Hannah Ness - Solar System GIZMO - 3071914

Name: Hannah Ness Date: 1/29/21
Student Exploration: Solar System

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: atmosphere, ellipse, gas giant, gravity, inner planet, orbit, outer planet, planet, rocky planet, solar
system, year
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
1. Name all the planets you can think of Mercury, venus, uranus, neptune, earth,
mars, jupiter, saturn.
2. What object is at the center of the solar system? the sun
3. What force keeps the planets from flying out of the gravity?
solar system?
Gizmo Warm-up
On the Solar System Gizmo, check that the ORBIT tab is selected. At first you can only see the four inner
planets. The distances of the planets to the Sun are to scale, but sizes are not.
1. Move the cursor over each planet to learn its name. What are the
four inner planets?
Mercury, venus, earth, and mars.
These planets are called rocky planets because their surfaces are
rocky.
2. Click the “–” button (upper right) three times to zoom out. What are
the names of the four outer planets?
neptune, uranus, saturn, jupiter.
These planets are called gas giants because they are essentially huge balls of gas.
3. Before 2006, while Pluto was still considered a planet, people used this saying to remember the nine planet
names: “My very excellent mother just sent us nine pizzas.”
Come up with a new sentence to help remember the eight planet names, in order.
My Very Efficient Memory Just Summed Up Nine.
Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A: ● Check that the ORBIT tab is still selected.
● Click the “o” button to reset the zoom level.
Planetary orbits
● Be sure that the Speed is set to Slow.
● Turn on Show orbits.
Question: How long is a year on each planet?
1. Observe: The path a planet takes around the Sun is its orbit. Planets move in orbits because of the Sun’s
gravity, a force pulling inward toward the Sun. Click Play ( )
A. What is the shape of orbits? The shape the planets orbit the sun is a circle.
The actual shape of an orbit is an ellipse, or flattened circle. Planetary orbits are only slightly flattened
so that they look almost perfectly circular to the naked eye.
B. Which planet’s orbit looks the least like a circle? I think that the orbit of Mercury looks the least
like a circle/
2. Measure: Click Reset ( ). Now you will measure how long it takes each planet to orbit the Sun. Notice
that the date shown below the simulation is today’s date.
● Drag an arrow from the left of the Gizmo and place it next to Mercury.
● Click Play. When Mercury completes one orbit (reaches the arrow), click Pause.
● Record Today’s date and the One orbit date in the first row of the table below.
● Do the same steps for each planet, filling in the table as you go.
o For the outer planets, zoom out (–) and increase the Speed of the simulation.
Planet Today’s date One orbit date Year length

Mercury 1/29/21 5/1/21 4 months
Venus 1/29/21 9/17/21 8 months
Earth 1/29/21 1/29/22 1 years
Mars 1/29/21 1/9/23 2 years
Jupiter 1/29/21 3/1/33 12 years
Saturn 1/29/21 3/1/50 29 years
Uranus 1/29/21 1/29/2109 84 years
Neptune 1/29/21 1/29/2186 165 years
3. Calculate: A year is the time it takes a planet to complete one orbit. Use your data to estimate the Year
length for each planet. Use time units of Earth years or Earth months. Why does it take the outer planets
so long to orbit the Sun? Try to come up with 2 reasons.
One reason might be because the outer planets are much bigger, therefore they are much
more slow moving. Another might be that the outer planets are so far away from the sun
that the orbit length would take much longer than ours.
Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Comparing planets ● Select the SIZE tab.
Question: What are the interesting features of each planet?
1. Observe: Look closely at the diagram of planets. Based on the diagram, list the planets from smallest to
largest:
(smallest) Mercury Mars venus earth
neptune uranus saturn jupiter (largest)
2. Compare: How do the four rocky planets compare to the four gas giants in size?
You cannot even compare their size. hundreds of earth’s or venus’s could fit into one
jupiter.
3. Analyze: Most planets are surrounded by layers of gas called an atmosphere. Click on each planet and
read about it. Focus on information about each planet’s atmosphere.
A. Of the rocky planets, which have Of the rocky planets only earth has a well developed
well-developed atmospheres? atmospheres.
B. Which has only a thin atmosphere? Mars
C. Which has no atmosphere at all? Mercury
D. Which planets are mostly “made of” venus

atmosphere?
4. Analyze: How is the size of a planet related to the thickness of its atmosphere? Explain.
The size of a planet could affect the atmosphere because if a planet is rocky but very small
then the gravitational field will be much weaker because there is less to work with under the
surface, causing the atmosphere to be just as weak.
5. Extend your thinking: Which planet do you think would be easiest for humans to colonize some day?
Explain.
I think that Venus would be the easiest to colonize someday because it has a central
atmosphere and size similar to earths.

Hannah Ness - Solar System GIZMO - 3071914

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hannah Ness - Solar System GIZMO - 3071914

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Hannah Ness - Solar System GIZMO - 3071914

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Name: Hannah Ness Date: 1/29/21

Student Exploration: Solar System

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

2. What object is at the center of the solar system? the sun

Mercury, venus, earth, and mars.

neptune, uranus, saturn, jupiter.

My Very Efficient Memory Just Summed Up Nine.

Question: How long is a year on each planet?

Planet Today’s date One orbit date Year length

Activity B: Get the Gizmo ready:

Question: What are the interesting features of each planet?

(smallest) Mercury Mars venus earth

neptune uranus saturn jupiter (largest)

B. Which has only a thin atmosphere? Mars

C. Which has no atmosphere at all? Mercury

D. Which planets are mostly “made of” venus

You might also like

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.