Outer Space Study Guide
Planetary Science (Foss Kit)
Essential Question: With technology always advancing, what is left to discover in space that we can’t see from Earth?
This is another exciting theme to learn about. In the next few years ordinary people can travel to space thanks to Virgin Galactic’s idea. Anyone can view space from their computer thanks to the ISS. LINK. To top things off you can even explore Mars from home. LINK
Scientist have estimated Earth to be 4.6 billion years old. If you were to put that in years of a 24 hour day humans have only be around for .001 of a second. Cool fact right? Check out more here. LINK
Want to hear what Earth sounds like from space? LINK Since 1956 NRAO has been listening for sounds from space. Want to hear what they caught? LINK
Voyager 1 and 2 where the first probes to see each of the nine planets in our solar system: VIDEO LINK
The main thing to know is that outer space is cool! Know the vocabulary terms listed below. Know that the moon causes the tides. Know that Earth’s tilt causes the seasons. When it’s summer in the northern hemisphere, it’s winter in the southern. Know that stars are big balls of gases held together by gravity. Even today we can’t actually explain what causes gravity, nor can we explain everything in space. Know that we don’t know where the universe ends. We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, and there are many more galaxies in the universe that we will never see. In fact science says there are more planets in our universe than there are pieces of sand on Earth!
NGSS Science Standards this theme is related to:
How we track galaxy movements:
Two main types of telescopes:
Stages of a star:
Planet Sizes:
Distance of planets from the Sun.
Vocabulary Words
Milky Way Galaxy: The galaxy that we live in that includes our Sun and our solar system. Our Sun is just one of the millions of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Want to see just how big our Galaxy is and where were are at in our Galaxy CLICK HERE! To give you an idea of how big our solar system is the New Horizon probe due to arrive at Pluto in 2015 took 11 YEARS TO GET THERE!
Supernova: The death and massive explosion of a star resulting in massive bright light then gradual fading. LINK TO VIDEO
Universe: All things that exist in space.
Nebula: A region or cloud of dust and gas appearing as a bright or dark patch. This is usually the first stage in a star formation. TAKE A LOOK AT NEBULA PICTURES
Solar System: The Sun along with all the planets, moons, and other bodies that travel around it.
Solar Eclipse: When the Sun gets block out of view from the moon.
Lunar Eclipse: When the Earth gets between the sun and the moon.
Rotation: One complete spins on Earth’s axis. Earth is tilted about 21 degrees off it’s access which causes the seasons.
Astronomy: The study of the universe.
Crater: Bowl-shaped depressions in the surface of the landscape. This crater in Arizona was formed over 50,000 years ago.
Tide: The regular rise of fall of water levels in the ocean. The moon’s gravity pulling on Earth causes the tides.
Asteroids: These are rocks that travel through space and orbit the Sun.
Meteoroids: Pieces of asteroids that break off and travel through space.
Meteor: These is when meteoroids have entered Earth’s atmosphere and begin to burn up.
Meteorites: These are meteors that strike the Earth.
Constellation: A group of stars that seem to form a pattern.
Black Hole: Is an object with gravity so strong that not even light can escape from it. Our nearest black hole is 1,600 light years away. So traveling at 186,000 miles per second, it would take you 1,600 years to get there.
Star: A large, hot ball of gases that gives off its own light and held together by gravity.
Galaxy: A group of star clusters held together by gravity.
White Dwarf: These are basically grandparent stars that are old and are going dead.
Black Dwarf: These are basically the “skeletons” left of a star when the last glimmer of light is gone. There re no documented cases of black dwarfs that we know about.
Comet: A mixture of ice, frozen, and gases, rock, and dust that orbits the sun. Click here to see the most famous comet around!
Waxing: One of the moon phases where the moon is “growing”.
Waning: One of the moon phases where the moon is “shrinking”.
Crescent: One of the moon phases where the moon is “less than half full”.
Gibbous: One of the moon phases where the moon is “more than half full”.