It
moves. Or maybe we move, and it is just hanging up there? It provides a lot of
bright light with some heat attached to it; many people still get very painful
sunburn in the summer - they know about sunburn and how dangerous it can be, but
still they get it by being too long in the sunshine. Actually, after long and
many studies, it was found that we move round and around the sun. Where are we?
We are on a large ball that is called Earth. The sun, too, is a very large ball, much larger than
the Earth; it only looks small because it is so very far away. The Earth - that's
where we are - is one of the planets. All the other planets of what we call the
Solar system also rotate around the sun. More about the
Sun, the Solar system, and the Earth later.
It
also moves. It moves around and around the Earth, just like a spaceship or a satellite.
It too is getting a lot of light and heat from the Sun, and we can see the part
of the moon that receives the Sun's light and heat because the moon is like some
kind of mirror. Some people went there some years ago and it was on TV. More about
the moon later too.
The
stars
The stars,
all of them more like the sun, everyone of them, are very far; if we would want
to travel there it would take us many years. Many of these "stars" are really
not just one, but many suns, very, very far from us, and we call them galaxies.
Our sun, all the planets, all of us, are also part of a whole group with many
other suns (some with planets too?), a galaxy. More about stars and galaxies later
as well.
Planets
Planets
can be found around many stars. They can be as small as Pluto or as large as Jupiter
or anywhere in the middle. Planets come in several types. First are rocky planets
like Earth and Mars. Second are the gas types like Jupiter and Saturn.
Space
objects
There
are many things in space that are not planets, moons, or stars. For example there
are asteroids, comets, meteor, and gas clouds.
