Edexcel GCSE Astronomy Topic 5 Solar System observation overview quiz quiz

Looking directly at it for a short moment

Through ordinary high-street sunglasses

Through a telescope eyepiece directly

Pinhole projection onto a screen

The Sun's apparent annual path against the stars

The Moon's monthly orbital path around the Earth

The boundary at the edge of the Solar System

A particular type of solar eclipse

They are held in place by the Moon's gravity pulling on them

They all orbit in nearly the same plane as the Earth

They are far too small to be seen elsewhere

They move very slowly across the sky

The planet physically reversing the direction of its orbit

The planet genuinely speeding up in its orbit

The planet appearing to move backwards against the stars

The planet disappearing from view entirely

Mars genuinely slowing down as it travels along its own orbit

The Sun's gravity briefly pulling Mars backwards in space

A genuine change in the direction in which Mars is orbiting the Sun in space

The Earth overtaking the slower outer planet on its faster inner orbit

The planet on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun

The planet lying in exactly the same direction as the Sun

The planet passing directly behind the Moon's disc

The planet crossing in front of the Sun's bright face

Conjunction

Opposition

Transit

Occultation

A solid lump of rock drifting through outer space

A surviving piece of rock that lands intact on the ground far below

The streak of light from a meteoroid burning up in the atmosphere

A small rocky planet orbiting the Sun

The changing phases of the Moon through the month

Dark sunspots appearing on the surface of the Sun

Several of the planets lining up in a row

The Earth passing through debris left by a comet

The point from which the meteors all appear to come

The single brightest meteor seen during the whole shower

The comet whose orbit originally caused the shower

The position of the Sun in the daytime sky

A planet lying directly opposite the Sun in the sky

A planet crossing the face of the Sun

A planet passing directly behind the Sun's disc

An annual shower of bright meteors

The First Point of Libra

The zenith

The First Point of Aries

The celestial pole