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Open House at the Dome: Sizing Up Planets by the Numbers

Grade 8 solar system scale practice: use diameter, mass, density and distance data to compare the Moon, planets and Ceres seen at an observatory night.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS1-3

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
11 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 8
Subject: Science
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students compute size, volume and distance ratios from solar system data.
Students use density data to infer what planets are made of and to judge a claim about size and density.

How to use

Have calculators ready; read the passage and the table together and remind students that the density of water is 1.0 g/cm³ before they start Part 2.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS1-3

Analyze data to find the scale properties of objects in the solar system.

Preview

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Open House at the Dome: Sizing Up Planets by the Numbers

Analyze diameter, mass and density data to compare objects in the solar system.

Part 1: Comparing sizes

Read the passage and the data table, then answer the questions.

A Night Under the Dome

1Once a month, the college on the hill opens its rooftop observatory to the public. Eighth grader Ines Castellanos volunteers there with her school's astronomy club. Her job is to help visitors at the eyepiece and answer questions. On this clear autumn night, the telescope was aimed at the Moon, then Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Late in the evening it found Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, which looked like a faint star even at high power.

2Through the eyepiece, each object looked different. The Moon filled the view with gray plains and bright craters. Mars was a small orange-red disk. Jupiter showed cloud bands and four tiny moons lined up beside it, and Saturn's rings were tilted so visitors could see the gap between the rings and the planet. Most visitors asked the same few questions: How big is it? How far away is it? What is it made of?

3Before the open house, the observatory's astronomer, Dr. Halima Sorensen, gave the volunteers the data table below so they could answer visitors' questions with numbers. Distances from the Sun are in astronomical units (AU). One AU is Earth's average distance from the Sun, about 150 million km, and light takes about 8.3 minutes to travel 1 AU. She asked them to explain answers with comparisons, such as how many times wider one object is than another, instead of only reading out the numbers.

4Dr. Sorensen also reminded the volunteers of two numbers they could use to compare densities. Liquid water has a density of 1.0 g/cm³. Most rocks at Earth's surface have densities of about 2.5 to 3 g/cm³, and metals such as iron are much denser. Earth's overall density is higher than its surface rocks because it has a large iron-rich core.

5That night, Mars was about 0.7 AU from Earth and Jupiter was about 4.4 AU from Earth. Even through the large telescope, Mars looked smaller than many people expected. Several visitors were surprised that Jupiter's disk still looked larger than Mars in the eyepiece. One visitor told Ines that bigger planets must be made of heavier material, so Jupiter must be the densest planet of all.