Astronomy for Kids

Also, a big “hello” to all you parents and teachers. Thanks for supporting Astronomy for Kids.The staff of Astronomy has been involved in science education ever since the magazine started in 1973, but our stories have been mainly for adults. Astronomy for Kids is the first publication we’ve produced specifically for kids. And, to be honest, we had a blast putting it together! And when I say “we,” I’m really giving the credit to Kelly Katlaps, the graphic designer for every story in this magazine. Her creations are colorful and enticing — exactly what was needed. Kelly is awesome! Astronomy for Kids has something for everyone. Maybe your children like being out under the stars. Or maybe they enjoy indoor activities more. You’ll find plenty in here to keep both types interested. Of…

1 WHO INVENTED THE TELESCOPE? Dutch eyeglass-maker Hans Lipperhey invented it in 1608. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei is more famous for using his telescopes. His discoveries included craters on the Moon, sunspots, and stars fainter than the eye could see. 2 HOW DOES THE SUN MAKE ENERGY? In the Sun’s center, high temperature and pressure make hydrogen atoms move fast, and there are so many of them that they hit each other — a lot. When four of them stick together, they make helium. The change from hydrogen into helium — called nuclear fusion — makes energy. 3 HOW MUCH OF THE SUN’S ENERGY DOES EARTH GET? Only one part in 2 billion. In other words, the Sun gives off 2 billion times as much energy as our whole planet receives. 4 WHY DOES THE MOON…

Q: Which keyboard key do astronauts use the most? A: The space bar! Have you ever heard about the Man in the Moon? For thousands of years, people have looked at the Moon and seen faces, animals, and lots of other things. We imagine different things on the Moon’s surface because it’s not a single color. Instead, there are light areas and dark areas. Because we’ve studied the Moon through telescopes for a long time — and especially because astronauts have visited it — we know that the light parts of the Moon are mountain ranges. They’re just like the ones we have on Earth. Scientists call them the highlands. The large dark areas of the Moon are its seas. But these seas are very different from the oceans on our planet. Here, we…

Q: What did Venus say to Saturn? A: Give me a ring sometime! Earth is a planet in our solar system, which we can think of as the Sun’s family. The solar system formed 4· billion years ago. Before that, gravity made a huge cloud of gas and dust smaller. As time went on, most of the stuff got pulled into the center. That made the Sun. But other parts of the cloud got smaller and turned into round objects, too. That’s how the planets and their moons formed. Let’s take a little time to meet the most important members of the solar system. The Sun “THE SUN IS A MASS of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace.” This line from the song “Why Does the Sun Shine?” by They Might Be Giants is…

THE AMOUNT OF GRAVITY something has depends on its mass — the amount of stuff in it. Because some of the planets of our solar system have large masses, they have stronger gravity than the ones with small masses. So, because the pull of gravity determines how much something (or someone) weighs, you’d weigh more on planets that have more mass than Earth, and you’d weigh less on those with less mass than Earth. The diagram above shows how much you’d weigh on each planet if you weigh 80 pounds on Earth. (To convert those weights to kilograms, divide the numbers by 2.2 or multiply by 0.45.) But what if you don’t weigh exactly 80 pounds? No problem: Just take your weight and divide it by 80. Then choose a planet in the…

WHAT’S A SOLSTICE? WHAT’S AN EQUINOX? AND HOW CAN YOU USE THE SUN TO TELL YOU WHEN THEY’VE ARRIVED? When Earth spins, it makes day and night. That spin makes it look like the Sun moves through our sky. We see it rise in the east in the morning and set in the west in the evening. But if you track the Sun through the year, you’ll find that it also gets higher and lower in the sky. But it can’t just keep going up and up or going down and down. It has to stop sometime. The days when the Sun stops moving higher or lower are called solstices. JUNE DECEMBER Important dates Each year, there are two solstices. One happens around June 21, so we call it the June solstice. That’s when the Sun…