Download What you should know

Space
By the end of this unit I will know:
1.
There a many Galaxies in the
Universe.
2. The Galaxy that earth belongs
to is called the Milky Way.
3. It is thought that the “Big Bang” gave birth to the Universe.
4. There are three types of Galaxies – Spiral, Spiral Barred and
Elliptical.
5. The main difference between Spiral and Elliptical Galaxies is that
only Spiral Galaxies have a disc with Spiral Arms.
6. The Sun, the nine planets and their Moons, Asteroids and Comets
are all part of the Solar System.
7. A comet is mainly made of ice and dirt.
8. An Asteroid is a large mass made of metal and stone. The
Asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter.
9. The nine planets in order from the Sun
are – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars,
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and
Pluto.
10. The Sun is a star.
11. A star is a large ball of
very hot burning gas.
12. A planet is a large mass
that orbits a star.
13. Since Moons orbit planets, they are called natural satellites.
14. The Moon orbits the earth every 28 days.
15. Our Moon reflects the light from the Sun which causes the
different shapes of the
Moon. The shape of the
Moon changes over a period
of approximately 28 days;
these changes are called the
phases of the Moon.
16. You should be able to describe how Lunar and Solar Eclipses
happen with reference to a diagram.
17. The Earth spins around its own axis every 24 hours.
18. You should be able to describe why seasons occur with reference
to a diagram.
19. The earth orbits the Sun every 365 days (one year).
20. The Universe is so big that distances are measured in units called
light years.
21. A light year is the distance light travels in one second (186 000
miles per second or 300 million metres per second)
22. It takes light about 8 minutes to travel to Earth from the Sun
and a few seconds for reflected light to travel from the Moon to
the earth.
23. Space can be explored
using telescopes,
space stations,
satellites, the space
shuttle and space
crafts/probes.