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A Cosmic Address
📖 A Cosmic Address
You live on a rock hurtling through space at 107,000 km/h around a nuclear fusion reactor we call the Sun. That Sun is just one of 200 BILLION stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. And our galaxy is just one of 2 TRILLION galaxies in the observable universe. Yet despite this mind-boggling scale, we've mapped our cosmic neighbourhood in remarkable detail — from tiny Pluto to the giant gas planets, from rocky asteroids to icy comets.
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🎯 Exam Focus — Our Solar System
Examined in Edexcel 1PH0/1 (Paper 1). Context-based questions use real mission data and telescope observations. Expect calculation questions on light-year distances and orbital speeds. Higher tier includes quantitative work on orbital periods and gravitational effects.
What examiners love to ask:
- Order the planets from the Sun and classify rocky vs gas giants
- State what a light year is (distance, not time)
- Describe the structure of the solar system: planets, moons, asteroids, comets
- Calculate orbital speed using v = 2πr / T (Higher tier)
- Compare circular and elliptical orbits
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 14
Which of the following is NOT an inner rocky planet in our solar system?
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