Solar System 101

The solar system came into being about 4.5 billion years ago when a cloud of interstellar gas and dust collapsed, resulting in a _________ ___________, a swirling disc of material that collided to form the solar system

solar nebula

Beyond the Kuiper Belt is the ___________ __________, which is a collection of icy debris and is considered the edge of the solar system because that is where the gravitation and physical influence of the Sun end

Oort Cloud

What planet in our solar system is the second largest? Its rings are wide enough to fit between the Earth and the moon, but are barely a kilometer thick

Saturn

What are the 2 categories that the 8 planets are divided into based on composition?

Terrestrial and Jovian

What planet in our solar system rotates on its side?

Uranus

What planet in our solar system is the hottest planet, with temperatures up to 867 F due to an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and extensive lava flows?

Venus

Only _____% of stars in the galaxy host planetary systems and one of the stars in the Sun

15

Our solar system is one of over __________ known solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy

500

How many planets revolve around our Sun?

8

Orbiting the Terrestrial planets is the Asteroid Belt, which is a flat disc of rocky objects full of remanence from the solar system's formation (from microscopic dust particles to the largest known object: dwarf planet Ceres)?

Asteroid Belt

What planet in our solar system has water systems that help create the only known environment to sustain life?

Earth

Jupitar and Saturn are known as __________ ___________

Gas Giants

What type of planets are made predominantly helium and hydrogen?

Gas Giants

Uranus and Neptune are known as __________ __________

Ice Giants

What type of planets contain rock, ice, and mixture of water, ethane, and ammonia?

Ice Giants

What category of planets includes Jupitar, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune? These have multiple moons support ring systems, no solid surface, and are immense in size

Jovian

What planet in our solar system is the largest?

Jupitar

What is a disc of space debris that orbits the Jovian planets? This is home to dwarf planets such as Pluto and is the birth place of many comets

Kuiper Belt

What planet in our solar system might have supported life 3.7 billion years ago when the planet had a watery surface and moist atmosphere?

Mars

What planet in our solar system is the smallest and closest to the Sun? This also has the shortest orbit in our Solar System at about 3 Earth months

Mercury

What planet in our solar system rotates is the outer most planet and also one of the coldest with -353 F

Neptune

The solar system is located in the Milky Way's _____________ star cluster

Orion

What category of planets, that includes Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are primarily made of rocky material, have solid surfaces, don't have rings, have very few or no moons, and are relatively small?

Terrestrial