Measurement

Over the past few hundred years, astronomers have discovered thousands of stars whose brightness goes up and down over time. These are known as variable stars. But what causes this to happen?

Distances to objects in space are very, very large. The nearest star (excluding the Sun), Alpha Centauri, is 41.23 trillion km, or 41,320,000,000,000 km!!

You may know that Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, but do you know how much larger than the Earth it is?

Find out by creating a scale model of each planet in our Solar System!

Impact craters are made when a space rock (called a meteorite or asteroid) hits a rocky planet or moon. The impact makes a round hole in the surface, called a crater.

You have probably seen the Moon in the sky, but have you ever studied it in detail?

You have likely heard about the Universe expanding. Or that redshift can tell us about the movements of galaxies. Both are difficult ideas to imagine and understand.

Is gravity the same everywhere? Experiment with how the ball reacts in each of the Solar System locations by dropping or throwing the ball. How similar or different is each location to Earth?

Every year, the Earth completes one orbit of the Sun and every year, you have a birthday!