Astronomy is a serious science. And as with many things, even very serious things, people often get an early start. Astronomy for kids is a thought provoking pursuit that can teach them about the sciences in general. Kids naturally gravitate to many aspects of astronomy. Movies like Star Wars only serve to increase this attraction.
The Earth's closest neighbor is the moon. It orbits our planet once every 27.3 days. Mankind has only ever walked on the Earth and the moon. One of the important benefits of our relationship with the moon is the tides it causes. It's one of the first objects that can spark a kid's interest in astronomy because it can be clearly seen with the human eye.
Then there's our sun. The sun is a long way away from us. The distance varies between about 146 million kilometers and 152 million kilometers. The reason for the variance is Earth's elliptical orbit. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun. The sun provides both light and heat to the planet. A little known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass in the solar system. Think about how small a person is compared to that.
We live in the Milky Way Galaxy. Just as other galaxies, ours contains gas and clouds of dust, stars and planets and other space materials. But most of the galaxy is empty nothingness. That means most of 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years wide, the size of our galaxy, is empty. The center of our galaxy is about 30,000 light years from Earth. The Milky Way contains something like 100 billion stars. In fact the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main portion of it. 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.
You can find a wealth of resources for astronomy for kids on the world wide web. 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.
6 user comments.
sohbet chat sohbet;)
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com