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7th gr. Space Chap 1
Earth, Moon, and Sun
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is a satellite? | A body that orbits a planet. |
| What is a naturally occurring satellite? | A moon. |
| What is an artificial satellite? | GPS satellites launched by rockets. |
| What is a planet? | An object that orbits a star, is large enough to have become rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the area of its orbit. |
| What is a star? | A giant ball of hot gas, mainly composed of hydrogen and helium. |
| What is a meteor? | The streak of light produced when a small object (space rocks) burns up entering Earth's atmosphere. |
| What is a comet? | A cold mixture of dust and ice that gives up a long trail of light as it approaches the sun. |
| What is a meteorite? | A space rock that hits the ground. |
| What is a meteoroid? | Space rocks. |
| What is a constellation? | A pattern or group of stars that people imagined to represent a figure, animal or object. |
| How many different constellations are there in western culture? | There are 88. |
| What can you use to help find constellations in the sky? | A star chart. |
| What is a common name for the bright star called Polaris? | The North Star. |
| How do objects in the sky appear to move? | The apparent motion of objects in the sky depends on the motion of the earth. Stars appear to move from east to west but this is caused by the earth turning from west to east. |
| Why do constellations appear in different parts of the sky at different times of the year? | These seasonal changes are caused by the Earth's orbit around the sun. |
| What is the zodiac? | Because the planets all orbit the sun in about the same plane, they appear to move through a narrow band in the sky. |
| Why are some planets visible at night? | When the Earth passes between them and the sun, the sun's bright light no longer blocks the view of the planets. |
| What are the ways the Earth moves? | Rotation and revolution |
| What is rotation? | The spinning of the Earth on its axis. |
| What is the Earth's axis? | The imaginary line that passes through the Earth's center and the North and South poles. |
| What does the Earth's rotation cause? | Day and night. It takes about 24 hours for the Earth to rotate once. The Earth rotates to the East. |
| What is revolution? | The movement of one object around another. One revolution of the Earth around the sun takes one year or about 365 days. |
| What is an orbit? | A slightly elongated circle or ellipse. |
| What month does the Earth's orbit bring it closest to the sun? | January |
| How long does it take the moon to revolve around the Earth? | About 29 days or one month. |
| What is a calendar? | A system of organizing time that defines the beginning, length and divisions of a year. The most common calendar today is divided into years, months and days. |
| How does the sunlight hit the Earth? | The sunlight is overhead at the equator and the sun's energy is concentrated In a small area, therefor it is warmer. At the poles, the same amount of sunlight spreads out over a greater area. |
| Why does the Earth have seasons? | Because the Earth's axis is tilted as it revolves around the sun. |
| What angle is the Earth's axis tilted at and what is this angle called? | 23.5 degrees, the declination angle |
| How much of the Earth does the sun light up? | 1/2 of the Earth is lit (day) we and 1/2 is unlit (night) |
| Why aren't day and night always equal? | Because the axis of the Earth is tilted. |
| What is it called when day length equals night length? | Equinox |
| When the longest day / shortest night occurs where is the sun lined up? What is it called? | With the Tropic of Capricorn or Cancer and a solstice |
| In June, the north end of Earth's axis is tilted toward the sun. What season is it in the Southern Hemisphere? | Winter. |
| What is it called when the sun appears farthest north of the equator in the Northern Hemisphere? | Summer Solstice. |
| When does the summer solstice occur? | Around June 21. |
| Where is the sun around December 21? | The sun appears farthest south. |
| Where does the sun rise and set? | It rises to the southeast and sets to the southwest. |
| When do the equinoxes occur? | Around March 21 (spring or vernal solstice) and around September 22 (fall or autumnal solstice) |
| What is the force called that attracts all objects toward each other? | Gravity. |
| What is Newton's law of universal gravitation? | It states that every object in the universe attracts every other object. |
| What does the strength of the force of gravity between two objects depend on? | The masses of the objects and the distance between them. |
| What is mass? | The amount of matter in an object. |
| What is weight? | The measure of the force of gravity on an object. |
| Would you weigh more or less on the moon? | You would weigh about 1/6 as much as on Earth because the moon has less mass than Earth, so the pull of the moon's gravity on you would be less. |
| If the distance between two objects doubles what happens to the force of gravity? | The force of gravity decreases to 1/4 of its original value. |
| What is inertia? | The tendency of an object to resist a change in motion. |
| What is Newton's first law of motion? | An object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with a constant speed and direction unless acted on by a force. |
| Why do Earth and the moon remain in orbit? | Inertia and gravity combine to keep Earth in orbit around the sun and the moon in orbit around Earth. |
| Why doesn't Earth fall into the sun if the sun and Earth are constantly pulling on one another? | The Earth is moving too fast to land on the sun. Like the Earth and moon. This is called inertia. |
| What are the phases of the moon and how are they caused? | The phases are the different shapes of the moon that you see. They are caused by the motions if the moon around the Earth. |
| Which side of the moon faces the sun? | The side that is lit. |
| Is a day on the moon longer, shorter or the same as on Earth? | The same. The moon revolves around the Earth and also rotates on its own axis like the Earth. The same side of the moon always faces the Earth. |
| What is an eclipse? | When a object in space comes between the sun and a third object, it casts a shadow on that object, which causes an eclipse. |
| What is a solar eclipse? | This occurs when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun, blocking sunlight from Earth. |
| What is the umbra? | The very darkest part of the moon's shadow. |
| What is a penumbra? | The moon casts another part of its shadow that is less dark than the umbra. In the penumbra, part of the sun is visible from Earth. |
| What is a lunar eclipse? | This occurs at a full moon when Earth is directly between the moon and the sun. The Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the moon. |
| Does the Earth's shadow have an umbra and penumbra during a lunar eclipse? | Yes. |
| What is a tide? | The rise and fall of ocean water every 12.5 hours or so. The water rises for 6 hours and falls for about 6 hours. |
| What causes the tides? | The force of the moon's gravity pulls on the oceans, causing tides. |
| At any one time of Earth, there are two places with high tides and two places with low tides. Where are they? | As the Earth rotates, one high tide occurs on the side of the Earth that faces the moon, the second occurs on the opposite side of the Earth. |
| What is a spring tide? | When the sun, Earth and moon are in a straight line (during new moon phase) their combined forces produce a tide with the greatest difference between consecutive low and high tides. (Strong tides) |
| What is a neap tide? | During the moon's first quarter phase, the line between Earth and the sun is at right angles to the line between Earth and the moon, this causes a neap tide which is a tide with the least difference between consecutive low and high tides. (Not as strong) |
| What is the surface of the moon like? | The moon is dry, airless and has an irregular surface. Compared to Earth, the moon is small and has large variations in its surface temperature. |
| What are maria? (Mare is singular form) | Dark, flat areas that are hardened rock formed from huge lava flows that occurred 3-4 billion years ago. |
| What are craters? | Large round pits that can be hundreds of kilometers across that were formed by meteoroids. |
| How does the moon's size compare to the Earth? | The moon's diameter is about 1/4 of the Earth's, moon has 1/80 as much mass, gravity is 1/6 of Earth's. The moon's average density is similar to Earth's outer layers which are less dense than the core. |
| What is the temperatures on the moon? | 130 degrees Celsius in direct sunlight, -170 degrees Celsius at night. The temperatures vary because the moon does not have an atmosphere. The gravity is so weak that gases can escape into space. |
| Is there water on the moon? | Scientists found a thin layer of water in the moon's soil in 2009. |
| What is the collision-ring theory? | 4.5 billion years ago, Earth was very young, scientists theorize that planet sized object collided with Earth, material from object & Earth's outer layers was ejected into orbit around Earth, it formed a ring, gravity caused material to clump & form moon. |
Created by:
Bwolson
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