1. Where in the universe are we?

2. What is the universe? Everything that exists is part of the universe. Our universe is a large expanse of dust, gas, stars, clouds, galaxies, and life. But what is the Universe? trillions and trillions If you could look at the entire universe at once it would look like a giant spider web, made up of billions of galaxies, and trillions and trillions of stars. Can you imagine how big the universe is?

3. What is a galaxy? There are billions of Galaxies in the Universe. Some are very small with only a few million stars. While others could have as many as 400 billion stars, or even more. The only difference between the three is what shape they are.

4. What is the milky way? The Earth belongs to the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral shaped galaxy which has 100 billion stars. This includes our sun.

5. What are stars? Stars are formed out of clouds of gas and dust. A star goes through many stages in its lifetime. Our sun is a small star and is the closest star to Earth. The distance between stars is measured in light years because they are millions of kilometres apart.

6. What is the Solar System? The Earth’s solar system is made up of the sun and the 9 planets that orbit it. There are also 61 known moons as well as asteroids, comets and meteoroids.

7. Mercury Mercury is 57.9 million km from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 58 days and 16 hours. One orbit of the sun is 88 days. It is dry and extremely hot. Its surface is full of craters.

8. Venus Venus is 108 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 243 days and 16 hours. One orbit of the sun is 224.7 days. It is smaller than the Earth and is surrounded by orange clouds of poisonous gas.

9. Earth Earth is 150 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 23 hours and 56 minutes. One orbit of the sun is 365.25 days.

10. Mars Mars is 228 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 24 hours and 37 minutes. One orbit of the sun is 687 days. The surface of Mars is a cold desert, it is known as the red planet. It has the same amount of land as the Earth but no oceans.

11. Jupiter Jupiter is 778 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 9 hours and 50 minutes. One orbit of the sun is 11.84 years. The planet is made up of gas and liquid and has 16 moons. It has a ring around it but it is too dark to be seen from Earth.

12. Saturn Saturn is 1,427 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 10 hours and 14 minutes. One orbit of the sun is 29.46 years. It is the second largest planet and it made of gases. It has 24 moons and has thousands of rings around it made of particles of rock and ice. Each ring is thought to be only 1 km thick!

13. Uranus Uranus is 2,869 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 20 hours. One orbit of the sun is 84 years. It is surrounded by clouds of blue- green gases. It has 10 thin rings around it made of dust and it has 15 moons. It is thought that it tilts because a large comet crashed into it.

14. Neptune Neptune is 4,497 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 21 hours. One orbit of the sun is 248 years. Neptune is a powder blue colour. It has three rings around it and at least 6 moons.

15. Pluto Pluto is 5,900 million km away from the sun. One rotation (day) takes 6 hours and 9 hours. One orbit of the sun is 248 years. Some people believe Pluto is not a planet. Pluto is smaller than the Earth’s moon.

16. Where in the universe are we?