People think Earth has a large moon because...

• it is the largest in the whole solar system!

• it spins so fast

• it is very large next to Earth

• most other planets have more moons

Multiple Choice

The Moon does not have the same kind of rock metals as the Earth, which means...

• it is much larger than other moons

• it was not formed together with the Earth

• it is a planetoid

• it was made from asteroids

Multiple Choice

The Earth has never been spinning fast enough for the Moon to...

• break off the Earth

• lose its orbit

• build its own gravity

• be formed in space