Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Questions: For each of the following events, identify if they are caused by:
A) Earth’s Rotation
B) Earth’s Orbit
7) During a new moon or full moon phase, the gravitational force of the sun adds to the effect
of the gravitational force of the moon on the Earth. What type of tide does this cause?
8) True/False: If you look at the sky at 10:00 pm in the winter and at 10:00 pm in the summer,
you will see the same constellations in the sky.
14) Where on the earth is the sun directly overhead at noon on the summer solstice?
16) Why do we see different amounts of the moon lit up over the course of a month?
A B C D E
18) Which picture of the moon above is caused because the Earth is between the sun and the
moon?
19) Which picture of the moon above is caused because the moon is found between the Earth
and the sun?
22) Which phase would the moon need to be in to have a solar eclipse?
23) Which phase would the moon need to be in to have a lunar eclipse?
A B C
24) Which of the pictures above shows a total solar eclipse?
Read the following statements about the movements of the stars that would help you to
navigate. Determine if the statements are true or false.
26) Polaris is the only star in the sky that stays in the same position in the sky all night long
(as long as you stay at the same latitude).
A) True B) False
27) As you move towards the equator, Polaris will seem to be higher in the sky. At the
equator Polaris will be directly overhead.
A) True B) False
29) How long does it take the Earth to revolve around the sun?
30) Which ancient Greek man calculated the circumference of the Earth using shadows and
the distance 2 cities were apart.
31) Which ancient Greek man wrote a book called the Almagest in which he described his
geocentric model of the universe? His geocentric model was accepted for over 1000 years.
32) Which ancient Greek man used philosophy to create his model of the geocentric celestial
sphere?
Use the following picture to answer questions:
33) Whose model of the solar system looks most like the
one to the right?
36) Which of the following was NOT a discovery that Galileo made using his telescope?
37) Who was the first “modern” western astronomer to subscribe to the heliocentric model?
38) Who fought with the Catholic Church about the heliocentric model and was forced to
recant his ideas under the threat of torture?
41) Who was the first person to point a telescope at the sky?
44) Which physicist explained Kepler’s laws by saying that there is an attractive force felt
between any two objects that depend on the size of the objects and their distance away from
each other?
45) Which physicist explained Kepler’s laws by saying that massive objects actually bend
space and time and that planets orbit stars because of the curvature of space?
50) The stream of charged particles emitted by the sun is called the solar _?_.
51) Immediately outside the orbit of Neptune lies a flat region of space which is the source
of short-period comets. This region is called the _?_.
52) Heavier elements are formed when a star explodes. This is called a ….
54) When the nebula begins to collapse what happens to the speed of its rotation?
56) As the gas and dust in the nebula fall rapidly to its center, the temperature inside the
nebula increases. What is formed?
59) What word do we use to name a cloud of dust and gas in space, such as the one which
formed into our Solar System?
60) What was missing from the inner solar system, due to the radiation coming from the
forming sun?
61) What was the line called that separated the inner solar system from the outer solar
system before the formation of the planets?
62) Small pieces of matter coming together to form larger pieces is known as …
63) Which two of the inner planets are almost the same size?
68) Which planet has a day that is longer than its year?
69) What two gases make up most of Jupiter and Saturn?
74) If the solar system were laid out on a football field with the sun at one endzone…where
would the Earth be?
75) What is the name of the unit that is used to measure distances within our solar system?
(It is equal to the distance from the Earth to the sun).
78) What is thought to be the reason for the formation of our moon?
81) As you go farther away from the sun, the distance between the planets…
82) What was formed when Saturn, Uranus and Neptune moved farther away from the sun
and kick leftover debris into the inner solar system?
83) What is the name of the period of time where there were lots of craters formed from
the debris being flung into the inner solar system?
84) What gas is present in Uranus and Neptune and is the reason that they appear to be
blue?
85) What is the area surrounding our solar system in all directions called?
86) The surface of the moon is covered with crushed rocks called:
87) Which statement about the Moon's rotation and/or revolution is correct?
92) True/False: Earth is the only terrestrial planet that has EVER had liquid water flowing on
it.
93) Which planet has the lowest temperature on the night side of the planet?
94) The moons of Mars, shown in this diagram, are similar to what other objects in our solar
system?
95) The Earth shows very little evidence of meteor impacts because
97) Some areas of the Moon are smooth, whereas other areas are heavily cratered. This is
because:
98) Mare Imbrium is the largest of the 14 dark plains that dominate the Earth-facing side of
the Moon. The darker, smoother mare has fewer craters, the lighter colored highlands
surrounding the mare are covered with craters from asteroid impacts. Which region is
older?
100) Which planet has the largest volcano found in the solar system?
101) If you landed on this planet/moon you would be flattened and boiled. Which
planet/moon would you be on?
102) The scarps on Mercury are believed to have formed due to which of the following?
103) The Moon and Mercury are similar in that they both
106) How did Venus acquire its dense carbon dioxide atmosphere?
108) Which pair of properties accounts for why the night side of Mercury is so cold?
110) Which characteristic or property of Mars is most similar to the same characteristic or
property of the Earth?
111) How does the density of Venus’ atmosphere compare to Earth’s atmosphere?
115) As you move up and away from the Earth’s surface what happens to the temperature of
the gases in the atmosphere?
116) Mars has iron on the surface of the planet and does not have a magnetic field, even
though its rotation is very fast. What do scientists think is the reason why?
117) Which planet has the youngest overall surface on the planet?
119) Rocks on Venus tend to be much harder than rocks on Earth because they contain no
120) The NASA probe which made an extensive study of Venus ending in 1994 was named
121) We measured the age of the surface of Venus by studying which of these?
122) Which planet still has areas where new surface is being created?
123) What do we call the “effect” in which the Earth’s atmosphere traps heat, resulting in a
rise in temperature (possibly responsible for global warming)?
124) What specific gas is often mentioned as being particularly responsible for causing this
effect?
125) What do we call the dark flat areas on the surface of the Moon?
Use the following answer choices when you the picture with the place
126) 127)
128)
139) What causes the stripes and bands seen on Jupiter and Saturn’s surfaces?
140) Describe the size, age, and nature of the feature known as the Great Red Spot.
143) The image below is a picture of Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Where would the sun be to
cause the magnetic field to look as it does in the picture below?
A D
C
144) Which moon of Jupiter is larger than the planet Mercury?
148) Explain what is happening on the moon Io to make it such a violently active body, and
what is causing that activity
149) Explain why the moon Europa has generated so much excitement among scientists, and
what makes conditions there possible.
150) This moon is thought to be a captured object from the Kuiper belt
151) This moon has a retrograde orbit
152) This moon has lakes of hydrocarbons
153) This moon has an atmosphere
154) This moon looks as though it has been broken apart and then come back together
155) This moon has a highly elliptical orbit
164) Which of the following characteristics would be an indication that a moon was captured
by a planet’s gravity instead of having formed along with the planet during its solar system
formation?
165) Why was it important for the Voyager missions to launch when they did?
166) A dwarf planet is different than a planet in which of the following ways?
168) Which was the first probe to go into the asteroid belt and out to Jupiter?
169) Which was the only probe to go past Uranus and Neptune?
170) Which of the following was NOT discovered by the missions to the outer planets?
D C
A E