Astronomy is a very exact science, although a lot of people get involved with it when they are very young. Astronomy is a thought-provoking pursuit that can teach children about the sciences in general. A number of astronomical subjects inspire kids and movies like Star Wars and they only serve to increase this attraction.
The Earth's nearest neighbour is the moon. Its journey around the Earth takes just over twenty-seven days to complete. Mankind has only ever set foot on the Earth and the moon. The gravity between the moon and Earth causes the tides. Its brightness in the night sky encourages many children to want to study more about it and the subject of astronomy in general.
Let's consider the sun. Earth is quite far from the sun, although the distance actually fluctuates between about 91 million miles and about 94 million miles. The reason for this variance is because of Earth's elliptical orbit. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun, which is our source of important elements such as light and heat. A little-known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass of the whole solar system! Just think about how small a person is compared to that.
Our planet is in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it's a very large collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, only empty space. That means that most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years diameter, the volume of our galaxy, is nothingness.
Our Earth is located somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30,000 light years from the very centre of our galaxy. The emptiness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact, the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main section of it.
It looks like a pool of liquid, which is why it was called the Milky Way. There are four kinds of galaxies: elliptical, lenticular, irregular and, like the Milky Way, spiral.
There is a great deal of information on astronomy on the Internet that is fit for children: from dictionaries and encyclopaedic references to programs that show the paths of the different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer's monitor! In deed, there's more information than a child could ever get through. - 29943
The Earth's nearest neighbour is the moon. Its journey around the Earth takes just over twenty-seven days to complete. Mankind has only ever set foot on the Earth and the moon. The gravity between the moon and Earth causes the tides. Its brightness in the night sky encourages many children to want to study more about it and the subject of astronomy in general.
Let's consider the sun. Earth is quite far from the sun, although the distance actually fluctuates between about 91 million miles and about 94 million miles. The reason for this variance is because of Earth's elliptical orbit. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun, which is our source of important elements such as light and heat. A little-known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass of the whole solar system! Just think about how small a person is compared to that.
Our planet is in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it's a very large collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, only empty space. That means that most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years diameter, the volume of our galaxy, is nothingness.
Our Earth is located somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30,000 light years from the very centre of our galaxy. The emptiness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact, the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main section of it.
It looks like a pool of liquid, which is why it was called the Milky Way. There are four kinds of galaxies: elliptical, lenticular, irregular and, like the Milky Way, spiral.
There is a great deal of information on astronomy on the Internet that is fit for children: from dictionaries and encyclopaedic references to programs that show the paths of the different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer's monitor! In deed, there's more information than a child could ever get through. - 29943
About the Author:
If you are interested in astronomy, please pop along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com
