Earth, moon, and sun

Chapter 1

Satelliteplanetmeteor

comet starconstellation

The Sky From EarthLesson 1

What Can You See in the Night Sky?

Satellite-body that orbits a planet Meteors-streak of light produced when a mall object

burns up entering Earth’s atmosphere Comet-cold mixture of dust and ice that gives off a long

trail of light as it approaches the sun. Star-giant ball of hot gas Planet- an object that orbits the sun is large enough to

have been rounded by its own gravity, and has cleared the area of its orbit.

Constellations-a pattern or group of stars that people imagined to represent a figure, animal or object.

satellite Meteors

CometPlanets/Sun (star)

Constellations In Western culture, there are 88 different constellations named. Most

come from ancient Greeks, who probably took them from Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Some names come from Latin.

Greek Myths tell a lot of the constellations stories. Pegasus and Perseus for example.

Zodiac signs and Horoscopes.

How do objects in the sky appear to move?

Why do stars appear to move from EAST TO WEST throughout the night?

Because Earth rotates on its axis from WEST TO EAST.

Why do constellations seem to move as the seasons change? Because Earth moves as it revolves around the Sun.

Planets appear to move in a band in the sky because they are all orbiting the sun. This band is called a Zodiac.

Earth in spaceLesson 2

AxisRotationRevolutionOrbitCalendarSolsticeEquinox

How does earth move?

(1) Rotation-spinning of the Earth on its axis.

Axis-imaginary line that passes through the North and South pole.

This causes DAY and NIGHT. It takes Earth 24 hours to rotate 1x.

(2) Revolution-Earth moving around the Sun. One revolution around the sun is the Earth’s Orbit.

What Causes seasons? How SUNLIGHT HITS THE EARTH gives temperature

changes. Sun hits more directly at the equator than at poles where it is spread out.

Earth’s TILTED AXIS causes the season change. Earth is always tilted at 23.5 degrees from vertical.

SOLSTICES When the sun appears farthest

North once a year, June 21, longest day of the year, Summer solstice in Northern hemisphere

When the sun appears farthest South once a year, December 21, shortest day of the year, winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere.

EQUINOXES Between the 2 solstices when

the neither hemisphere is tilted toward the sun. The NOON sun is directly overhead at the equator.

Equinox means Equal Night, 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours of night.

Vernal equinox March 21, beginning of Spring

Autumnal equinox September 22, beginning of Fall

Gravity and MotionLesson 3

Force

Gravity

Law of universal gravitation

Mass

Weight

Inertia

Newton’s first law of motion

Objectives:1. What Determines gravity?

2. What keeps objects in orbit?Who is Sir Isaac

Newton anyway??

What determines gravity?Force- push or pull on an object. On Earth that force is called GRAVITY- Force that pulls the moon toward Earth.

Strength of gravitational force

depends on 2 things:

Mass and distance between objects.

What keeps Earth and the Moon in orbit? Why don’t they just fly off into space?

Mass vs weightWhat is the difference between mass and weight?Mass is the amount of space you take up. Weight is the gravitational pull on you. Mass doesn’t change from place to place, weight can.

Why is my weight different on the moon than on Earth?Different gravitational pull on moon than on Earth. Earth is 10X greater!!

What keeps objects in motion?Why doesn’t the Earth fall into the sun or the

moon crash into Earth?

Inertia-the tendency of an object at rest to stay at rest or an object in

motion to remain in motion.

NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION

inertia and gravity keep earth in orbit around the sun and the moon

in orbit around the Earth

Phases and EclipsesLesson 4

Objectives:What Causes the Moon’s Phases?What are Eclipses?

Vocabularyphaseeclipse

solar eclipseumbra

penumbralunar eclipse

What causes the Moon’s Phases?Phases are caused by the motions of the moon around Earth. The changing relative positions of the moon, Earth and Sun.

Phases of the moonCOUNTER

CLOCKWISE MOVEMENT

1-NEW MOON the sunlit side of the moon is not seen on Earth.2-WAXING CRESCENT3-FIRST QUARTER4- WAXING GIBBONS5-FULL MOON the sunlit side of the moon is seen entirely.6-WANING GIBBONS7-THIRD QUARTER8-WANING CRESCENT

Half of the moon is almost always in sunlight, but since the moon orbits Earth, you see the moon from different angles. Phase of the moon depends on how much of the sunlit side of the moon faces Earth.

Can You label the phases of the moon?

What Are Eclipses?The moon’s orbit around

Earth is slightly tilted with respect to Earth’s orbit around sun, but occasionally the Earth, moon and sun line up in orbit. The moon comes between the sun and Earth and casts a shadow causing an eclipse.

Two types of Eclipses

1) Solar EclipseA solar eclipse is when the

moon passes directly between Earth and the sun, blocking sunlight from Earth. The darkest part of the moons shadow is called the umbra. During a Total Solar Eclipse the sky goes dark and eerie, air cools you can see the stars. In a Partial Solar Eclipse the sun is somewhat visible and the moon’s shadow is called a penumbra.

2. Lunar EclipseWhen the moon moves near Earth’s shadow, or when Earth is directly between the moon and sun. During a lunar eclipse, Earth blocks sunlight from reaching the moon. Lunar Eclipses only occur when there is a full moon because the moon is closest to Earth’s shadow at that time.

Lesson 5- Tides

Vocabulary Tide Spring tide Neap tide

Objective: What are Tides?

What are Tides? The Tide Cycle- the force of

gravity pulls the on and Earth, including water on Earth’s surface, toward each other.

Tides are caused mainly by differences in how much gravity from the moon and the sun pulls on different parts of Earth.

At any one time on Earth, there are 2 places with high tides and 2 places with low tides. As Earth rotates, one high tide occurs on the side of Earth that faces the moon. The second high tide occurs on the opposite side of the Earth.

The Suns Role in TidesNew Moon- sun, moon and Earth are nearly in line and the gravity pull from Sun and Moon are on same side of the Earth. This force creates a really big high tide and a really small low tide. This is called Spring Tide

First Quarter Moon- Earth and sun and moon are at 90 degrees from each other. This arrangement cause a Neap Tide, which is a tide with the smallest high tide and smallest low tide. This occurs 2x a month.

Full Moon- Sun and moon are on opposite sides of Earth. This produces another Spring Tide. It doesn’t matter what order the three are lined up, the gravitational pull is same.

Third Quarter Moon- What do you think???

Earth’s Moon

VocabularyMariaCraterMeteoroid

Objective-What is the Moon Like?

1600s Galileo Galilei observed the moon’s surface with a telescope

What is the Moon Like?Features of the Moon!

-Dry and airless-irregular surface-Moon is small-Large variations of its surface

Temperature

Surface Features Maria- Dark, Flat area formed from huge lava flows that occurred 3-4 billion years ago. Highlands are some of the light-colored features you can see. The mountains cover most of the Moons surface

Crater- Large round pits that can be hundreds of kilometers across. They were caused by the impacts of meteoroids (chunks of rock or dust from space)

More Moon Facts!!!Size and Density

-Moon is 3,476 kilometers across, a little smaller than the distance across the US or ¼ Earth’s diameter.

-Moon has 1/80th the mass of Earth.

-Moons density is similar to Earth’s outer layers

-Moons gravity is 1/6th of Earth’s.

Temperature and Water-At moon’s equator, temp range from 130 degrees C (266 degrees F) to -170 degrees C (-274 degrees F). Temps range so much because the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, and the gravity is so weak that gases escape easily. -2009 scientists determined that there is a thin layer of water on the moons soil.

Origins of the Moon-How the moon formedThe theory that best fits the evidence is called the collision-ring theory. 4.5 Billion years ago, the solar system was full of rocky debris. Large rock collided with Earth. Material from the object and Earth’s outer layers was ejected into orbit where it formed a ring. Earth’s gravity clumped it together=our moon!