Where did the Earth come from? This is an important question. A question that helps us understand our own origin as a race of sentient, thinking beings. Did the Earth always exist? Has our planet spent eternity orbiting the Sun, quietly unchanging? Has the Earth always looked like it does today, with the same mountains, […]
Do you know where you live? With the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it is easy to forget that the human family lives on a small blue planet named Earth. All around us we see trees, animals, cars, buildings, farms, factories, stores, and other natural and man-made structures. With all of these every day […]
The Moons of Neptune Due to its great distance from the Earth it is extremely difficult for us to see any of Neptune’s moons. For that reason most of its moons were not discovered until 1989 when NASA sent a satellite to explore the world. Today we know of 13 moons. However, there are almost […]
The Moons of Uranus The planet Uranus has many fascinating worlds that orbit it. There are likely still other moons of Uranus that have yet to be discovered. Since Uranus rotates on its side, its moons also rotate up and over the planet in the same direction. Inner Moons Uranus has ten moons which lie […]
The Moons of Saturn Of all the planets, Saturn reigns supreme, well at least in the moon department. That is because Saturn has more moons than any other planet, 62 currently, and counting. Of these 62 moons, 53 are classified officially as moons, 9 are provisional (unofficial) moons. We’ll talk about a few of the […]
The Moons of Jupiter Jupiter has at leaset 62 moons. Most of these moons are very small, and were probably once asteroids that got too close to Jupiter. Jupiter’s large size means that it has very strong gravity. This powerful gravity sometimes grabs onto objects that wander too close. Not all of Jupiter’s moons are captured […]
The Moons of Mars Mars has at least three known moons. Two of these moons are listed below. Deimos and Phobos These two odd shaped worlds are the moons of the planet Mars. They are extremely small, only 12.6 km (7.8 miles) and 22.2 km (13.7 miles), respectively. That is smaller than most towns. Their […]
You have probably heard of a shooting or falling star, but have you ever seen one? If you have ever spent any amount of time looking up at the night sky, then you probably have – a flash of light streaking high above through the darkness for just a moment, disappearing just as quickly as […]
Comets Among the most brilliant and most rare objects in the night sky. These soaring beacons with their beautiful tails come from the outer realms of the Solar System. What are comets? A comet is a small world which scientists sometimes call a planetesimal. They are made out of dust and ice, kind of like […]
What are asteroids? An asteroid is a large rock in outer space. Some, like Ceres, can be very large, while others are as small as a grain of sand. Due to their smaller size, asteroids do not have enough gravity to pull themselves into the shape of a ball. Astronomers group asteroids into different categories […]
