Space

Exploring Earth Science The Earth and Moon

Travel along and we will find out where we live in space and what we can see in space.

Do you know what a solar system is? Do you know what is in our solar system?

Our solar system is made up of an enormous sun and everything that travels around it.

We live on one of the nine planets in our system. Other small bodies called asteroids and comets can be found in our system also.

If we were to put the planets in order , from the one closest to the sun, they would be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

What do you know about how our planet, Earth, moves in space?

Earth is the third planet. We call Earth our ‘home planet.’ It is the shape of a sphere.

It has oceans full of water, green forests, animals, plants, and breathable air. It is a unique planet. From space, the Earth looks like a beautiful blue-green marble, with white swirling clouds.

• Sunlight comes from the sun to the Earth. The sunlight that warms our faces right now left the sun over eight minutes ago. The sun warms the Earth.

What causes daytime and night time on the Earth? What causes the changing of our seasons?

The Earth whizzes along spinning in space at 67,000 miles an hour. We can’t feel it spinning. Yet is makes one complete turn every 24 hours.

This spinning around like a top is called rotation. As it spins only one side faces the sun. Day begins when our part of the world turns to face the sun.

Night falls when our part of the Earth turns away from the sun. The side facing away from the sun has nighttime.

This rotation or spinning of Earth causes day and night. The Earth rotates on its axis. The axis is an imaginary line through its center. It rotates once every 24 hours causing day and night.

www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronom

Every day the Earth travels around the sun. The Earth and the moon travel together in an orbit around the sun once a year.

One revolution around the sun equals 365 days. This revolution causes the changing of the seasons.

• http:// kids.msfc.nasa.gov/earth/seasons/EarthSeas

The seasons have nothing to do with how far the Earth is from the Sun. If this were the case, it would be hotter in the northern hemisphere during January as opposed to July. Instead, the seasons are caused by the Earth being tilted on its axis by an average of 23.5 degrees

• What is the Earth’s natural satellite? • What does it look like?

The moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. • The moon is a ball of rock that is dry and dusty. It has craters, valleys, mountains, and large patches called seas.

In 1969, the first man stepped onto the moon. There is no wind or rain on the moon to wash the footprints away.

http:/

• Where does the light shining from the moon come from? • Why does it seem to change shapes in space?

The moon circles around the Earth about once every 28 days. The moon does not spin like the Earth. The moon only spins once a month on its axis. The moon looks bright at night, but it does not make its own light.

• http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moo

We see the moon because the sun shines on it. The sunlight bounces off the moon and down toward the Earth. We see reflected sunlight.

• As the moon travels around the Earth, we can see different amounts of the side lit by the sun. The moon’s appearance changes each day through the month depending on where the moon is in its orbit.

• http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhas

http://www.geocities.com/eedd88/moon/moon.ht

• These changes of how the moon looks from the Earth are called the moon’s phases. Sometimes the moon looks completely dark and seems to disappear. This is called a new moon. Sometimes the moon looks round. This is called a full moon.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moo

• After the new moon, the moon appears to change. More and more of the moon starts to show. This is a crescent moon. When the moon is growing larger, we call this a waxing moon.

• It appears to grow larger until it is a round, full moon. Then the full moon appears to grow smaller. This is called the waning moon. When the moon goes from a new moon to a full moon, it has complete one orbit of cycle.

• A complete orbit of the moon around the Earth produces the moon’s phases that we see. This complete cycle of the moon’s phases takes 29.5 days.

• Because of the moon’s orbit or cycle of 29.5 days, moonrise can appear later each day. That is why we see sometimes see the moon in the sky at night and other times we see it during the day.

Learning about the Earth and the moon has made all of you Space Kids. See if you can now answer the following questions.

Do you know what a solar system is? Do you know what is in our solar system?

What causes daytime and night time on the Earth? What causes the changing of our seasons?

• What is the Earth’s natural satellite? • What does it look like?

• Where does the light shining from the moon come from? • Why does it seem to change shapes in space?

Continue to explore Earth Science. Share with others what you have learned. Have fun!

Works Cited http://geogrpahy.about.com/library/misc/nearth.htm http://www.icehouse.net/jmurphy.Home%20Page.htm http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/planetarium/amateur.htm http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy http://www.moon-phases.com/ http://www.ac.wwwu.edu/~stephan/phases.html http://wms.watertown.k12.ma.us/wmssg/Gr8HP/Gr8SCI/SC/seasons.htm http://www.kidskonnect.com/Space/ http://www.spacekids.com/solarsystem http://www.solarviews.com/eng/moon/htm http://www.netaxs.com/~mhmyers/moon.tn.html http://www.calacademy.org/planetarium/what/ http://www.ced.appstate.edu/~goodmanj/4401/phenomena/moonphases.htm http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhase.html http://home/hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonphase/ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/earth/seasons/EarthSeasons.asp http://www.blueneptune.com/~xmwang/myGUI/EarthSun.html Http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/activities/radiobuttonquiz/Earthpz.shtml