P1 Chapter 4: Space Question •
Progress •
Succe ed
Knowledge organiser
Space The Solar System The Moon
A galaxy is a collection of billions of stars. The Universe Our Solar System is everything that orbits around the Sun. The Moon orbits the Earth every 27 days and 7 hours.
The Earth is in the Milky Way galaxy. contains This includes: It takes the same amount of time to spin on its axis, so we always see
billions of
• Inner planets – the terrestrial (rocky) planets the same side.
Planets are large objects that orbit stars,
Mercury Venus
and do not produce light. Galaxies
contain Earth Mars Phases of the moon
Asteroids are rocky objects smaller than billions of • Asteroid belt (Including the dwarf planet Ceres) As the Moon moves around the Earth different parts are lit by the Sun,
planets, that also orbit stars. so it looks different to us.
• Outer planets – the gas giants
Stars 7
Satellites are objects that orbit planets. Jupiter Saturn light from Sun
are orbited 8 6
This includes natural satellites (moons) by Uranus Neptune
and artificial satellites (e.g., the
• Kuiper belt objects (such as Pluto) 5
International Space Station). 1
Planets, asteroids, • Comets (balls of ice)
and comets Earth
Meteors are bits of rock which burn
planets may 2 4
up in Earth’s atmosphere. They Moon
have path of comet What we see:
are called meteorites once they hit 3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
the ground.
Moons
new crescent first gibbous full gibbous third crescent
quarter quarter
The Earth
Solar eclipses
The Earth is the only place we have found life in the Universe. The Moon blocks light hitting part of the Earth. The umbra is the
It takes a year for the Earth to orbit the Sun - 365.2442 days. We add region of total darkness (like night), and the penumbra is where the
one day every fourth year (a leap year) because of the extra 0.2442 days. light is partially blocked.
The Earth’s axis is tilted 23.4 degrees, which causes seasons Pluto’s orbit Sun Earth
(which have different day lengths and temperatures). Moon
March
spring in the north and December The further a planet is from the Sun, the colder its temperature is
autumn in the south winter in the north and umbra
(apart from Venus, because of its thick atmosphere).
summer in the south penumbra
Gravity pulled gas and dust together to form the Sun about 5 billion
Sun
years ago. The planets then formed from a spinning disc of gas and
dust around the Sun. Lunar eclipses
The earth stops light hitting the Moon.
June An exoplanet is a planet that is orbiting a star that is not the Sun.
summer in the north and Sun
winter in the south Earth
September
autumn in the north and
Moon
spring in the south
The Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours, giving us day and night.
Key terms Make sure you can write definitions for these key terms.
artificial satellite asteroid axis comet dwarf planet exoplanet galaxy gravity gas giant inner planet lunar eclipse meteor meteorite Milky Way
Moon natural satellite orbit outer planet penumbra planet solar eclipse Solar System star Sun terrestrial umbra Universe
