Transcript Objects in the Night Sky

Objects in the Night
Sky
Stars
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Stars are the most common object in the night sky.
Stars are a huge ball of gas that gives off light and heat.
The Sun is the closest star to Earth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U3ucaVzRqQ
Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are
viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's
atmosphere.
Stars would not appear to twinkle if we viewed them from outer space (or from
a planet/moon that didn't have an atmosphere).
Planets
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Planets are smaller than
stars and do not produce
their own light.
Planets revolve around a
star and reflect its light.
Our solar system has
eight planets with several
dwarf planets like Pluto.
Planets do not twinkle
and appear larger than
stars because they are
closer to the Earth.
The Earth’s Moon
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The moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth.
The moon looks like the largest object in the sky only
because it is the closet object to the Earth.
The moon orbits the Earth every 29 days so it has
phases.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aFGNGEcDOk
Other planets have moons, but they are too small or too
distant for us to see without a telescope.
Satellites and Jets
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A man made satellite is an artificial body placed in orbit
around the earth or moon or another planet in order to
collect information or for communication.
A satellite can also be a celestial body orbiting the earth
or another plane. (Like the Moon)
They take about 90 minutes to orbit the Earth and
appear to blink regularly in the night sky.
Meteors
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Imagine a baseball zipping along
at 30,000 miles per hour. That's
how big and fast many meteors
are. And though some are bigger
than baseballs, most are more like
grains of sand. The larger meteors
are sometimes broken bits off
asteroids or other planets. The
small stuff is often dust left by a
passing comet.
They are not stars!
Meteors are basically pieces of
rock falling through the Earth’s
atmosphere and MOST burn up
before they hit Earth.
Meteors are often called shooting
stars.
Meteorite
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Meteorites are
meteors that hit the
Earth’s surface.
There are over
38,000 documented
meteorites here on
Earth.
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Russian Meteorite
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90O
mh7_I8vI
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Galaxies
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Galaxies are sprawling space systems composed of dust, gas, and
countless stars. The number of galaxies cannot be counted - the
observable universe alone may contain 100 billion.
Galaxies with less than a billion stars are considered "small galaxies." In
our own galaxy, the sun is just one of about 100 billion stars.
Galaxies are classified into three main types: spiral galaxies, elliptical
galaxies, and irregular galaxies
Only a few can be seen with the naked eye.
Earth is a planet in the Milky Way galaxy.