Download Week 30 CCA - Net Start Class

2015 Week 30 CCA
Study Guide
Answer all questions on your own paper. Explain in detail.
1. Which planets would have a greater gravitational pull from the sun? List them and
explain why.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars - Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit
around the Sun. Gravity alone holds us to Earth's surface. Planets have
measurable properties, such as size, mass, density, and composition. A planet's
size and mass determines its gravitational pull
Mercury orbits the Sun much faster than Jupiter does because the gravitational
force between Mercury and the Sun is stronger than the gravitational force
between Jupiter and the Sun. If the two planets were the same distance from the
Sun, Jupiter's greater mass would make its attraction to the Sun stronger than
Mercury's. But, because Mercury is so much closer to the Sun than Jupiter is,
Mercury's attraction to the Sun is stronger than Jupiter's. Mercury's orbital speed
is faster than Jupiter's because Mercury is closer to the Sun than Jupiter is.
2. Which planets would have a weaker gravitational pull from the sun? List them and
explain why.
Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, Saturn- Because it is the farther from the Sun.
What keeps a planet moving in orbit is a combination of the gravitational
attraction between the planet and the Sun and the planet's inertia (its continual
forward motion). Without the Sun's gravity, the planet's inertia would send it
traveling in a straight line off into space. Without the planet's inertia, the Sun's
gravity would pull the planet in to collide with the Sun. These two factors combine
to form an elliptical planetary orbit and to determine the planet's orbital speed.
The farther a planet is from the Sun, the weaker the gravitational force
between them and the slower the planet's orbital speed. Planets that are
farther from the Sun are less attracted to the Sun and have slower orbital
speeds than planets that are closer to the Sun. Also, a given planet's
speed will vary along its orbit as its distance from the Sun varies.
3. What are some things astronauts would need to survive on another planet?
Air, food, water, and how to function in space in the absence of gravity with the
smallest task like opening a door or drinking water, use the bathroom ects.
4. What is a comet?
A celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when near the sun, a
“tail” of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun
5. What is a meteor?
A meteor is the flash of light that we see in the night sky when a small chunk of
interplanetary debris burns up as it passes through our atmosphere. "Meteor"
refers to the flash of light caused by the debris, not the debris itself. The debris is
called a meteoroid
6. What is an asteroid?
An asteroid is a small rocky body orbiting the sun. Large numbers of these,
ranging in size from nearly 600 miles (1,000 km) across (Ceres) to dust particles,
are found (as the asteroid belt ) especially between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter,
though some have more eccentric orbits, and a few pass close to the earth or
enter the atmosphere as meteor
7. Explain how the planets stay in orbit around the sun.
The Solar System was formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust which spun
around a newly forming star, our Sun, at its center. The planets all formed from
this spinning disk-shaped cloud, and continued this rotating course around the Sun
after they were formed. The gravity of the Sun keeps the planets in their orbits.
They stay in their orbits because there is no other force in the greater gravitational
force.
8. What is Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation and how does it help explain why
moons stay in orbit around their planets?
Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation states that if the net force acting on an
object is zero, the motion of the object does not change. Newton’s first law of
motion sometime is called the law of inertia. Inertia is the tendency of an object to
resist a change in its motion. The gravity of the Sun keeps the planets in their
orbits. They stay in their orbits because there is no other force in the Solar System
which can stop them.
9. Explain how mass and gravitational pull related?
Since the gravitational force is directly proportional to the mass of both interacting
objects, more massive objects will attract each other with a
10. How has the Hubble Telescope been the most useful to astronomers?
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is the first major infrared-optical-ultraviolet
telescope to be placed into orbit around the Earth. Located high above Earth's
obscuring atmosphere, the telescope has provided the clearest views of the
universe yet obtained in optical astronomy. The telescope is named after the
American astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who in the 1920's found galaxies beyond
our Milky Way and discovered that the universe is uniformly expanding.
11. List the planets from the sun out in order.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
12. What 2 forces work together to keep the planets in orbit around the sun?
Gravity and Inertia
13. Where is the asteroid belt located?
Between Mars and Jupiter
14. Explain how a planet could be “eaten” by a star?
The force of gravity of the star was greater than the forward motion of the planet
15. Know the names of the 7 major tectonic plates and where they are located on
a map.
16. What land feature is created when an oceanic plate converges with a
continental plate?
Oceanic and continental plate collisions result in mountain and volcano formation.
Mountains are formed as the overriding continental plate gets lifted up over the
oceanic plate.
17. Draw and explain what happens at a transform boundary.
Places where plates slide past each other are called transform boundaries. As two
plates slide past one another, in a transform boundary, neither plate is added to
the boundary, nor destroyed. The result of the tow massive plates pushing against
one another is that massive amounts of energy build up. Occasionally, this energy
is released suddenly in the form of large earthquakes. The most famous transform
boundary in the world is the San Andreas Fault, shown in the drawing above.
18. Explain why Earth has a magnetic field.
The Earth has a magnetic field because the Earth’s core is solid and is made of
Iron.
19.List and describe the layers of Earth in order from the crust in.
Crust, Lithosphere, Asthenosphere, Mantle, Outer Core, Inner Core
20. What is the impact of current and future space exploration?
To help humans reach an asteroid and Mars, we'll continue to evolve technologies
like advanced solar electric propulsion, large-scale solar sails, new green
propellants, and composite cryogenic storage tanks for refueling depots in orbit.
These new space technologies will spawn new knowledge and capabilities to
sustain our future missions.