NAME ______DATE ______PERIOD ______

Earth in Space Worksheets

Complete the following worksheets about the Earth in space. If you can’t find the answers in your book or notes, you may have to do some research.

True or False

Write “T” if the statement is true or “F” if the statement is false.

_____ 1. Earth is the only planet in the solar system known to have liquid water.

_____ 2. All objects in the solar system have gravitational attraction to each other.

_____ 3. If you look at Earth from the North Pole, the planet spins in a clockwise

direction.

_____ 4. The moon appears to rise in the east because Earth rotates from east to west.

_____ 5. Earth tilts about 3 degrees on its axis.

_____ 6. Winter begins in the Southern Hemisphere on June 21.

_____ 7. The longest day in the Northern Hemisphere occurs on June 21.

_____ 8. To make one complete rotation takes Earth 365.24 days.

_____ 9. Planets closer to the sun that Earth have shorter years.

_____ 10. The hemisphere that receives less direct rays of sunlight is cooler.

Critical Reading

Read this passage based on the text and answer the questions that follow.

Earth and the Other Planets

As you walk over Earth’s surface, the ground usually looks pretty flat. We have photos of Earth taken from space showing that Earth is actually round. However, long before we had photos of Earth from space, people knew that Earth was round. One way they could tell was by watching tall ships sail off into the distance. As the ships sailed over the horizon, the bottoms of the ships disappeared sooner than the tops. If Earth were flat instead of round, ships would just appear to get smaller as they sailed farther away.

Earth can be divided into four different layers: the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere.

  • The lithosphere is the solid, rocky part of Earth. It includes both the continents and ocean basins.
  • The atmosphere is the thin layer of gases that surrounds Earth. It consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen.
  • The hydrosphere consists of all the water on Earth. Most of Earth’s surface is covered with water, and most of the water is salt water in the oceans. As far as we know, Earth is the only planet in the solar system that has liquid water.
  • The biosphere is made up of all the living organisms on Earth. Earth appears to be the only planet in the solar system with living creatures. The water and oxygen on Earth are crucial to life as we know it.

In the solar system, Earth and the other planets orbit around the sun. Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is one of the inner planets. The other three inner planets are Mercury, Venus, and Mars. Like Earth, the other inner planets are relatively small balls of solid rock. Jupiter is an outer planet. It is the largest planet in the solar system at about 1000 times the size of Earth. Jupiter and most of the outer planets are giant balls of swirling gas.

Questions

  1. How did people know that Earth was round long before there were photos of Earth from space?
  1. Identify the four layers of Earth.
  1. Contrast the inner and outer planets of the solar system.

Multiple Choice

Circle the letter of the correct choice.

  1. The outer planets of the solar system are giant balls of
  2. solid ice.
  3. dense rock.
  4. liquid water.
  5. swirling gas.
  6. Without gravity, the moon would
  7. drop to Earth’s surface.
  8. start orbiting the sun.
  9. fly off into space.
  10. shrink in size.
  11. The strength of the force of gravity between two objects depends on their
  12. mass.
  13. speed.
  14. distance apart.
  15. two of the above
  16. Which statement about Earth’s magnetic field is false?
  17. It extends into space.
  18. It is caused by gravity.
  19. It has north and south poles.
  20. It shields Earth from harmful radiation.
  21. Earth’s motions contribute to
  22. tides.
  23. seasons.
  24. day and night.
  25. all of the above
  26. The side of Earth facing away from the sun is always
  27. in the dark.
  28. experiencing winter.
  29. cooler than the other side.
  30. two of the above
  31. Earth has seasons because
  32. it tilts on its axis.
  33. its orbit is elliptical.
  34. it rotates on its axis.
  35. its distance from the sun varies.

Matching

Match each definition with the correct term.

Definitions

_____ 1. all of the water on Earth

_____ 2. half of a sphere

_____ 3. spinning motion around an axis

_____ 4. all of the living organisms on Earth

_____ 5. imaginary line passing through the poles of a planet

_____ 6. all of the solid rock of Earth

_____ 7. movement in an orbit around a larger body

Terms

a. axis

b. biosphere

c. hemisphere

d. hydrosphere

e. lithosphere

f. revolution

g. rotation

Fill in the Blank

Fill in the blank with the appropriate term.

  1. The inner planets of the solar system include Earth, Venus, Mars, and______.
  2. The largest planet in the solar system is ______.
  3. The four layers of Earth are the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and ______.
  4. Earth’s magnetic field is created by movements of molten metal in the ______.
  5. Earth’s ______causes Earth’s surface to experience repeated cycles of day and night.
  6. During ______in the Northern Hemisphere, the north pole points away from the sun.
  7. It takes one ______for Earth to make a complete revolution around the sun.