Solar system

Question 1

What is the composition of iron meteorites?

Answer 1

iron-nickel alloy

Question 2

What is the composition of stony meteorites?

Answer 2

Made of silicate minerals including olivine, pyroxene and plagioclase feldspar

Question 3

What is the composition of carbonaceous chondrites?

Answer 3

water and organic compounds (type of stony)

Question 4

Where are iron meteorites thought to originate from?

Answer 4

Thought to represent the core of a planet like-object from the early solar system.

Question 5

Where are stony meteorites thought to originate from?

Answer 5

Thought to represent the mantle of a small planet-like object from the early history of the solar system

Question 6

Meteorites

Answer 6

Rock fragments which fall to earth from space

Question 7

Where do most meteorites come from in space?

Answer 7

Asteroid belt

Question 8

What are the pieces of evidence for the impact of meteorites on earth? 5

Answer 8

Craters are circular
Quartz grains shocked or melted
Rock strata tilted by impact
Material at base is brecciated
Ejected material falls back to earth in an inverted sequence

Question 9

What are the two types of planets in our solar system?

Answer 9

Terrestrial

Gas giants

Question 10

Name the terrestrial planets

Answer 10

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars

Question 11

Name the gas giants

Answer 11

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune

Question 12

What are terrestrial planets?

Answer 12

They are made up of rock and have a dense core

Question 13

What are gas giants?

Answer 13

They are made entirely of gases and are much larger than the terrestrial planets

Question 14

Planet

Answer 14

A sizeable object orbiting a star, massive enough to have its own gravity

Question 15

Which planets does the asteroid belt occur between?

Answer 15

Mars and Jupiter

Question 16

Moon

Answer 16

A natural satellite that orbits a planet

Question 17

How old is the earth?

Answer 17

4.6 billion years

Question 18

Asteroids

Answer 18

Rocky objects which failed to form a planet

Question 19

Comet

Answer 19

Composed of ice and dust. The outer layer melts into water vapour as it gets closer to the sun

Question 20

Sun

Answer 20

A star composed of hydrogen and helium

Question 21

Solar system

Answer 21

Consists of the sun, planets, moons, asteroids and comets

Question 22

What is the Big Bang?

Answer 22

An event that led to the formation of the solar system about 14 billion years ago. It was the point when all matter and energy were created. At that moment all matter was compressed into a space billions of times smaller than an atom. Both time and space where set to zero.

Question 23

When was the solar system believed to have been formed?

Answer 23

4500 million years ago

Question 24

Describe how the solar system formed?

Answer 24

A giant cloud of dust collapsed (nebular hypothesis) - possibly when it was hit by a shock wave from a nearby supernova. The material was drawn together by gravity and built up over time eventually forming a rotating disc which ignited triggering nuclear reactions and formed the sun. Other material in the rotating disc began to stick together (accretion) and formed progressively larger objects called planetesimals until they finally resulted in planets.

Question 25

How has manned landings on the moon increased our knowledge of the moon?

Answer 25

20kg of rock samples were brought back which could be analysed

Question 26

Name and describe the two different types of area on the moon

Answer 26

Maria- dark areas composed of basalt lava flows

Highland- light- coloured areas composed of the plagioclase rich rock anorthosite