Exploring Space

What is space?

Space is all around us, up in the sky and beyond the clouds. When we gaze up into the sky, we are looking right into Space.

At night we can often see the moon and stars and sometimes if we are lucky we can see shooting stars in the sky!

What planet do we live on?

We live on planet Earth. Earth is part of a family of planets that travel around the Sun.

This family of planets is called the Solar System.

There are eight planets in the Solar System. They are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Each planet is a different colour, size, and shape.

Earth is different to all the other planets in the Solar System because it's the only planet known to have plants, animals, and people living on it.

The moon

Our closest neighbour is the moon. The moon is a big rock ball that spins around the Earth and the Sun.

We can see it clearly in the night sky.

At times the moon looks like a big circle, and at other times it seems like a croissant-shaped crescent.

We can see the moon because it reflects light from the sun.

As the moon moves around the earth different parts of it are lit, which is why it appears to change shape.

The Sun

Space contains so many stars; we see those too at night when we look into the sky.

Stars are made from hot gases such as hydrogen and helium.

The closest star to Earth is the Sun. The Sun continuously produces energy in the form of light and heat.

In fact, the temperature is around 14 million degrees at the centre of the Sun. Hot, Hot, Hot!

Also, did you know that sometimes the stars appear to form patterns.

A pattern made by stars is called a constellation. Orion is a well-known constellation.

How do we explore Space?

Exploring Space sounds very exciting, doesn't it? Well, it is! If we want to explore Space from Earth, we can use telescopes. Telescopes allow us to look closer at distant objects.

If we're going to explore Space away from Earth, we have to travel in a rocket. Special rockets that travel very fast are used to enter Space.

These rockets travel at approximately 25000 miles per hour to enter Space. People that train to travel into Space on a rocket are called astronauts.

Without rockets and astronauts, we wouldn't know very much about Space.

Man on the moon

The first person to walk on the moon was an American called Neil Armstrong.

In 1969 he took part in an exciting mission known as Apollo 11.

They landed their spaceship on the moon and walked around it.

When Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he said: "That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

A flag was placed on the moon, and many interesting experiments were conducted to learn more about it.

Many missions continue to explore Space – there is so much for us all to learn!