Download Stellar Evolution Stations

Name: _________________________________________ Astro: _________ Date: ________________
Solar System Stations
Station #1
Meteors/Meteoroids
Asteroids
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Progress across the sky very slowly
Remnants of the formation of the solar system
Reflect Sunlight
Rocky Composition
Orbit the Sun in highly elliptical orbits
Measure a few km in diameter
Most found in asteroid belt
Most are less that a km in diameter
Most have slightly elliptical orbits
Comets
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Most are less than 100 m in diameter
Also known as shooting stars
Most burn up as they enter Earth’s atmosphere
Streak across the sky very fast
Most are fragments of large asteroids
Icy objects
Meteor showers are caused by the Earth passing
through the debris path of a comet
17. Tail always points away from the Sun
Station #2
Match the vocabulary words with their correct meaning and copy down onto your paper.
1.
2.
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9.
Accretion
Dust grains in the interstellar medium that other materials attach and clump together
to form solar system
Asteroid belt
Model of solar system that states dust material clustered together on dust grains;
most accepted
Condensation nuclei
Model of solar system formation that states a large cloud of gas collapsed under own
gravity to form planets
Condensation theory
Gradual growth of bodies due to the accumulation of material
Extrasolar planets
Halo of material where most comets are found; 50,000 AU from Sun
Kuiper Belt
Area between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids in the solar system
are located
Nebular theory
Area of solar system just outside orbit of Neptune where many short term comets
reside
Oort cloud
Small celestial objects in the early solar system that gained enough gravity to
influence its neighbors
Planetesimals
Planet that orbits a star other than the sun
Station #3
Match the following characteristics and names with the corresponding planet type and
copy into the chart below.
TERRESTRIAL
JOVIAN
TERRESTRIAL PLANETS
JOVIAN PLANETS
No rings
Closely Spaced Orbits
Earth
Faster rotation
Few/No moons
High density
Jupiter
Large Masses
Large radii
Low density
Many moons
Many rings
Mars
Mercury
Neptune
Orbit close to Sun
Orbit far from Sun
Predominantly gaseous
Predominantly Rocky
Saturn
Slower rotation
Small masses
Small radii
Solid surface
Strong Magnetic fields
Uranus
Venus
Weak Magnetic fields
Widely Spaced Orbits
No solid surface
Station #4
Put the steps of formation of the solar system in order and copy onto paper.
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6.
Formation of Solar System (out of order)

As the cloud continued to fall in, the center eventually got so hot that it became a star, the Sun.

As the disk got thinner and thinner, particles began to stick together and form clumps. Some
clumps got bigger, as particles and small clumps stuck to them, eventually forming planets or
moons.

Eventually, the nebula cloud grew hotter and denser in the center, with a disk of gas and dust
surrounding it that was hot in the center but cool at the edges.

The Solar System began when a cloud of gas and dust in space was disturbed, maybe by the
explosion of a nearby star.

This explosion made waves in space which squeezed the cloud of gas and dust.

This squeezing made the cloud start to collapse, as gravity pulled the gas and dust together
forming a solar nebula.
Draw, label and describe the parts of a comet: coma, nucleus, hydrogen envelope, dust
tail, ion tail
Station #5
Match the vocabulary words with their correct meaning and copy down onto your paper.
1.
2.
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9.
Dust tail
Chunk of debris before enters Earth’s atmosphere
Earth-crossing
asteroids
Solid region of ice and dust that makes up the central region of the head of a comet
Hydrogen Envelope
Sheath of invisible gas that surrounds a comet
Ion tail
Asteroids that orbit the sun with the same distance away as Jupiter, just ahead and
behind the planet
Meteoroids
The stream of dust particles that make up the tail of a comet
Nucleus (of comet)
AKA Apollo asteroids; Asteroids with an orbit that crosses the orbit of Earth
Solar System
The stream of gas that is seen pushed away from the head of a comet by the solar
wind
Solar Wind
Outward flow of fast moving particles from the sun
Trojan Asteroids
The totality of the sun and every object that orbits it