Solar System Study Guide
solar system: The Sun and the objects that orbit it.
rotation: The spinning of an object on its axis.
axis: An imaginary line that goes through the North Pole and South Pole.
orbit: The path an object takes as it moves around another object in space.
planet: A large body of rock or gas that orbits the sun.
corona: The outermost region of the sun’s atmosphere.
sun: The star at the center of our solar system.
moon: A large rocky object that orbits a planet.
sun spot: A cooler darker spot appearing periodically on the sun’s
photosphere.
gravity: The force of one object’s pull on another.
revolution: The movement of one object around another object.
solar flares: Huge explosions on the surface of the sun.
star: A hot ball of glowing gases that makes its own heat and light energy.
Some characteristics of the sun:
1. The sun is a yellow star.
2. The sun is made up of two gases: helium and hydrogen.
3. The sun’s light and heat come from nuclear reactions at its core.
Without this energy from the sun, there would be no life on earth.
4. The sun is so big that all of the planets and moons for the solar
system could fit inside it. It is so big that more than a million earths
could fit inside it.
5. The sun’s corona is the outer layer of its atmosphere. Because the
sun is so bright, we can only see the corona during solar eclipses when the
rest of the sun is blocked out.
6. The surface of the sun is always changing. The sun has dark, cooler
spots called sunspots that erupt on the surface of the sun and are visible
through a solar telescope. The sun also releases explosions of energy called
solar flares.