Earth, Moon, and Space: Understanding Key Concepts

Earth, Moon, and Space: Key Concepts

1. Day and night are caused by:

   d. Earth's rotation on its axis.

2. Earth's rotation takes about:

   c. 24 hours.

3. One complete revolution of Earth around the sun takes about:

   c. one year.

4. Earth has seasons because:

   c. Earth's axis is tilted as it moves around the sun.

5. When the north end of Earth's axis is tilted toward the sun, North America will experience:

   d. more direct rays and longer days.

6. In the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly overhead at:

   b. 23.5° south latitude.

7. An equinox occurs when:

   a. neither end of Earth's axis is tilted toward nor away from the sun.

8. Because the moon rotates once for each revolution around Earth,

   c. you never see the far side of the moon.

9. The phase of the moon you see depends on

   d. whether or not an eclipse is occurring.

10. From new moon phase to full moon phase you see

    a. an increasing amount of the lighted side of the moon.

11. The amount of the lighted side of the moon you can see is the same during the

    c. first quarter and third quarter phases.

12. For a solar eclipse to occur,

    b. the moon must be directly between Earth and the sun.

13. During what phase can a lunar eclipse occur?

    d. full moon

14. Tides are caused mainly by

    d. differences in how much the moon pulls on different parts of Earth.

15. Most places on Earth experience

    c. one high tide and one low tide about every 12.5 hours.

16. Rocket propulsion is based on

    c. hot gas being propelled out of the rocket.

17. Putting rockets into space was made possible by the development of

    d. multistage rockets.

18. Geosynchronous satellites above the equator

    c. stay above the same point on Earth.

19. One of the main uses of satellites is

    c. communication

20. How large is the moon compared to Earth?

    c. about one fourth the diameter of Earth

21. Scientists think the moon was formed when

    a. a large object struck Earth, and material from both bodies combined.

22. Galileo thought that the dark, flat parts of the moon's surface were

    a. oceans.