Download Earth/Space Science Final Assessment Study Guide

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Earth/Space Science Final Assessment Study Guide
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Key Vocabulary:
Sun- medium sized star that shines on the Earth
Axis- imaginary line that passes through the North and South Poles tilted at 23.5 degrees
Rotation- spinning on an axis
Counterclockwise- direction the Earth rotates and the moon and Earth revolve
Revolution- To move in a curved path around something. Earth revolves around the sun. This
contributes to why we have seasons.
Tilted Axis- An imaginary line around which an object rotates. Earth’s axis is always tilted 23.5
degrees. This contributes to why we have seasons.
Spherical Planet- The shape of planet Earth.
Orbit- A curved path of one object around another object in space. Earth’s orbit curves around
the sun.
Earth- The third planet from the sun.
Moon- Satellite that moves around the earth once each month and reflects light from the sun.
Atmosphere- The mixture of gases that surround the planet.
Troposphere- Layer of the atmosphere in which we live. The layer that supports most life,
contains the most usable air, and has the most weather.
Key Ideas:
A. What causes day and night?
• What causes day and night? (Earth rotating on its axis)
• When does day occur? (When the sun strikes that part of the Earth)
• When does night occur? (When the sun is on the opposite side of Earth)
• What direction does the Earth rotate? (Counterclockwise)
• How long does it take for the Earth to make a full rotation? (24 hours)
B. What causes seasons?
• What causes seasons? (The Earth revolving around the sun on a tilted axis)
• The Earth orbiting the sun on its tilted axis causes the sun’s rays to either hit directly in the
Northern hemisphere or the Southern hemisphere.
• The tilted axis results in direct sunlight in summer and less direct sunlight in winter.
• The Earth’s distance from the sun does not affect seasons.
C. How do the sun, Earth, and moon interact?
• Most objects in the solar system are in a regular and predictable motion.
• The Earth orbits the sun counterclockwise as the moon orbits the Earth counterclockwise.
• The moon’s orbit around Earth takes about 28 days.
• Be able to put pictures of the moon phases in the appropriate order of the lunar cycle
• Lunar eclipse – when the moon passes in the shadow of the Earth (becomes a reddish
color)
• Solar eclipse – when the moon passes in between the sun and the Earth, casting a shadow
on part of Earth (it does not block out all of Earth!)
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The sun is the central and largest body of the solar system.
The Earth is one of several planets that orbit the sun.
The planets within our solar system: Remember My Very Educated Mother Just Served
Us Nachos
o Inner planets (rocky and dense) - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
o Outer planets (gaseous and large) – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
D. How does the Earth move within our solar system?
• The path that one object takes around another is called an orbit.
• The Earth has a slightly elliptical orbit.
• Rotating is a circular motion of an object on a fixed axis.
• Revolving is a complete orbit or lap of one body around another body.
• The Earth orbits, rotates, and revolves within our solar system.
E. What are the characteristics of Earth?
• Earth’s Water
o 75% (¾) of Earth’s surface is covered by water
o 97% Earth’s water is in oceans/seas = salty water
o 3% is freshwater = not salty water
→ Most of freshwater is stored as ice (polar ice caps, glaciers, snow)
→ most of the liquid water is found as groundwater (water underground) while the
rest is in lakes, rivers, wetlands and the atmosphere
• Earth’s Land or Layers – (be able to label the layers of the Earth)
o crust – thinnest layer, the layer on which we live
o mantle – largest layer
o outer core – liquid layer
o inner core – “center” of Earth, solid made mostly of iron
• Earth’s Air or Atmosphere
o troposphere –
1. layer closest to Earth’s surface
2. shallowest, but contains most of the air in the atmosphere
3. most weather forms here
4. most life exists here
o two gases, nitrogen and oxygen, make up 99% of Earth’s atmosphere
1. oxygen supports life
F. How are stars like the sun?
• Stars are balls of gas that look like points of light in the night sky due to their distance
from the Earth.
• The sun is a medium sized star.
• Some stars are 1,000 times more massive than the sun.
• The great distance from the Earth makes both the sun and other stars appear to be much
smaller than they actually are.
• A star’s color is determined by its surface temperature (red=coolest, blue=hottest)
• The sun is the closest star to Earth