Revision Notes

Class- 8 Science
Chapter 17- Stars and the Solar System

● Celestial bodies: All natural bodies visible in the sky, outside the Earth's
atmosphere, constitute the celestial bodies, e.g., stars, planets, their
moons, comets, asteroids, meteors, etc.
● Stars: Celestial bodies which have their own heat and light are called
stars. The sun is also a star.
● Constellations: A group of stars forming some kind of recognizable
figures or patterns are known as constellations. Constellations are useful
in assisting astronomers and navigators to locate certain stars.
Orion- the Hunter, Ursa Major- the Great Bear or Saptarishi, Cassiopeia
are some constellations.
● The north star is also known as Pole star. It helps us in determining
direction. It always remains in the same position because it is situated
close to the direction of the axis of rotation of the Earth.
● Some celestial bodies do not have their own heat and light. They are lit
by the light of the stars. Such bodies are called planets.
● Solar system: The sun, eight planets, satellites and some other celestial
bodies known as asteroids and meteoroids form the solar system.
● Sun: It is the centre of the solar system. It is huge and made up of
extremely hot gases. It provides the pulling force that binds the solar
system. The sun is the ultimate source of heat and light for the solar
system. It is a dwarf star.
● Planets: There are eight planets in our solar system. All the eight planets
of the solar system move around the sun in fixed paths. These paths are
elongated and are called orbits.
● Dwarf Planets: A celestial body resembling a planet but lacking certain
technical criteria that are required to be a planet.
For example: Pluto, Ceres, Makemake, Eris etc.
● The time taken by a planet to complete one full revolution around the sun
is called its period of revolution. The time taken by a planet to rotate a
full 360 degrees on its axis is called its period of rotation.
● In order of their distance from the sun, planets are: Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

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 Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are known as Terrestrial Planets. They
are very close to the sun and are made up of rocks.
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are known as Jovian Planets. They
are very-very far away from the sun and are made up of gases and liquids.
● All the planets rotate in east to west direction except Venus it rotates in
west to east direction.
● Mercury is the smallest and fastest planet.
● Venus is also known as an evening and morning star because it is the
brightest planet.
● Earth is the third nearest planet to the sun. In size, it is the fifth largest
planet. It is slightly flattened at the poles that is why its shape is described
as a Geoid. It is also known as the blue planet.
● Mars has a dusty, cold deserted world with two moons Phobos and
Demos.
● Jupiter is the largest planet.
● Uranus rotates at 90 degree angle from the planet of its orbit
● The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. Its diameter is only one-
quarter that of the earth. The moon moves around the earth in about 27
days. It takes exactly the same time to complete one-spin. As a result,
only one side of the moon is visible to us on the earth.
● A Satellite: It is a celestial body that moves around the planets in the
same way as the planets move around the sun.
● A Human-made Satellite is an artificial body. It is designed by scientists
to gather information about the universe or for communication. It also
helps us in weather forecasting. Some of the human satellites are INSAT,
IRS, EDUSAT etc.
● Asteroids: These are minor rocky airless remnants left over of planets
from the early formation of our solar system. They are found orbiting the
sun between Mars and Jupiter.
● Meteoroids: These are chunks of rock or particles of debris in our solar
system. Range in size from dust grain to small asteroids
● Meteors: When a meteoroid enters earth’s atmosphere or atmosphere of
another planet at high speed and burns up. The fireballs or shooting stars
are called meteors.
● Meteorite: When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere and
the ground it is called a meteorite.
● Comets: these are the frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar
system composed of dust, rock and ice. As they orbit closer to the sun,

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 they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be
larger than a planet and forms a tail that stretches millions of miles.

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