Sun's History

The sun has been given many different names over the course of history. Helios is what the Greeks gave the sun for a name, the origin of adjective heliocentric (meaning centered around the Sun). The Romans name the hot burning ball sol.

Until the Middle Ages it was assumed that the Sun orbited the Earth. In the 16Th century, Nicholas Copernicus argues that it was the Earth that travelled around the Sun, and he was not the first to make this suggestion. The Greek Philosopher Aristarchus beat him to it by nearly 2000 years!

Copernicus's view of the Solar System wasn't accepted for many years until Newton Formulated his laws of motion.

Moon Fun Facts

Moon Fun Facts!!

Did You Know?


The temperature on the moon is 300 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks then -270 degrees Fahrenheit for two weeks.

The moon is 4.5 billion years old.

The moon weighs 162,017,720,000,000,000 million pounds.

The diameter of the moon is 2159.8863 miles, just a quarter of the size of the Earth. It would take 4 days to drive around it by car.

The distance from the Earth to the Moon is 238, 896.72 miles. If you took a car and drove to the moon it would take you 130 days. By rocket it would take 13 hours.

The moon takes 27.3217 days to orbit the Earth.

The moon has no atmosphere.

There is no wind or weather on the moon.

The moon is not a light source, it reflects light from the sun.

A 70 pound person would weigh 11.62 pounds on the moon! A 200 pound person would weigh 33.2 pounds on the moon!

The Phases of the Moon

Have you ever wondered why the Moon looks different from one night to the next? As the Earth orbits, travels around, the Sun, the Moon also orbits the Earth causing the Moon to go through phases. In each phase the Sun is shining on the Moon from a different angle, causing the Moon to look different. Some nights the Moon seems to have disappeared, this is called a New Moon. A New Moon happens when the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, and the Sun is shining of the back side of the Moon causing it to not be seen in the night sky. Some nights the Moon is a complete full bright ball in the sky. This is called a Full Moon. A Full Moon happens when the Moon is on one side of the Earth and the Sun is on the other side of the Earth. The Sun shines on the Moon causing it to be completely visable from the Earth. The first and third quarter moon is also called a Half Moon. Only half of the Moon is lit up in the night sky when the Moon is at a 90 degree angle to the Earth and Sun. Here is a video which will help understanding how the Moon goes through it's phases.

How much would you weigh?

Imagine you weigh 70lbs on Earth.

How much do you think you would weigh on the other planets in our Solar System?


On Mercury and Mars you would weigh 27lbs.
Why? Mercury and Mars are smaller than the size of Earth and has less gravity.

On Venus you would weigh 63lbs.
Earth and Venus are almost the same size and have almost the same amount of gravity.

On Jupiter you would weigh 185lbs!
This is because Jupiter is one of the largest planets in our Solar System.

On Saturn and Uranus you would weigh 82lbs.
because they are just a little larger than the size of Earth.

On Neptune you would weigh 84lbs.

And what about the dwarf planet Pluto?
You would only weigh 4lbs!!! Pluto is so small that you would weigh close to nothing!

Pluto? Pluto? What happened to you?

What about Pluto?

Once known as the smallest, coldest, and most distant planet from the Sun, Pluto has a two identities. On August 24, 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) downgraded Pluto from an official planet to a dwarf planet. According to the new rules a planet meets three criteria: it must orbit the Sun, it must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball, and it must have cleared other things out of the way in its orbital neighborhood. Pluto orbits among icy wrecks in the Kuiper Belt, not around the sun. This is why Pluto is no longer a planet and is now called a dwarf planet.

NASA's New Horizons will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft has to travel nine and a half years before it'll reach Pluto! This journey began in January 2006. The spacecraft will reach Pluto in 2015!!!

FUN FACTS ABOUT PLUTO

2,700,000,000 Miles - Closest Pluto gets to the sun.

248 - Years it takes Pluto to travel around the sun. A Plutonian year.

4,600,000,000 Miles - Farthest Pluto gets from the sun.

24 - Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh's age when he discovered Pluto in 1930.

-356°F - Estimated average temperature on Pluto. About -215 °C..

-128°F - Coldest spot on Earth.

6.4 - Number of Earth days you'd need to stay up to equal one day on Pluto.

3 - Known moons orbiting Pluto.

The Sun is a star at the center of our Solar System, burning at a HOT 9,932 Degrees Fahrenheit and the core itself reaching a sweaty 60.08 million degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun is so large, over one million Earths can fit inside it. The Sun is easily the brightest object in the sky, which is why during the day its light hides almost everything else in space. Being so powerful the Sun can damage your eyesight even from Earth. SO NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN! Life on Earth totally depends on the Sun's energy. This energy is produced when hydrogen atoms inside the Sun fuse to form helium making it so the Sun consumes four million tons of hydrogen every second. For those who are scared of the dark, do not freight because the Sun holds enough fuel to keep it Shining for another five billion years. The Sun's energy output is estimated to be 386 billion, billion megawatts; In about 15 minutes our Sun radiates as much energy as mankind consumes in all forms, during an entire year. WOOOW