Learning about Space

This is the name of our home galaxy, which the Earth is located in. Galaxies contain many objects such as stars and planets. Galaxies are mostly shaped like a spiral due to Gravity which allows planets to be contained in them.

This is another example of a galaxy. The Andromeda Galaxy is the closest neighboring galaxy to The Milky Way. It is located about 2.5 million light- years away. A light-year is a measure of distance that scientists usually use. A light- year is a measure of about 6 Trillion miles or 9 Trillion kilometers.

Stars are huge balls of fire that give off heat and light. Stars are usually located in galaxies such as the Milky Way. An example of a star is The Sun. The Sun is the closest star to The Earth. Although The Sun is really big, there are other stars which are much bigger than The Sun. Some are even a Hundred times bigger!

All objects give off Gravity. If there is a bigger object located near a smaller one, the bigger object would give off more Gravity. It's the same with stars. As stars are bigger than planets, almost every star in the universe has at least a few planets orbiting it. An example of such an orbiting system is the Solar System. It consists of The Sun, and other planets orbiting it such as Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Planets are objects in space that are usually made up of rock and gas. Some can even be made up of asteroids. Examples of rock planets in the Solar System are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Some examples of Gas planets are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Due to their big size all the gas planets in the Solar System are called Gas Giants. Planets can be found orbiting stars such as The Sun.