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Home , Axial tilt, Shepherd moon

Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______

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Cosmic Relations (Select each location and record how the fits into the universe.)

1. Earthà__People live on Earth____

2. Solar Systemà___The Earth the and is part of the Solar System______

3. Milky Wayà____The Solar System is part of the Milky Way galaxy______

4. Universeà____The Milky Way is one of more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe_____

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The Milky Way is the home of Earth’s solar system!

5. What type of galaxy is the Milky Way? _____barred spiral galaxy______

6. The Milky Way, like most galaxies, probably has what at its center? ___super massive black hole_____

7. A ‘regular’ spiral galaxy has a circular center. What shape does a barred spiral galaxy have?___elongated galactic center____

Swipe the screen to the left 8. The Solar System is a collection of what? ___is a collection of , dwarf planets, asteroids, and other material orbiting the sun ______

9. List the terrestrial planets. __Mercury, , Earth, Mars____

10. Describe the terrestrial planets__The inner planets are closer to the Sun and are rocky in . Only Earth and Venus have a significant atmosphere ______

11. List the Gas Giant planets. ___Jupiter, , , Neptune______

12. Describe the Gas Giants.____outer planets are much larger than the terrestrial planets and are composed mostly of gas______

13. What occurs between the terrestrial planets and the gas giants? ___an asteroid belt___

Swipe the screen to the left Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______

14. What is the Sun? ____is a star, a giant ball of extremely hot luminous gas, in the center of the solar system__

Label each part of the graph with the percent and the element that makes up that percentage of the Sun.

18. How much of the total mass of the ENTIRE solar system is made up by the Sun? __99.9% __

19. What appears as dark blemishes on the Sun? ___sunspots_____

Watch the Video 20. What are coronal loops? __jets of plasma that follow the Sun’s magnetic field____

Swipe the screen to the left Planets of the Solar System 21. What three things define a ? 1.__the object orbits the Sun and is not a moon___

2.__the object has enough mass to form a stable spherical shape___

3.___The object has cleared its orbital path of other objects___

Select 22. Mercury is the __smallest___ planet in the Solar System and is __closest__ to the Sun. 23. Explain Mercury’s extreme temperature conditions._____it is so close to the Sun that the lit side gets blazing hot. At the same time the dark side is freezing cold because there is no atmosphere to trap heat ____

Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______Select Venus 24. Venus has a thick atmosphere that traps heat from the Sun. What temperatures can occur on the Venusian Terrain? ____surface temperatures can reach 460°C (860°F)______

25. What appears at each of the poles of Venus? ___a large atmospheric vortex____

26. The Venera 13 probe only lasted two hours due to what features of the thick atmosphere? ___

___high surface pressure and hot temperatures caused by thick atmosphere ____

Select Earth

27. How much of Earth’s surface is water? ___70%_____

28. What two things continuously refresh Earth’s crust? ___tectonic plates and volcanic activity____

Select the at the bottom left side of the page

29. What does tidally locked to Earth mean? _the same side of the moon always faces Earth. The far side of the moon can only be seen from space__

30. Many large craters are filled with what substance from old volcanic activity? __dark basalt__

31. About how long does it take the Moon to go through phases from New Moon and back? _about 30 days_

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32. Why is Mars known as the ‘red planet’?_due to the large amount of iron oxide/rust in the ground__

33. What dormant volcano is three times taller than Earth’s Mount Everest? _Olympus Mons__

34. What are the names of Mars’ two ? Describe both__Phobos and Deimos; both are heavily cratered rocky bodies _

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35. How many would fit inside of Jupiter? _over 1000 Earths!__

36. What were Jupiter’s rings discovered? __1979___

37. What is the name of the giant storm that has existed for 182 __Great Red Spot__ Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______38. Jupiter has at least 66 observed moons. In the table below, list the names and a fact about each of the Galilean moons. (Select each moon on the bottom right side of the screen to find this information. You can slide the screen left to advance to the next moon.) Name Fact The most geologically active object in the solar system with over 400 active volcanoes; high volcanic Io activity changes surface and refreshes the bright colors that paint the landscape; the Tvashtar volcanic region spews debris 330 km into space Had sub-surface oceans which could possibly harbor alien life; believed to have a layer of liquid salt water beneath the icy outer crust; the moon also likely has a solid metallic core surrounded by a rocky ; smooth fractured surface is evidence of liquid water flowing beneath frozen surface The largest moon in the solar system and larger than Mercury; 40% is old dark colored heavily cratered terrain, 60% is light colored grooved terrain; The craters are relatively flat compared to the surrounding surface, thought to be caused by the soft icy crust slowly settling, smoothing the surface; craters are created when asteroids hit surface and then the crater sinks over time Is one of the most heavily cratered objects in the solar system; the largest crater is Valhalla at 3,800 km in diameter; it is thought that there is a layer of liquid water beneath the thick icy crust; third largest moon in the solar system; core is only partially differentiated—a fully differentiated core is composed of distinct layers—interior is mixture of ice and rock

Select Saturn 39. Where does the large hurricane-like vortex exist? __Saturn’s north pole_ 40. Saturn has at least 62 moons. In the table below, list the names and fact for each of four largest moons. (Tap each of the moons at the bottom left of the screen to find this information. You can slide the screen left to advance to the next moon.) Name Fact Is only known moon with dense atmosphere; dark colored methane lakes can be seen on the surface; the Huygens probe landed on Titan and took photographs of its surface; Titan has a methane cycle, similar to the water cycle on Earth but operating at much lower temperatures: 179°C (-290°F) on the surface; due to the presence of stable liquids on the surface, it is thought that Titan could possibly harbor alien life; Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and slightly larger than Mercury Is like a giant dirty snowball with its composition of 75% ice and 25% rock; bright wispy terrain stretches across surface; is extremely cold -230°C (-364°F) to -174°C (-281°F); heavily cratered; second largest moon of Saturn but less than a third as big as Titan Has a distinct two toned color- half whited half brown; a large ridge encircles the ; Some peaks in the ridge are over 10 km (6 miles) tall; mostly composed of ice; the dark material is only a thin coat over the ice beneath

Enceladus Could harbor alien life underground in pockets of liquid water; appears to be geologically active and has a varied terrain of canyons, plains, and ridges; surface is composed almost entirely of pure water ice; likely a layer of liquid water beneath surface that breaks out from weak points in the crust as plumes of water

Select Uranus 41. Describe the tilt of this planet.___on its side relative to its orbital plane___

42. Uranus is the coldest planet with the temperature of __as low as -244°C (-407°F)__.

43. Uranus has 27 known moons. List the names of the two largest moons and a fact about each. Name Fact Largest moon of Uranus; many large canyons—most prominent is the Messina Chasm which runs from the equator to the south pole Second largest moon of Uranus; Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______

Select 44. How many kilometers away from the Sun is Neptune? __4.5 billion kilometers from the Sun___

45. There are often active, raging storms, visible as dark areas on Neptune. At what speed have the winds been

observed? ___1,200 km (750 miles) per hour have been observed__ 46. Neptune has 13 known moons. Select the image of at the bottom of the screen. List three things about Triton. 1. ___orbits opposite direction from Neptune and of Neptune’s other moons; indicating the moon was likely captured from the Kuiper belt___ 2. ___relatively few impact craters on Triton; volcanic activity is thought to have resurfaced the crust erasing old craters____ 3. __largest moon of Neptune, comprising 99.5% of the mass of all moons orbiting Neptune___

Swipe the screen to the left Dwarf Planets of the Solar System 47. What three things define a dwarf planet?

1.__the object orbits the Sun and is not a moon__ 2.__the object has enough mass to form a stable spherical shape____ 3.___the object has NOT cleared its orbital path of other objects _____ 48. Tap on each of the dwarf planets, list two facts about each in the data table below. (Tap the back arrow to return to dwarf planet screen.) Name Fact ONE Fact TWO

Resides in the asteroid belt; a ring of ice and rocks orbiting Largest asteroid in the belt with 1/3 of the total mass of the the Sun between Jupiter and Mars; only recognized dwarf belt; gravitational disturbances from Jupiter prevent it from planet to in the inner solar system becoming full size planet;

Orbits in the Kuiper belt; orbits contains other objects not Once considered a planet from 1930 – 2006; was considered to be planets; Charon, largest of ’s 5 found in Pluto’s orbit in 2005; deep orange to charcoal to Pluto known moons, is so massive that its orbit is not centered white surface is mix of colors around Pluto

Orbits in the Kuiper belt; orbits contains other objects not Nearly egg shaped, fastest of any other considered to be planets; believed to have collided with known planetary object (4 hours); another object in past to form its moons and cause its rapid rotation and oblong

Orbits in the Kuiper belt; orbits contains other objects Takes 310 Earth years to make one revolution around the not considered to be planets; not much known about it Sun; appears to have red hue; highest resolution images Makemake of makemake reveal a star-like point of light with no orbiting moons

Orbits in the Kuiper belt; orbits contains other objects Thought to be slightly larger than the dwarf planet Pluto; Eris not considered to be planets has a known moon (Dysnomia); discovered in 2005

Swipe the screen to the left from the Dwarf Planet home screen Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______Small Solar System Objects are small solid bodies besides planets and dwarf planets that orbit the Sun. 49. Describe each:

Comets: ___are small objects that give off a visible ‘tail’ when near the Sun; have no tail when not near the sun______Meteors: __are the visible tails seen when small objects enter and burn up in a planet’s atmosphere; ____

Belts: ____collections of small objects orbiting the Sun including asteroid belt and Kuiper belt; areas filled with high number of small Solar System objects ____ Select Comets 50. Describe each of the comet tail types. Fill in the data table below. Comet tail type Description Strongly affected by the Sun’s solar wind and thus always faces away from the gas tail Sun Formed when volatile compounds vaporize from the heat of the Sun. generally dust tail has an arc shape

Select Belts 51. Describe each of the belts and clouds. Fill in the data table below. Type of Belt or Cloud Description

The Asteroid Belt Located between mars and Jupiter

The Kuiper Belt Lies beyond Neptune’s orbit

The Oort Cloud Extends to the edge of the Solar System

Select Meteors 52. What else are Meteors known as when they burn up in a planet’s atmosphere?_shooting stars___ 53. What is formed when large objects survive the descent through the atmosphere? __impact craters___

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Size Comparison Highlight Earth and tap the box on the left side to place Earth in the left side box.

54. Fill in the data table below by highlighting each object and then the box on the right side. (Slide the dot along the scale in the middle until Earth is set to 1:00.) Record the ratio of size comparison. One is done for you. Comparison Sun Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune to Earth 1.00 : 1:00 : 0.38 1:00 : 0.95 1:00 : 0.53 1.00 : 1:00 : 9.45 1:00 : 4.01 1:00 : 3.88 (1) 109.05 11.21 Tap on the picture of the Earth to make The Moon image appear. Highlight Earth’s moon and put it in the box on the left. To make each of the other planet’s moons appear, you will need to select the planet first. You will need to select six other moons in the solar system. 55. Fill in the data table below by highlighting each object you selected and then tapping the box on the right side. Record the ratio of size comparison. One is done for you. (*If the comparison results in a 0.00 like Deimos, skip it.)

Planets Mars Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter Saturn Saturn Saturn Saturn Uranus Uranus Neptune

Moon Io Europa Ganymede Callisto Titan Rhea Iapetus Titania Oberon Triton Names

Comparison to Earth’s 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : 1:00 : Moon 0.01 1.05 0.90 1.52 1.39 1.48 0.44 0.42 0.15 0.45 0.44 0.78 (1)

Swipe the screen to the left Solar System Scale: Slide the circle along the scale at the bottom of the screen to adjust the amount of the solar system viewed. To go back and forth between the viewing angles, select either the right or left side of the button 56. The Sun and the planetary orbits are shown to scale. Why are the planets not shown to scale? ___shown much larger because they would be too small to see otherwise_____ Swipe the screen to the left 57. Describe the theory presented about how the Solar System formed. ___ The material for the solar system came from remains of a massive star. The solar system began as a protoplanetary disk: a protostar surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. Over time the material clumped together to form larger objects. The larger objects attracted more material through gravitational forces, eventually forming into planets. ___ Swipe the screen to the left 58. Describe three theories of how moons are formed. Theory Description Planets are born from a disk of swirling material called an accretion disk. if the disk has 1. Around the enough material, the material may coalesce to form moons. Terrestrial planets are planet thought to have minimal accretion disks when forming and thus moons are less likely gained in this fashion. If a planet collides with another large object, matter from the collision can shoot out into space and fall into orbit around the planet. This material may then coalesce into a moon. It 2. Planetary is believed to impossible for gas giants to gain moons through this method as any colliding collision object would be swallowed by the atmosphere and absorbed into the planet. it is thought that the Earth’s moon was formed as a result of a giant collision. An object can pass close enough to a planet that it becomes trapped in orbit around it. 3. Captured object Captured moons often have a highly inclined orbit and may even rotate around the planet in the opposite direction from the planet’s rotation. Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______Swipe the screen to the left Planetary Rings 59. What is a planetary ? _____a collection of dust and other small objects which orbits a planet as a flattened disk.____

60. Describe three ways that planetary rings may form. Description 1. If a moon’s orbit gets too close to its planet, the gravitational pull of the planet can pull the moon apart. The debris may then form a ring around a planet

2. Debris from lunar collisions can form rings

3. Material from a planet’s accretion disk that remained close to the planet is unlikely to coalesce into moons because the planet’s gravitational force is too strong at this range. The material may instead remain as rings. Swipe the screen to the left Shepherd Moons 61. What happens to material that escapes a ring into the orbital path of a shepherd moon?__it’s either accumulated onto the moon, deflected back into a ring or deflected out of the area entirely _ 62. Name the two shepherd ’s F-ring. ___Prometheus and Pandora___ Swipe the screen to the left Planetary tilt and rotation 63. What causes the day and night cycle? ___planet rotation (spinning on axis)______

64. What is the amount of time a planet takes to rotate around once called? ____a day____

65. What is the amount of time it takes a planet to orbit the Sun one time called? __a year__

66. What causes the over the course of a planet’s orbit around the Sun?__planetary tilt___

67. In June, which hemisphere of Earth is titled towards the Sun?___northern hemisphere____ 68. What does the Southern Hemisphere on Earth experience during June since it is tilted away from the Sun?____winter_____ 69. Select each of the different planets at the bottom of the screen to fill in the data table below. Planet Axial Tilt Length of day Length of Year Mercury 2.1° 58.6 Earth Days 88 Earth days Venus 177.3° 243 Earth Days 224.7 Earth days Earth 23.4° 24 hours 365.3 Earth Days Mars 25.2° 24.6 Earth hours 1.9 Earth years Jupiter 3.1 9.9 Earth hours 11.9 Earth years Saturn 26.7° 10.7 Earth hours 29.5 Earth years Uranus 97.8° 17.2 Earth hours 84.1 Earth years Neptune 28.3° 16.1 Earth hours 164.9 Earth years Swipe the screen to the left Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______70. What causes the planets to orbit the Sun and moons to orbit planets? __gravitational force of the Sun___

71. What is the amount of gravitational pull on the mass of an object called? __weight___

72. What property causes an object to have more or less gravitational force? __mass__ 73. Use the interactive window to fill in the data table below. Location Weight (not mass!) Object Comparison Earth 130 lbs. (59 kg) Human

Sun 3642 lbs (1652 kg) Black Rhinoceros Mercury 49 lbs (22 kg) Bulldog

Venus 118 lbs (54 kg) Cheetah

Mars 49 lbs (22 kg) Bulldog

Jupiter 330 lbs (150 kg) Black Bear

Saturn 138 lbs (63 kg) Cougar

Uranus 118 lbs (54 kg) Cheetah

Neptune 148 lbs (67 kg) Komodo Dragon

The Moon 22 lbs (10 kg) Red Fox

Ceres 4 lbs (2 kg) European Rabbit Swipe the screen to the left The magnetic field 74. What two things does the magnetic field of Earth protect the planet from? ____ Sun’s solar wind and much of the radiation from the Sun___

75. What does convection in Earth’s outer core generate that causes a magnetic field? ___electric current__

76. What causes Auroras? ____the interaction between the Sun’s solar wind and a planet’s magnetic field. They appear most frequently near the magnetic poles ______

77. What is another name for the Aurora Borealis? ___the Northern Lights___ Swipe the screen to the left Planet Revolutions 78. All planets revolve around the Sun, but each takes a different amount of time to complete one revolution. Fill in the data table below. Planets Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Revolution 11.86 29.46 84.32 164.8 period in 88 Earth 225 Earth 1.88 Earth 1 year Earth Earth Earth Earth Earth Days Days Years Years Years Years Years time ~

Swipe the screen to the left Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______The History of started in ancient times with observation of stars and planets traversing the night sky. Tap a section on the timeline to answer the questions below. select 2500 BCE: 79. What did early civilizations use to create calendars? __cycles of the Sun and the Moon___ 80. Where was the first known star catalogue found? __ancient Babylonia___ 81. What five planets are visible to the naked eye? _____ Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (the ‘Wandering Stars’) ______

select 1500-1899: 82. Where were the first telescopes invented? ______the Netherlands __ 83. What planet was first discovered by Sir and was mistaken for a comet? ___Uranus___

select 1900-1964: 84. Who launched the first liquid fueled rocket? __Robert H. Goddard___

85. Who was the first human in space and where is he from? _____Russian, Yuri Gagarin______

86. What mission successfully landed the first humans on the Moon? ___Apollo 11___

select 1965-1989: 87. What lander took the first photograph of the surface of Venus? ___Venera 9___

88. What probe was sent to study the outer solar system? ____Voyager 2_____

89. What spacecraft was the first to fly by Mercury? ___Mariner 10__

90. What was the first spacecraft to fly by Saturn?___Pioneer 11____

select The 1990’s: 91. What was built to orbit the Earth and take images of Solar System bodies? __the Hubble Telescope___

92. What is the name of the solar observatory that was launched to study the Sun? __Yohkoh___

93. What do the initials ISS stand for? __International Space Station___

94. What is the SOHO and what does it do? ___the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory gathers information about the Sun ______

Name ______Date ______Hour______Table______select 2000-2009: 95. What probe orbits around Saturn and is scheduled to continue observing it until 2017? _the Cassini probe__

96. What spacecraft collect the first dust sample from an asteroid? ___the Hayabusa_____

97. What are the names of the two rovers that landed on Mars as part of the The Mars Exploration Rover Mission? __Spirit and Opportunity- Opportunity still works__

98. What spacecraft collected the first debris from a comet’s tail? __the Stardust spacecraft__

99. What probe was the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid? _the NEAR Shoemaker probe_

100. What did the Phoenix lander find when digging into the soil on the surface of Mars? ___water/ice below the surface__

select 2010 and beyond:

101. What is the purpose for which The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched? __to better understand the Sun’s magnetic field and other solar activity______

102. What became the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury? __MESSENGER spacecraft___

103. What spacecraft is expected to reach Pluto and take the first clear photos of the dwarf planet and its moons around July 2015? __The New Horizons spacecraft__

104. What things about Jupiter is the Juno planning to observe? ___Jupiter’s cloud system, magnetic field, auroras, and other attributes ______

105. What was one of the main objectives of the Curiosity rover mission on Mars? __to find and analyze the organic and mineral compounds on Mars ______

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The Future of

The exploration of outer space is on-going today and will continue far into the future. New theories will emerge and old theories will change. What new insights will emerge tomorrow? No one can say for sure, but from amateur astronomers to professional astronauts to teachers, everyone can be part of the process: learning, revising and teaching the ever expanding knowledge of the Solar System!