Name: _________________________
STUDY GUIDE
Date: ______________
ASTRONOMY UNIT
TEST: November 5th (Wales) or November 6th (Malm)
Part I. The Solar System
A. Names of the planets in order from the Sun.
(Remember: My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles)
1.
5.
2.
6.
3.
7.
4.
8.
B. Our Solar System
1. One star, called the Sun, around which everything else revolves
2. Eight planets
3. One asteroid belt, located between Mars and Jupiter
4. Dwarf planets, like Pluto (considered to be a planet for about 75 years!)
5. Earth has only one moon but other planets have MANY.
C. Important Planet Facts
1. Mercury- the closest planet to the sun, revolves around the Sun the fastest—once
every 88 days.
2. Venus- the hottest planet, even though it’s not the closest planet. It rotates
“backwards” when compared to the earth.
3. Earth- the only place in the universe where we know life exists.
4. Mars- the red planet, has ice and the solar system’s largest volcano.
5. Jupiter- Gas Giant- so big that more than 1,000 Earths could fit inside it!
6. Saturn- Gast Giant- its seven rings are the brightest and easiest to see from Earth.
7. Uranus- Gas Giant- rotates “sideways” compared to Earth, and it has rings that
are perpendicular to Jupiter’s, Saturn’s, and Neptune’s rings.
8. Neptune- Gas Giant- one year (one full revolution around the sun) takes about
165 Earth years because it is so far from the Sun!
Part II. Rotation and Revolution
A. Rotation
1. Earth rotates on its axis
2. It takes the Earth 24 hours to rotate on its axis
3. We have day and night on Earth because of the Earth’s rotation
4. The size of a planet does NOT determine how fast it rotates on its axis
B. Revolution
1. Earth revolves around the Sun
2. Another word for “revolves” is “orbits”
3. It takes the Earth 365 and ¼ days to revolve around the Sun. (Every 4 years we
celebrate leap year to account for the ¼ day each year.)
4. We have a 365-day year because that’s how long it takes the Earth to make one
complete revolution around the Sun.
5. We have seasons because of the revolution of Earth around the Sun and the tilt of
the Earth on it’s axis.
6. The closer a planet is to the Sun, the less time it takes for it to revolve around it.
C. Seasons
1. As the Earth revolves around the Sun, the Earth is tilted on its axis.
2. During summer months, the axis points more directly at the Sun.
3. When the axis is pointing more directly at the Sun, sunlight hits this
hemisphere more directly.
4. Because the axis is tilted towards the Sun, sunlight hits this hemisphere for more
hours, even though the Earth rotates once every 24 hours.
Part III. The Moon - Name the 8 Moon phases in order and what each phase looks like.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Part IV. Miscellaneous Facts (may show up in a bonus question!!)
 the Moon has no atmosphere and 1/6 the gravity of Earth
 Constellations are a group of stars that, as seen from Earth, seem to be next to
each other, but are actually scattered throughout the universe
 the first human in space was the Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin
 the first woman in space was the Russian cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova
 the first American in space was Alan Shepard
 the first human to step on the moon was Neil Armstrong