The Sun, the Solar System & The Galaxy

What is a solar system?

everything that surrounds a star

What is our solar system made up of?

made up of numerous bodies which orbit the sun

What is centrifugal force?

the force that holds the bodies in the solar system in their path (in orbit of the sun)

balance between inertia and gravity

What does the inertia want the object to do?

to continue traveling infinitely in a straight line

What does the gravity want the object to do?

the gravity of the star, our sun, wants to pull that body directly into the sun

What is unique about Jupiter and Saturn?

they are “gas supergiants”, they are much larger than other planets in the solar system and are made of primarily gas

Asteroids

chunks of rocks that orbit in a belt around the solar system. “asteroid belt”

Comets

chunks of rock and ice that are going around the sun. comet “tail” is ice breaking away/melting behind it

Meteors

chunks of rocks that strike a planet. a shooting star is a meteor burning up before reaching the Earth’s surface

Why does the moon have more craters than earth?

because the moon has no atmosphere to burn it before making an impact

galaxies

huge clusters of billions of stars

What is the milky way shaped like? Where is our solar system is located?

a spiral disk with long arms

in one of the arms in Milky Way

What are the 4 layers of the Earth?

inner core, outercore, mantle, curst

Inner Core

made of solid metal, primarily Nickel & Iron

Outercore

made of liquid metal, primarily Nickel & Iron. This layer is one of the main reasons we have a magnetic field that surrounds Earth because as the Earth spins, the outer core causes the magnetic field to build up around the earth.

Mantle

primarily composed of rock, technically a solid, but it is viscous (a thick, sticky consistently between solid & liquid), so the crust can shift around and move on top of the mantle this is why we have earthquakes and continental drift

biggest layer = about 84% of the Earth’s mass

Crust

very thin compared to other layers, like an apple peel