Astronomy and the Earth

Astronomy and The Earth!

There are 200 billion other galaxies in the universe! Our own Milky Way is 12 billion years old.

In the early 1900's, people began to realize that the earth's continents did not stay in one place over time.

The earth has several layers. The core is solid metal and extremely hot. The mantle comes next. It is the thickest part of the earth and is slow moving liquid made up of rocks and metals. The crust is what shapes the land of the earth, and is about 5 to 100 kilometers thick.

Not that Milky Way! The Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy holds as many as 100 billion stars.

Technology allows us to see these amazingly detailed images of the Milky Way. Astronomers have developed telescopes that allow us to see more than just the planets of our solar system.

By Sari Hertel

Our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and the dwarf planet, Pluto.

The Gas Planets: Planets composed mainly of gas with an extremely thick atmosphere

The Rocky Planets: Planets formed by lots of particles of dust and metal crashing into each other for millions of years.

The Earth!!

Layers of the Earth

A mysterious planet with many things left to discover!

Tectonic Plate Theory

This is due to Plate Tectonics, or the shifting of the earth's crust. The hot mantle has convection currents that cause the plates of the earth to move, shake, crash into each other, and spread apart.

Here is a great video about plate tectonics!

Here is a great website about astronomy for kids!