Astronomy Online

The science of Astronomy is interesting and varied.  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.  Movies like Star Wars only serve to increase this attraction.

The moon is Earth’s only satellite. It orbits our planet once every 27.3 days. Because it is so close, it is the only space object that a human has ever walked on, other than Earth of course. The moon is important for the Earth because it causes the tides through gravitational forces between the Earth and the moon. It’s one of the first objects that can spark a kid’s interest in astronomy because it can be clearly seen with the human eye.

Let’s move to the another subject of this kids astronomy – sun. Earth is quite far from the sun.  We are between 91 and 94 million miles from the sun.  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.  Over 98% of the total stuff in our solar system is in the sun.  What a hog.

Our own galaxy is the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. 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. Even with all that space there are about 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. 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.” It’s a spiral galaxy, one of four major types of galaxies in the universe. The others are elliptical, lenticular and irregular.

There is a lot of information about astronomy for kids online. From dictionaries and encyclopedic references, to programs, books and toys that show different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer, there’s more information than a kid would ever read.