Howardites

A printable worksheet for the lesson The small bodies of the Solar System (KS3). It prints on A4 without the website around it. The answers are on a separate sheet for the teacher.

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KS3 · Ages 11 to 14 (Years 7 to 9)Howardites worksheet

The small bodies of the Solar System

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Key words

Asteroid
A rocky or metal-rich object, smaller than a planet, that goes around the Sun.
Meteorite
A meteorite is a piece of space rock that has survived its fall through the air and landed on Earth.
Astronomical unit
An astronomical unit is the average distance from Earth to the Sun, about 149.6 million kilometres.
Kuiper Belt
A huge ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune, including the dwarf planet Pluto.
Dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a body that orbits the Sun and is round, but has not cleared its orbit of other objects.
Pluto
Pluto is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, about 2,377 kilometres across, with ice mountains and a thin atmosphere.

Choose the right answer

Circle the letter of the right answer.

  1. The dwarf planet Pluto belongs to which region of the Solar System?
    • AThe Kuiper belt
    • BThe Oort cloud
    • CThe asteroid belt
    • DThe space between Earth and Mars
  2. How do objects in the Kuiper belt mainly differ from those in the asteroid belt?
    • AThey are stars rather than small bodies
    • BThey are icy and lie beyond Neptune
    • CThey are metallic and lie inside Mercury
    • DThey are clouds of gas with no solid core
  3. A meteoroid survives its fall and lands. What has changed when we start calling it a meteorite?
    • AWhere it is, not what it is made of
    • BWhat it is made of, not where it is
    • CIts size, as meteorites are always bigger
    • DIts age, as meteorites are always younger
  4. What does a light year measure?
    • AA brightness
    • BA speed
    • CA distance
    • DA length of time
  5. Astronomers spot a comet for the first time. Where did it most probably come from?
    • AThe Kuiper belt or the Oort cloud
    • BThe surface of the Moon
    • CThe asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter
    • DThe inside of the Sun

True or false?

Is the answer given right? Tick True or False.

  1. Which list puts these regions in order of distance from the Sun, nearest first?

    Answer given: Asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud TrueFalse

  2. A speck of dust burns up completely high in the atmosphere. Which description is correct?

    Answer given: It was a meteor in space and a meteorite in the air TrueFalse

Write your answer

Answer in a word or a short sentence.

  1. A meteorite is picked up in a desert. Where did it most probably come from?
  2. What are asteroids?
  3. A rocky body 5 km across orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What is it best called?

Task

Draw a scale diagram of the inner Solar System on A4 paper using 1 AU = 4 cm. Mark the Sun, Mercury (0.4 AU), Venus (0.7 AU), Earth (1 AU), Mars (1.5 AU), the asteroid belt (2.1 to 3.3 AU, shaded) and Jupiter (5.2 AU). Saturn is at 9.5 AU and Neptune at 30 AU: how far from the Sun would each be on your scale, and would either fit on the page? Explain why diagrams in books are rarely to scale.

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