Big Space Quiz by Emma Carpenter

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:09:04 UTC

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:09:05 UTC

What causes day and night on Earth?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:20:47 UTC

The Earth rotates on its axis and completes a full rotation every 24 hours. This is why the shadows changed length and direction during our experiment!

Which planet is closest to the Sun?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:24:23 UTC

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and a year on Mercury is only 88 days! This means that it is orbiting the sun the quickest.

How many Moons does Earth have?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:26:13 UTC

Although our Moon has 9 phases, we still only have 1 moon orbiting Earth.

What shape are the Sun, Earth and Moon?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:32:07 UTC

In the past, people believed that the Earth was flat or disk-shaped. In some cultures, they believed it was supported by animals or that you could fall off the edge!

Greek philosophers in the 5th century BCE first wrote that the Earth was a sphere after observing the Moon. Isaac Newton concluded Earth was an ellipsoid or almost sphere.

We now van prove that the Sun, Earth and Moon are approximately spherical because we have improved technology such as telescopes, rockets and satellites.

Which planet is known as the 'Red Planet'?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:35:53 UTC

Mars is known as the 'Red Planet' because of its dark orange colour. This is because the rocks, soil and dust covering Mars' surface contain large amounts of iron-oxide (or rust).

How many major planets are there in our solar system?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:40:27 UTC

There are 8 major planets in our solar system. In order of distance from the Sun they are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Pluto is too small and is only a minor planet!

Why is it unsafe to look directly at the Sun?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:54:47 UTC

The UV light emitted by the Sun is damaging to the part of the eye called the retina. Although you will not go instantly blind, overtime, this can cause irreversible damage to your eyes. People are often tempted to look directly at the Sun for longer during an eclipse and then their eyes are damaged when the Sun reappears. This is why people wear special UV blocking glasses to look at an eclipse.

What is a moon?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 10:57:59 UTC

A moon is a celestial body that is spherical and orbits a planet- not a star!

We call moons natural satellites because they are not man made and orbit planets.

Earth has one but bigger planets have many more moons.

Which model replaced the geocentric model of the solar system?

ecarpenter81 — 2025-06-16 11:01:57 UTC

The heliocentric model is the model of the solar system that we use today. This means that the Sun- our closest star- is at the center of the solar system and the planets orbit it.