Astronomy is a serious science. Many people get involved with it when they are very young. This exciting science can provide hours of learning, that’s why astronomy for kids is popular. A number of astronomy subjects interest kids.
Our only natural satellite is called the moon. Its path around the Earth takes just over twenty seven days to complete. Mankind has only ever walked on the Earth and the moon. Gravity between the moon and Earth causes the tides. Because it’s close enough to see clearly with the naked eye, kids are often drawn to astronomy by it.
Then there’s our sun. Earth is quite far from the sun. The distance varies between about 146 million kilometers and 152 million kilometers. The reason for the variance is Earth’s elliptical orbit. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun. Our light and heat comes from the sun. A little known fact is that the sun contains about 98% of the mass in the solar system. What a hog.
Our own galaxy is the Milky Way. Just as other galaxies, ours contains gas and clouds of dust, stars and planets and other space materials. Even with all this stuff to fill it, it’s mostly empty. That’s a lot of nothing because our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and 3,000 light years deep. Our sun is over 30,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. The nothingness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact the galaxy takes its name from the appearance of the band of stars that shine from the main section of the galaxy. It looks like a pool of liquid, thus the name “Milky Way.” Our galaxy is called a spiral galaxy as opposed to the other three main types which are elliptical, lenticular and irregular.
You can find a wealth of resources for astronomy for kids on the world wide web. In fact there are so many star charts, charting programs, images, videos, and other resources that a kid would be a senior citizen before seeing all of it.
