Churchill Science

Click on the picture to play the game!

A comet is a mix of rocky material, water ice, and a variety of other ingredients (as pictured here). Try out making some different comets and launch them into orbit around the Sun!

Here’s a website I can’t believe I haven’t found earlier. You can type in your weight and find out how much you weigh on other planets, the moons of Jupiter, even the Sun and other stars.

Click on the picture of Lisa’s weight on other planets to try it:

Weight is really all about gravity. I would weigh only about 9 pounds on Pluto, but 3,790 pounds on the Sun. Yet I would not be any bigger or smaller sized.

Ever wondered how many Earths would add up to one Jupiter? How many Saturns would balance out one Sun? Find out with one of our favorite websites ever, the Planet Mass Comparison. Click one of the pictures below to try it yourself:

One Neptune = 9,501 Plutos!

14 Earths = 1 Uranus.

OK, OK, there’s actually no cosmic scale out in space weighing planets. This is actually measuring mass, which is a bit different than weight. Weight depends on where you’re standing. For example, you’d “weigh” a LOT more if you were on Jupiter or the Sun. (Not that you would survive long enough to get on a scale.) You even weigh a tiny bit less when you’re up in the mountains than you would at sea level. But you are the same size, with the same amount of “matter” inside your body, no matter where you are.

Click the picture to learn more about asteroids from National Geographic.

An asteroid is a piece of stranded rock in the middle of nowhere. If it hits you, that is sad. Asteroids are left over from when the Sun and planets were made. If gravity had been a little stronger, the asteroids would have been another planet. They come in many shapes and sizes. Ceres is the biggest asteroid. It is almost big enough to be a planet. Ceres is a dwarf planet, like Pluto. Gaspra looks like a fish! Pallas looks like a smiley face. Ida has a strange little moon. Eros looks like a bone. There’s no place like asteroids!

Here are some of the planets that Cluster B created using Planet 10. To make your own planets, click on these photos!

Ruby’s Astro Planet

Chloe’s Planet

Ruby and Chloe – what happened to your planets? Did they succeed?

This video starts with Pluto, a dwarf planet, and then moves up in size order. Can you see why everything in the solar system orbits the Sun and not Earth or another planet?

Also, look at the size of the Sun compared to other stars. What would happen if our planet orbited a bigger star? We are going to be talking more about stars and why bigger is NOT better!

Just the animation:

Click here to play the Earth, Sun, Moon game!

From the Museum of Natural History

Watch what happens to the liquid inside the special cup. Why does it stick together like that?
Now we know what Lisa will be doing if she ever goes into space!

Click here to explore the relationships between the Earth, Sun and Moon.

Questions:
-What is missing from this picture?
-What are the circles around the Sun and the Earth?
-Why does the Sun get to be in the middle?
-What do you think would happen if we took the Earth out?

The objects in our solar system are remarkably different sizes. Click on the picture to find out more!