Astronomy is a very exact branch of science, although many people get involved with it when they are very young. Astronomy is inspiring pursuit that can show children about the other sciences in general. Certain astronomical subjects interest kids and movies like Star Wars and they only increase this interest.

Our only natural satellite is called the moon. Its orbit around the Earth takes just over twenty seven days to complete. Man’s knowledge being what it is and because the moon is so close, it is the only space object that mankind has ever set foot on, except for the Earth of course. The effects of gravity between the moon and Earth causes the seas’ tides. The moon is one of the first objects that sparks a child’s interest in astronomy because it can be clearly seen with the naked eye.

Then there’s our sun. Earth is quite far from the sun. The distance fluctuates between about 91 million miles and about 94 million miles, although these measurements are not completely accurate. They are inaccurate measurements, because the Earth orbits the sun is in an uneven ellipse. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun, because it provides us with important elements such as light and heat. It is not a well-known fact that the sun contains about 98% of all the mass available in the solar system. Think about how small a person is compared to that – it is truly imponderable!

We live in the galaxy called the Milky Way. Like all other galaxies it’s a collection of gas, dust, stars and planets. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. That means that most of its volume, 3,000 light years high by 100,000 light years diameter, the volume of our galaxy, is empty.

Our Earth is located somewhere in the neighbourhood of 30,000 light years from the very centre of our galaxy. The emptiness is broken up by over 100 billion stars. In fact, the galaxy was named for the thick group of stars in the main section of it.

It looks like a pool of liquid, which is why it was called the Milky Way. There are four types of galaxies: elliptical, lenticular, irregular and, like our Milky Way, spiral.

There is a great deal of information on astronomy on the Internet that is suitable for children: from dictionaries and encyclopaedic references to programs that show the orbits of the different planets, solar systems and objects right on the computer’s monitor! In fact, there’s more information than a child could ever get through.

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