Download Our Universe - Etiwanda E

Our Universe
Composed of planets, comets, starts,
asteroids, moons and gases; our
universe is infinite.
 The nearest start to Earth is 4.2 lightyears away.
 A light-year is the distance that light
travels in one year.

Stars
www.west.net.~science
Groups of stars are called constellations
 The absolute magnitude of a star is a
measure of the amount of light it
actually gives off and the light received
on Earth is the apparent magnitued.
 The color of a start tells how hot or cold
the temperature is.

Comets

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Composed of dust
and rock particles.
Solar wind push the
gases and dust
away from the
comet to make the
tail.
Comets begin to
break up after
passing the sun
several times.
www.astrosurf.com
Meteors/Meteorites
The small pieces of rock from comets
moving through space are called
meteoroids.
 A meteoroid that burns up in Earth’s
atmosphere is called a meteor.
 A piece of a large meteoroid that does
not burn up but hits Earth is called a
meteorite.

Asteroids
A piece of rock made up of material
similar to a planet.
 Most asteroids are between the orbits
of Mars and Jupiter captured by gravity.
 Some asteroids are the moons of
planets.

Our universe is composed of
many objects.
A large group of stars, gas and dust are
called a galaxy.
 The Milky Way galaxy is made up of
about 200 billion starts.
 The universe is made up of an infinite
number of galaxies.

Comprehension Questions
Groups of stars are called?
 What tells us how hot or cold a star’s
temperature is?
 What happens to comets after they
pass the sun several times?
 Most asteroids are between the orbits
of what two planets?
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Cite References

Google Images
– www.west.net/~science
– www.astrosurf.com
– www.astrobio.net

www.nasa.com