Lesson Plan: The Structure of the Solar System Physics

Students will be able to

• recall that the Sun started out as a cloud of gas and dust (mostly hydrogen),
• recall that the cloud of gas and dust that would later be the Sun collapsed under gravity to form a protostar,
• recall that when nuclear fusion started happening in the core of the protostar, it became a star,
• recall the order of the planets in our solar system,
• recall the different main categories of planets: rocky planets, gas giants, and ice giants,
• recall the types of planets that exist in the solar system and their locations,
• recall which of the planets in our solar system is what type of planet (e.g., that Jupiter is a gas giant),
• recall what a moon is (the definition of a moon),
• recall what a comet is (the definition of a comet),
• recall the two most basic types of orbits: circular and elliptical,
• recall that planets have almost circular orbits,
• recall that comets have highly elliptical orbits,
• recall what the “habitable zone” around a star is.