Eclipses of the Sun

Eclipses of the Moon

Our Solar System

The Earth, The Moon and The Sun

Phases of the Moon

• The Moon is the brightest object in the night sky.
• However, it does not emit light.
• The Moon appears bright at night because it reflects light from the Sun to the Earth.

Phases of the Moon

→ The revolution of the Moon around the Earth makes the Moon seem to change its shape in the night sky. Actually it does not. This is caused by the different angles we see from the bright part of the Moon's surface. The Moon goes through 4 major shapes during a cycle that repeat itself every 28 days.
→ It is an appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon.

*First Quarter &Third Quarter-Half Moon

 → New Moon

• part of the Moon which is not illuminated faces the Earth.
• the Moon is not visible.
• the lighted side of the Moon faces away from the Earth.

→ Crescent Moon

• the Moon is less than half illuminated by the Sun.
• can be seen after the new Moon.
• the crescent will grow larger and larger everyday.

→ Half Moon

• half of the illuminated side of the Moon is visible.
• the half appeared lighted and the other half appears dark.
• looks like half a circle.

→ Full Moon

• the Moon's illuminated side is visible.
• the lighted side faces the Earth.

The Earth, The Moon and The Sun

Earth rotate on its axis from the west to the east. It takes 24 hours to make one complete rotation.

→ How long does the Earth take to move around the Sun?

√  The Earth also moves around the Sun at the same time. It takes one year to move around the Sun.

The Moon also rotate on its axis. It takes about 28 days to make a complete rotation. At the same time, the Moon moves around the Earth. It also takes about 28 days to move around the Earth.

• In early morning and afternoon, the Sun rises on the horizon and makes long shadows.
• At noon, the Sun is directly overhead and makes short shadows.
• The rotation of the Earth on its axis causes the length and position of a shadow to change.

The Sun is the centre of our solar system. The Earth and the Moon move around the Sun at the same time.

Day and Night

→ The Earth rotates on its axis. This rotation causes day and night. 

→ The part of the Earth that is facing the Sun experiences daytime.

→ The part of the Earth that is facing away from the Sun experiences nighttime.

Day and night, Earth's Rotation

Starry, starry night

What are constellation?

→ Constellation are a group of stars that seem to be resemble something familiar to those who named them. They are not real objects but are just patterns that we see in the sky. Constellation have imaginary boundaries formed by connecting the stars. All of the stars within those boundaries labelled with the name of that constellation. It is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere.

Importance of constellation

1) Farmers          - to remind them of planting and harvesting seasons.

2) Astronomers   - to map the sky.

3) Explorers        - for navigation and determine the direction especially on the ocean.


Examples of constellations

1) Southern Cross

Is a well known cross-shaped southern hemisphere constellation.
Southern Cross show the south pole.

2) Big Dipper

Big Dipper is a group of seven bright stars that forms a pattern of a handle and bowl.
Big Dipper shows the north pole.

* Big Dipper and Southern Cross can be seen between April and June.

3) Scorpion

Scorpion contains many bright stars.
The brightest star in Scorpion is Antares.
It can be seem clearly with its head, long body, tail, and stinger between June and August.

4) Orion

Orion can be seen clearly as a hunter with a belt and sword between December and February.

The 9 Planets

Inner Planets	Outer Planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars	Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
Made of rocks	Made of gases
Has an atmosphere	Do not have a suitable atmosphere for living things to survive
Temperature is hotter	Temperature is colder

MERCURY

• Mercury is the second smallest planet in the solar system.
• The temperature is too hot to support life.
• It is  the closest planet to the sun. 
• It is also very close to the same size as the moon.

 VENUS

• Venus is called the evening star because to us on earth it is so bright.
• Its also call Earth's twin because it is almost the same size as Earth and it looks identical.
• It is the closest to earth but it does not have water and life on Venus.
• Venus gets so hot during the day it can melt a lead cannonball.
• It gets up to 484 degrees celcius on the side facing the sun.
• Venus gets so hot because it has clouds that circle the planet with heat inside of the clouds.
• This makes it hotter than Mercury.
• Venus orbits the sun slowly. It also has alot of thunderstorms.

EARTH

• Earth is the only planet known to have life.
• Most of earth is covered by water.
• The rest is covered by land, mountains, and valleys.
• Earth is the third closest planet to the sun.
• It is covered by many oxygens mostly nitrogen and oxygen.
• The atmosphere is what gives us air to breathe, thats why we live on planet Earth.
• The Earth orbits around the sun.
• It takes one year to completely rotate the sun.
• It also rotates and spins on its axis.
• Each day it spins around one whole time.
• The tilt in the axis is responsible of are seasons. Otherwise it would be the same temperature all year long.

MARS

• Mars is called the red planet bacuse it is red.
• On Mars it can get very cold. On its hot days it is still cold.
• They have poles just like earth. North and South.
• During the martian winter, ice caps can be seen at the poles.
• Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos which have unusual shapes.
• Scientists believe that these potato shaped moons were astroids captured by Mars' gravitational pull.
  

JUPITER

• Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the Solar System.
• It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined.

SATURN

• Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter.
• Named after the Roman god Saturn, its astronomical symbol represents the god's sickle.
• Has three wide rings. 
• They can be seen with a telescope. It composed mostly of ice particles and some debris.

URANUS

• Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun.
• It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. 
• It is a kind of watery planet, pretty far away from the Sun.
• It is the coldest planet in the Solar System.

NEPTUNE

• The Planet Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun.
• It is also known as the Blue Giant.
• Neptune is the fourth and outermost of the gas giant planets and also has rings.
• Its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium.
• In Roman mythology Neptune was the god of the Sea.
• Neptune and Uranus are much alike.
• It is covered with a blue ocean of liquid methane.

PLUTO

• Pluto is the farthest planet from the Sun so the temprature is very low and it is very cold.

How far and How big?

The distance from Earth to the Sun is 400 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Earth is 4 times the size of the Moon and the Sun is 100 times the size of the Earth.

Sago

Basketball

       

   Glass Marbles

We can assume that the:

a) sago represents the Moon

b) glass marbles represents the Earth

c) basketball represents the Sun

Our Solar System



The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it.



Its made up of 9 planets and the Sun. The Sun is at the centre of the Solar System.

The 9 planets which are:-

1) Mercury
2) Venus

3) Earth

4) Mars

5) Jupiter

6) Saturn

7) Uranus

8) Neptune

9) Pluto

Other than that, the Solar System also consists of:-

1) Asteroids

The asteroids is the huge chunks of rocks that travel between Mars and Jupiter.



2) Comets

When a comet enters the inner Solar System, its creating a coma: a long tail of gas and dust often visible to the naked eye.

3) Meteors

Meteors are tiny rocks which probably come from the asteroid belt.

These are some video about Solar System: