Solar Core - Density

Let's keep learning about the sun's solar core. We've learned about it's size and heat.

Remember before we learned about mass and how a marble and marshmallow may be the same size but one of them is thicker and heavier? That is called density.

The density of the sun is 150 times thicker than water.


(from: wikipedia - water)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constellations - Gemini

Solar Core - Heat

Let's keep learning about the sun's Solar Core.

The temperature at the core is over 28 million degrees fahrenheit.
A hot summer day on earth is only about 80 degrees, so that's pretty hot!


(from: wikipedia - heat)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constellations - Taurus

Solar Core - Size

Let's keep learning about the Sun!

We know the sun gives us light and heat, but what's inside of it?

The very center of the sun is called the Solar Core.
Even though it's just the center, it's over 172,000 miles wide, which is over 20 times wider than the Earth!


(from: wikipedia - solar core)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constellations - Orion

The Sun

We just learned about the Harvest Moon.

We've already learned a lot of things about the Sun.

We know it's in the center of our solar system and the earth orbits around it.

We know it is a GV type of star called a Yellow Dwarf, and we know when the moon gets in front of the sun and we can't see the light that is called a solar eclipse.

The sun is an amazing thing floating out in space, and without it there would be no life on earth.

Even though our summers get really hot and the sun seems very bright, it is 93 million miles away.

That's like driving all the way around the earth almost 4,000 times!

(from: wikipedia - sun)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Asteroid Belt

Harvest Moon

We've learned about all of the phases of the moon, and the blue moon.

Another special type of moon is called the Harvest Moon or Hunter's Moon.
The harvest moon is special because it looks red!

Remember a long time ago we learned about the different colors of light, ROY G BIV?

When the moon doesn't look high up in the sky, but instead low down towards the ground, we call that on the horizon. And when you're not looking up in the sky but out on the horizon, you're looking through the sky (the atmosphere) into space at a different direction, and the color Red (from ROY G BIV) stands out more, which makes the moon look red!

It's called a harvest moon because it shows up in the fall when farmers are harvesting their crops.


(from: wikipedia - full moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Atmosphere

Waning Crescent

We've learned now about the moon's lunar phases: new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous and last quarter.

After last quarter, the moon continues to get darker on the right side.
Once it is almost totally dark and there is only a crescent of light on the left side, that is called waning crescent.

Remember that when the light crescent is on the right side, that is waxing crescent.

(from: wikipedia - category:lunar phases)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Meteorite

Last quarter moon

We've learned now about the moon's lunar phases: new moon, waxing crescent moon, first quarter moon, waxing gibbous, full moon and waning gibbous.

After waning gibbous, the moon continues to get darker on the right side.
Once it is about half dark, that is called the last quarter moon.

Remember that when the left side is dark, that is the first quarter moon.

(from: wikipedia - category:lunar phases)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Meteoroid

Waning Gibbous

We've learned now about the moon's lunar phases: new moon, waxing crescent moon, first quarter moon, waxing gibbous and full moon.

After the moon is full and bright, it starts to get dark again.
The next phase after full moon is called Waning Gibbous.

Waning sort of means going away, so the moon is almost full and getting less full every day.
The waxing gibbous moon was a little dark on the left side.
The waning gibbous moon is a little dark on the right side.


(from: wikipedia - category:lunar phases)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Comets

Waxing Gibbous Moon

We've learned now about the moon's lunar phases: full moon, new moon, waxing crescent moon and first quarter moon.

The next phase after first quarter is called waxing gibbous.

When the moon is almost full, but only a small crescent on the left side is dark, that is called waxing gibbous.



(from: wikipedia - category:lunar phases)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Asteroids

First Quarter Moon

We've learned now about the moon's lunar phases: full moon, new moon and waxing crescent moon.

The next phase after waxing crescent is called first quarter.
When you look up in the night sky and you see the right half of it, that is a first quarter moon.

A quarter is when you divide something up into four equal parts, a quarter is one of those parts.
So if you divide the moon into four parts: 1 back left (dark), 2 back right (dark), 3 front left (dark), 4 front right (light)
You can see that only one of the four parts of the moon has sun light on it.


(from: wikipedia - category:lunar phases)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Kuiper Belt

Waxing Crescent

We know that a full moon is when the sun is on the other side of us, shining right on the moon, and a new moon is when the moon is totally dark because it is in between the earth and the sun.


Right after a new moon, the moon will start to get some sunlight on it's right side. This makes a crescent shape, so we call it a crescent moon. Since the moon is going to get more full as the days go on, we use the word waxing to say that it is going to get fuller. So we can say the moon is waxing crescent.

(from: wikipedia - category:photographs of the waxing crescent moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pluto

New Moon

We know that a full moon is when the sun is on the other side of us, shining right on the moon.

A new moon is the opposite of a full moon. It is when the moon is in between the earth and the sun. When it is there, we can't see the moon in the night sky.

(from: wikipedia - new moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Neptune

Full Moon

We just learned a little about the Lunar Eclipse.

A full moon happens about once every 29 days.
Since there are 28, 30 or 31 days in each month we usually see a full moon once every month.

The full moon happens because the sun is shining right on the part of the moon that we can see.
Sometimes the sun is shining on a different side of the moon that is not facing us, and we would not see the full moon.


(from: wikipedia - full moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Uranus

Lunar eclipse

We know that a solar eclipse is when the moon gets between the earth and the sun.

A lunar eclipse is when the earth gets between the moon and the sun. Since the earth is blocking the sunlight shining on the moon, the moon will go dark in the sky and you won't be able to see it.


(from: wikipedia - lunar eclipse)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saturn

Blue moon

We just learned about the Lunar Phase.

When people talk about a blue moon they don't mean that the moon actually turns blue!
A full moon comes around every 29 days, so there is usually only one full moon per month.

If there are two full moons in the same month, the second one is called a blue moon.
This doesn't happen very much, so there is a saying "once in a blue moon" that means not very often.

(from: wikipedia - blue moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Jupiter

Lunar Phase

We just learned about the Solar Eclipse.

A full moon is when you can see the whole moon bright in the night sky.

What about when the moon isn't full and only part of it is showing?
Or when you can't see the moon at all in the sky?

The changing of the moon in the sky is called the lunar phase.
The light on the moon changes because it orbits the earth, and when the part we can see does not have sunlight shining on it, it is dark.
When the sunlight is shining on it all the way, it's bright.


(from: wikipedia - lunar phase)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mars

Solar eclipse

Remember orbit means that one thing spins around the outside of another thing.

We know the moon orbits around the earth, and is kind of close to the earth.
We also know the earth orbits around the sun.

What happens when the moon spins around the earth, and is right between the earth and the sun?
That's called a solar eclipse.

The moon gets right between the earth and the sun, and blocks out the sun!

(from: wikipedia - solar eclipse)

When the moon is in just the right position, it blocks out pretty much the whole sun, and the earth gets dark light night time, even though it's day time!

(from: wikipedia - solar eclipse)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Earth

Moon Tides

We just learned about Gravity on the Moon.

The moon orbits the earth about every 27 days, and the earth spins around once every day.

Because the moon is so big, as it is spinning around the earth it affects the oceans and lakes.
This is called Tide.

When a part of the ocean is facing where the moon is, the water rises up.
Then when the earth spins and the moon orbits, the water goes down.
When the ocean is facing totally opposite of where the moon is, the water rises up again.
And when the earth spins again the water goes down.

If you live on an ocean or lake, you can see the water rise up to the beach for a few hours, then go back out for a few hours.


(from: wikipedia - tide)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planet Venus

Gravity on the Moon

We just learned about Lunar Rocks.

When the astronauts walked on the moon, it wasn't the same as walking here on earth.

The gravity on the moon is a lot less than earth.
That means if you dropped a ball to the ground, it would fall slowly like a balloon!

If you are on the moon and you jump up in the air, you won't come down fast like normal,
you'll float down slowly like a balloon too.

If you weigh 50 pounds on Earth, you would only weigh about 8 pounds on the moon.


(from: wikipedia - buzz aldrin)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Planet Mercury

Lunar rocks

We just learned about the Lunar Lava Tube.

When the Apollo missions visited the moon, they brought back over 800 pounds of rock!

Those lunar rocks (or moon rocks) have helped us to study what the moon is made of.

(from: wikipedia - geology of the moon)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: ISS - International Space Station