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TEACHER RESOURCE PLANETARIUM STARDOME OBSERVATORYVI&TIES ON... TI FACTS, RESOURCES AND AC E H T F O E L A C S E TH M E T S Y S R A L O S t it is difficult for us Space is vast. So vast, tha d. We can put numbers hen pre humans to even com tances of things in Space on different sizes and dis alise the scale better, and this does help to visu (the width the Sun 84; but numbers like 1,392,6 0 (the number of ,40 671 70, 2,8 in kilometres) or far Sun and Uranus) are so kilometres between our ay ryd eve in ter oun enc gs we beyond the scale of thin of. icult to make sense life that they are still diff we alise the scale of Space, To make it easier to visu we t tha so bit a n dow are going to shrink things r numbers representing end up dealing with smalle we can identify. We will distances and sizes that n a lot to do this. We are have to shrink things dow Solar System five billion going to have to make our times smaller! Using this scale, an average human would be the size of an atom and the Moon would be less than 1mm across and about 7.5cm from Earth! a tiny turns our Sun from Making space this teenylion mil f hal a ost one and giant ball of hot gas, alm a tiny ball of hot gas into ter, me dia in s kilometre the length of a typical out just 28cm in diameter. Ab the largest planet in our classroom ruler. Meanwhile s shrunk down to a mere Solar System, Jupiter get of s in our Solar System are 2.8cm! The other planet (not cm 2.3 to s ink shr urn course, even smaller: Sat h Uranus and Neptune bot counting its rings) while l. stil r alle sm are s, ky planet shrink to just 1cm. The roc Mars h, eac oss acr mm 2.5 e just Earth and Venus becom rcury just 1mm; about the Me tiny and , oss acr m 1.3m end of this sentence. size of the full stop at the Solar system planets size comparison. Largest to smallest are pictured left to right, top to bottom: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/Lsmpascal the though is how far apart What is really surprising ry and rcu Me 1mm our en we bet planets are. The distance 5m 22. r 11.5 metres! There is our 28cm Sun is just ove and us, 30m between the Sun Ven and between the Sun se the But rs. Ma and en the Sun Earth, and 45.5m betwe ed par com Sun the to se clo y four rocky planets are ver or or Saturn at 287m away, to Jupiter at 155m away, ay! aw m Neptune at 900 Uranus at 574m away, or at s of our Solar System. Wh But that is just the planet and ri tau It is named Alpha Cen about the nearest star? ated loc is It er. oth orbiting each is actually a pair of stars n dow en unk shr our and in outside the Solar System about 8000km away! d ate loc are y the se, univer Check out these other resources... If the Moon were only a pixel – http://www.joshworth. com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html BBC – How big is Space – http://www.bbc.com/future/ bespoke/20140304-how-big-is-space-interactive/index.html S DISCUSSION POINT SCIENCE CONTENT/ K LIN CURRICULUM THE INVESTIGATE S OF THE NT NE PO M CO , SOLAR SYSTEM AN DEVELOPING OF APPRECIATION THE DISTANCE . EM BETWEEN TH Why do In this exercise ercury M gh ou th en all the Ev we’ve used km as is the closest to the pla nets a measurement. it’s not the n, Su orb it the Astronauts and hottest. Exploressw.hy Su n? use ts cla tis scien this is as a Astronomical Units. Why is this? STARDOME.ORG.NZ 09 624 1246 ACTIVITY PLANETARIUM STARDOME OBSERVATORY & E H T G N I K N SHRI SYSTEM SOLAR this resource, Using the figures given in n and planets. create a model of the Su ate Solar System In teams, the class can cre pier-mâché, or with models, either out of pa that match the items from the classroom Think about marbles, reduced measurements. craft supplies. They drawing pins, rubbers or correctly but can may not match the shape the different sizes still provide context for of the planets. e, and with a tape Take items/model outsid dents at the measure space out the stu m the Sun. It shrunk down distances fro s on a school field, might be good to do thi has distances marked particularly if it already for sports activities. google maps or If you run out of room, use ms to locate familiar a similar mapping progra the correct distance local places which are at r dairy, child’s house, from your Sun (e.g. corne ile you won’t be able the motorway etc.). Wh locations, hopefully to send a child to these gh that the student they will be familiar enou Translating the can visualise the distance. s micro-level makes size and distances to thi w immense Space it easier to understand ho planets are in size. is and how different the y notice about Ask the students what the ky planets (Mercury, the planet sizes. The roc are much smaller Venus, Earth and Mars) k them to identify than the gas planets. As hottest and which which planets would be also a good would be coolest. This is asurements opportunity to discuss me nomical Unit? in Space. What is an Astro the same Why don’t astronauts use have on Earth? measurement system we activity and Take a photo of youlor ve to see it! ’d e W . us to it d sen .nz [email protected] Planet Adjusted diameter Average distance from the Sun Sun 28cm Mercury 1mm 11.5m Venus 2.5mm 22.5m Earth 2.5mm 30m Mars 1.3mm 45.5m Jupiter 2.8cm 155m Saturn 2.3cm 287m Uranus 1cm 574m Neptune 1cm 900m An added extra if the class has been studying Pluto and New Horizons… Pluto 0.5mm 1182m STARDOME.ORG.NZ 09 624 1246