Solar System

A creation story is a story that explains the origin of our earth, with the story of Turtle Island being an example of a creation story for Northern America

What is a creation story and what is an example of one?

It is the sun and the objects within its gravitational influence, such as planets, moons, comets, and asteroids

What is the solar system?

A cloud of dust and gases in space

What is a nebula?

Another name nebulas are given is “stellar nurseries” for the reason that they are areas where stars are forming

What is another name that astronomers call nebulas and why?

Solar wind pushed on the contents of a nebula, and the dust and gas that was left behind became a thin disk where bodies formed, becoming planets, comets, moons, and asteroids

How did solar wind affect the nebula?

A body of plasma undergoing nuclear reactions and radiates energy through forms such as visible and UV light

What is a star defined as and how do they express energy?

The sun is approx. 4.6 billion years old and is made up of 73% hydrogen (h) and 25% helium (he), with carbon, oxygen, and iron being the other heavier elements

How old is the sun and what is it made of?

A planet is an astronomical object that orbits one or more stars and is capable of forming into a spherical shape under its own gravity

What is a planet?

Rocky planets and gas giants

What are the 2 kinds of planets?

It is the average distance from the earth to the sun and it is 150 million km

What is 1 AU the distance of and how many km is it?

A light year (ly) is the distance light travels in one year and one ly is equal to 63000 AU and 9 trillion km

What is a lightyear and how much is it in AU and km?

7 times

How many times can light go around earth in one second?

They are metallic/rocky bodies that don’t have an atmosphere and can be as small as a pebble and up to 1000 km in diameter, and they orbit the sun at 3 AU in the Asteroid Belt

What are asteroids and where do they orbit?

How reflective something is, meaning that bodies that have a higher albedo are easier to find

What is albedo?

Through the analysis of asteroids. Since they were formed at generally the same time as earth, we can learn more about the early solar system’s materials

What is one way we have determined the age of our solar system?

Planets that are roughly spherical and also have a somewhat unusual orbit and also often orbit in a zone that has many other objects

What are dwarf planets?

A dwarf planet that is still in the stages of forming

What is a protoplanet?

They are made of ice and dust and have been dubbed to be “dirty snowballs”

What are comets?

The most distant region of our solar system that sits 50000 AU away from the sun, is made of billions of ice and dust fragments that orbit the sun, and is a major source of comets

What is the Oort Cloud?

It can then be sent into an elliptical orbit, bringing it near to the sun that melts off the ice that then creates a tail that is really long and reflects sunlight, allowing for it be easier to observe from earth

What happens when a comet leaves the Oort Cloud?

How close it is to the sun, it’s albedo, how close it is to the earth, and how much material has come off

What does the brightness of a comet depend on?

2000 BCE

Since what time have astronomers been recording the appearance of comets?

It is the scale that communicates the possibility of a collision for an asteroid/comet to hit earth, with 0 being little to no impact and 10 having global climactic change

What is the Torino scale?

Small rock/metal bodies that drift through the solar system with no fixed path

What are meteoroids?

Meteoroids that have entered earth’s atmosphere with the surface vaporizing due to heat, cause it to streak brightly across the sky for a few seconds. They also occur in between altitudes of 80-120 km

What are meteors?

When a meteor has reached the surface of the earth

What are meteorites?

It first is passing through our solar system (meteoroid), then it’s trajectory has it pass through the earth’s atmosphere (meteor), and following this it hits the surface of the earth (meteorite).

Describe what happens when a meteoroid turns into a meteor, then into a meteorite.

When many meteors appear within an hour or even a few minutes and they are all due to comets

What are meteor showers?

Very intense meteor showers, producing at least 1000 meteors in one hour

What are meteor storms?

It is the second largest asteroid in which 1 out of every 16 meteors come from, and is one of the 7 identified solar system bodies we have samples of.

What is 4-Vesta

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, meteors, stars, constellations, the moon, satellites, the sun, etc.

What can you see without a telescope at night?

Mid-July to 2nd week of August

When does the Perseid meteor shower occur?

Regularly

How often do we find new comets?

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

What is the order of the planets from closest-farthest from the sun?

Via nuclear fusion

How are hydrogen nuclei converted into energy and helium nuclei?