Astronomy

Stars

Stars are made up of gas, rock and ice. A star is nearly always in the centre of a galaxy. Stars are born by an old star exploding and then the gas around it is sucked in and pushes together forming a solid, large cylinder shaped object, which forms a star, (this happens over around 10,000,000,000 years!)

Moon & Sun

A solar eclipse happens once every year (and in different places on the planet.) there are two different types of eclipse. One is a solar eclipse which is when the moon comes in front of the sun, a lunar eclipse is when the earth is between the sun and the moon, (this is just like the moon having an eclipse of its own).

The sun is a star in the centre of the solar system that is burning gas faster then a Ferrari, it reaches temperatures of up to 10,000,000°C.

The moon is called a satellite, because it reflects light from the sun.

Planets

Our planet (the Earth,) is orbiting the sun and it takes 1 and a year and a quarter of a day. As the earth is orbiting the sun, it is also spinning around on its axis. No orbit is perfectly round, they are all oval shaped. The moon is also orbiting the Earth, it takes a month to do this, and most months are 28 days.

Comets And Meteorites

Comets are big lumps of ice that build up when they zoom through space at about 1000 miles per hour. The Dinosaur age was believed to have been wiped out by a comet over 10,000,000 years age.

Asteroids

Asteroids are mini versions of meteors/comets. They are also big lumps of ice travelling around the universe at very high speeds. They always travel in big groups like a heard of zebras.