Astronomy For Kids
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Astronomy can be a life long pursuit. And as with many things, even very serious things, people often get an early start. There are a lot of resources for astronomy for kids who are interested in the planets, the solar system, the universe and everything else that’s part of this exciting science. A number of astronomy subjects interest kids. These include the moon, the stars and far distant galaxies.
The moon is Earth’s only satellite. It takes about 27 days to orbit the Earth. Being so near, it has hosted the only human footsteps on a space object other than the Earth. One of the important benefits of our relationship with the moon is the tides it causes. It’s brightness in the night sky attracts many children to learn more about it and the overall subject of astronomy.
Then there’s our sun. Earth is quite far from the sun. The distance varies between about 146 million kilometers and 152 million kilometers. It’s not an inaccurate measurement, it’s because the Earth orbits in an uneven ellipse. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun. Our light and heat comes from the sun. Most people don’t realize that the sun accounts for around 98% of all the mass in the solar system. Talk about the big bully on the block.
Our own galaxy is the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. That’s a lot of nothing because our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and 3,000 light years deep. We’re somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 light years from galactic central core. Even with all that space there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. In fact the galaxy takes its name from the appearance of the band of stars that shine from the main section of the galaxy. It looks like a pool of liquid, thus the name “Milky Way.” There are four types of galaxies – elliptical, lenticular, irregular and like the Milky Way, spiral.
There is a lot of information about astronomy for kids on the Internet. In fact there are so many star charts, charting programs, images, videos, and other resources that a kid would be a senior citizen before seeing all of it.
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