Download Dark anomalies called on the surface of the Sun allowed early

Name: _______________________________
Date: ________________________________
Flynt - ___ Period
____th Grade Science
1.
Dark anomalies called _______________ on the surface of the Sun allowed
early astronomers to calculate the ________________ speed of the Sun, long
before the first telescope was invented. (They used a cool, low-tech device
called a _____________ camera).
2.
The great mass of the largest asteroid, ____________ gives it a sufficiently
strong force of gravity to achieve ________________ __________________.
This means that it has enough mass to pull the things around it toward a center
point, to force its surface into a round or _______________ shape.
3.
After it has run out of hydrogen, the Sun will start to fuse ______________ into
heavier elements and begin to swell up to become a _____________
______________; at this point, the sun will no longer be a ______________
_______________ star.
4.
The moon _____________, named for the ferryman of the dead in Greek
mythology, is often described or classified as a double planet system with the
planet that it orbits. It so similar in mass to its “parent” planet that the
_________________, or gravitational center of mass, for the combined system
is actually outside the surface of both objects, causing them to appear to dance
around each other, rather than the smaller one revolve the larger one.
5.
Popularly termed a “dirty snowball”, the _______________ of a comet is
composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. These small solar system bodies
usually originate from the ____________ ____________ or the ___________
______________. Comets have highly elliptical or _______________ orbits,
and they are brightest when passing near the Sun, a point known as
_________________ (the closest point in an object’s elliptical orbit around the
Sun). As it approaches this point in its orbit, heat from the Sun causes the
frozen gases in the nucleus to sublimate, producing a gaseous “atmosphere”
surrounding the nucleus known as the _____________. The force exerted by
the Sun's radiation pressure and the __________ __________ cause the
melting/sublimating ice and gasses to elongate, forming an enormous trail of
dust and debris that reflects light and appears to “glow”. This tail always points
_________________ the Sun.
6.
When two atoms join together in a chemical bond to form a molecule, the two
atoms share only their outer valence electrons; the nuclei of the two atoms do
not join together. In contrast, ___________ ___________ is the process in
which the nuclei of two atoms get smashed together, creating a totally new
atom with double the number of protons in the nucleus. This type of reaction
usually occurs naturally only under the immense pressures and temperatures
present in the ________ of a star. In a main sequence star like our Sun, the
element being fused is ______________ and the atoms that are formed from
this reaction will be _____________ atoms. This process produces tremendous
light energy and thermal energy. Tiny radioactive alpha particles are given off
as well, which means the star is constantly ___________ mass over time.
7.
Pluto was recently demoted from planet to “dwarf” planet status. Which of the
following reasons best explains why its classification was changed?
a. Pluto does not have enough gravity to put itself into a spherical shape.
Only spherical celestial bodies are now considered planets.
b. Pluto actually forms a “double” planet with its moon, Charon. They are so
similar in mass that the barycenter (center of mass) for the two objects is
located outside of their surfaces, somewhere between both bodies. The
result is that they “dance” around each other, rather than one revolving
around the other. Double planets cannot be classified as true planets.
c. Pluto is smaller than several moons that orbit other planets, including
Ganymede, Titan, Callisto, Io, our Moon (Luna), Europa, and Triton. If
Pluto (a double planet with its moon Charon) were to continue to be a
called planet, then these large, spherical moons would need to be
classified as planets, too.
d. Scientists now believe that Pluto is one of probably hundreds (if not
thousands) of small rocky objects located in an “asteroid-type” belt
located just past Neptune called the Kuiper Belt. Some of the newly
discovered members of the Kuiper Belt are close in size and even larger
than Pluto! To be classified as a planet, a celestial body must have enough
mass to “sweep up” or clear its orbit of other minor celestial objects,
something that Pluto has obviously not accomplished, based on recent
discoveries.
8.
If you get away from the bright lights of the city and look up at the night sky,
you will most likely notice a “fuzzy” or dense band of stars streaking across the
sky. The Chinese called this the Silver River. What are you are actually seeing?
9.
The Oort Cloud, which is near the boundary of our solar system, is about 7.5
trillion km across. If light travels at 300,000 kilometers/second, how long would
it take for light to travel from one side of the Oort Cloud to the other?
10. Solar flares and prominences may originate from or may be associated with
regions of magnetic disturbance on the Sun’s surface called _____________
______________. Though these regions appear darker and are slightly cooler in
temperature than their surroundings, they still give off tremendous light energy.
How would they appear if you could block out the light from the rest of the
photosphere?
11. In which category (or categories) listed below would it be scientifically
appropriate to classify Uranus? (Choose any that apply.)
a. Brown Dwarf
e. Trojan
b. Outer Planet
f. Hyper-Giant
c. Terrestrial Planet
g. Gas Giant
d. Ice Giant
h. White Dwarf
12. Halley’s Comet takes only 76 years to complete one revolution around the sun.
While this may seem like a long time to us humans, for comets, this is actually a
relatively short amount of time. Comets like Halley’s that take less than 200
years to complete an orbit around the sun are therefore called ______________
________________ comets and are believed to originate in the ____________
________________ located just past Neptune. Comets with longer obits of
more than 200 years are believed to originate in the ___________
_____________ near the outer edges of our solar system.
13. The _____________________ is the now commonly accepted theory that says
that a Mars-sized object called _________________ may have crashed into
_______________________ about 4.5 billion years ago, creating
___________________________. (Choose from the terms below.)
Asteroid Belt
Earth
Uranus
Venus
Theia
Phobos
its extreme 90 axial tilt
The Moon (Luna)
its retrograde rotation
Accretion Theory
Giant Impactor Theory
Goldilocks Theory
14. While most natural satellites usually form at the same time and from the same
stuff as their parent planets, the moon, _______________ is believed to be a
captured Kuiper Belt object, due to its similar composition to Pluto and its
retrograde orbit (it orbits in the opposite direction to its planet's rotation). It is
one of the few moons in the solar system known to be geologically active, and
its crust is dotted with geysers that are believed to erupt nitrogen!
Part Two: What is the name of this moon’s parent planet? _________________
15. When can the Sun’s corona be most easily viewed?
a. During a lunar eclipse.
b. During a solar eclipse.
c. On a cloudy day.
d. When something (like a tree) is obstructing your view of the sun
completely.
16. One of NASA's latest missions to explore the asteroid belt is the
______________ Mission, which was dispatched to explore Vesta and Ceres.
This mission is named after the first light of day, and scientists hope the mission
will help reveal secrets about the conditions that may have been present at the
dawn of our solar system.
17. The ___1___ or “sun covering” is the theoretical region in space where the
influence of the magnetic field and the solar winds from the Sun gradually gives
way to the interstellar winds of the ___2___ galaxy. This zone is believed to
begin around 70-80 astronomical units from the Sun (1 A.U. is equal 93 million
miles, or the distance from the Earth to the Sun), and this zone could be
perhaps 10 A.U. thick! Normally, within the Sun’s ___3___, the particles that
make up the solar wind move at average speeds of 300 to 700 kilometers per
second (700,000 to 1.5 million mph)! In contrast, near the edges of the Sun’s
influence, the solar winds slow down as they begin to interact with the galactic
or interstellar winds. The point at which the solar winds begin to slow down
dramatically to subsonic speeds is called the ___4___. The Voyager 1
spacecraft, launched in 1977, is believed to have passed through this frontier
and is now moving on towards the ___5___, the final boundary where the
pressure of the solar wind and interstellar wind are in balance. Beyond that,
astronomers believe that the winds of interstellar space break and bend around
the outer edges of the Sun’s influence, creating a ___6___ similar to the waves
that break as the hull of a boat pushes through water. (Place the number next
to the term that should be used to fill in the blank).
____Andromeda
____heliosheath
____barycenter
____heliosphere
____bow shock
____Milky Way
____coronal loop
____Oort Cloud
____heliopause
____termination shock
18. If it weren’t orbiting around the planet Jupiter, but instead revolved around the
Sun, this Jovian moon would actually be large enough to be could be classified
as a planet rather than a moon (it’s actually larger than Mercury)!
a. Titan
d. Callisto
b. Triton
e. Ganymede
c. Europa
19. The “Coronal Heating Problem” is the conundrum (scientific mystery) that the
Sun’s ____________ and _____________ is hotter than the Sun’s photosphere.
20. This natural satellite played a significant role in the development of astronomy
in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was discovered in 1610 by ___________
_______________, along with the other Jovian moons. The discovery of this
moon furthered the adoption of ___________________ heliocentric model of
the Solar System, the development of ___________________ laws of planetary
motion, and the first measurement of the speed of light. This moon, whose
colorful surface includes a riot of green, white, black, and red, is often described
as pizza-like. With over 400 active volcanoes, it is the most geologically active
object in the solar system (which is what causes the colors on the surface). The
incredible volcanic action is caused by the intense __________________ of
Jupiter, which wrenches the tiny moon's insides, stirring up and heating the
core.
heat
size
Newton’s
Galileo Galilei
Kepler’s
Sir Isaac Newton
Ptolemy’s
velocity
Copernicus’
gravitational pull
Part Two: What is the name of this natural satellite? ____________________
21. ____________ is the smallest dwarf planet that has been identified in the Solar
System, and is the only one in the asteroid belt. It is by far the most massive
and largest body in the asteroid belt, containing 1/3 of the asteroid belt's total
mass.
a. Eris
c. Ceres
b. Vesta
d. Pluto
22. If you tried to balance a sledge hammer by placing the middle of its handle on
your arm, it would quickly fall to the side with the “head” on it. This is because
the __________________ of the sledge hammer is closer to the head where
the mass is greater.
23. Although ______________ is the second largest planet in our solar system, if
you could find an ocean large enough, it would actually float due to its
extremely low density!
24. In 2004, the ____________-____________ mission was launched to study the
planet Saturn, its famous rings, and its largest natural satellite,
_____________. This satellite is the only moon known to have a dense
atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of
stable “lakes” of surface liquid has been found. However, these lakes are
actually made of ____________, not water! The climate—including wind and
methane rain—creates surface features that are similar to those on
__________, such as sand dunes and shorelines.
25. Loops of hot plasma that arc up into
the corona of a star and back down to
the surface are called
___________________. If they are
really big and powerful, they may be
called ________________________.
These looping, fiery jets can last days
and even weeks, and are closely
associated with sunspot activity.
26. When we look at the Sun, the light
that we see comes from the
________________, which literally
means “light sphere.”
27. The charged particles that make up the solar wind are released from the Sun’s
corona in shooting streams or bursts called ______________ ______________.
Occasionally, the Sun will eject tremendous storms of charged particles from its
corona. Photons from solar weather travel out away from the Sun. If directed
towards the Earth, they can damage satellites, cause huge electrical blackouts,
and create beautiful displays of the ___________ in places farther away from
the poles than usual. Luckily, the earth is protected from most solar weather by
its _______________________.
28. Every second, 700 million tons of hydrogen are fused into helium in the core of
the Sun, creating helium ashes. During this process, some of matter is actually
changed into pure energy; 5 million tons of that energy is released outward
from the core every second! This means that the Sun is actually becoming
(heavier / lighter) as time goes on. (Choose one)
29. In this layer of the sun, gasses heated by nuclear fusion in the core expand and
rise towards the surface due to their lower density, while slightly cooler gasses
near the surface sink back down, creating a zone of looping currents. This
region or layer of the sun is called the ________________ ____________.
30. A light-year is a measurement of
a. time
b. distance
31. The Moon (also known as __________) and the planet ________________
share very similar surfaces in that they are both covered with thousands of
craters. This is due to the fact that both celestial bodies:
a. lack water in liquid and gas form.
b. lack an atmosphere.
c. lack a magnetosphere.
32. The largest TNO discovered so far is called ____________. This very distant
dwarf planet is believed to be larger than Pluto and was one of the driving
forces that led to Pluto’s reclassification. Its orbit takes it as far away as 97
Astronomical Units from the Sun at ______-helion, and as close as 37 A.U. at
_______-helion.
33. Pluto, one of the most contentious objects in our solar system, has numerous
titles and classifications to show how confusing it really is. No longer a planet, it
is now considered a ____________ planet. Since it is a rocky body out beyond
Neptune, it is also a __________. It can also be further classified as both a
“plutino”, a designation that includes any rocky bodies that orbit in the
neighborhood and in the same way as Pluto. It is also considered the most wellknown KBO, an abbreviation that shows that it is a member of ___________
belt.
34. Shoemaker-Levy 9 is a famous ____________ that that crashed into Jupiter in
1994, providing astronomers with the first documented collision between two
celestial bodies.
35. Another of the Jovian moons, the surface of _____________ is covered with a
smooth sheet of ice, marred only by huge crevasses or cracks. The icy surface is
believed to hide a liquid-water ocean beneath.
36. Even though ______________ is named for the goddess of love, you would not
fall in love with life on the hottest planet in our solar system, well-known for the
noxious gasses in its atmosphere and its run-away greenhouse effect.
37. The center of a cell, the center of an atom and the center of a comet are all
called the _______________.
38. _________rays have a wavelength between that of ultraviolet light and gamma
rays. The ability of these waves to pass through bones and tissue have made
them useful in the field of medicine; their astronomical use is a more recent
application.
39. ________________ radiation is invisible to the naked eye but can be felt as
heat. It has a wavelength slightly longer than red light.
40. ___________ rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation that is stronger in
energy and has a shorter wavelength than X-rays. While these potentially
damaging rays cannot pass through our atmosphere, we have launched several
space telescopes beyond our atmosphere that are capable of detecting and
analyzing this type of radiation, helping us to study black holes, neutron stars,
and other interesting deep space features.
41. ______________ radiation has a wavelength that is slightly shorter than visible
light. Most of this type of radiation is blocked by the ozone layer within the
______________________. However, the little bit that manages to pass
through can be very dangerous, and can cause skin cancer and eye damage due
to over-exposure.
42. Not only is gravity affected by the mass of two objects, but also by:
a. the speed at which they are revolving around each other.
b. the distance between them.
c. their size or volume.
d. how quickly each object rotates on its axis.
43. Just as Goldilocks found the bowl of porridge that was “just right”, the
Goldilocks Theory states that the 1) ______________ is “just right” for
supporting life. It’s far enough away from the 2) _______________, but not
TOO far away. It also is able to host 3) ____________________ in all three
forms, making it habitable for humans and other life forms.
44. Which of the following are needed in order for life to survive on a planet? (circle
those that apply)
a. Liquid water.
f.
Cold temperatures.
b. Solid water.
g. Hot temperatures.
c. Water in a gaseous state.
h. Moderate temperatures.
d. An atmosphere.
i.
All of the above
e. A magnetosphere.
45. The ________________ of space is not completely empty of matter, but is
defined as having a much less atmospheric pressure than its surroundings. Still,
there is so little matter present, that an object’s _______________ alone will
keep it in motion.
46. How long would it take a phone call or radio transmission from Earth to reach
Pluto?
47. This blue planet has ______ moons. The name of the largest moon of this
planet can be remembered if you know the planet’s symbol. What is the planet,
moon, and the symbol?
48. ___________ is named for the Greek god of war due to the ____________
color of its surface which is caused by the presence of _________________ in
surface rocks.
49. What are plutoids? Provide examples.