Science Test for both classes will be on Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

          STUDY GUIDE FOR THE SOLAR SYSTEM

OUTER PLANETS, STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS

OUTER PLANETS      

Jupiter: 

·       Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun.

·       There are 16 known moons.

·       It is the largest planet in the solar system.

·       More than 1000 earths could fit inside Jupiter if it were hollow.

·       Jupiter is a giant ball of gas with a rocky center.

·       Thick clouds cover Jupiter.

·       Jupiter is boiling hot at its center and freezing cold at the top of the clouds.

·       There is a large red spot on Jupiter that may be a giant storm.

·       A thin ring of rocks orbits the planet.

Saturn:

·       Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun. It has rings that circle it made up of huge chunks of ice and tiny particles of dust and rock.

·       Its largest moon, Titan, is larger than Mercury.

·       It is so light that it could float in water.

·       Saturn is a giant ball of gas with a rocky center like Jupiter.

·       Thick clouds cover Saturn.

·       Saturn is very hot at the center and freezing cold at the top of the clouds.

Uranus:

·       Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun.  It is 4 times the size of Earth.

·       It has 5 large moons and 10 small moons. (15 moons)

·       Uranus is also a giant gas ball with a rocky center. 

·       It has 10 thin, dark rings.

·       Uranus looks blue-green and is covered by a thick haze.

·       It is so far from the sun that it is very, very cold.

·       Uranus rotates in a different way than the other planets.  It tilts over on its side.

·       Deep within Uranus there is an ocean that may be 6,000 miles deep.

Neptune:

·       It has at least 8 moons.

·       Neptune is a large blue-green ball of gas with a center of rock and iron.

·       It is covered with clouds and has 3 faint rings.

·       It is so far away from the sun that it is very, very, cold.

·       Neptune has high winds (up to 1000mph) and many storms.  Sometimes the storms show up as dark spots.

STARS:

THE SUN

·       The sun is a star made up of hot gases that explode with energy similar to that of a continuously exploding nuclear bomb.

·       It is only 93 million miles away from Earth. (93,000,000 miles)

·       Light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach us so actually, we see the sun as it was eight minutes ago.

·       The sun provides the Earth with heat and light.  It is an average-sized star that has been spinning on its axis and exploding for about 5 billion years.

OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT STARS 

·       Each star in the sky is an enormous glowing ball of gas.

·       Stars can live for billions of years.

·       The largest stars have the shortest life span because they burn hotter and faster than smaller stars (like the sun).

·       Gravitational forces hold groups of stars together.

·       The closest star to Earth is the sun.  The next closest star is Proxima Centauri, also known as Alpha Centauri C.

CONSTELLATIONS  

·       A constellation is a group of stars that form a pattern. 

·       There are 88 constellations.

·       The brightest constellation is Crux or The Southern Cross.

·       The largest constellation is Hydra (The Water Snake).

·       The constellation with the greatest number of visible stars in it is Centaurus (the Centaur – with 101 stars in it).

·       The Zodiac is a band of 12 constellations.  The constellations in the Zodiac are:

1.  Capricorn – The Goat                 7.   Cancer –  The Crab

2.  Aquarius – The Water Bearer    8.   Leo – The Lion

3.  Pisces – The Fish                       9.   Virgo – The Maiden

4.  Aries – The Ram                        10.  Libra – The Balance

5.  Taurus – The Bull                     11.  Scorpio – The   

                                                                   Scorpion

6.  Gemini – The Twins                  12.  Sagittarius – The

                                                                   Archer

·       Some other constellations include:

Ursa Major – The Great Bear  (This constellation includes the group of stars known as the Big Dipper.)

Cassiopeia – The Lady of the Chair that is shaped like a “W”.

Cepheus  -  This is a house-shaped constellation. 

Crux – The Southern Cross.  Its brightest star is Acrux at the base of the cross.  We cannot see Crux from our hemisphere.

Draco – The Dragon

Ursa Minor – The Little Bear also known as the Little Dipper.  This group of stars ends at Polaris, the North Star.

Lyra – The Lyre

Orion – The Hunter.  The brightest stars in Orion are Riger, Betelgeuse, and Bellatrix.

Pegasus – The Flying Horse

Perseus – named for a hero in Greek mythology

Bootes – The Herdsman

ASTEROIDS, COMETS, AND METEORITES 

Asteroids:  Asteroids are small usually rocky bodies that are found in an area between Mars and Jupiter called “the asteroid belt”. 

Meteorites:  Meteorites are rocks from space that arrived on Earth by natural processes. They vary in size from small to huge but mostly are hand specimens.  Most meteorites come from asteroids.

Comets:  Comets are small icy bodies that orbit the sun in large elliptical orbits. They spend most of the time in the cold outer solar system, but sometimes travel into the warm inner solar system.  They are made of very small rocky cores, surrounded by ice, gas and dust.  As a comet approaches the sun, its heat causes the gas and ice to vaporize and form a bright tail.