Y S T E M A

S N
R

D
S OL

B E Y OND
T H E

By: Melina and Manha

 Definitions
A Star
Stars are huge balls of gas (mostly
1 hydrogen and helium) that give us
large amounts of energy. The sun is
an example of a star
A Constellation
They are patterns of Stars that can
3 be found within a galaxy but change
over time. The Gemini constellation is
an example found in the Milky Way.
A Galaxy
Galaxies are large clusters of stars
2 that can contain millions of stars.
The Milky Way is an example of a
galaxy with around 100 billion stars!
The universe
The universe is everything. It includes
4 all of space, galaxies, and stars. The
cosmos is an example of the only
known universe.
 Introducing: the
Milky Way
The Milky Way probably contains 100 to 400 billion
stars, and is about 100,000 light-years across. There
are 3 different shapes a galaxy can have: elliptical,
spiral, and irregular. The milky way is a spiral galaxy.
There are 88 constellations in the galaxy but not all
can be seen with the naked eye. It may appear that
the stars are close to each other but in reality, they
are 5 light years apart (47 trillion km)!
 40000000000000

Light years 30000000000000

The amount of light years is the 20000000000000

distance that light can travel
within the time e.g. 5 light years
10000000000000
mean light can travel this
distance in 5 years. 1 light year
0
is around 10 trillion km!

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 Relative sizes
Jupiter Uranus Mars Saturn

RD from Earth: 444 RD from Earth: 1.6 RD from Earth: 142 RD from Earth: 793
million miles (714 million billion miles (2.6 billion million miles (228 million miles (~1.3 billion
km) kilometers). million kilometers) km)
Size: 11 times wider Size: four times wider Size: about half the Size: 9 times wider
than Earth. than Earth size of Earth. than Earth

Neptune
RD from Earth: nearly
3 billion miles (4.5 billion
kilometers).
Size: about four times
wider than Earth.
Relative sizes
Mercury Venus The Moon
RD from Earth: 48 RD from Earth: 142 RD from Earth: 1/4
million miles (77 million million miles (228 the size of Earth
km) million kilometers) Size: 238,000 miles
Size: a little more than Size: 7,926 miles (383,500 km)
one third the size of (12,756 kilometers)
Earth. f
 Radial velocity
A star does not stay
stationary when it is orbited
by a planet; if a star moves,
it is accompanied by a planet.
Coronagraph
It blockes light emitted by the
star, revealing any planets
that may be orbiting the
Star.

Explore Plants
and Solar
system
Landers and Rovers Satellites
Rover: A vehicle that moves A machine that is launched
around the planet. Lander: A into space and moves around
spacecraft that lands softly Earth or another body in
and then stays there to space.
carry experiments.