Download Science Astronomy Name

Astronomy
Study Guide
Name: _______________________________#_____
Test on: ____________
1. Astronomy is the study of the stars, planets, and other objects that make
up the universe.
2. The universe is very big. It may extend to infinity.
3. Most astronomers believe that the universe began as an explosion called
the “Big Bang.”
4. A constellation is a group of stars that seems to make a pattern in the sky.
5. The North Star is over the North Pole in the Little Dipper and appears to stay
in the same place and the other stars appear to circle around it. It is used to
navigate because it is always in the northern sky.
6. The Earth turns or rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.
7. Day and night are caused by this rotation.
8. The sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west.
9. The Earth travels or revolves around the sun once every 365¼ days.
10. This path around the sun is called an orbit.
11. The Earth's seasons are caused by this orbit & by Earth's tilt on its axis.
12. Nicolaus Copernicus said that the sun was the center of our solar system.
13. Galileo used his telescope to prove that the sun is the center of the solar
system.
14. Telescopes are used to study our universe.
15. Our solar system consists of the sun and all eight planets, the moons that
orbit the planets, asteroids, meteors, and comets.
16. Stars are glowing balls of gas that exists throughout space.
17. Our sun is a star that is the source of Earth’s light energy and heat energy.
18. A force that causes objects to attract each other is called gravity.
(OVER)
19. Gravity keeps the planets orbiting the sun. It also keeps the moons orbiting
the planets.
20. The pull of the moon's gravity is the main cause of tides on Earth.
21. A tide is the rise and fall of water along an ocean coast.
22. The eight planets of our solar system are in order from the sun as follows:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. (My Very
Enthusiastic Mother Just Served Us Nachos.)
23. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.
24. A galaxy is a large cluster of billions of stars and clouds of gas and dust held
together by gravity.
25. The Milky Way is a large collection of stars that make up the galaxy in which
our solar system is located. The Andromeda Galaxy is another galaxy.
26. A comet is a ball of ice and dust that follows a regular orbit around the sun.
Halley's Comet is probably the most popular of all comets.
27. Asteroids are large and small pieces of orbiting rock.
28. A meteor is a chunk of rock or metal that strikes the Earth's atmosphere and
burns up. They are also called “falling stars” or “shooting stars.”
29. A meteorite is a meteor that has survived its fall through the atmosphere
and has struck the surface of a planet or a moon.
30. Planets orbit the sun in an oval path called an ellipse.
31. A satellite is something that orbits something else.
32. The moon is Earth’s satellite. The moon does not make its own light
reflects the light of the sun.
33. On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the
moon.
34. He was part of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
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