Download The Sun, Moon, & Earth

The Sun, Moon, & Earth
The Digital Story
Table of Contents
The Sun
The Moon
The Earth
Resources
The Sun
The sun is really a star. Even though it looks large to us,
it is classified as a medium-sized star. It is the closest
star to Earth and is made up of many different gasses. It
is 93,000,000 million miles away from the earth. The
surface of the sun can reach over 10,000 degrees
Fahrenheit.
All of the planets in our solar system orbit the sun.
Orbit means to go around an object in a elliptical
path. It takes the earth 365.25 days or 1 year to orbit
the sun.
The sun is so large that over 1,000,000 earths
could fit inside the sun.
The sun produces its own light. It is the perfect
distance away from the earth. The energy that the
earth gets from the sun is perfect for life on earth.
Without the sun, plants and animals could not survive
on the earth.
But it would not be possible for us to live on the sun as it is
a gaseous star made of hydrogen and helium. The sun
also rotates.
Rotate means to spin while revolves means to
orbit or move around in a predictable path.
Day and night occur on the earth because the
earth is always spinning around. It is day on one
side of the earth, while the other side of the earth
is having night. It looks like the sun moves
through our sky, but we get day and night
because the earth is spinning.
Seasons
What do you notice about the sun’s position in each picture?
Seasons
What do you notice about the sun’s position in each
picture?
On June 21st, the first day of summer, at noon the Sun is
high in the sky. Three months later, on September 22nd, the
first day of fall, the Sun is lower. On December 21st, the first
day of winter, the sun is at its lowest position. On March
21st, it is the same height as in September and the cycle
begins again.
The Earth
The Earth is spherical in shape, orbits the sun and is a
natural satellite of the sun. Orbit means to go around a
point in space, but actually the earth’s path around the
sun is more elliptical or oval shaped. It takes the earth
365 ¼ days to orbit the sun one time. Because of the
extra ¼ of a day, every four years we add an extra day
to the year. This is called a leap year.
The Earth DOES NOT produce its own light but
reflects the sun’s light. The sun rises in the east
and sets in the west. The sun never goes away, it’s
just how the earth spins that creates day and night.
This spinning is called rotation. As the Earth
rotates, the sun faces one side of the earth and
the other side of the earth is in darkness. Hence,
the sun and other stars never go away.
The earth rotates. Rotate is another word for
spin. It takes 24 hours for the earth to rotate one
full time. This is why 1 earth day is 24 hours long.
What do you notice about the position of the earth in the
model above?
Some people think we have different seasons on earth because
of how far away the earth is from the sun. But that is not true.
We have different seasons because the sun’s rays are more
direct on certain parts of the earth at different times of the year.
The tilting of the earth’s axis causes seasons.
The sun, moon, and earth are different sizes.
They move in predictable patterns around the
sun.
Standing on the Earth, the sun and moon appear to be
the same size. But they are not. The moon only
appears larger because it is much closer to the Earth.
In reality, the sun is much, much larger than the moon,
but is farther away so it looks smaller.
The
Moon
The moon is a spherical shape and orbits the earth.
It is a natural satellite of the Earth. It is the closest
object in the sky to Earth. The moon is 238,900
miles away from the earth.
The moon does NOT produce its own light but rather
reflects the light from the sun. But the moon orbits
and rotates in about the same amount of time- 28
days.
The moon does not have an atmosphere. Therefore,
people would not be able to sustain life there. The
gravity is 1/6 that of Earths. The moon has many
craters that cover the surface.
No matter where the
moon is in space, half
is lit and half is dark.
As the moon revolves
around the Earth, we
see different amounts
of the moon’s lighted
side. So, the moon
seems to change
shape. But it doesn’t.
Only a portion of the
sun’s light is seen.
.
A common misconception is that the same side of
the moon is always dark, but that is not true. We
see the same side of the moon all the time
because of the moon’s orbit and rotation.
During this cycle, we can only see part of the moon
that is reflecting the sun’s light. The different
looks are called the moon phases. The phases of
the moon are new moon, waxing crescent, first
quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous,
last quarter, and waning crescent.
Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the
moon. He was an American astronaut and he
landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. His footprint
remains there to this very day because there is no
atmosphere or wind on the moon.
His famous saying was, “That’s one small step for
man, one giant leap for mankind.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth
_sun_moon.shtml
Resources Used
http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/07/images/a/formats/web_print.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/116643main_20050526_1412_eit_304.TNgif.gif
http://www.wpclipart.com/space/solar_system/solar_system_large.png
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bbso.njit.edu/espr/sci_images/composite_earth1_red.gif&imgrefurl=http
://www.bbso.njit.edu/espr/fig10.html&usg=__Wh-i
http://www.forcedgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/sun.jpg http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photos/00/1d/f3/53/sunrise-in-gulfshores.jpg http://www.kidzoneweather.com/images/seasons-1.png
http://rlccbpl.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/feb29.jpg http://spiritualoasis.files.wordpress.com/2006/10/earth-from-spacewestern.jpg http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/upload/2010/01/a_moon-stravaganza/moon_phases.jpg
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunar_orbiter/images/moon.jpg
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/sblanco/astro/images/moon_map.jpg
http://www.rnw.nl/data/files/imagecache/must_carry/images/lead/23_A11neilmesa650_1.jpg
http://www.usno.navy.mil