5th Grade Solar System (Florida NGSSS)

The universe contains a multitude of galaxies.

There are billions of galaxies in the universe. In each of those galaxies there are millions of stars.

Our galaxy is the Milky Way.

A galaxy is held together by gravity.

Matter is any object that takes up space and has mass.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, consists of many different types of matter.

Stars, remains of dead stars, gas, dust, and dark matter all make up a galaxy.

• 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) stars

• stellar remnants, or matter left when a star dies

• interstellar medium- the matter between star systems in a galaxy

• gas and dust- cosmic gas is hydrogen and helium and dust is minerals and fragments of dead stars

• dark matter

The Milky Ways consists of...

Multiple Choice

Which of the following best describes what makes up a galaxy?

• gas, dust, and billions stars

• only one star and planets orbiting the star

• one planet and a moon orbiting the planet

• a group of several stars that make a shape in the sky

Multiple Choice

Which of the following objects is NOT in the Milky Way galaxy?

• The Sun

• Pluto

• The Andromeda Galaxy

• other stars

Multiple Select

Choose all object that are in the Milky Way galaxy.

• billions of stars

• moons

• asteroids and comets

• the universe

Our sun is a typical star.

​It is neither a big star nor a small star.

​Our solar system consists of planets, moons, and other objects that orbit our sun.

The sun is a star.

The sun provides the Earth with light energy.

Fusion of elements at its core creates this energy.

Our solar system contains 8 planets: the four closest to the sun are called rocky planets and the 4 farthest from the sun are gas giants.

A planet must do three things: it must orbit a star, it must be big enough to have enough gravity to force a spherical shape, and it must be big enough that its gravity cleared away any objects of a similar size near its orbit.

​What is a planet?

An orbit is the path an object follows as it revolves around another object.

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These planets are small and rocky.

Mercury and Venus do not have a moon.

Earth has one moon.

Mars has two moons.

The inner planets have few or no moons.

​

The first four planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

• Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system.

• Mercury is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

• Mercury doesn't really have an atmosphere.

• It is not the hottest planet; Venus is the hottest.

• A day on Mercury lasts 59 Earth days. It has a very slow rotation.

• A year on Mercury lasts 88 Earth days.

Mercury

​Here you can see that Mercury is a light grey color.

• A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days.

• A year on Venus lasts 225 Earth days.

• Venus does not have any moons.

• Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system.

• Venus is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

• Venus has a thick atmosphere. It traps heat and makes Venus very hot.

• Venus has an active surface, including volcanoes!

• Venus spins the opposite direction of Earth and most other planets.

Venus

​Here you can see the clouds covering Venus.

• Our home planet Earth is a rocky, terrestrial planet. It has a solid and active surface with mountains, valleys, canyons, plains and so much more. Earth is special because it is an ocean planet. Water covers 70% of Earth's surface.

• Earth is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

• Earth's atmosphere is the right thickness to keep the planet warm so living things like us can be there. It’s the only planet in our solar system we know of that supports life. It is mostly nitrogen, and it has plenty of oxygen for us to breathe.

Earth

​A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite took this picture of the entire sunlit side of Earth from one million miles away.

Our home planet, Earth, takes 365 days to orbit the sun.

Earth's orbit is an ellipse. An ellipse is like a circle stretched in opposite directions.

As Earth moves in its orbit, its distance from the sun changes.

Earth

Match

Match the following:

• Earth

• Sun

• orbit

Planet in the solar system

our star, which provides light energy for plants to produce food

the path an object takes around another object

• Planet in the solar system

• our star, which provides light energy for plants to produce food

• the path an object takes around another object

Our atmosphere is made mostly of nitrogen and has plenty of oxygen for us to breathe. The atmosphere also protects us from incoming meteoriods most of which break up in our atmosphere before they can strike the surface as meteorites.

Earth

​We have only one natural satellite.

It takes our moon 27 days to orbit the Earth.

The Moon does not shine with its own light. It simply reflects light coming from the Sun.

Our Moon

• Mars is a terrestrial planet. It is small and rocky.

• Mars has a thin atmosphere.

• Mars has an active atmosphere, but the surface of the planet is not active. Its volcanoes are dead.

• Mars is roughly half the size of Earth.

• Mars has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and weather.

• It has a very thin atmosphere made of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon.

Mars

​In this picture of Mars, you can see water-ice clouds, polar ice, and some rocky features.

Multiple Choice

Which two planets are closer to the Sun than Earth is?

• Jupiter and Saturn

• Saturn and Neptune

• Neptune and Venus

• Mercury and Venus

Asteroids are small, rocky objects that orbit the Sun. Although asteroids orbit the Sun like planets, they are much smaller than planets.

​

The asteroid belt is between Mars and Jupiter.

• Asteroids aren’t all round (or spherical) like planets. They have jagged and irregular shapes.

• Some asteroids are hundreds of miles in diameter, but many more are as small as pebbles.

• Most asteroids are made of different kinds of rocks, but some have clays or metals, such as nickel and iron.

Are all asteroids the same?

No way!

​Mathilde, Gaspra, and Ida are three asteroids that have been imaged by NASA spacecraft. In this image, you can see that asteroids come in a variety shapes and sizes. Image credit: NASA/JPL

Multiple Choice

Why does the sun look so big here on Earth?

• It is close to Earth.

• It is a large star.

• It is the biggest star in the Milky Way.

• It is smaller than Earth's moon.

Dropdown

Earth is found in a region of space called the ​ ​ ​

Select answer

These planets are mostly made our of gas.

Jupiter has 80 moons.

Saturn has 63 moons.

Uranus has 27 moons.

Neptune has 14 moons.

The last four planets in our solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.

Jupiter is a gas giant and doesn't have a solid surface, but it may have a solid inner core about the size of Earth. Jupiter also has rings, but they're too faint to see very well.

​Jupiter has 80 moons.

It takes 11.8 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the sun.

​Jupiter

Saturn isn’t the only planet to have rings, but it definitely has the most beautiful ones.

The rings we see are made of groups of tiny ringlets that surround Saturn. They’re made of chunks of ice and rock.

Like Jupiter, Saturn is mostly a ball of hydrogen and helium.

(www.nasa.org)

​Saturn

• ​​It takes 29 Earth years for Saturn to orbit the sun.

• Saturn has 63 moons.

• Uranus is made of water, methane, and ammonia fluids above a small rocky center.

• Uranus is surrounded by a set of 13 rings.

• Uranus is an ice giant (instead of a gas giant).

• It is mostly made of flowing icy materials above a solid core.

• Uranus has a thick atmosphere made of methane, hydrogen, and helium.

• Uranus is the only planet that spins on its side.

• Uranus spins the opposite direction as Earth and most other planets.

• Uranus has 27 known moons.

• Uranus takes 84 Earth years to orbit the sun.

Uranus

Neptune is dark, cold, and very windy. It's the last of the planets in our solar system. It's more than 30 times as far from the sun as Earth is. Neptune is very similar to Uranus. It's made of a thick fog of water, ammonia, and methane over an Earth-sized solid center. Its atmosphere is made of hydrogen, helium, and methane. The methane gives Neptune the same blue color as Uranus. Neptune has six rings, but they're very hard to see.

• It takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to orbit the sun.

• Neptune has 14 moons.

​Neptune

Why are planets round?

A planet is round because of gravity. A planet's gravity pulls equally from all sides. Gravity pulls from the center to the edges like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. This makes the overall shape of a planet a sphere, which is a three-dimensional circle.

Other matter in our Solar System.

• Moons are satellites around a planet.

• Mercury and Venus do not have a moon.

• Earth has 1 moon.

• Jupiter has over 60 moons!

Moons

• Asteroids are composed of rock and metals.

• They are typically found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

​​Asteroids

Comets

• ​Comets are composed of ice and dust.

• As a comet gets closer to the sun, it produces a tail of dust and gas.

Comets are large objects made of dust and ice that orbit the Sun. Best known for their long, streaming tails, these ancient objects are leftovers from the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.

​What is a comet?

At the heart of every comet is a solid, frozen core called the nucleus. This ball of dust and ice is usually less than 10 miles (16 kilometers) across – about the size of a small town. When comets are out in the Kuiper Belt or Oort Cloud, scientists believe that’s pretty much all there is to them – just frozen nuclei.

But when a comet gets close to the Sun, it starts heating up. Eventually, the ice begins to turn to gas. This can also cause jets of gas to burst out of the comet, bringing dust with it. The gas and dust create a huge, fuzzy cloud around the nucleus called the coma.

(https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/comets/en/)

What are the parts of a comet?

​This diagram shows the anatomy of a comet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Meteors can be small pieces of an asteroid or a piece of a comet.

​

​A meteor is a space material that burns up as it enters Earth's atmosphere.

Match

Match the following:

• asteroid

• comet

• moon

• star

• planet

rock and metal orbiting the sun

ice with a tail of dust and gas orbiting the sun

a larger rocky satellite of a planet

create light and energy

a rocky or gassy mass orbiting a star

• rock and metal orbiting the sun

• ice with a tail of dust and gas orbiting the sun

• a larger rocky satellite of a planet

• create light and energy

• a rocky or gassy mass orbiting a star

Multiple Choice

During a trip to a planetarium, Kyndall learned all about the inner planets. Which statement BEST describes the four inner planets?

• They all have moons.

• They have clouds.

• They are small and rocky.

• They are mostly made of gas.

Multiple Choice

How are the four outer planets different from the four inner planets?

• They are smaller.

• They all have moons.

• They have no atmosphere.

• They are take less time to orbit the sun.

Multiple Choice

Fran is making a model of the solar system. Which of these solar system objects in her model should be shown in orbit around a planet?

• asteroid

• moon

• comet

• galaxies

Multiple Choice

Jennah wanted to draw objects in our solar system. She drew our moon and the Sun. What are some other objects in the solar system that Jennah needs to include in the drawing?

• comets and black holes

• stars and galaxies

• meteors and galaxies

• planets and asteroids

Multiple Choice

Bella made a two-column chart to compare comets and asteroids.

Which properties are true about BOTH comets and asteroids?

• They are both larger than most planets.

• They both revolve around the sun.

• They are both made of gas, ice, and dust.

• They both have moons around them.

Multiple Choice

Gentry was researching the solar system. Which statement is TRUE of the four outer planets?

• They do not have moons.

• They have a hotter temperature.

• They are smaller than the inner planets.

• They travel farther around the sun than the inner planets.

Multiple Choice

Madison did an investigation to find out how many Earth days it takes for each planet to rotate on its axis. She found information online on credible sites and read informational books about the planets. Then she created a graph to show the results of her investigation. What type of investigation did Madison do?

• observed planet behavior

• performed a demonstration

• conducted an experiement

• searched reliable resources

Multiple Choice

Victoria saw a show about stars at a planetarium. Which of these statements about stars is an opinion?

• Stars are bigger than planets.

• The only star in our solar system is the Sun.

• The stars make the sky look prettier.

• Stars are visible at night.

Multiple Choice

Diego created a model to show the solar system. Why is Diego's activity NOT an experiment?

• It is not showing a scientific concept.

• There is no control or variable.

• No observations are being made.

• It is not repeatable.

Dropdown

The inner planets have few or no moons, while the outer planets ​

Select answer

Multiple Choice

Annette saw a show about constellations at a planetarium.

Which is an observation she might make?

• Some stars in a star pattern can be brighter than others becasue of their distance from Earth.

• The Big Dipper Constellation has a better position than the rest of the star patterns.

• Some star patterns we see in the night sky are more interesting than others.

• Naming constellations after animals is not very scientific.

Thank you for reviewing.