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Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Planet Pavilion Questions
The Jodrell Bank Orrery
This is a moving model of our Solar System (if it is not moving, turn the handle)
The orrery planets orbit faster than the planets in real life:
1 minute for the orrery = 1 Earth year
1. Label each of the planets below...
2. How many planets are there in the Solar System? __________________________
3. Which planet is orbiting the Sun the quickest? _____________________________
4. Which planet is orbiting the Sun the slowest? _____________________________
5. What force is keeping the planets in their orbits? __________________________
In reality you could fit the Earth inside the Sun 1.3 million times.
6. Do you think our orrery shows the solar system ‘to scale’? ___________________
(‘to scale’ means that things are shown in the correct size, compared to each other)
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Planet Pavilion Questions (Page 2)
7. Search for the four objects below and answer the questions.
Picture
Description
A planetary
nebula formed
when a star like
the Sun runs
out of fuel.
Questions
Name:
What is at the centre?
Name:
The nearest
large spiral
How far away is it?
galaxy to our
own Milky Way.
Name:
What has been
left behind after
a big star
What is at the centre?
exploded in
1054 AD.
Name:
A 3 light-year
tall pillar, where
What is it made from?
new stars are
forming.
Extension question
The planets formed orbiting the Sun around 4.5 billion years ago.
8. Why do you think the planets are still orbiting the Sun? (Why have they not come
to a stop in all that time?)
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Space Pavilion Questions
Start around the wooden model of the Lovell telescope
1. The telescopes at Jodrell Bank don’t collect light. What do they collect?
____________________________________________________________________
Hint: Read
The Dish near the wooden model
2. The dish of the Lovell telescope is a paraboloid shape (a bowl shape). Why is this shape important?
_____________________________________________________________________
Hint: Read
The Focus near the wooden model
3. What is the diameter of the Lovell telescope? ___________________________________________
The Lovell telescope is the third largest steerable telescope in the world!
Now find the TV screen that shows you in strange colours
This is an infrared camera. It is sensitive to heat.
If you can’t see yourself, you’re too close! Move backwards from the screen!
4. Which part of you shows as the highest temperature?_____________________________________
5. Your clothes are next to your skin. Why don’t clothes appear as hot as areas of bare skin (e.g. face)?
____________________________________________________________________________________
6. Heat and light pass through objects differently. There are some props near the screen.
For each of the objects below, put a tick in the correct column that describes it.
Opaque to
light and heat
Transparent to
light and heat
Transparent to light,
opaque to heat
Opaque to light,
transparent to heat
Black bin bag
Plastic ‘alien’ mask
Piece of paper
Find the black hole. Spin a ball into it!
7. Which force pulls objects into black holes? _____________________________________________
8. What force slows the ball, causing it to spiral into our model black hole? _____________________
Find the plasma ball (the glass ball with electricity inside)
Plasma is electrically charged gas. Stars (like the Sun) are made of plasma.
9. Describe what you see when you touch the sphere. _______________________________________
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Space Pavilion Questions (Page 2)
10. Explain what is happening to the flow of electricity, when you touch the sphere.
Find the area about pulsars
Pulsars are sometimes left over after giant stars explode. They are extremely dense - only
the size of a city, but containing as much matter as the Sun! They spin very fast, shooting
out radiation like cosmic lighthouses. Have a go at spinning our model pulsar (look up!).
11. Which astronomer first discovered pulsars? _____________________________________________
Find the dome with two planets orbiting a star
Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system, orbiting around other stars.
12. The amount of light from the star is being measured by a camera (in the red circle) and being shown
on screen. What happens to the light level when a planet passes between the star and camera?
_________________________________________________________________________________
13. This shows one way of finding exoplanets. Which planet (small or large) is easier to spot? Why?
____________________________________________________________________________
14. How many exoplanets have astronomers discovered so far? _______________________________
Find the see-through telescope
15. What type of object can you see through the telescope? __________________________________
16. This telescope is an example of a reflecting telescope. What does it use to focus the beams of light?
_________________________________________________________________________________
Look behind you at the world map of telescopes
This map shows some of the big telescopes across the globe.
17. Choose two telescopes; write down their names, where they are and how big they are.
Name
Name
Location
Location
Size
Size
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Planet Path Questions
The Planet Path is a scale model of the Solar System.
It begins at the Sun model (the red and yellow ball near the Lovell telescope).
Close to the Sun model, you will find the four inner planets on the ground.
The four inner planets are represented by circular metal discs set into the ground.
1. Which of the two inner planets are most similar in size?
_________________________________________________________________________________
On the Planet Path, the sizes of the planets have been made to scale.
Their sizes would be correct if the Sun were the size of the Lovell telescope dish.
The diameter of the real Earth is approximately 13,000 km. The diameter of Mars is about 6,500 km.
2. The Earth disc is 70 cm in diameter. Estimate the diameter of the Mars disc. ___________________
The distances between the planets are also to scale (though not to the same scale as the planet sizes).
1 metre on the Planet Path represents 10 million kilometres in the Solar System.
3. The Earth disc lies 15 m from the model Sun. How far (on average) is the real Earth from the Sun?
_______________________________________________________________________________
Now walk along the path, heading towards the outdoor exhibits. Find Jupiter along the way.
Jupiter is represented by a ring of silver metal discs set into the ground.
Hint: Look in the grass opposite the door to the Space Pavilion building.
The model of Jupiter is almost 8 m in diameter.
The Lovell telescope has a diameter of 80 m (rounding to the nearest ten).
4. Jupiter’s real diameter is 140,000 km. Approximately what is the diameter of the real Sun?
______________________________________________________________________________
5. The mass of Jupiter is 318 times the mass of the Earth. Are the following statements true or false?
a. Jupiter creates a stronger force of gravity than the Earth. ____________________________
b. On Jupiter you would float (there is no gravity in space). _____________________________
c. In the Solar System, Jupiter has more gravity than anything else. ______________________
d. You would weigh more on Jupiter than you would on Earth. __________________________
e. Jupiter’s gravity is weaker at its outer layers, compared to near its middle. ______________
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Planet Path Questions (Page 2)
Now go towards the whispering dishes. Find Saturn.
Saturn is again represented by a ring of silver metal discs set into the ground.
Hint: Look in the grass between the Whispering Dishes.
The Cassini probe is a robot that is currently in orbit around Saturn.
It arrived in 2004 and since then it has been studying Saturn and its moons.
6. Draw an arrow on the diagram below, correctly showing the force of gravity acting on Cassini.
7. Which two planets have not been seen on the Planet Path yet?
________________________________________________________________________________
These two planets are so far away from the Sun, you’d have to go all the way into the Jodrell Bank Gardens
to find them (but don’t do this now).
The most distant planet in the Solar System is thirty times further away from the Sun than the Earth is.
8. How far away from the Sun is this planet? (Hint: Use your answer from question 3)
_________________________________________________________________________________
9. There used to be another planet in the Solar System, but in 2006 scientists decided it would no
longer be classified as a planet.
a) What is its name? _____________________________________________________
b) What type of object is this now classified as? _______________________________
Beyond the Solar System, the next closest star is Proxima Centauri.
This star is 4.2 light years from the Sun, which is around 40,000 billion km.
On the scale of the Planet Path, this star would be around 4,000 km away.
To reach this distance, you would have to travel to the city of Asyut in Egypt, the city of Shamakhi in
Azerbaijan, or the Eastern edge of Nova Scotia in Canada!
Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre
Key Stage 3
Telescope Path Questions
Take a walk around the base of the Lovell Telescope. Use the information boards to find the answers.
Complete the quiz to find a place where people study space.
1.
Sir Bernard Lovell detected these in 1945 using radar equipment.
2.
Charles ________ was the engineer who built the Lovell telescope.
3.
The Lovell telescope is so powerful it could detect a mobile phone signal on ______.
4.
What is the diameter of the Lovell telescope’s dish? (2,6)
5.
The gear racks on the Lovell telescope are recycled 15-inch ___________. (3,7)
6.
In the 1920s astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered that this is expanding.
7.
The Lovell telescope is painted white to reflect sunlight and stop the metal _______.
8.
The first artificial satellite in space (tracked by the Lovell telescope).
9.
Quasars release massive amounts of energy as gas falls into a ________. (5,4)
10.
What do astronomers call the spinning collapsed core of an exploded giant star?
11.
Using radio waves we can peer deep into the heart of our ________.