Test Your Solar System Knowledge

1. Solar energy trapped by gases in Venus's atmosphere causes ____________________.

Clouds to form

Its slow rotation

The greenhouse effect

A cooling effect

2. People once believed that all planets and stars orbited around __________________.

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

3. In 1543, __________published his views of Earth and other planets revolving around the Sun.

Kepler

Magellan

Copernicus

Galileo

4. The Viking landers sent back pictures of the reddish-colored, barren, rocky, windswept surface of _________________.

Mercury

Jupiter

Uranus

Mars

5. Methane absorbs the red and yellow light on _____________, while the clouds of these planets reflect the green and blue light.

Venus and Earth

Uranus and Neptune

Saturn and Jupiter

Neptune and Venus

6. A comet develops a tail because of ____________________.

The solar wind

Earth's atmosphere

The Oort Cloud

Jupiter's gravitational pull

7. Small pieces of rock that enter Earth's atmosphere at speeds of 15 to 70 km/s and burn up are called _____________.

Stars

Meteors

Meteorites

Asteroids

8. _____________ are pieces of rock that strike the surface of a moon or planet.

Meteroids

Comets

Meteor showers

Meteorites

9. Vaporized gases and released dust form a bright cloud called a(n) _______________around the solid part of a comet.

Coma

Core

Heart

Nucleus

10. This planet has no true atmosphere.

Mars

Saturn

Jupiter

Mercury

11. Most of the frozen ice in a comet's ___________vaporizes after the comet's many trips around the Sun.

Coma

Tail

Heart

Nucleus