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Bright Because It Is Close is a free printable Grade 5 science worksheet on arguing that the sun's brightness is due to its distance from Earth, aligned to NGSS performance expectation 5-ESS1-1. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two students in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 9 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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One paper per student

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Bright Because It Is Close

5-ESS1-1

NameDate

Circle the best answer.

1.A star is moved twice as far away in a model. What happens to how bright it looks?
  • A.Nothing changes
  • B.It looks brighter
  • C.It looks dimmer
2.What is "apparent brightness"?
  • A.Its temperature
  • B.How much light it really gives out
  • C.How bright a star looks from Earth
3.Which measurement would settle whether a dim star is small or distant?
  • A.Its color only
  • B.Its distance from Earth
  • C.How long you look at it
4.What does that flashlight model show about stars?
  • A.Flashlights are stars
  • B.Stars are flashlights
  • C.Distance changes how bright a light looks
5.The sun looks far brighter than any other star. What is the best explanation?
  • A.It is very much closer to Earth than the other stars
  • B.It is the biggest star there is
  • C.It is the only real star
6.Two flashlights of equal brightness are set at 2 m and 20 m. What do you see?
  • A.They look the same
  • B.The far one looks brighter
  • C.The nearer one looks much brighter
7.A star looks dim. What are the two possible reasons?
  • A.It is going out
  • B.It is far away, or it gives out less light, or both
  • C.It is always small
8.Why is the sun's apparent brightness poor evidence that it is a large star?
  • A.Brightness never relates to size
  • B.The sun is not a star
  • C.Its closeness explains the brightness without any claim about size

LessonPrint · 5-ESS1-1 · Set 9 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Bright Because It Is Close

Set 9. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.It looks dimmer
  2. 2.How bright a star looks from Earth
  3. 3.Its distance from Earth
  4. 4.Distance changes how bright a light looks
  5. 5.It is very much closer to Earth than the other stars
  6. 6.The nearer one looks much brighter
  7. 7.It is far away, or it gives out less light, or both
  8. 8.Its closeness explains the brightness without any claim about size

More practice for 5-ESS1-1

Argue that stars look dimmer than the sun because they are much further away.

Teaching this next? Bright Because It Is Close is the 60-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 5 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to 5-ESS1-1 of the Next Generation Science Standards.