Lab 2: Scale Model of the Solar System
More Review Questions


These questions are designed to be a little more involved (and hopefully interesting) than the typical set of quick-and-dirty review questions. If you know the lab material well enough, they should be fairly quick and easy to answer.

  1. Imagine that some friendly aliens bring you aboard their spaceship and take you on a tour of the galaxy. Unfortunately, when the time finally comes to return you home, there turns out to be a bit of a problem. The aliens cannot remember the location of our solar system! They know that there are nine or so planets orbiting a yellow star, and that four of them are significantly larger than the others... but little else.

    Here is a diagram showing six systems of planets that the aliens have found, with the planets lined up and placed at their relative distances from their sun. Which solar system is ours? (Note: the sizes of the suns and planets themselves are not to scale!)





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