The Asteroid Belt and Jupiter

                  The Asteroid Belt and Jupiter
     The asteroid belt is like a belt of asteroids... It's literally like that. It's placement in the solar system is after Mars and before Jupiter. It's the division line from terrestrial planets to the extraterrestrial   planets. Astronomers had a theory that there was a ninth planet that wanted to form in between Mars and Jupiter. Because of Jupiter's strong gravitational pull, it couldn't form and it shattered. The bits of cosmic dust from the ninth planet formed into asteroids, rocky and irregularly shaped objects. Astronomers think that this event happened 4.6 billion years ago. 

     Jupiter is the fifth planet from our sun and it's an extraterrestrial   planet. (It's also a Jovian which also means that Jupiter is an outer planet.) Jupiter is a gas giant meaning that it's surface and/or insides are made out of gases. This planets gases contains of mostly  hydrogen. Because of Jupiter's rapid spinning, its surface contains a  ton of hurricanes and storms. The Great Red Spot is a huge storm  on Jupiter. This planet has a thin ring that has a magnetic field. Jupiter has 67 moons. Galileo discovered four of the largest moons of Jupiter with his invention, the telescope. They were named  Galilean moons. Ganymede was the largest of the four moons and its diameter is even bigger than Mercury. Jupiter is 778,500,000 km away from the sun.

Earth and Mars

                              Earth and Mars

     Earth,our home, is the third planet from our sun. It is the only planet in our solar system that can sustain life. Because of where Earth is placed in the solar system, it has a temperature where organisms can live and flourish in. Earth is about 150,000,000 kilometers away from the sun. Earth was formed about 4 and a half billion years ago. This planet is made up of layers. The inner layer is called the core. The next layer is called the mantle. Then there's the crust and finally a layer called the lithosphere, which is a thin piece of Earth. The lithosphere is divided up into tectonic plates which moves. The moving motion causes earthquakes. (The lithosphere is usually located at the bottom of the oceans.) Earth has only one satellite and it's known as the moon. (duh.) Earth takes about 365 days in order to complete a whole rotation around the sun. This planet is the largest terrestrial planet. 
     Mars, also known as the Red Planet, is the fourth planet from the sun. It's called the Red Planet because of all the iron elements on the surface of the planet which gives it a red color. Mars has a thin atmosphere causing it to have a lot of craters, holes, on its surface. This planet has two, irregularly shaped  moons: Deimos and Phobos. Mars' rotation and tilt around the sun is similar to Earth's which means that Mars have seasons almost the same as our planet. The Red Planet is the second to smallest planet on our solar system. (Smallest planet is Mercury. Go check out my other post about it!) Mars have almost the same insides as of Earth; The both have a core and a mantle. It's distance from the sun is about 228,000,000 km. away. Mars is home to the second largest mountain and it has some of the largest canyons  in our solar system. Mars was named after the Roman god of war. (Greek god of war name: Ares.)
    

Mercury and Venus

                         Mercury and Venus
     Mercury is  the first planet form the sun. It's size is about the same as Earth's moon, but just a little bit bigger. It's the smallest planet in our solar system. This planet has no atmosphere and there are a lot of craters (holes) on it. Since this planet is the closest to the sun, the side that gets shined on is super hot. Surprisingly, on the other side of Mercury that isn't radiated by the sun is super cold. Sometimes it goes about hundreds of degrees below freezing temperature. It takes Mercury 88 days to complete an orbit around the sun. One day on Mercury takes 59 Earth days which means that it takes 59 Earth days for the side of Mercury that was getting radiated by the sun to spin into the freezing side (the side that doesn't get shined). This planet has no moons. It's about 58 million km. from the sun  and it has no known living organisms inhabiting on it. 
     Venus is a hot volcanic planet. It's the second planet form the sun. It has a thick atmosphere which traps the sun's radiation making it the hottest planet in our solar system. It's atmosphere can go up to about 465 degrees Celsius. This planet has about the same size as Earth. One day on Venus is  243 Earth days and it takes this planet 224 Earth days to complete an orbit around the sun. Both Venus and Earth have a core and a mantle. Venus' orbit is different from any of the other planets. It spins in a different direction. Astronomers think that the cause for this is because of an asteroid that crashed into Venus and thus reversing the spinning direction. The robots/machines that was sent to explore Venus exploded about a few hours after it landed on the scorching planet. Scientists discovered that there is life in Venus.... Just kidding... There hasn't been any organisms that is able to live on that volcano filled planet. 

Solar and Lunar Eclipses

                  Solar and Lunar Eclipses

Lunar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse

     To begin telling you guys what the solar and lunar eclipses are, I'm going to tell you about what an eclipse is. An eclipse is an astronomical term in which an object in space is concealed by either blocking the view of an object or getting blocked by one. 
     Knowing that, solar eclipses occurs when the moon comes in between the Earth and the sun. The moon blocks the view of the star and conceals it. If the moon's orbit was completely circular, then we would have a solar eclipse every month. But since the moon's orbit is a little bit tilted, we rarely get solar eclipses. Solar eclipses can only be seen in some and not all parts of the world, because Earth is round. Solar eclipses last for about a few minutes because of the continuation of orbiting by the moon and the sun. 
     Lunar eclipses occur when the Earth is in the middle and the moon and sun are on opposite sides of each other. During lunar eclipses, the moon becomes a little bit dark since there is no sunlight shining on it. Lunar eclipses are rarer than solar eclipses because in order to have the lunar eclipses to occur, the moon has to be a full moon. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses last for a few hours. It can be seen from a lot of places on the globe at night.

Penumbra and umbra basically are some parts of shadows.

Constellations

                             Constellations
     A constellation is a group of stars that form a shape or pattern. Astronomers use constellations to tell which star is which. If it's really dark, we can see about 1,000 stars out in the sky. It's important for astronomers to group up the stars so that they can study them easier. 
     The constellations were named after mythological characters, animals, and people. A lot of the names were actually made by people from all over the world dating from 3000 B.C., or maybe even earlier. In the olden days, people use constellations for navigating at night or for telling the changing seasons. People in different places around the globe have different perspectives of the constellations. The constellations look differently because of Earth's rotation. Constellations are kind of like the connecting the dots game that everyone can play. 

     Due to Earth's rotation, in different times of the 12 months, different constellations appear. Our 12 zodiac signs are constellations. I think constellations originated from Babylonia. Later, Romans added on to their idea.  
     One constellation is called the Big Dipper. It's a group of 7 stars that points to the direction of Polaris, the end star of the Little Dipper.                  

Moons

                                                                   Moons 

     The Earth's moon rotates around Earth because of its gravitational pull. Moons, also called satellites, come in many different shapes and sizes. Not every moon is like our moon. Many moons are lumpy and not circular shaped. They are also made of different things. Io, one of Jupiter's moons, is filled with volcanoes while many other moons are made of rock and ice. Most of the moons in our solar system was probably formed by the gas and dust that surrounded the planets in the early days of our solar system. 
     There are many moons in our solar system spinning around the other 7 planets. Mars have 2 moons, Jupiter has about 50-67 moons, Saturn has 53-62 moons, Uranus has about 27 moons, and Neptune has 13 moons. The dwarf planets in our solar system also have moons of their own.  Pluto's largest moon is called Charon and it's about half the size of the dwarf planet.

     Earth's moon shines because of the sun. Our waves on the ocean are made by the moon's gravitational pull. Unlike Earth, the moon has no atmosphere causing many asteroid impacts, thus having many craters, holes. Many people wonder why the moon has many phases. (Ex: full moon; crescent moon) The reason behind this is because of its rotation and Earth's rotation. The sun shines on the rotating moon, while the Earth also rotates. People on Earth only see the part of the moon that gets shined by the sun. Also, the moon is made of cheese. (JK)      

Black Holes

                                                       Black Holes
     Black holes are huge vacuums in space. They suck up everything in their path. The more they suck up, the bigger they get. There is one huge black hole in the middle of our galaxy, but thank goodness our solar system isn't anywhere near that. 
     Black holes are made when big stars die. When stars die, they explode in a process called supernova. After the explosion, a neutron star or a black hole may appear. If the solar mass of the core is more than 3 solar masses, weight of the star, then the core becomes a black hole.If the core of a supernova is about 1.4 to 3 solar masses the protons and electrons continues and forms into neutrons, a type of element. This process creates neutron stars. 
     Scientists have discovered many galaxies with huge black holes in the center. Studying black holes, astronomers can know a lot about how the galaxies are formed. Scientists, now, are finding the answer to the question: "Which came first: the black hole or the galaxy?" 
     No one has ever been sucked into a black hole and came back before. If you can even enter into the black hole, that is. The vacuums' gravitational pull are so strong that we would be torn into pieces before we even get to go inside it.

Asteroids

                                                               Asteroids
     Asteroids are big space rocks. There are millions if not billions 
of asteroids in space. If they have the size of a planet, they are called planetoids. They are found in the inner and outer solar systems and  all throughout space. The first spotted asteroid is called Ceres. It was founded by an astronomer by the name of  Giuseppe Piazzi, and since it had the size of a planet, he thought that it was one. Later, astronomers found similar objects and they didn't classify them as planets. Instead, they called them the term "asteroids".
     The asteroid belt is a ring of clustered asteroids located between Mars and Jupiter, separating the inner and the outer planets. There is another belt known as the Kuiper Belt. It's near Pluto, and it contains of icy materials unlike the asteroid belt.
    There has been a lot of misunderstandings and I just wanted to clear it up. Meteoroids are small particles of asteroids. (Most of the time, they come from comets.) If they come close to the Earth's atmosphere, they are called meteors. Meteorites are the remains of the meteor that survived the Earth's atmosphere and are, later, found on Earth. Many people have trouble figuring out the difference between these terms, and I just wanted to tell you guys about it. (No idea who would debate about these things, but there are billions of people out there. There just has to be somebody. XD)       If you see tons of meteors going in "one direction" in the sky, it is possible that you have seen a meteor shower. They are caused by comets when they go near the sun. Bits of their icy material falls off causing the particles to float in space. If, by chance, a group of the particles are near the Earth, a meteor shower occurs.

Comets

                                Comets
     Comets are huge chunks of dusty ice in space. They have their own orbit course and it's very rare for humans to see one. Their orbit course is very long and it would usually be around the sun, because of the star's strong gravitational pull. Comets are basically made of ice, dust, and gases. Comets have a carbon-filled layer on the outside that protects the inside. You can call them dusty snowballs if you want. If one was ever to appear in our solar system at night, than, with telescopes, we could see a tail, called a coma, at its end. That's because of the sun's radiation on the comet, heating up its gases and ice, making it evaporate. Chunks of rock and dust close to the surface of the comet, begins to detach from its place and falls out. Vapor, dust, and the rocks cloud behind the nucleus, the comet, and follows it in its path. 
     Astronomers believe that comets come from the Oort Cloud and the scattered disc. Long term orbit comets, comets whose orbit period is 200 years or more, come from the Oort Cloud (the name was named after the Danish astronomer named Jan Oort) and short term orbit comets, comets whose orbit period is 200 years or less, come from the scattered disc. Jan Oort hypothesized that there is a cloud of ice way beyond Pluto and it contains millions if not billions of comets. The scattered disc is a place where many icy dwarf planets, such as Pluto, populate. Astronomers believe that comets originated from the scattered disc due to all of the icy materials and substances in that place.

Halley's Comet

    There is a comet known as the Halley's Comet. (I'm sure you all know this comet.) This comet travels for a short time in a short orbit around this galaxy. It only takes about 75-76 years for it to be visible to the people on Earth to see it with the naked eye. If your lucky, you can see it twice in your lifetime. Many people feel that this comet is very unlucky and it can cause many horrible things to happen. I, for one, feels very sorry for Halley. I mean, it's not its fault that you had a bad day. The only thing you can blame is yourself.

Stars

                                                  Stars  
    If you went online and searched up "stars" the articles that pop up will be filled with words and sentences that a normal grade and/or middle school-er wouldn't understand. Now I'm going to try and change that. 
     On Earth, in the city, we can see very little stars in the sky. The reason behind this is that we have a ton of city lights that block our eyesight from seeing the bright stars. If we go into the country-side, we would see numerous amounts of stars since there is not a lot of light in the rural areas. 
    Stars can be born in several different types of nebulae. One type of nebulae is called an emission nebula. It's the most brightest and colorful nebula due to its different color gases and dust. 

Binary Stars

    Stars are made with the gases and dust in the nebulae. With a sudden jolt, the gases and dust begins to crash into each other making the center of the collision heat up. The hot center is called a protostar, and someday, it will become a star. Now , you may all think that the shining stars are just alone and individual. But that is not true. During the collision of the gases and dust, they sometimes divide into 2 - 4 stars. These groups are called binary stars. So when you look up in the sky and you see a star, think that maybe it's not just one, but multiples of stars grouped together. (Sometimes the separated parts, when forming the star, can actually become a planet, comet, or an asteroid.)
     Stars are made of mostly hydrogen and helium. In the core of our sun, scientists predicted that it has something known as plasma, this mixture of electrons and protons that were pulled apart by the hydrogen atoms. Astronomers think that the plasma is about 15 million degrees Celsius.
     According to astronomers, the stars brightness depends on  the surface temperature of the star. The hottest star is the blue star and the coolest is the red dwarf star. 
     As time passes, the stars become old and they become white dwarfs. White dwarfs are about the size of Earth. It, the white dwarf, keeps itself intact, unbroken, and from collapsing by high speed electrons moving all around it. Our sun will become one, billions of years from now.

Supernova

     The bigger the star, the faster it will die; However, the stars still live for a very long time. Stars die in a super huge explosion called supernova which is when the star's core collapses and explodes. 
    After the explosion, a neutron star or a black hole may appear. If the core of a supernova is about 1.4 to 3 solar masses, weight of the star, the protons and electrons continues and forms into neutrons. This process creates neutron stars. If the solar mass of the core is more than 3, then the core becomes a black hole.
     After the supernova, the gases and dust remains gets reused and the process of forming a star begins again.