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Earth, Moon, and Sun Test
Study Guide
Answer Key
1. lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth blocks the Sun’s light from hitting the moon.
2. A solar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes through the Moon’s shadow.
3. When one object moves around another object, this is called revolution.
4. How did the Earth’s moon form? An extremely large celestial body collided with the
Earth and the collision caused a large portion of the Earth’s mantle to break away and orbit
the Earth.
5. Rotation is when an object spins on its axis.
6. The Moon’s revolution is the same as its rotation. This is why we always see the same
side of the Moon.
7. T F The Sun’s rays never strike the back side of the Moon.
8. When the moon gets bigger, it is called waxing and waning when it gets smaller.
9. Gibbous is when more than 50% of the moon is visible and crescent is when less than
50% of the moon is visible.
10. Over the course of the month, why does the Moon appear to change shape? As each day
goes by, we see a different percentage of the lit portion of the moon.
11. The moon is approximately 25 % the size of Earth.
12. The six parts of the sun are core, radiative, convective, photosphere, chromosphere, and
corona.
13. The Earth completes one rotation every 23 hours and 56 minutes and this period of time
is classified as one Earth day.
14. The energy from the Sun is produced by nuclear fusion.
15. The coolest spots on the surface of the sun are sunspots.
16. Approximately 99% of the solar system’s mass is located in the Sun.
17. The hottest layer of the sun is the core and the coolest layer is the photosphere.
18. The Sun is traveling through space at approximately 486,000 mph.
19. The Milky Way Galaxy is traveling through space at approximately 300,000 mph.
20. The core is the location in the Sun where energy is produced.
21. Draw a picture of the Sun with each of its six layers labeled. Make sure that you write
the temperature of each layer next to its label and a brief description of what occurs in each
layer of the atmosphere.
22. Explosions on the surface of the sun that occasionally interferes with radio
communications on Earth are called solar flares.
23. Objects revolving around the sun follow a path called a(n) orbit.
24. Each time a planet orbits the sun another planetary year has passed.
25. What is an AU? An AU is an astronomical unit. It is the distance between the Earth
and the Sun. How many miles are in an AU? 93,000,000. We use AU to measure distance in
our solar system.
26. Why does the Sun and Moon appear to be the same size? The moon is 400 times smaller
than the Sun and it is 400 times closer than the Sun.
27. How did the Earth form? While solar gas and dust (nebula) were swirling around and
slowly condensing to form the Sun, a small part of the nebula escaped the Sun’s gravity and
became trapped in an orbit around the Sun.
28. Why do we have a leap year every four years? The Earth actually takes 365.25 days to
orbit the Sun. To correct this .25 of a day mathematical problem with the calendar, we add 1
day every 4 years to account for that ¼ of a day.
29. What is the exact amount of time it takes for the Earth to make one complete orbit
around the Sun? 365.25 days OR 365 days and 6 hours.
30. This planet is closest in size and density to Earth. Venus
31. Light travels at 186,000 mps and it takes 8.3 minutes for light to travel from the Sun to
Earth. We measure distances between stars in light years.
32. If you were measuring the distance between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda
Galaxy, you would use light years as the measurement scale.
33. The largest rocky planet in our solar system is Earth.
34. How long will it take for you to see the stars in exactly the same position as you see
them tonight? 365.25 days OR 365 days and 6 hours – one complete orbit of the Earth
around the Sun.
35. During one of our outdoor lab activities, we used a(n) astrolabe to measure the elevation
of celestial objects.
36. The moon’s gravity produces tides on Earth.
37. A synodic period is also known as the time it takes for the moon to change from one
high tide to another high tide.
38. Isaac Newton developed a theory of gravity that helped to explain why the planets orbit
the Sun and moons orbit planets.