Lesson video

- Hi everyone.

My name is Miss Hummel and together we'll be answering the question, what is the solar system? In this lesson, we will discuss what we can find in our solar system.

We will also discuss what a planet, moon, and space dust is.

Finally, we will examine the difference between asteroids, comets, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.

Our lesson will follow this structure.

First, we will discuss what objects we can find in our solar system.

Then we will discuss what planets are followed by what moons are.

Finally, we will discuss the differences between asteroids, comets, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.

In this lesson, you will need an extra size book or paper, a pencil or pen, a coloured pencil or pen and a ruler.

If you haven't got those things pause the video now to go get them.

Here are our star words which are the most important words of our lesson.

I'm going to say them and ask you to repeat them after me.

When I point it myself, it will be my turn and when I point at you, it will be your turn.

Solar system, dust, planet, moon, asteroid, meteoroid, meteor, comet, meteorite.

Great.

The objects in our solar system is going to be the first part of our lesson.

Now solar system, the word solar comes from the Latin for sun.

This means that the solar system is the area of the universe around our sun.

It includes everything we can find that is around our sun.

We can see a few things that we might find around our sun in our image.

This includes the sun, planets, moons, rocks and dust that are found within this area.

So in the so system, we can find all of those things.

We've got a few pictures of what things we might find as well.

The sun is a very large ball of very hot gases.

I've got it right behind me.

I dunno how I'm not boiling up.

Now, repeat after me.

The main gases in the sun are called hydrogen and helium.

The main gases in the sun are called hydrogen and helium.

As the sun is so hot, these gases are knocked together very hard which makes hydrogen turn into helium.

This releases lots of heat and light which allows life to exist in the earth.

I would now like you to create a mind map of a sun.

You're going to pause the video to complete this task and remember to include as much information about the sun as you can remember.

You can resume once you're finished completing your mind map.

Next, we're going to discuss what planets are.

Although I think some of you might already have a good idea about what planets are.

Now, planets are large pieces of rock in the shape of a sphere.

What objects around your house can you see which might be spherical? I can think of a bowl, maybe a football.

I can think of some fruit.

Planets formed a long time ago and they orbit the sun usually in a roughly circular path.

That means that it may not be perfectly circular, but it is mostly circular.

So they orbit in what kind of path? A circular path.

Now we're going to pause the video to think of some actions to help us remember.

We're going to try and come up with some actions to remember this definition.

Planets are large pieces of rock in the shape of a sphere.

You can resume the video once you've thought of your actions.

Now we're going to discuss what moons are.

Moons are balls of rock that orbit around planets.

Different planets have different amount of moons.

And they're different sizes.

Saturn is the solar system's planet with the most moons after scientists discovered that there are 82 moons orbiting the ringed planet.

And we only get one.

For example, the largest moon in the solar system is known as Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter.

It's so large that it's bigger than mercury which is the planet closest to the sun.

So one moon is larger than a whole planet.

There are a range of large rocks which are not orbiting planets.

So they do not count as moons.

They can be categorised as meteors, meteorites, asteroids and comets, but we will learn more about those later in the lesson.

Therefore in order to be considered a moon, it needs to be a bowl of rock, which is orbiting planets.

If it's orbiting the sun or if it's orbiting something else then it's not considered a moon.

There is also some dust in the solar system.

The dust that is spread throughout the solar system are bits of materials that were left over from stars exploding in the past.

And it mostly drifts through space not interacting with anything for the majority of the time.

Why should I have to clean the dust in my home if there's still so much dust in the solar system? Those are the types of questions I ask myself every day.

We have an activity now.

So I would like you to pause the activity.

I would like you to pause the video to complete this activity.

You're going to write the names of the objects from the solar system being described below.

So the largest object in the solar system that the solar system was named after is the first one.

Large spheres of rock that orbit around the sun, large balls of rock that orbit planets.

An example of another rocky object that can be found in the solar system, leftover material from stars that have exploded in the past.

You can resume the video, once you've finished answering the question.

The largest object in the solar system that the solar system was named after is the sun.

The largest spheres of rock that orbit around the earth, sorry, around the sun are the planets.

The large balls of rock that orbit planets are called moons.

An example of another rocky object that can be found in the solar system, asteroid is an example of one and leftover material from stars that have exploded in the past is dust.

Before we move on to the next part of our lesson, you're also going to complete some linking knowledge questions.

This is going to link your knowledge of maths and of previous science topics.

You're going to complete the matchup task below to revise your knowledge of days, seasons and years.

On the left hand side we have the terms one day, summertime, wintertime, and one year.

And on the right the options that we've got are when the part of the earth you are on is tilted towards the sun, the time it takes for the earth to complete one rotation, the time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun.

And when the part of the earth you are on is tilted away from the sun.

You can resume once you're finishing, answering that question.

To mark our work here are our answers.

One day matched with the time it takes for the earth to complete one rotation.

Summertime matches with when the part of the earth you are on is tilted towards the sun.

Wintertime matches with when the part of the earth you are on is tilted away from the sun.

And one year matches with the time it takes for the earth to orbit the sun.

Finally, for the hardest part of our lesson we're going to discuss the differences between asteroids comets, meteoroids, meteors and meteorites.

That's enough words to confuse anyone.

Let's start off easy.

Asteroids are large chunks of rock, that also orbit the sun at a set distance.

So they're kind of like planets, but they're just pieces of rock that also orbit the sun.

They're mainly found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

In our image, we can see that there's a section between Mars and Jupiter where lots and lots of asteroids can be found in something called an asteroid belt.

Whereas planets are the only objects in their orbit, asteroids will lots of other objects in the orbit that they are in.

So say a planet like earth is orbiting the sun, the earth is the only planet in its own orbit.

However, with asteroids, they're also orbiting the sun.

They might be doing it along with other objects too.

I would now like you to pause the video to answer these questions.

First, what are asteroids? And second, how is the orbit of an asteroid different than the orbit of a planet? I just went through that one.

You can resume once you're finished answering the question.

To mark our work, asteroids are large chunks of rock that also orbit the sun and the orbit of an asteroid, so this is for question two, is different because planets are the only things in their orbit.

However, asteroids have other objects in their orbit as well.

Comets, the second term we need to know, comets are large chunks of ice and dust that also orbit the sun, but they move very close to the sun.

And then very far away from the sun as part of their elongated orbit.

So they have an orbit that is more elongated.

That means it's thin in some parts and very far away in other parts.

They are similar to asteroids, but they're made up of more ice, more dust and more gas than asteroids.

And as they move they also have a slight dust trail that they leave you've behind.

Like you can see in this image.

Next, we're going to look at meteoroids.

Meteoroids are parts of asteroids or comets that have been knocked or fallen away.

So they're like chunks off a larger asteroid or a comet.

Basically, if a cookie was an asteroid or a comet the crumbs that are falling off of a cookie are the meteoroids.

Now I drop a lot of meteoroids.

I mean, crumbs, when I eat cookies.

If a meteoroid came into our atmosphere and vaporises, that means it disintegrates, it becomes a meteor.

We often call this is shooting star.

So a meteoroid is found in space.

However, if it manages to come into our atmosphere, but it vaporises before it reaches the surface of the earth, then we call that a meteor and that's called a shooting star as well.

So you might have heard before, oh look at the shooting star in the sky.

And it looks like something's travelling through the sky and it leaves a little line of light behind.

That's a meteor.

However, if a meteoroid reaches the earth's surface without vaporising or disintegrating, that means if it goes through our atmosphere and it doesn't disintegrate and it eventually reaches the surface of the earth, then we call it a meteorite.

See if you can remember the difference between a meteorite and a meteor.

If you're not sure, go back in my video and watch that section again.

For this activity, I would like you to label the diagram below with the correct names from the list.

So meteor, meteorite, asteroid and comet are the four that I'm going to be asking you to label in this activity.

In the first image, we can see that something that looks like a rock with the background of some of space.

In the second image, we can see something that looks like a rock on a surface, maybe like a table.

In the third image, we can see something that looks like a line through the sky.

And on the last object, we can see something that looks like a rock that is leaving some dust behind.

So pause the video now to complete that task.

And you can resume once you're finished answering the question.

Now we should have labelled the first, which is the top left image, as an asteroid.

The second, which is the top right image as a meteorite, the third which is the bottom left image, as a meteor and the last, which is the bottom right image as a comet, did you notice while you were doing this, that we were missing one of the items that we just discussed? We were missing meteoroids, which is like a meteor or a meteorite that hasn't got into the atmosphere of the earth, aka the crumbs of space.

We're now going to end the lesson with a thinking task.

Now, meteors don't always reach the earth to become meteorites.

Sometimes they just become meteors.

Think about why that's the case.

Now I think I actually gave this away earlier to see if you can remember.

Not all meteoroids reach the earth because some disintegrate with the speed after entering our atmosphere.

They're travelling so quickly through our atmosphere that it's taking off chunks of it until it's disintegrating.

So those that disintegrate are meteors.

The smaller ones tend to disintegrate quicker because there's less of them to disintegrate.

However, the larger ones are more likely to reach earth and become a meteorite.

We've now finished our lesson and it is time for you to complete your exit quiz.

You need to exit the video and complete the quiz to test your knowledge and understanding of this lesson.

I hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Bye.