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?
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.
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 sun, moon, and earth vary in size. 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 closer to Earth. In
reality, the sun is much, much larger 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.
There is no life on the moon. It is extremely hot during the day and extremely cold
during the night. The temperature on the moon varies from -387 degrees
Fahrenheit on the dark side of the moon and 253 degrees Fahrenheit on the lit side.
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.
The moon can appear differently every night to a person standing on the earth
even though it is always half-lit by the sun. The amount of light does not change
but the Earth’s position does.
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 lit up by the sun. 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 remain
there to this very day because there is no atmoshpere or wind on the moon.
His famous saying was, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for
mankind.”
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