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ASTRONOMY
OPENING ACTIVITY 9/22/16
• On your Learning Log, write today’s goal and
activity (yes, they are the same as yesterday, but
still write them down for today)
• Goal: Describe at least two different celestial
objects
• Activity: Celestial objects foldable
THE MOON
Earth’s natural satellite
A moon is a
natural satellite
that orbits a
planetary body.
We call our moon “The Moon” but
many other planets have moons as well.
Mars has
two moons:
Phobos and
Deimos
Jupiter has
more than
60 moons.
The four largest
moons are Io,
Callisto,
Ganymede and
Europa.
Saturn also has at least 60 moons.
All planets except Mercury and Venus
have at least one moon…
…for a total of
16o+ moons.
PLANETS
A view of our
planet Earth from
the Moon.
A PLANET IS A
CELESTIAL BODY…
• that orbits a star
• has sufficient mass to assume a
spherical shape
(it’s round)
• has cleared its orbital path
EARTH & MOON FROM MERCURY
Looking back from its orbit around Mercury, MESSENGER captured this view of Earth
and the Moon on May 6, 2010. The spacecraft was 183 million kilometers (114 million
miles) from Earth at the time, farther than our average distance from the Sun (150
million kilometers, or 93 million miles) because Mercury and Earth were at different
places in their orbits around the Sun.
Revisit Warmup question:
What is the difference between a planet and a
moon?
Stars
Spheres of hot gases
that radiate energy
due to their internal
nuclear reactions.
OUR SUN IS THE
NEAREST STAR
Stars
Draw how large you
think the Sun is
compared with Earth.
OUR SUN IS AN AVERAGE SIZED
STAR, AND MUCH SMALLER THAN
MANY OTHER STARS
Some stars are red giants and
supergiants, which we will learn
more about later.
SOLAR SYSTEMS
(PLANETARY SYSTEMS)
• Solar systems are also “celestial
objects” even though they are made
of many parts.
• Many other solar systems exist
Our solar system includes a star (our
sun), planets, and moons, as well as
asteroids, meteoroids and comets.
An artist's concept shows four of the five planets
that orbit 55 Cancri, a star much like our own
(and located 41 light years away from Earth).
NEBULAE (NEBULA)
• A nebula is an interstellar cloud of
dust, gas, plasma
• Stellar “nurseries” & stellar corpses
Cygnus Loop
Cat’s Eye Nebula
NEBULAE (NEBULA)
• More images
• https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/nebulae/
GALAXY
• a system of billions of stars, together
with gas and dust, held together by
gravitational attraction
WE ARE LOCATED IN THE
MILKY WAY, A SPIRAL
GALAXY
Is THIS a picture of our galaxy?
Is THIS a picture
of our galaxy?
THE SPIRAL ANDROMEDA GALAXY IS OUR
NEAREST GALAXY NEIGHBOR
…yet it is still
more than 2
million light
years away!
HIGH DEFINITION IMAGE
61,000-light-year-long
Over 100,000 stars in this image
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/rel
eases/2015/02/image/a/
LEARN MORE!
• Scale of the Universe –Flashhttp://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140112.html
CLOSING ACTIVITY 9/22/16
• Summarize what you learned today
• Write down one question that you have