Howardites

A printable worksheet for the lesson How the Solar System formed (GCSE). It prints on A4 without the website around it. The answers are on a separate sheet for the teacher.

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GCSE · Ages 14 to 16 (Years 10 and 11)Howardites worksheet

How the Solar System formed

Name:Class:Date:

Key words

Chondrite
A chondrite is a stony meteorite full of tiny round grains called chondrules, and almost unchanged since the Solar System formed.
Planetesimal
One of the countless small bodies, from about a kilometre to a few hundred kilometres across, that collided and merged to build the planets.
Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, whose gravity shapes the asteroid belt and steers meteoroids towards Earth.
Asteroid
A rocky or metal-rich object, smaller than a planet, that goes around the Sun.
Calcium-aluminium-rich inclusion
CAIs are pale, irregular inclusions rich in calcium and aluminium that are the oldest dated solids formed in the Solar System.
Chondrule
A chondrule is a tiny round grain, often smaller than a grain of rice, that formed as a melted droplet in space before the planets existed.

Choose the right answer

Circle the letter of the right answer.

  1. Why could the giant planets gather huge amounts of gas?
    • AIce let them grow big enough to pull in gas
    • BThe Sun blew its spare gas out to them
    • CTheir heat turned their rock into gas
    • DTheir fast spin drew gas off the Sun
  2. In the Sun's core, hydrogen nuclei fuse to make which element?
    • AHelium
    • BOxygen
    • CCarbon
    • DIron
  3. Before fusion began, what made the protostar at the centre of the disc hot?
    • AIts collapse under gravity
    • BLight from the finished Sun
    • CHydrogen fusing into helium
    • DGas burning in oxygen, like a fire
  4. What had to happen to the protostar's core before hydrogen fusion could start?
    • AIt had to collect ice from the outer disc
    • BIt had to stop spinning completely
    • CIt had to become hot and dense enough
    • DIt had to cool and turn solid
  5. The dinosaurs died out 6.6 × 10⁷ years ago. How many million years is that?
    • A660 million
    • B0.66 million
    • C6.6 million
    • D66 million

True or false?

Is the answer given right? Tick True or False.

  1. Why are chondrites better evidence of the early Solar System than rock from a melted asteroid?

    Answer given: Their parent asteroids never melted, so early grains survive TrueFalse

  2. CI chondrites have the same proportions of most elements as the Sun's outer layers. What does this suggest?

    Answer given: The asteroids formed later from new gas TrueFalse

Write your answer

Answer in a word or a short sentence.

  1. What are chondrules?
  2. The nebula held small amounts of heavier elements. Where had they come from?
  3. Why is 4,567 million years taken as the age of the Solar System?

Task

Draw a labelled flow diagram of the formation of the Solar System in five stages: nebula, collapse and disc, protostar, fusion begins, planets and asteroids. Under each stage, write one piece of evidence from meteorites or observations that supports it.

Howardites · free to copy for use in your classroom · answers are on the separate teacher's answer sheet