7th Grade curriculum astronomy review

1. Astronomy Review
By Beverley Sutton
Pueblo Gardens PreK-8

2. Astronomical Unit
• The distance from Earth to the Sun
is one Astronomical Unit.
• The A.U. helps make the vast
distances in our Solar System
more manageable
• Anything closer than Earth is a
fraction of an A.U.
• Anything further away is a
multiple of an A.U.

3. Using the A.U. in our Solar System

4. Light Year
• the distance that light travels in
one year
• One light year is about 10
trillion kilometers!
• Light from the sun takes
only 8 minutes to reach
Earth … i.e. light travels 150
million km in 8 minutes)

5. Scale
• the ratio of a displayed
drawing, model, or map to the
actual physical size or distance
• A good example would be a
scale on a map or the
Play-Doh™ planets we made

6. Scale model of the Solar System

7. Solar System
• the sun, and all the planets, dwarf
planets, moons, comets and asteroids
that orbit the sun

8. Planet
• Any of the eight large
heavenly bodies revolving
about the sun and shining by
reflected light
• Also, any similar body
revolving about a star
other than the sun

9. Our Planets
in the order of their proximity to the sun
• My – Mercury
• Very – Venus
• Elegant – Earth
• Mother – Mars
• Just – Jupiter
• Served – Saturn
• Us – Uranus
• Nachos – Neptune

10. Star
• a large, spherical celestial
body consisting of a mass of
gas that is hot enough to
sustain nuclear fusion and
thus produce radiant energy

11. Our Sun is a Star

12. Gravity
• the attractive force between two objects;
its magnitude depends on their masses
and the distance between them.

13. Ellipse
• An elongated circle, or oval shape; the
shape of the planets’ orbits

14. Orbit
• the path of an object as it revolves around
another object in space

15. Revolve [around]
• the movement of an object around another
object

16. Axis
• an imaginary line
that passes through
Earth’s center and
the North and
South poles, about
which Earth rotates.

17. Season
• one of four natural divisions of
the year—spring, summer,
autumn (fall), and winter.
• Caused by the tilt of Earth’s
axis which changes the angle
of the Sun’s rays as Earth
orbits the Sun.

18. Reason for the Seasons

19. Equinox & Solstice

20. Compass
• a device used to determine
geographical direction, usually
consisting of a magnetic
needle mounted on a pivot,
aligning itself naturally with
the Earth's magnetic field so
that it points to the Earth's
geomagnetic north or south
pole

21. Rotate [on]
• the spinning motion of a planet about its
axis

22. Moon Phase
• any of the forms,
recurring in cycles,
in which the Moon
appears in the sky;
the percentage of
illumination on the
visible face of the
moon.

24. Eclipse
• the partial or total blocking of the light of
one object by another, casting a shadow
on the other object
Solar Eclipse

25. Tides
• the rise and fall of the level of water in the
ocean

26. Constellation
• a pattern of stars in the sky

27. Cluster
• a loose, irregular grouping of stars

28. Galaxy
• a giant structure that contains billions of
stars

29. Universe
• all of space and everything in it