Orbits: How the Planets Move: Concept Map
≈ 24 minConcept Map
Organise the vocabulary, quantities and relationships into a connected model.
This extension applies that lens specifically to Orbits: How the Planets Move.
Every planet travels around the Sun along its own path. That path is called an orbit, and it is very nearly a circle.
The planets do not fly off into space because the Sun's gravity pulls on them constantly, holding each one on its curve. Gravity is the same force that pulls a dropped ball to the ground — the Sun's is simply vast.
One complete trip around the Sun is that planet's year. And here is the pattern worth understanding:
The further a planet is from the Sun, the longer its year.
There are two reasons stacked together. A distant planet has a far longer path to travel, and it moves more slowly along that path, because the Sun's pull weakens with distance.
Worked example — reading the pattern in a table.
| Planet | Position from the Sun | Length of one year |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 1st | about Earth days |
| Earth | 3rd | about days |
| Mars | 4th | about Earth days |
| Neptune | 8th | about Earth years |
Read down the last column and the rule announces itself: every step further out, the year gets longer — from under three months for Mercury to a century and a half for Neptune.
So if you were born on Neptune, you would not reach your first birthday. Nobody ever has.
Natural Sciences — Grade 6 — Concept Map: What keeps the planets travelling around the Sun instead of flying off into space?
Natural Sciences — Grade 6 — Concept Map: The path that a planet follows around the Sun is called its ______.
Natural Sciences — Grade 6 — Concept Map: Which of these planets takes the longest to complete one orbit of the Sun?
Name the original topic being extended by this concept map lesson.
Which statement is the best evidence-led starting point for Orbits: How the Planets Move: Concept Map?