By Alexander Chan Everything you need to know about space.

Facts and opinions about space... Space is full of wonderful things. It has galaxies, planets, stars and moons. Scientists study space to find out about how it was created. Nobody knows how but we do know that space is filled with astonishing, mysterious and exciting discoveries.

Planets Remember that our galaxy is called the Milky Way! There are nine planets in our solar system. They are the following: Mars, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter, Pluto and Uranus. A solar system is formed when a group of planets are closed to each other. Planets are formed when a group of gases or rocks (e.g. asteroids) are connected. The only planet we know that has life in the Milky Way galaxy is the planet Earth. We have one moon that links to Earth.

Galaxies  To form a galaxy, a group of stars and planets have to be in a great lump. Just guess how many galaxies there are in space. Scientists predict that there are 120 billion galaxies in the universe. They believe this because the Hubble telescope has been focusing on a certain area. The photo below shows what it looks like. Normally, in galaxies there is a star that is either a blue/white, yellow or red colour. This is called a sun. The photo below shows a picture of our sun. Miss Sefton, can you guess what colour it is? The answer is at the end of the slide show...

Astronauts  Astronauts are space explorers that study space. They use rockets to launch them up into the night sky. Here is a labelled picture of an a stronaut suit. Normally an astronaut would travel to the moon. They cannot go to other solar systems or galaxies because their rocket’s air tank would be exhausted.

Scary things about space We think that the Sun will stop using heat and destroy itself and that will be the end of the sun. Hopefully that would not happen in our lifetime. Uh oh! There are some scary things about space that scientists have discovered. Scientist discovered that the Sun might turn into a red giant and swallow up Mercury. Bye bye Mercury, see you in the Sun...

Venus Venus’ atmosphere is mainly carbon dioxide, the gas that is causing global warming. Unless global warming is stopped then Earth might become like Venus. Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. Do not ever spend a whole day on Venus because the atmosphere is so thick, it makes the planet spin slower. A day on Venus lasts 243 Earth-days. It is the longest day in the solar system.

The mighty Sun The Sun is a million times bigger than Earth and it’s surface is a thousand times hotter. It is so hot that you can only go as far as 1,000,000 km (620,000 miles) away. The surface of the Sun has dark sunspots and flames lit 10,000 km (6,200 miles) into the outer atmosphere. Sunspots are dark because they are cooler spots on the sun. Solar flares are vast eruptions of hot gases that explode into space. They produce heat waves of solar particles that travel beyond the Earth.

Mercury Mercury is closest to the Sun so during the day it is fiercely hot. Do you think that Mercury is hotter than Venus? Scientists think that Mercury might melt because of its heat...

Jupiter Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system. It measures 143,000 km (87,000 miles) across and is bigger than all the other planets put together. All astronauts see are its stripy bands of clouds. Scientist think that under the clouds is an ocean of liquid hydrogen.

Distant Pluto Pluto is no longer named a planet. It is so small that Scientist have changed Pluto into a dwarf planet. The temperature on the surface of Pluto is a freezing -230 degrees Celsius.

Saturn Saturn is the second biggest planet in the solar system. The seven rings are amazing to fly over, particularly the outer ring. This contains the largest chunks of ice.

Mars Mars is quite popular because lots of people want to find out about it. Scientist believe that there might have been life on mars, years ago. Bacteria and other forms of life might once have existed on Mars.

Earth Earth is the only planet that has life on. If you have been in space and you have just came back to Earth then you would feel weak. It takes months until you can get your strength back.

The moon Earth’s nearest neighbour. The first astronaut, Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon in The Moon’s surface is totally bare, except for the many craters made by exploding meteorites. There is no air on the moon so if someone stepped on the moon without a space suit they would instantly die.

The Sun, the Earth and the moon The mighty Sun shines light on the Earth and also shines light on the Moon because they have no light source of its own. We have night and day because the Earth spins on its axis and when it is directly facing the sun it shines brightly on Earth. This means it is mid-day (12:00). When the Earth is facing directly to the moon it is mid-night (00:00).

How was the Moon formed? 4.5 billion years ago... there were 20 planets. Earth was a violent world. Violent volcanoes, lava fields and asteroids raining down from the heavens. Life didn’t exist. Until one day... the planet Thea... crashed onto the earth! Earth survived. Thea was destroyed... Thea’s pieces were held by Earths gravity. Then it formed into the moon!

Order of the planets People are confused about the order of the planets. Mercury is closest to the sun. Mercury: My Venus: Very Earth: Energetic Mars: Mother Jupiter: Just Saturn: Served Uranus: Me Neptune: Noodles Pluto: With pepper

What is a star? A star is basically a ball of gas. A red star means that it is very cold. A yellow star is hot but not as hot as a blue or white star. Blue or white it is VERY hot.

Space hotel In the future there might be a space hotel that will be in space! People would have to get used to anti gravity and normal gravity! It could happen because no one knows????

Space robots In the future people also talk about space robots. Scientist believe that they might be able to send one up in space and collect information about OTHER PLANETS!

Unfortunately... Unfortunately we cannot send up a space robot or a space hotel until scientist have the right technology to create them. However, in the future, scientists may be able to create this fantastic technology!

Pictures

Answer Yellow star