Download How Big Is Big

How Big Is Big?
1. The word “big” or “large” is a __________ term. It depends upon what we are comparing something to.
Let’s compare our _____________ System planets and some stars to each other by mass and volume.
2. ________ means how much “stuff” makes up an object like a planet, a pizza or a person!
__________ means size. Some objects are large in volume but have little mass like a balloon. Other
objects are small in volume but are massive like a lead fishing weight or a black hole!
3. Mercury, Venus, ______ and Mars are Inner Rocky Planets. Which planet is the smallest? Which planet
is closest in size to Earth? ___________ is NOT an Inner Planet. What object is closest to it in size?
4. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and ___________ are Outer ________ Giant Planets Which planet is the largest?
How do the _________ Planets compare in size to the Outer Planets?
5. The Gas Giants are Massive compared to the Inner __________ Planets. However they are much less
_________ than the Inner Rocky Planets. Density is how much mass is in a given amount of volume. Like
how much “stuff” is inside a box. __________ is less dense than water. It would __________ on the
Earth’s ocean if it wasn’t so big! The Gas Giants have large ___________ rocky moons!
6. The Sun is the _________ of our Solar System. The Sun is a star and the primary source of
____________ in our solar system. It is _____% of all the MASS in our solar system! The planets,
comets, asteroids, and meteors in our Solar System __________ the Sun.
7. The Sun is huge compared to planets but it is an ____________ sized star when compared to other stars!
What colors are the stars in the picture? Name the stars from largest to smallest: __________,
______________, _______________, _________________
8. Arcturus, Pollux and Sirius can be seen on any clear __________ night!
9. Arcturus is big compared to Pollux and Sirius but it’s tiny compared to larger ___________!
10. Antares is about ________ times larger than our Sun in size. But Antares is only about _____ times
more massive that the Sun, so it is _________ dense. If Antares were in our Solar System it would reach
out to the orbit of ________! Red __________ and Red Supergiant stars are cooler than our Sun because
they have ___________ in size and cooled down. One day our Sun will also become a Red Giant but it
will reach only as far as ____________.
11. How does our _________ compare in size to other moons in our Solar System? Notice that our Moon
is not the largest! Ganymede is the largest moon. It is larger than the planet __________! Our Moon is
__________ largest.
12. Scientists are discovering more __________ in our Solar System. They are all small _______ rocky
worlds similar to Pluto. They are found in a region that includes Pluto called the Kuiper ________. The
Kuiper Belt reaches from 30 – 50 ________ from the Sun and includes comets and all the newly discovered
_________ planets. Our Solar System today is much larger than was known during ____________!
13. How big is our Moon compared to Pluto and its dwarf planet companions? ________
14. How Big Is REALLY Big? Every dot of light in the picture is a ____________.
15. Galaxies are collections of hundreds of _________ of stars. A galaxy is ________ times larger than the
largest star. Many if not most stars have their own planets – called ____________.
In every direction you can point there are galaxies as far as you can imagine – and possibly an
___________ number! Let’s zoom into the last picture.
16. Let’s zoom more…__________ going to Infinity! That's the Universe… and now that’s ___!
17. Here are some absolute measurements to some of what we’ve seen relatively.
The Earth’s diameter is about 13,000 km. A kilometer (km) = 0.621371 mile
Jupiter’s diameter is about 140,000 km Pluto’s diameter is about 2000 km
Our galaxy, the Milky Way has a diameter of about 100,000 light years
A light year is the distance light travels in 1 year. Light travels at 300,000 km/sec!
18. What is the absolute size of the Universe? We don’t know….But, the visible Universe is about 14 x 109
light years in diameter. However the visible Universe is not the end of the Universe which may be at least
250 times larger…..But the Universe continues to grow larger every day! It may very well be infinite!
19. Put the astronomical objects in orders from smallest to largest!
Arcturus Ganymede Pollux Earth The Moon (Earth’s moon) Mercury Mars Venus Saturn
Jupiter Sun
Antares
Pluto
Sirius
Galaxy
Universe
1.___________ 2. __________ 3. ___________4.___________ 5. ___________ 6. ___________
7.___________ 8. __________ 9. ___________10.__________11. ___________12. __________
13. ___________ 14. _____________15. ________________16. _______________