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Exploring Our Cosmic Neighborhood

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Exploring Our Cosmic Neighborhood

Join the Cosmic Neighbourhood bookshop team as you prepare a display about our place in space. Read each clue carefully. Use the diagrams and your science knowledge to solve the tasks.

A Place in Space

Earth is a planet that orbits the Sun. The Sun and the objects that travel around it make up the Solar System. Our Solar System is one small part of the Milky Way, a galaxy containing vast numbers of stars, gas and dust. The Milky Way is one of the enormous number of galaxies in the universe. The leading scientific explanation for the universe’s early development is the Big Bang model: evidence shows that the universe has been expanding from a much hotter, denser state for about 13.8 billion years. A star is a massive sphere of hot gas that produces its own light and energy. Our Sun is a star.

1.Benjamin is making a set of nested labels for the display. Put these in order from smallest to largest: universe, Earth, Milky Way, Solar System.

2.Which statement best describes a galaxy?

A single planet and its moons
A large system containing stars, gas and dust, held together by gravity
A group of planets that all orbit Earth
A cloud found only inside the Solar System

3.Choose all the accurate facts for the display. (There is more than one correct answer.)

The Sun is a star.
Earth is part of the Milky Way.
The universe contains many galaxies.
The Big Bang model describes a star exploding in space.
The Solar System and the Milky Way are the same thing.

4.Complete the scale chain using each word once: galaxy, universe, Solar System. Earth → → → .

5.Noé says, “The Sun is a planet because it looks like a bright ball in the sky.” Correct Noé’s explanation by stating what the Sun is and how it differs from a planet.

6.The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old. What does the Big Bang model help scientists explain?

7.Maëlle is sorting display cards. Match each object to the best description.

Sun
Milky Way
Earth
Universe

The galaxy containing our Solar System
A star in our Solar System
A planet that orbits the Sun
All of space and its contents

8.True or false: Because the Sun is the closest star to Earth, it is the only star in the Milky Way.

TrueFalse

9.Imagine you are writing a two-sentence caption for the bookshop display. Explain how Earth is connected to the universe and include the names of the Solar System and the Milky Way.