UNIVERSE

• The universe is everything. It includes all of

space, and all the matter and energy that
space contains
 Celestial bodies or heavenly
bodies
are objects in space such as the
sun, moon, planets, and stars.
OR any natural body outside
Earth’s atmosphere
Study of celestial bodies and their associated
phenomena called astronomy.
SOLAR SYSTEM
CLASSIFICATION OF CELESTIAL BODIES
 STARS
• Stars are giant balls of hot gases that can
produce their own light.
• Stars give out energy by converting Hydrogen
gas into Helium in their cores.
• Stars are gigantic in size and have an immense 
gravitational attraction.
• The sun is a medium-sized star that gives us
energy and makes life possible on earth.
 Planets

• Planets are large (almost) spherical objects that revolve

around the sun.
• Planets move in fixed orbits around the sun.
• There are 8 planets in our solar system.
• Planets may be made of rocks, metals and gases like
hydrogen, nitrogen and methane.
• The earth is also a planet and is the only known place in
the universe which supports life.
• Planets that revolve around other stars are called
exoplanets.
•  Light year: Distances between the stars and
earth are so big that it is difficult to measure
these distances in kilometers. For this we need
a bigger unit. This unit is light year. A light year
is the distance travelled by light in one year
•         The distance between the sun and the
earth is about 150,000,000 (15 crore)
kilometres.
• Light takes about 8.3 minutes to reach earth
from the sun.
• How we see the moon: 
• We see only that part of the moon from
which the light of the sun is reflected
towards us.
•    The stars appear to move from east to west
because of the rotation of the earth. We
know that our earth rotates about its axis
from west to east. Therefore, the stars
appear to move in the direction, opposite to
rotation of earth, i.e. from east to west.
 Satellites

• Satellites are objects that revolve around

planets. These may be of natural origin or sent
by humans. The moon is a natural satellite of
the earth and revolves around it because it is
bound by the Earth’s gravitational pull.
• Man has also placed artificial or 
man-made satellites around the earth and
other planets to study them and for
communication purposes.
• Asteroids
• These are small irregularly shaped rocks
made up of metal or minerals that orbit the
sun. Most of them are found between Mars
and Jupiter in an area known as the asteroid
belt.
Meteors and meteorites
These are objects from space that enter our atmosphere
as they are pulled by the earth’s gravity. Meteors usually
are small and burn up in the atmosphere as they enter
the earth. This creates streaks in the sky as though a star
has fallen. They are commonly called shooting stars. If a
meteor is large enough it can reach the ground and
create a crater. Such objects are called meteorites.
• Comets
• Comets are small chunks of ice and rock that come
from the outer edge of the solar system. When its
orbit brings it closer to the sun, the ice on them
vaporizes, creating a beautiful tail behind them.
Halley’s comet is one of the most well-known
comets which is visible to the naked eye from the
earth every 75-76 years.
 Galaxies

• Galaxies are large groups of stars held

together by gravity. The sun and the 
solar system are a part of a galaxy known as
the Milky Way.
• Other galaxies are usually so far away that
they look like stars in the night sky.
• The Andromeda galaxy and the Large
Magellanic Cloud are galaxies that can be
seen with the naked eye on a clear night.
• Our solar system is made up of a star—the Sun—
eight planets, 146 moons, a bunch of comets,
asteroids and space rocks, ice, and several dwarf
planets, such as Pluto. 
• The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth,
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Mercury is closest to the Sun. Neptune is the
farthest terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth,
and Mars. The “gas giants” of course are Jupiter,
Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. So now we have
eight planets instead of the nine we used to have.
 the three criteria of the IAU for a full-sized
planet are:
• It is in orbit around the Sun.
• It has sufficient mass to assume hydrostatic
equilibrium (a nearly round shape).
• It has “cleared the neighborhood” around its
orbit.
 PLUTO IS PLANET OR NOT
• The International Astronomical Union (IAU)
downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a
dwarf planet because it did not meet the
three criteria the IAU uses to define a full-
sized planet. Essentially Pluto meets all the
criteria except one—it “has not cleared its
neighboring region of other objects.”