Download Astronomy Review Sheet

Astronomy Review Sheet
Don’t forget to study your worksheet packet, too!
Major Vocabulary:
- Astronomy- study of out space (planets, stars, moons)
- Solar System- the Sun, the planets, and their moons
- Spherical- round shaped like a ball
- Atmosphere- layer of gas found around some planets (including
Earth)
- Inertia- a moving object will keep moving in a straight line until
another force acts on it
- Gravity- the pull between two objects (the bigger object wins)
- Orbit- the path a planet takes around the Sun
- Revolution- one trip of a planet around the Sun
- Rotation- the spinning of a planet on its axis
- Axis- the imaginary line through a planet from the North to South
pole. (The Earth’s axis is tilted 23.5◦ towards the North Star)
- Elliptical- the oval shape of the planets’ orbits
- Intensity- how strong/ how much (refers to amount of sunlight)
- Terrestrial- planets that are made of earth/rocks
o Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
- Gaseous- planets that are made of gases
o Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
- Phases- different stages or parts
- Crescent- the skinny piece of the moon in the sky
- Gibbous- the almost full moon (like a big belly)
- Waxing- when the moon appears to grow in size
- Waning- when the moon appears to shrink in size
Main Concepts:
- Order of the Planets
- Rotation and Revolution of the Planets
- Characteristics of the Planets
- Characteristics of Earth (atmosphere, 70% water, rock)
- Why the Planets’ Orbit (inertia and gravity)
- The Earth’s Seasons
- The Earth’s Day and Night
- Order of the Phases of the Moon
- Our Star, the Sun