Chapter 8: The Solar System and Beyond --- Notes—
Lesson 1: Earth and Sun
1. The Earth’s spinning on its axis is called rotation.
2. Earth rotating on its axis causes the cycle of day
and night. One rotation is 24 hours/one day.
3. Apparent motion is not real motion. The Sun appears
to rise in the east and set in the west.
4. Your shadow is long in the morning and shrinks until midday.
5. The seasons result from both Earth’s tilted axis and
its revolution around the Sun.
6. It takes Earth one year to complete a revolution around
the Sun.
7. Earth’s orbit is shaped like an ellipse, or flattened circle.
Its path is oval-shaped.
8. Along the equator, the temperature changes very little
from season to season.
Lesson 2: Earth and Moon
1. The Sun’s reflection off the Moon’s surface produces
moonlight. The Moon does not have its own source of
light. We see the Moon only because it reflects light from
the Sun.
2. The Moon is Earth’s closest neighbor in space.
3. Days on the Moon are so hot that any water there would
evaporate. Nights are colder than anyplace on Earth.
4. Craters cover most of the surface of the Moon.
5. Large rocks called meteoroids made many of the Moon’s craters.
6. Earth’s atmosphere burns up most meteoroids before they
reach Earth.
7. The Moon (Earth’s satellite) completes one orbit around
Earth in just over 29 days (almost a month).
8. The Moon moves in a regular pattern in the sky.
9. The word phases refers to the Moon’s apparent shapes.
10. The Moon’s gravity causes tides on Earth.
11. A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth’s shadow falls on the Moon.
12. In a solar eclipse, the Moon casts a shadow on Earth.
Lesson 3: The Solar System
1. The Sun is at the center of the solar system
2. Planets, moons, and other objects orbit around the Sun.
3. Planets, as well as the Moon, cannot make their own light.
They also reflect the Sun’s light so we can see them.
4. Galileo validated Copernicus’ model of the solar system
using his telescope.
5. Telescopes make faraway objects seem closer.
6. The inner planets are rocky planets. They include Mercury,
Venus, Earth, and Mars.
7. Mercury is closest to the Sun but Venus is the hottest planet.
8. Venus rotates very slowly on its axis. This makes one day
on Venus last 243 Earth days.
9. Earth and Venus are very close in size.
10. Mars is smaller than Earth.
11. Earth is the only planet with the right conditions to
support life. It has oxygen and liquid water.
12. The outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune,
are giant planets made mostly of gases.
13. Jupiter is the largest planet and Saturn is the second largest.
Lesson 4: Stars and Constellations
1. The only star we can see in the daytime is the Sun.
2. The Sun looks larger than other stars because it is
the closest star in the solar system to Earth.
3. Compared to other stars, the Sun has an average size.
4. Stars warmer than the Sun are white or blue in color.
5. The distance between Earth and the stars is measured
in light years. A light year is equal to the distance that
light travels in a year.
6. The universe may have many galaxies, each with billions of
stars.
7. The Milky Way galaxy is the galaxy our Sun is a part of.
8. As Earth travels in its orbit around the Sun, we see
different constellations.
9. Constellations are groups of stars that form patterns.
10. Ancient people were able to track the seasons and tell
directions by grouping stars into constellations.
11. The Earth and Sun are made of layers.