Astronomy Cards
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- What is an asteroid? Where are most asteroids in the solar system located? Where is it?
- An asteroid is a piece of rock similar to but smaller than a planet orbiting the sun. The are usually found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
- What is a comet? What are its three main parts?
- Mass of rock and dust mixed with frozen water, methane and ammonia. The 3 main parts are the coma, Nucleus, and Tail.
- Which direction does the tail of the comet point? Why?
- The tail points in the direction away from the sun. The solar winds push it away from the sun.
- Does a comet always have a tail? Explain.
- Comets do not always have a tail that is because the comets only have tails when they get to close to the sun.
- What is the difference between a meteoroid, a meteorite, and a meteor? Which is commonly known as a shooting star?
- A meteoroid floats in space, a meteorite Rock that hits the earth, and a meteor is rock that entered the atmosphere. Meteors are commonly known as a shooting star.
- Where do most meteoroids come from? What causes a meteor shower?
- Meteoroids come from passing comets. When many comets come through and many parts fly off from them.
- What are the two main differences between meteoroids and asteroids?
- Asteroids are much larger and they orbit around the sun.
- Why does the surface of the moon or Mercury have many craters while the surface of Venus or the Earth does not?
- Because moon and mercury are closer to the kuiper belt and Oort cloud.
- List the planets from largest diameter to smallest diameter. Where are most of the small planets located?
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, venus, Mercury, and Pluto. The are located closest to the sun.
- What happens to the distances between the planets the farther they get from the sun?
- The distance gets bigger as the planets get farther away from the sun.
- What happens to the length of a planets year the farther they get from the sun? Give an example. What two factors cause this?
- The year gets longer when it is farther away from the sun because its orbit is longer. Gravity and inertia cause this.
- In general, how does the size of the planet affect the length of its day? Give an example.
- It varies. Mars has a diameter of 6,794 km but its length of year is 10 months. , Neptune has a diameter of 30,777 but its length of a year is 164 years.
- List the 4 rocky planets. List the 4 gas giants.
- Rocky planets : mercury, venus, earth, mar. Gas planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
- Which planets have rings? Why so you think these planets have rings and the others do not?
- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune have rings. I think that some planets have rings and some don’t because of its size.
- Which planets have 0 moons? 1 moon? 2moons? More than 2 moons
- Mercury and venus have no moons. Earth and Pluto have 1 moon. Mars has 2 moons. Jupiter (61 moons), Saturn (33 moons), Uranus (11 moons), and Neptune ( 13 moons ) have more than 2.
- Which planet has the widest range in temperature? Why do you think this is?
- Mercury because it has no atmosphere which can cause temperature to change.
- Why is the sky black on Mercury?
- the sky is black on Mercury because there is no atmoshere.
- What is the hottest planet in the solar system? Why?
- venus because it is the closest planet to the sun.
- List three reasons why NASA is so interested in exploring Mars?
- NASA is so interested on exploring mars because people think that oceans once covered it. Also they think that there could be life on Mars. And covered the North Pole.
- What causes the banding appearance on the gas giants? What are the spots? Which planet has the highest winds?
- Turbulent winds cause the banding appearance on the gas giants. The spots are high winds. Saturn has the highest winds.
- What is unique about Venus’ rotation? What is unique about Uranus’ rotation?
- Venus rotates clockwise. Uranus rings are vertical other than horizontal like Saturn’s rings.
- What planet was first discovered by telescope? What planet was first discovered by a mathematical formula?
- Uranus was the first planet discovered by telescope.
- What is unique about the orbit of Neptune and Pluto?
- Neptune and Pluto orbits are unique because they cross each other.
- Pluto is located in what region of space?
- The kuiper belt
- What ptomely think?
- He thought that all the planets evolved around the sun and geoentric
- What did curpericus think?
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• Heliocentric – sun is the center of the solar system
o Moon revolves around the earth; earth and moon revolve around the sun
o Daily movement of sun and stars caused by rotation of the earth - how did the solar system form?
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• 4.6 billion years ago solar system was a vast swirling cloud of gas, ice, and dust called a nebulae (A).
• Gravity started contracting particles into a large tightly packed spinning disk (B).
o Matter condensed in the center attracting 99% of all matter in solar system
o Center so hot (1o million Digress Celsius) nuclear fusion began and the sun was born
o Solar wind kept rest of material from being pulled into the sun
• Rest of material cooled and clumped into scattered solids
• Clumps collided and combined to form the nine planets
o Inner planets – made of heavy elements – because sun couldn’t push away
o Outer planets – made of light gasses that got pushed away from the sun - how much mass does the sun have in our solar system
- 99%
- what are keplers laws of planetery motion?
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Ellipicle orbits not cirrcular.
un not centered in the orbit
o Aphelion – point of orbit farthest from the sun
o Perihelion – point of orbit closest to the sun
• Closer planets travel faster around the sun than farther planets
o Inner planets – smaller orbit and faster speed ( Mercury = 88 earth days )
o Outer planters – larger orbit and slower speed ( Neptune = 155 earth days)