Cat's Eye Nebula

We've learned about the planetary nebula, and the clownface nebula.

There are even more cool things in space like this!

The Cat's Eye Nebula is actually a planetary nebula with a star inside of it!


(from: wikipedia - cat's eye nebula)

It's over 3,000 light years away, and is part of the constellation of Draco.


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: North Star

Clownface Nebula

We just learned that a planetary nebula is a bunch of burning gas in space that was shot out from a red giant star.

There are some really amazing looking planetary nebulas in outer space,
like the clown face nebula.

(from: wikipedia - eskimo nebula)

It's over 2,000 light years away, and is part of the constellation of Gemini.


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Milky Way

Planetary nebula

A planetary nebula is a bunch of burning glowing gas that was shot out from a red giant star at one point.


(from: wikipedia - planetary nebula)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Earth's Seasons

Black hole

We just learned about a star system that has stars spinning around stars.

Let's learn about Black Holes!

A black hole is an area in space that has gravity so strong
it will suck in anything, even light!

(from: wikipedia - black hole)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Orbit

Interstellar cloud

We just learned about what a Black Dwarf is.

An interstellar cloud is a big bunch of gas, plasma and dust floating together in space.


(from: wikipedia - interstellar cloud)

Asteroid belt

We just learned about the Atmosphere.

We've learned about asteroids and we've learned about the kuiper belt which is full of asteroids.

It turns out there is an even larger bunch of asteroids in our solar system
called the asteroid belt.

(from: wikipedia - asteroid belt)

There are over a million asteroids in the asteroid belt!

Atmosphere

We just learned about how meteoroids become meteors or shooting stars when they get close to a planet.

They burn up because of a planet's atmosphere.
The atmosphere is the air up in our sky!

Just think about how a strong wind feels blowing on your face.
That wind is maybe blowing at 20 miles per hour.

Now imagine that wind blowing at 100,000 miles per hour!
That's how fast some meteors travel when they enter Earth's atmosphere,
and they burn up because they're going so fast they can't handle that kind of wind.


(from: wikipedia - atmosphere)

Meteorite

We now know that an asteroid is a big rock flying in space,
a meteoroid is a small chunk broken off of an asteroid
and a meteor is a chunk of that meteoroid that burns up in the sky when falling to a planet.

So what's a meteorite then?

If a meteor enters a planet's sky and doesn't burn up all the way,
sometimes it actually hits the planet.

When it actually hits the planet, it's called a meteorite!
Most meteorites are really small like a baseball and don't cause any damage, others are bigger than a car!

(from: wikipedia - meteorite)

Meteoroid

A Meteoroid is a smaller piece of a comet or asteroid that has broken off and is floating into space.

When a meteoroid gets close to a planet, it will burn up in the sky.

The burning up is very bright, and it's what we call a shooting star or meteor.


(from: wikipedia - meteoroid)

Comets

A Comet is like an asteroid, but it has a glow around it called a coma and sometimes has a glowing tail

(from: wikipedia - comet)

Comets get a coma and tail when an asteroid gets close to the sun,
and parts of it start to burn up and turn into gas.

Asteroids

We learned last time about the all of the things like Pluto that were floating around in the Kuiper belt.

All of the things floating around in our solar system that aren't planets,
are called asteroids.


(from: wikipedia - asteroid)

Kuiper Belt

Remember we talked about Pluto and how it's part of something called the Kuiper belt?
(kuiper rhymes with viper)

Well it turns out that lots of things are floating around in that area,
over 100,000 different things called Kuiper Belt Objects or KBO for short.

(from: wikipedia - kuiper belt)

They come in all sizes, some even close to the size of Pluto!