Download Earth and Space

Earth and Space
Law of Gravitation- Masses attracts each
other. Gravity increases when the object
is bigger or closer.
Our Planet: The Earth
• The Earth rotates at 1,675 km/hour at the
equator, but 900 km/hour in the UK
• The Earth weighs 5.9725 billion trillion
tonnes
• The Solar System and the Earth is 4.6
billion years old
• The universe is 13.7 billion years old
Days
• This is how long it takes for a planet to
make one complete spin around it’s axis
• The Earth takes 24 hours to spin around
• When we are facing the Sun it is daytime
• When facing away from the Sun it is night
time
• The Sun rises in the East (Japan is the
land of the rising Sun) and sets in the
West
The Path of the Sun
• We are in the northern hemisphere so at
midday the Sun is South of us
•The Sun is high in the Sky in
Summer and days are longer
Years
• The Sun is the largest body in our Solar
System, so everything orbits it
• This is due to gravity
• It takes the Earth 365¼ days to orbit the
Sun
• The quarter is for the leap years we have
every four years
Lunar Eclipse
• We can see the moon at night because it
reflects the Sun’s light
• During a lunar eclipse the Earth blocks the
Sun’s light and the moon goes dark
The Moon
• Tides are caused by the moon’s gravity
The Moon in the Penumbra
Solar Eclipse
• A Solar Eclipse is
when the moon
blocks the Sun’s
light from reaching a
part of the Earth
• The last solar eclipse
in the UK was during
the Summer of 1999
The 1999 Eclipse
The Moon’s Shadow from Space
The Solar System
• There is one star in our solar system, the
Sun
• Nine planets orbit the Sun
• Asteroids and space debris also orbit the
Sun
• Our solar system is one of many inside our
galaxy (the Milky Way)
The Planets
• This mnemonic will help you remember
the planets
• My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up
Naming Planets
• This should be
• Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
• In 2006 Pluto lost it’s planetary status
• The shape of the orbits are ellipses
The Inner Planets
• These are Mercury, Venus, Earth and
Mars
• They are all made of rock
• Mercury has no moon
• Venus if 400°C during the day, making it
the hottest planet in the solar system
• Mars has two moons, Deimos and Phobos
The Gas Giants
• These are Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter and
Uranus
• Jupiter is 318 times bigger than the Earth,
making it the biggest planet in our Solar
System
• Saturn has conspicuous rings
• All these planets are extremely cold
Asteroids
• These are smaller than
planets
• There is an Asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter
• Most of the asteroids
have a 1km diameter
• The Kuiper belt of
asteroids is located at the
edge of our Solar System
Asteroid 2004 is moving in the middle of the picture (a
satellite flies by)
Terminology
• There is asteroid belt between Mars and
Jupiter
• Comets are made of ice, rock and gases
• Asteroids are minor planets made of
rock
• Meteoroids are small, solid objects that
follow comets
• Meteors enter the Earth’s atmosphere
• Meteorites hit the Earth’s surface
Comets
• These are small objects
made of rock, dust and
ice
• Hale-Bopp (right) passed
us in 1997
• It will pass us again in
2537 years
• Halley’s comet could be
seen in 1986
• We will see it again in
2062 (it has a 76 year
orbit)
Meteorites
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•
•
•
These are shooting stars or falling stars
They leave craters
This is a meteor shower
They are thought to have
killed off the dinosaurs
The Milky Way
An Ellipse
The Lunar Cycle
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•
•
•
A satellite is an object that orbits a planet
The moon is the Earth’s largest satellite
It takes 28 days to orbit the Earth
This leads to the phases of the moon
Crescent
First Quarter
Gibbous
Seasons
• The Earth is tilted at an angle of 23.5°
• This means we are tilted towards the
Sun at times and away from the Sun at
other times
• We are in the Northern hemisphere, the
seasons in the Southern hemisphere are
opposite to ours
Seasons
The Seasons
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•
•
•
•
There are four seasons:
Summer- we are tilted towards the Sun
Winter- we are tiled away
Spring- comes before Summer
Autumn- comes before winter
• What happens when the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the
Sun:
• In Australia?
• It is Summer
• To us in the U.K.?
• It is Winter
Equinox
• This is when the Sun is directly above
the Equator
• It happens on two days each year
• Vernal Equinox on 20th or 21st March
• Autumnal Equinox on 22nd or 23rd
September
Solstice
• The Winter Solstice is on the 21st or 22nd
December
• It is the first day of winter
• It is the shortest day (least sunlight)
• The Summer Solstice is on the 21st of
June
• It is the longest day
• The opposite happens in the Southern
hemisphere
The Seasons
• Which season is the Northern hemisphere in at position
1?
• Winter
• Which position is it in at point 2?
• Spring
Beyond the Solar System
• At the edge of the solar system is the Oort
cloud, which strecthes 2 light years into
the cosmos
• The nearest star is Proxima Centauri
which is part of a 3 star cluster called
Alpha Centauri
• It is 4.3 light years away and it would take
25,000 years to get there
Weird facts
• The Voyager spacecraft took 12 years to
reach Pluto (although this was faster
because the craft slingshot around some
planets)
• Most solar systems have 2 suns like the
movie Pitch Black
• Neptune is 5 times further from Jupiter
than Jupiter is from us (it gets 3% sunlight)
• Pluto is 1% the size of the Earth
Weird Facts (2)
• The universe is
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles
across