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17-4 (Science)
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Satellite | A natural or artificial body that revolves around a planet. |
| What is another name for earth's moon? | Luna |
| How do scientists know the solar system is about 4.6 billion years old? | Because rocks brought back during the Apollo missions have hardly changed since they formed. |
| How do scientists estimate how old a body's surface is? | By knowing the rate of cratering and using the number of craters on a body. |
| What is the current explanation for the formation of the moon? | The moon formed from the debris that was created after a large body collided with Earth. |
| Before scientists had rock samples, what were the three popular explanations for the moons formation? | (1) the moon was a separate body captured by Earth's gravity, (2) the moon formed at the same time and from the same materials that Earth did, and (3) the newly formed Earth was spinning so fast that a piece flew off and became the moon. |
| Phase | The change in the sunlit area of one celestial body as seen from another celestial body. |
| What determines which phase the moon is in? | The positions of the moon, sun, and Earth. |
| What happens when the moon is waxing? | The sunlit fraction that we can see from earth is getting larger. |
| What happens when the moon is waning? | The sunlit fraction is getting smaller. |
| Eclipse | An event in which the shadow of one celestial body falls on another. |
| Solar Eclipse | When the moon comes between Earth and the sun and the shadow of the moon falls on part of Earth. |
| Lunar Eclipse | When the Earth falls between the sun and the moon and the shadow of Earth falls on the moon. |
| What happens during an annular eclipse? | The moon is farther from the earth. |
| What happens during a total solar eclipse? | The disk of the moon completely covers the disk if the sun. |
| Why don't you see solar and lunar eclipses every month? | Because the moons orbit around the Earth is tilted-by about 5 degrees- relative to the orbit of Earth around the sun. This tilt is enough to place the moon out of Earth's shadow for most full moons and Earth out of the moon's shadow for most new moons. |
| How many moons does Mars have and what are they called? | Mars has two moons: Phobos and Deimos. |
| What are the four largest moons of Jupiter? | Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa. |
| What are the four largest moons of Jupiter known as and why? | The Galilean satellites; because they were discovered by Galileo. |
| What is the most volcanically active body in the solar system? | Io |
| What is the largest moon on Saturn? | Titan |
| What did scientists hope to learn by studying Titan? | More about how life began on earth. |
| What spacecraft did NASA launch to study Saturn and its moons? | The Cassini spacecraft. |
| Like the moons of Saturn, what are Uranus's largest moons made up of? | Ice and rock and are heavily cratered. |
| What is the most unusual moon of Uranus and why? | Miranda; because it's surface has smooth, cratered plains as well as regions that have grooves and cliffs. |
| What do scientists think happened to Miranda? | That it may have been hit and broken apart in the past and that gravity pulled it back together again, which left a patchwork surface. |
| What is Neptune's largest moon and how does it revolve around the planet? | Triton; It revolves around the planet in a retrograde, or backward orbit. |
| What is Pluto's only known moon? | Charon, which was discovered in1978. |
| How often is Pluto eclipsed by its moon, Charon? | Once every 120 years. |
Created by:
mitchey64
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