Space - Answers

The Year Five Space Answers sheet provides answers to a series of questions designed to test students' knowledge of our solar system. The exercise includes matching planets to their images, identifying which planets are disproportionately sized in a given picture—Mars and Neptune in this case—and analyzing planetary data to understand the relationship between a planet's distance from the Sun and its surface temperature. Students learn that, generally, the further a planet is from the Sun, the colder its surface temperature, with Venus being a notable exception due to its thick cloud cover that traps heat.

Further questions challenge students to discern facts about the solar system, such as the strength of Jupiter's gravity, characteristics of gas giants, and the presence of rings or moons around planets. They also explore the shapes of planetary orbits, with the correct answer being an ellipse, and consider why the Moon's face appears unchanged from Earth. Additionally, the answers explain the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky due to Earth's rotation, the cyclical nature of day and night, and the definition of a year as one complete orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Finally, students are prompted to explain why planets are only roughly spherical, addressing the differences in circumference between their equators and poles.