Stars and Planets: Mystery 3

1. Why would it be difficult to live on Venus?

• a. Venus is far away from the Sun so it is a very cold planet.

• b. Venus is far away from the Sun so it is a very hot planet.

• c. Venus is close to the Sun so it is a very hot planet.

• d. Venus is close to the Sun so it is a very cold planet.

2. What is the “Goldilocks” zone?

• A zone where planets get the right amount of heat and light for liquid water to exist.

• A zone in our Solar System where aliens live.

• A zone where plants get too much sunlight.

• A zone on the Earth where most people want to live

Tags

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NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

3. The image shows a solar system with one star (on the left) and 5 planets that orbit around the star. Which planets would be cool enough to have liquid water?

• Planets A and B.

• Planets B and C.

• Planets C and D.

• Planets D and E.

4. What do we call planets that are outside our own solar system?

• outer planets

• exoplanets

• outside planets

• endoplanets

5. Which of these stars do you think has a habitable zone that is the farthest away?

• Star A

• Star B

• Star C

6. 6. Astronomers have discovered two different stars, Star A and Star B. They have figured out that both stars give off light that is equally bright. This means Star A and Star B are the exact same brightness level. But when you look at them from Earth, they look like the drawings above. Star A appears much dimmer than Star B. What could explain this?

• Light appears brighter the closer you are to it, so Star A must be closer to Earth than Star B.

• Light appears brighter the closer you are to it, so Star B must be closer to Earth than Star A.

• Distance has no effect on how bright stars appear. So there must be another explanation for why Star B appears brighter than Star A.

7. 7. Star A looks like a dim tiny star in the night sky when viewed from the surface of Earth. But astronomers have discovered that Star A is actually much, much bigger than planet Earth! Then why does Star A look so tiny in the night sky? What could explain this?

• Star A is being blocked by the Moon so we can’t see how big it actually is.

• Star A is very, very far away from Earth so it looks small and dim even though it is large and bright.

• Star A must actually be very small and the scientists didn’t measure it correctly.

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8. 8. The image is a model that shows relative distances of the Sun, Earth, and some of the closest stars to Earth. The model doesn’t show all of the stars. But it helps to show how far away our closest stars are. How does this model help to explain why we can only see stars in the night sky? Choose ALL the correct answers.

• The Sun is so big that it blocks most of the stars. That’s why we can’t see them during the day.

• The Sun is so close to Earth. Because it is so close, it appears very bright to us on Earth. That’s why we can’t see the stars during the day.

• The closest stars are very far away from Earth. Even if those stars are as bright as the Sun, we can only see them at night. They will appear dim because of the distance between them and the Earth.

• The closest stars are not very far away from Earth. Stars are so bright that even large distances won’t affect how bright they appear.

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9. 9. Imagine someone says to you, “The Sun is not a star! It’s out in the daytime, and besides, stars are really tiny and dim. The Sun is big and bright.”

11. What would you say to convince them that the Sun is actually a star? Support your answer with reasoning. You can use evidence from the other questions to support your answer.