Outline of the Solar System

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/outline-of-the-solar-system

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the formation model?The Nebular Hypothesis
2. What is the age of solar system?Approximately 4.6 billion years
3. What is the nebular hypothesis?It explains how the Sun and planets formed from a giant rotating cloud of gas and dust that collapsed and spun faster, creating a disk where the Sun and planets grew.
4. Why are the inner planets rocky and the outer planets gas or ice?Closer to the Sun, temperatures were higher, so only rocky materials could solidify, while farther out the cooler space let ices and gases form the giant planets.

Nebular Hypothesis: Theory that planets form from a rotating disk of gas and dust around a young star.
Protoplanetary Disk: A rotating disk of dense gas and dust surrounding a newly formed star.
Accretion: The process by which particles clump together to form larger bodies.
Trans-Neptunian Object (TNO): Any object in the solar system whose orbit lies beyond that of Neptune.