Worksheet

Bending the Path: Gravity Checks for a Space Game

Grade 8 gravity practice: analyze flyby simulator runs past Jupiter and Saturn, then use gravity to explain a comet's new orbit and the Sun's path in the galaxy.

Grade 8ScienceInteractive · Printable

Aligned toMS-ESS1-2

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Single worksheet
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1 NGSS standard
Printable answer key
10 questions
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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 analyze simulator data to describe how distance, speed and planet mass change how much gravity bends a path.
Students use a gravity model to explain how a flyby can change an orbit and capture a probe.
Students connect the same model to the Sun's motion around the center of the Milky Way.

How to use

Sketch one flyby on the board (a straight path and a bent path) before students read Table 1. Remind them to change only one thing at a time when they compare runs.

Curriculum

NGSS standard covered

MS-ESS1-2

Model the role of gravity in the motions within galaxies and the solar system.

Preview

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Bending the Path: Gravity Checks for a Space Game

Use flyby simulator runs to model how a planet's gravity bends the paths of probes and comets.

Part 1: The flyby runs

Read the passage and Table 1, then answer questions 1–7.

The Game That Forgot Gravity

1The game design club at Juniper Hill Middle School is building a space game in which players steer robot probes through the solar system. When eighth grader Thiago Marchetti tested the first version, he noticed a problem: probes flew straight past giant planets as if nothing were there. The club's advisor, Ms. Wanjiru Castellane, used to plan spacecraft paths for a living. She gave the club a teaching simulator that includes the gravity of each planet, so they could check what real flybys look like.

2In each run, the simulator sends a probe toward a planet from very far away with its engine off. It records the probe's speed while it is still far from the planet, its closest distance from the planet's center, and how many degrees its path has turned by the time it is far away again. A bend of 0° means the path stayed a straight line. Jupiter has about 318 times Earth's mass, and Saturn has about 95 times Earth's mass. For Run 6, Thiago switched off Jupiter's gravity in the simulator. Table 1 shows his runs.

3Thiago also noticed that in every run the probe sped up as it came toward the planet and slowed down again as it moved away, leaving the planet at the same speed it arrived with. Ms. Castellane explained that a real probe that is meant to stay at Jupiter cannot just coast past. It fires its engine near its closest point to the planet.

4For the game's last level, the club added a comet. Before it met Jupiter, the comet traveled on a long orbit around the Sun that took about 200 years. In the simulator it passed about 1,000,000 km from Jupiter's center. Afterward the comet was on a much smaller orbit around the Sun, one that takes about 7 years and never carries it far beyond Jupiter's orbit.

5The final screen zooms out to the whole Milky Way, a disk of hundreds of billions of stars plus huge amounts of gas and dust. The Sun, carrying its planets along, travels around the center of the galaxy at about 230 km/s and takes about 230 million years for one trip. Thiago wondered why the Sun's path keeps curving into a loop instead of bending once, the way a probe's path does.

Table 1: Flyby Simulator Runs (closest distance is from the planet's center)
Run	Planet	Closest distance (km)	Arrival speed (km/s)	Path bends by
1	Jupiter	1,000,000	10	68°
2	Jupiter	2,000,000	10	46°
3	Jupiter	1,000,000	20	28°
4	Jupiter	1,000,000	5	113°
5	Saturn	1,000,000	10	32°
6	Jupiter, gravity off	1,000,000	10	0°

Compare Runs 1 and 2. Which statement fits these two runs best?

A. Passing twice as far away halved the bend exactly, from 68° to 34°.
B. Passing twice as far away bent the path less, as Jupiter's pull is weaker there.
C. The faster of the two probes passed farther away, so its path bent less.
D. Passing twice as far away bent the path more, since gravity reached it longer.

Thiago wants to show how a planet's mass alone changes the bend. Which two runs should he compare?

A. Runs 1 and 5
B. Runs 3 and 5
C. Runs 2 and 5
D. Runs 4 and 5

Use Table 1. Round to the nearest whole number.

The path in Run 4 bent about times as much as the path in Run 3.

Runs 3 and 4 pass at the same distance from Jupiter. Why did the slower probe's path bend so much more?

A. The slower probe passed closer to Jupiter, where its pull is much stronger.
B. The slower probe's low speed made Jupiter's mass grow larger during the flyby.
C. The slower probe spent longer near Jupiter, so gravity pulled it sideways longer.
D. The slower probe had no engine push, so it drifted in toward Jupiter on its own.

Use the patterns in Table 1. Sort each new flyby by how its bend would most likely compare with Run 1 (Jupiter, 1,000,000 km, 10 km/s). Everything not named stays the same as in Run 1.

Pass Jupiter at 500,000 kmArrive at 15 km/sArrive at 7 km/sPass Saturn at 2,000,000 kmPass Jupiter at 3,000,000 kmPass a planet with twice Jupiter's mass

Bends more than in Run 1	Bends less than in Run 1

Use Runs 1 and 6 and paragraph 3. Which statement best describes what Jupiter's gravity does during a flyby?

A. It slows the probe down, so the probe leaves much slower than it arrived.
B. It pulls the probe toward Jupiter the whole time, curving its path around.
C. It acts only at the closest point, where it turns the probe by a sudden jolt.
D. It pushes the probe away from Jupiter, which is why the probe leaves again.

Use Table 1 and paragraph 3. A mission team wants its probe to go into orbit around Jupiter instead of flying past. Which plan fits the simulator results best?

A. Pass Saturn first at high speed, so the probe arrives at Jupiter as fast as it can.
B. Pass much farther from Jupiter, so its gravity pulls the probe in a wider circle.
C. Fire the engine near the closest point to slow down, so gravity bends the path into a loop.
D. Fire the engine near the closest point to speed up, so the probe has energy to circle Jupiter.

Part 2: Comets and the galaxy

Use paragraphs 4 and 5 and what you learned in Part 1 to answer questions 8–10.

Use paragraph 4. What best explains why the comet ended up on a 7-year orbit?

A. Jupiter's pull bent its path, and the Sun's pull now holds it in a smaller orbit.
B. The flyby carried the comet out of reach of the Sun's gravity for good, so it left.
C. Jupiter captured the comet, so it now orbits Jupiter instead of the Sun.
D. The Sun's gravity switched off during the flyby, so Jupiter alone set its new path.

Use paragraph 5. Why does the Sun's path keep curving into a loop around the galaxy instead of bending once like a probe's path?

A. The planets pull on the Sun from all sides, and their pulls turn it in a slow loop.
B. Light from the billions of other stars pushes on the Sun and steers it around in a circle.
C. The Sun moves too fast at 230 km/s for any gravity in the galaxy to change its path.
D. The Sun moves inside the galaxy's mass, which pulls it toward the center at every point.

10.

A club member says, "Gravity only matters for things in orbit. A probe that flies past a planet just keeps going straight, so the game can leave gravity out of flybys." Make a claim about this idea. Use data from at least three runs in Table 1 as evidence, and explain your reasoning about how gravity controls motion in the solar system.