1. The Sun, Moon, & Earth The Digital Story

2. Table of Contents The Sun The Moon The Earth Resources

3. The Sun

4. The sun is really a star. Even though it looks large to us, it is classified as a medium-sized star. It is the closest star to Earth and is made up of many different gasses. It is 93,000,000 million miles away from the earth. The surface of the sun can reach over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

5. All of the planets in our solar system orbit the sun. Orbit means to go around an object in a elliptical path. It takes the earth 365.25 days or 1 year to orbit the sun.

6. The sun is so large that over 1,000,000 earths could fit inside the sun.

7. The sun produces its own light. It is the perfect distance away from the earth. The energy that the earth gets from the sun is perfect for life on earth. Without the sun, plants and animals could not survive on the earth. But it would not be possible for us to live on the sun as it is a gaseous star made of hydrogen and helium. The sun also rotates. Rotate means to spin while revolves means to orbit or move around in a predictable path.

8. Day and night occur on the earth because the earth is always spinning around. It is day on one side of the earth, while the other side of the earth is having night. It looks like the sun moves through our sky, but we get day and night because the earth is spinning.

9. Seasons What do you notice about the sun’s position in each picture?

10. Seasons What do you notice about the sun’s position in each picture? On June 21 st, the first day of summer, at noon the Sun is high in the sky. Three months later, on September 22 nd, the first day of fall, the Sun is lower. On December 21 st, the first day of winter, the sun is at its lowest position. On March 21 st, it is the same height as in September and the cycle begins again.

11. The Earth

12. The Earth is spherical in shape, orbits the sun and is a natural satellite of the sun. Orbit means to go around a point in space, but actually the earth’s path around the sun is more elliptical or oval shaped. It takes the earth 365 ¼ days to orbit the sun one time. Because of the extra ¼ of a day, every four years we add an extra day to the year. This is called a leap year.

14. The Earth DOES NOT produce its own light but reflects the sun’s light. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The sun never goes away, it’s just how the earth spins that creates day and night.

15. This spinning is called rotation. As the Earth rotates, the sun faces one side of the earth and the other side of the earth is in darkness. Hence, the sun and other stars never go away.

16. The earth rotates. Rotate is another word for spin. It takes 24 hours for the earth to rotate one full time. This is why 1 earth day is 24 hours long.

17. What do you notice about the position of the earth in the model above?

18. Some people think we have different seasons on earth because of how far away the earth is from the sun. But that is not true. We have different seasons because the sun’s rays are more direct on certain parts of the earth at different times of the year. The tilting of the earth’s axis causes seasons.

19. The sun, moon, and earth are different sizes. They move in predictable patterns around the sun.

20. Standing on the Earth, the sun and moon appear to be the same size. But they are not. The moon only appears larger because it is much closer to the Earth. In reality, the sun is much, much larger than the moon, but is farther away so it looks smaller.

21. The Moon

22. The moon is a spherical shape and orbits the earth. It is a natural satellite of the Earth. It is the closest object in the sky to Earth. The moon is 238,900 miles away from the earth. The moon does NOT produce its own light but rather reflects the light from the sun. But the moon orbits and rotates in about the same amount of time- 28 days.

24. The moon does not have an atmosphere. Therefore, people would not be able to sustain life there. The gravity is 1/6 that of Earths. The moon has many craters that cover the surface.

25. No matter where the moon is in space, half is lit and half is dark. As the moon revolves around the Earth, we see different amounts of the moon’s lighted side. So, the moon seems to change shape. But it doesn’t. Only a portion of the sun’s light is seen.

26. . A common misconception is that the same side of the moon is always dark, but that is not true. We see the same side of the moon all the time because of the moon’s orbit and rotation.

27. During this cycle, we can only see part of the moon that is reflecting the sun’s light. The different looks are called the moon phases. The phases of the moon are new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, and waning crescent.

28. Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon. He was an American astronaut and he landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. His footprint remains there to this very day because there is no atmosphere or wind on the moon. His famous saying was, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

29. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth _sun_moon.shtml

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