A Tour of the Universe

A space traveler entering our planetary system would easily distinguish Earth from the other planets in our solar system by the large amount of         [ Select ]      ["water ice", "liquid water", "solid rock"]  that covers some         [ Select ]      ["one half", "two thirds", "three quarters"]  of its crust. Multiple answers and must be separated by a comma.

(a)  

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-4

The Moon’s distance from Earth is about 30 times Earth’s diameter, or approximately 384,000 kilometers, and it takes about         [ Select ]      ["a week", "two weeks", "a month", "6 weeks"]  for the Moon to revolve around Earth. The Moon’s diameter is 3476 kilometers, about         [ Select ]      ["one half", "one fourth", "one third"]  the size of Earth. Multiple answers must be separated by a comma

(a)  

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

NGSS.MS-ESS1-3

We call the average Earth–Sun distance an         [ Select ]      ["astronomical unit (AU)", "earth-sun unit (ESU)", "solar unit (SU)"]  because, in the early days of astronomy, it was the most important measuring standard. Light takes slightly more than         [ Select ]      ["3 minutes", "8 minutes", "3 seconds", "8 seconds"]  to travel 1 astronomical unit.

(a)  

Earth is only one of         [ Select ]      ["twelve", "nine", "five", "eight"]  planets that revolve around the Sun. These planets, along with their moons and swarms of smaller bodies such as dwarf planets, make up the         [ Select ]      ["solar system", "planetary union", "quadrant"]  .

(a)  

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-1

NGSS.MS-ESS1-3

Choose the word that completes the sentence: 

We are able to see the nearby planets in our skies only because they _________________ the light of our local star, the Sun.

• Refract

• No answer text provided

• No answer text provided

• Reflect

Tags

NGSS.MS-PS4-2

Choose the phrase that completes the sentence: 

The Sun is our local star, and all the other stars are also enormous balls of glowing gas that generate vast amounts of energy by _________________________ deep within.

• Electrical connections

• Nuclear Reactions

• Chemical Reactions

• Plasma Reactions

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-1

NGSS.HS-PS1-8

When you look up at a star-filled sky on a clear night, all the stars visible to the unaided eye are part of a single collection of stars we call...

• The Solar System

• The Milky Way Galaxy

• The Orion Spur

• The Virgo Cluster

From our position inside the Milky Way Galaxy, we cannot see through to its far rim.  Why not?

• It contains dark matter

• there is a black hole in the way

• It is too far away

• It contains gas and interstellar dust

What do we call the material we cannot currently observe directly with our instruments, but that we know is there by the pull its gravity exerts on the stars and raw material we can observe,  but what it is made of and how much of it exists remains a mystery? 

• Cold Energy

• Dark Energy

• Dark Matter

• Cold Matter

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-2

NGSS.MS-PS2-4

Some of the largest of the         [ Select ]      ["nebulae", "star clusters", "constellations", "solar systems"]  that astronomers have cataloged contain         [ Select ]      ["thousands", "millions", "hundreds", "hundreds of thousands"]  of stars and take up volumes of space hundreds of light-years across.

(a)