Study Guides

Unit Summary

This unit covers the movement of the Earth, moon, and planets, describing them as spherical bodies. It explains Earth's rotation, causing day and night, and the sun's apparent movement. Emphasis is on recording complex data, presenting findings, and evaluating scientific evidence.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to describe the movement of the planets in the solar system in relation to the Sun.

Key Notes

• The Sun is the centre of the solar system
• Earth, and other planets in the solar system, move around or orbit the Sun in an anticlockwise direction
• It takes different planets different amounts of time to orbit the Sun, depending on their distance from the Sun
• It takes 365 1/4 days, or one year, for Earth to complete one orbit of the Sun

Vocabulary To Learn

• solar system: The solar system is the name for our Sun and the planets that orbit it.
• Sun: The Sun is a star and the centre of our solar system.
• planets: Planets are large objects made of rock or gas that orbit a star.
• orbit: Orbit is when something travels around a star, planet or moon.

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Earth lies at the centre of the solar system, with the Sun and planets orbiting around it.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• How we see the Moon from Earth Study Guide
• More about the Sun (non-statutory) Study Guide
• Observing the Moon Study Guide
• Scientific theories from the past (non-statutory) Study Guide
• The movement of the Moon Study Guide
• The planets in our solar system (non-statutory) Study Guide
• The relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon (non-statutory) Study Guide
• The shape of Earth Study Guide
• The shape of objects in space Study Guide
• Why the Sun appears to move across the sky Study Guide
• Why we have day and night Study Guide