6th Grade 3rd Quarter Benchmark Study Guide (Space Ch 1-3) ANSWER KEY
1. What is our solar system made up of? Sun, Earth, eight other planets, and smaller bodies
2. A constellation is a group of stars that form a pattern in the sky
3. What types of missions are used to explore other planets? Flyby, orbiter, lander
4. Few impact craters are found on Earth because Earth’s surface is constantly worn down.
5. How many stars are in our solar system? One, the sun
6. Earth’s spinning around its axis causes night and day.
7. Earth’s orbit around the Sun and its 23-degree tilt on its axis cause seasons
8. What season begins in the Southern Hemisphere around December 21? Summer
9. At noon on the day of the summer solstice, the Sun is highest in the sky.
10. Where do the lengths of daylight change the most over the year? At the poles
11. Why does a person on Earth always see the same side of the Moon? The Moon turns on its axis and orbits
Earth in the same amount of time.
12. The lunar highlands have many round features called impact craters
13. The mantle, which is made of dense rock makes up most of the Moon’s volume.
14. Name and draw the eight phases of the moon.
See page 61
15. How many tides do you see when on an ocean shore? two
16. Each day at the equator there are 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
17. How does the Moon cause tides on Earth? By producing two bulges of water, one toward and one away
from the Moon
18. What happens at the December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere? Winter begins and the North Pole is
in darkness
19. An AU is the average distance between the Sun and Earth.
20. The weathering and erosion processes on Mars involve material being moved by wind
21. Why is Mercury no longer shaped by volcanism? Its interior has cooled off.
22. What does the atmosphere of a gas giant look like? deep, with many clouds
23. A ring is chunks of ice orbiting a gas giant's equator
24. Comets and asteroids both orbit the sun
25. A brief streak of light from a falling object is a meteor
26. Venus dense atmosphere causes it to have a more uniform surface temperature than other terrestrial planets.
27. Planet’s orbits are very large, so scientists express distance in the solar system in Astronomical Units.
28. The presence of craters in large, smooth plains tells scientists that, volcanism is no longer occurring.
29. What did plate tectonics cause on Mars? The planet's mantle moved, pushing up the surface causing
large areas on Mars’ surface
30. Universe, galaxy, solar system arranges the structures from largest to smallest
31. You could easily see the movement of the moon without a telescope.
32. A satellite is an object that orbits another larger object in space.
33. A flyby can provide information about more than one planet.
34. What lunar feature is a mare? A dark-colored plain formed from lava
35. What happens during a total solar eclipse? The Moon's umbra passes over a location on Earth
36. Why does the Moon appear to change shape gradually from week to week? Sunlight fall on different
amounts of the Moon's near side
37. Why is Pluto’s orbit unusual? Pluto has an orbit that is less round than that of other planets
38. Why is a comet sometimes bright? It has a coma and tails that reflect sunlight.