Congratulations! You got them all right!


Do you remember how many stars are in the solar system? How is this different from the number of stars in our galaxy?
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#1. WHERE is the SUN? HOW BIG? HOW FAR?

The Sun, Earth, and planets are very far from other stars in the galaxy.

Sizes of the planets compared to the Sun (Earth is third from left). Image credit: NASA

This collage of photos compares the sizes of the Sun and eight planets. Can you see all eight planets? Be sure to notice Venus and Mercury to the left of Earth. The planets are shown in a line and close to one another, but remember that they are all orbiting at different distances from the Sun.

Image credit: NASA

Fill In the Blanks

  • DRAG & DROP to FILL-IN-THE-BLANKS in the paragraph below. NOTE: The word will only drop successfully when the cursor tip (or your fingertip on mobile devices) is within the light-colored box above the blank which will turn yellow when the word is properly positioned.
  • TO UNDO YOUR CHOICE click on the blue circle
    next to the dropped word.

star Earth 100 billion solar system 93 million galaxy bigger minutes planets years

The Sun is a star located at the center of the
. The Sun is massive and its gravity holds the eight
in orbit around it. Our world is called
and it is the third planet from the Sun. The Sun is made of very hot, electrified gas (like lightning) that glows brightly, but it is NOT burning like fire. The Sun is much
than any planet. It is so big that about a million Earths would fit inside it! The Sun is the ONLY
in our solar system, yet it is one of about
(100,000,000,000) stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is shaped like a spiral. The Sun is
miles (93,000,000 miles) from Earth. It takes sunlight eight
to travel to Earth. The Sun appears to be much brighter than other stars in our
because the Sun is much closer to Earth. Other stars are so far away that we only see twinkling points of light. Light from these distant stars can take many, many
to travel to Earth.
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