Name: ________________________________________________ Date: ___________________ Period: _________
I.
Composed of rock and metal
II.
Part of our solar system
III.
“shooting star”
IV.
A piece of an asteroid falling through Earth’s
atmosphere
V.
If it strikes Earth’s surface, it’s called a meteorite
VI.
Found mainly between Mars and Jupiter
VII.
Orbit the sun
VIII.
A mixture of water, ices, gas, and dust
Comet
Meteor
May take thousands of years to complete orbit
Comparison of Inner Planets
14000
12000
Diameter (km)
IX.
Asteroid
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
Make a bar graph using the
diameters of the 4 inner planets.
0
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Planet
What would happen to the motion of the planets in our solar system if the Sun
suddenly lost its gravitational pull?
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Mars
Ms. Bedner is making a model of the solar system. She chooses a ball with a
12cm diameter to represent Saturn. According to the previous table, what size
ball would be the BEST choice to represent Venus?
Why do the outer-planets take longer to revolve the sun in comparison to the
inner-planets?
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Describe the shape of the 8 planets. __________________________________
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Describe the shape of a planet’s orbit.
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A probe is designed to conduct experiments in locations where humans cannot
travel. Circle the following locations to which we might send a probe.
Mercury
A distant galaxy
Hubble Space Telescope
Sun’s Core
Olympus Mons
Your neighbor’s house
Venus
The top of Mt Everest
Kuiper Belt
A spinoff is a new product that resulted, sometimes accidentally, from other
research. Cordless tools and appliances are spinoffs of NASA, research to find
three other spinoffs of the space program. Yes, you may use Google and Bing.
1) ________________ 2) ________________ 3) ________________
What is a unique characteristic does the United States space shuttle have that
none of the older space travel vehicles possessed?
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Parent Signature = 5 Bonus Points
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