P2 - NEOs and the Moons & Beyond The Solar System

Question 1

What does NEO stand for?

Answer 1

Near Earth Objects.

Question 2

What is a NEO?

Answer 2

NEOs are asteroids or comets which might be on a collision course with Earth

Question 3

How do astronomers search for, and monitor NEOs?

Answer 3

Astronomers use Powerful telescopes and satellites to search for and monitor NEOs.
When they find a NEO, they calculate the objects trajectory and find out if it is heading for Earth.

Question 4

Why are NEOs hard to monitor?

Answer 4

NEOs are difficult to spot because they’re small, dark and may have unusual orbits.

Question 5

What is the difference between smaller NEOs and larger NEOs?

Answer 5

Small NEOs would burn up harmlessly in the atmosphere if they hit the Earth, but larger ones could cause explosions more powerful than Nuclear Explosions.

Question 6

How do scientists attempt to knock an NEO off course?

Answer 6

Scientists may cause an explosion close to, or in the NEO when it is relatively far from Earth in order to “nudge” it off course

that sounds like a good plot for a movie

Question 7

How do people believe the moon was formed?

Answer 7

Scientists believe that the moon was formed when another planet collided side on with Earth.

• Some time after the Earth was formed a smaller Mars sized object crashed into it.
• In the heat of the collision the dense iron cores of these two planets merged to form the Earth’s core
• The less dense material was ejected as really hot dust and rocks - which orbited around the Earth for a while to form the moon

Question 8

What evidence is there for this theory of the formation of the moon?

Answer 8

The moon has a lower density than the Earth, and does not have a big iron core whereas the Earth does.
- The Moon rocks contain few substances which evaporate at low temperature, suggesting that the moon formed from hot material, all of the water was boiled away as would happen in a planetary collision.

Question 9

What Galaxy are we in?

Answer 9

We are in the Milky Way Galaxy

Question 10

Where is our sun in the galaxy?

Answer 10

Our sun is halfway along one of the spiral arms of the Milky way.

Question 11

What is the difference between neighboring stars and neighboring planets?

Answer 11

The distance between neighboring stars is millions of times greater than the distance between planets in our solar system.

Question 12

What is the distance of the closest star to us after the sun?

Answer 12

The closest star to us after the sun is roughly 40,000,000,000,000 kilometers away .
4.2 Light years

Question 13

What is the distance measurement used by scientists for planets?

Answer 13

Scientists use light years.

Question 14

What is a light year?

Answer 14

A light year is the distance that light travels through a vacuum in one year.

Question 15

What is 1 light year the equivalent of in kilometers?

Answer 15

1 Light year is equal to about 9,460,000,000,000

Question 16

How are black holes formed?

Answer 16

When a really big star has used up most of its fuel it explodes, What is left after the explosion is really dense, sometimes so dense that nothing can escape its strong gravitational attraction, it is called a black hole.

Question 17

What are some characteristics of black holes?

Answer 17

Black holes have a very large mass, small volume and a very high density.
- They are not visible, even light can’t escape their gravitational pull.

Question 18

How can astronomers detect black holes?

Answer 18

Astronomers have to detect black holes in other ways, they can observe X rays emitted by hot gases from other stars as they spiral into the black hole.