Download Orbitals Graphing

Graphing Skills – Planets’ Orbits
The solar system is made up of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity. These
objects orbit around the sun. The planets’ orbits are almost circular.
Create a bar graph comparing showing the planet’s orbital periods in Earth years. The x-axis and yaxis have been labeled for you.
Planet
Earth Years
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
0.24
0.62
1.00
1.88
11.9
29.5
Use the reading and graph to answer the following questions.
1. What is the solar system?
2. Label the planets of our solar system on the picture at the top of the page (use only the planets in the
table above).
3. Which planet has the shortest orbital period? ______________________ How long is it? ________
4. Which planet has the longest orbital period? ______________________ How long is it? ________
5. Which planet has an orbital period that is closest to Earth’s orbital period? ____________________
6. Which has a greater orbital period, Earth or Mars? _____________________
7. What is the difference between the orbital periods of Earth and Mars? _____________________
8. Which has a greater orbital period, Earth or Mercury? _____________________
9. What is the difference between the orbital periods of Earth and Mercury? _____________________
The following table shows the distance in astronomical units (AUs) of each planet from the sun. Use
this data to create a bar graph in the grid below. Label the x-axis with the regions. Label the y-axis
with the distances starting at 0 and going up by 2’s . Also, create a title for your graph.
Planet
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Distance (AUs)
0.39
0.72
1.00
1.52
5.2
9.54
Use the graph to answer the following questions.
1. What are AUs? __________________________________
2. Which planet is closest to the sun? _______________________ How close is it? ______________
3. How far is Earth from the sun? _________________
4. Describe the relationship between a planet’s distance from the sun and its orbital period.