Download Solar System homework

Solar System
Learning Target: Construct an account of Earth’s formation and early history.
Success Criteria:
 Create a timeline to show the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago
 Be able to describe how the Earth formed along with the rest of the solar system
 Describe how the age and composition of Earth’s oldest rocks, lunar rocks and meteorites are
determined by radioactive dating.
 Discuss geologic timescale.
Vocabulary:
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Heliocentric: Sun is the center of the universe
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Geocentric: Earth is the center of the universe
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Accretion: a gradual process in which layers of a material are formed as small amounts are added
over time
Radioactive Dating: technique of comparing the abundance ratio of a radioactive isotope to a
reference isotope to determine the age of a material
Meteor, Meteorite, Meteoroid, Asteroid, Comet
o Comet: chunk of ice and rock
o Asteroid: rock in orbit between Mars and Jupiter
o Meteoroid: space rock that’s bigger than a dust grain but smaller than an asteroid
o Meteor: the streak of light seen when a meteoroid enters the atmosphere
o Meteorite: if a meteor doesn’t entirely burn up, a piece of space rock that lands on Earth is
called a meteorite
Frost Line: the dividing line between for the different types of planets in our solar system
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Nebular Hypothesis: According to this theory, the Sun and all the planets of our Solar System
began as a giant cloud of molecular gas and dust.
Terrestrial Planets: inner, rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars)
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Gas Giants: outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)
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Literacy: How Our Solar System Formed: A Close Look at the Planets Orbiting Our Sun. Retrieved
September 16, 2016, from https://newsela.com/articles/BHP-U4-1-solarsystem/id/3629/. Find the
link to the article on http://www.lauerscience.com/
Answers to Quiz Questions
1. ______________
2. ______________
3. ______________
4. ______________
Homework:
1.
According to most scientifically accepted theories, our solar system was formed about _ years ago.
A. 4.6 Billion
C. 10 Million
B. 4.6 Million
D. 4600
2.
A sample of ancient granite crust is dated using potassium-40. Scientists find that 50% of the potassium-40 has decayed to
form argon-40. Approximately how old is this rock?
Isotope Parent
Carbon 14
Potassium 40
Rubidium-87
Uranium 238
Uranium 235
Isotope Daughter
Nitrogen 14
Argon 40
Strontium 87
Lead 206
Lead 207
Half Life of Parent (years)
5,730
1.3 billion
47 billion
4.5 billion
710 million
A. 0.65 billion years old
B. 1.3 billion years old
Useful Range (years
100 - 30,000
100,000 – 4.5 billion
10 Million – 4.5 billion
10 million – 4.6 billion
C. 2.6 billion years old
D. 3.9 billion years old
3.
Which statement best describes position of the Earth in the Solar System?
A. Earth is the planet closest to the sun
C. Earth is the planet farthest from the Sun.
B. Earth is closer to the Sun than Jupiter
D. Earth is farther from the Sun than Jupiter
4.
A meteorite is DIFFERENT from a comet mainly because it_.
A. has a tail of ice and dust
C. has a nucleus made of snow and rock
B. enters the Earth’s atmosphere
D. is found in orbit between Mars and Jupiter
5.
The universe has existed for approximately _.
A. 4.6 billion years
B. 13.7 million years
C. 13.7 billion years
D. 4.6 thousand years
6.
One difference in the formation of the small solid planets and the larger gaseous planets is that the gaseous planets formed _.
A. much closer to the sun
C. from condensed metals in the outer nebula
B. beyond the frost line in the nebula
D. as a result of icy individual nebula in space
7.
The _ model is a model proposed by Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish cleric, around 1500. His model proposed that all the
planets revolve around the Sun and the moon revolved around the Earth.
A. big bang
C. heliocentric
B. geocentric
D. gravocentric
8.
In 1980, a group of scientist from the University of California at Berkeley found an unusually high concentration of iridium
in a rock layer thought to be 65 million years old. Iridium is rare on Earth, but is sometimes found in meteorites. Similar
iridium deposits in similarly aged rock were found all over the world. The evidence would support _.
A. Glacial movement ceased 65 million years ago
B. An asteroid impact started the ice age 65 million years ago.
C. A giant volcanic eruption caused a mass extinction 65 million years ago.
D. The Earth was hit by one or more objects from space 65 million years ago.
9.
Particles of debris that are sometimes called shooting stars are actually _.
A. interplanetary dust
C. meteors
B. asteroids
D. comets
10. During the formation of our solar system, the nebular dust began to cool and sections began to condense. Eventually, small
grains stuck to one another via an electromagnetic force. As they grew, gravity helped to speed up the building process until
planetesimals were formed. This process is called _.
A. accretion
C. orderly motion
B. expansion
D. singularity