Stars Are Born
The stars are born within giant gas clouds. Dust swirls deep into the gas clouds. This forms pockets of gas. Deep down in a cloud a pocket of gas grows big enough that the gravity pulls more gas into the cloud. Then gradually, the star's pocket of gas begins to contract, and it slowly warms up.
Do you know the answers to these questions? If you don't know, you can click on the question to find the answer.
Why Do Stars Have Names?
Our ancestors gave our stars and constellations names. They named them after Gods, Animals, and the things they thought they looked like.
Do Stars Fall From the Sky?
Yes of course they do! They are called shooting stars. The Earth has a pull which is called gravity. Stars have a pull that is even stronger. Because the stars and Earth are so far apart, gravity does not act in a manner to make either fall.
Why Do Stars Twinkle?
The air is never still; so, the light passing through is bent. This causes the light to appear to move in the sky; the twinkling effect. WOW!
How Many Stars Are There ?
There are so many stars in the universe that we could not count them all.
About 7,000 stars can be seen from the earth without a telescope, but only 2,000 stars can be seen at one place any one time.
Do Stars Come in Different Shapes?
Yes. There are round stars like our sun. There are also stars made up of gas and debris.
Our galaxy is made up of a mega collection of stars.
THE MOON
moon is much smaller and lighter than the Earth. Because of this, its force of gravity is much weaker, one sixth of the Earth's. So, our moon is unable to hold an atmosphere.
Why does the shape of the moon change?
The moon goes around the Earth. Sometimes we can see all or most of the part catching the sunlight , but sometimes we can see little or even none.
What are shadows on the moon?
The darkest shadows on the moon is where molton rock poured out onto it's surface long ago. The areas appear darker because they do not reflect sunlight as well as others do.
What early people imagined about the face of the moon!!
The Japanese thought it was a rabbit making rice cakes . Some Europeans thought it looked like a womam's face, other Europeans thought it looked like crab.
Moon Facts
1. The moon is the only world, apart from the Earth, that people have actully walked on. Twelve U.S astronauts landed on the moon between 1969 and 1972 in the Apollo missions.
2. The moon always shows the same face to the Earth because it takes the same time for it to spin around once as it does for it to orbit the Earth.
3. The moon's suface is covered by craters caused by rocks, called meteorites, that crashed into it from space.
The Sun
The sun is our largest member of our Planetary System. It weighs about five hundred times as much as anything else in our Planetary System. Wow, now that is a lot! It is the only planet or star in our Planetary System large enough for its center to undergo nuclear fusion. It is able to produce so much energy that it shines. The planets of our Planetary System are so much smaller that nuclear fusion can't occur. Their surfaces are cold. They only shine by reflecting light from the sun. All of our planets do orbit the sun.
Here are some questions about the sun. Can you answer them? Click on the question to find the answer!
How Hot Is the Sun?
The sun is very hot. At the core it is 15 million degrees Celsius or 27 million degrees Farenheit. Using a magnifying glass, we can see the very hot heat and the light of the sun. Please do not do that because it can hurt your eyes.
This makes the light very bright and the heat is so hot it could start a fire.
Can you make electricity from the heat of the sun?
YES! Did you know that the heat of the sun is called solar energy. It's used to produce team,which can then be turned into electricity. That's real cool
Why Does the Sun Seem to be Moving?
It is because the earth is moving. The earth goes around the sun one time which takes a year. The earth goes from west to east. To the people on earth, the sun really does seem to be moving. The sun tricked you! The earth turns really slow. The sun just seems to come in view.
How Bright is the Sun?
Our sun is really, really, really bright! Now that's really bright. It is measured in watts which 380 followed by 24 zeros. That is even brighter than all the lightbulbs on earth! The whole reason the sun is so bright is because it is so hot. Did you know that the sun is the closest star to the earth and is the center of the solar system.
Did people ever worship the sun?
Ancient Greeks imagined the sun was a god named Helios driving a flaming chariot across the sky. The Babylonians thought the sun was a god, too. They named it Shamash who provided laws for people to follow. The Egyptian Sun god was called Ra. It was their nation's protector.
