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7th grade · Science · Unit 15 of 18

Solar System Tour

The Sun, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, the Kuiper belt and Oort cloud, and gravity.

What your child practices

Practices the properties, locations and movements of objects in the solar system (the Sun, planets, moons, meteors, asteroids, comets, the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud), how gravity governs their motion, and what makes Earth able to support life.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 7.9(A); 7.9(B); 7.9(C) · objects in the solar system, gravity's role in their motion, and why Earth supports life

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Sun’s gravity holds the planets, asteroids and comets in orbit.
  2. Jupiter has the most mass. The Kuiper belt and the far Oort cloud hold icy objects.
  3. Earth’s distance from the Sun lets water stay liquid, which supports life.

Example: Which planet has the most mass? The giant planets are the most massive. The largest of them is Jupiter. Answer: Jupiter

Solar System Tour in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 15 of 18 in 7th grade Science, after Speed, Velocity & Motion Graphs and before Watersheds & Oceans.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What keeps the planets in orbit around the Sun?

    • Friction
    • Gravity
    • Magnetism
    • Wind

  2. Question 2

    Earth is a good distance from the Sun because it lets water stay…

    • boiling
    • liquid
    • gas only
    • frozen always

  3. Question 3

    A comet is made mostly of…

    • pure iron
    • liquid water only
    • ice, dust and rock
    • gas only

  4. Question 4

    A space rock that reaches Earth's surface is a…

    • moon
    • meteorite
    • comet
    • meteor

  5. Question 5

    Most asteroids orbit the Sun between…

    • Earth and Venus
    • Mercury and the Sun
    • Neptune and the Oort cloud
    • Mars and Jupiter

  6. Question 6

    Why don't Mars and Mercury have liquid water lakes today?

    • Both are gas planets
    • Both are too far from the Sun
    • Both are covered in oceans
    • Mars is too cold with thin air; Mercury is too hot with no air

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