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TopClicks
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Education
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Science
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Astronomy & Space
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The Planets, Sun and Moon
Dome of the Sky - An online planetarium showing views of the stars and constellations at different latitudes and different dates through the year. The sky views are image maps. Click on a constellation or brighter star to learn its name. The latest version of the Dome also gives info on phases of the moon, eclipses of the moon and sun, the seasons, equinoxes, solstices, and the rising and setting times of the sun and the moon, currently or in selected years.
Earth and Moon Viewer - When it's 10 A.M. and bright and sunny in Florida, what's it like in Japan? Stop by this site and ask the server, which will show where it's light and dark anyplace in the world. You can choose the satellite location to view from, or you can tell it to look at Earth from the Sun's or Moon's perspective. You can even create a custom request and specify the desired longitude and latitude you want to see; the computer then picks the best viewpoint.
EarthKAM - Kids have taken over the space shuttle! Not the whole shuttle, just a special camera on several of the shuttle missions. This NASA project teams middle school and high school kids with mission specialists. Read about past projects and look out for new ones on upcoming missions.
How Big Is the Solar System? - Let's say you had a bowling ball to represent the Sun and a peppercorn to represent Earth, and you chose other objects to stand in for the other planets. Do you think you could make a scale model of the solar system that would fit on a tabletop? No. Well then, would it fit in your classroom? Still no. OK, how about your school playground? Truth is, you would need 1,000 yards (or slightly less than 1 kilometer in the metric version) to perform this fascinating and unforgettable "planet walk." This is a great activity for a family picnic, too, since it's fun for both children and adults. Complete instructions are provided here.
Inconstant Moon - Speaking of the Moon, what's it doing tonight? This site has all the answers. Just click on today's date and you'll learn where and when to look for the Moon tonight, what phase to expect, and a guide to what you might see (you may want to try this viewing activity with binoculars, though). The photos are stunning. The background music is (what else?) "Moonlight Sonata."
Mars Academy - If it were up to you to design a space mission to Mars, how would you start? You'd have to make a lot of decisions. Where will you land? Who will be your crew and what kinds of skills will they have? What sort of propulsion system will your spacecraft use? When should you launch and what should your trajectory be? Follow along as kids make these decisions, guided by scientists. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
Mars Atlas - Fasten your seat belts. The Mars shuttle will be leaving just as soon as you get the courage to start clicking! You'll soon be served with a map of Mars that you can click to zoom in on. Then move around by selecting directional arrows. Stay as long as you like on Mars. You can either pack a lunch or just go to the fridge if you get hungry. (Hint: The actual map link is farther down the page, in the To Use This section.)
Mars Millennium Project - Your mission is to design an off-world community to support 100 humans arriving on Mars in 2030. Got any ideas? This might make a great family, class, or club project. If you submit your registered project with NASA by June, 2000, it will be sent to Mars on a special microchip. Registration will also make you eligible for additional events. This project has numerous sponsors, so you'll probably be hearing a lot about it.
Mission to Mars - This exemplary site won the 1998 ThinkQuest competition's Math and Science category, entirely built by kids. You can learn all sorts of information about Mars, the Red Planet, here at Mars Academy. But the real fun starts when you can outfit and fly your own mission! You have to know a lot to design your mission, so you'd better go back to the Academy and make sure you did all the assigned homework. This site takes a long time to explore, and your mission may take many visits to complete.
Primer on the Solar Space Environment - How well do you know our nearest star? Have you ever wondered how long the Sun will last before it burns out? How big are sunspots? Are they bigger than your school? Visit this site for a comprehensive description of the Sun as an energy source and its effects on life on Earth. Did you know that geomagnetic storms on the Sun can alter current flow in pipelines and really confuse homing pigeons?
Sky and Telescope - Touring the Moon with Binoculars - If you have a pair of binoculars, you can take a good look at the Moon and explore the dusty "seas," the rocky craters, and the craggy mountain ranges. This site offers a good lunar map, viewing instructions, and more. Watch out for the Terminator!
Sky and Telescope - What's a Blue Moon? - We've always heard that if there are two full moons in the same calendar month, the second is called the blue moon. Sky & Telescope, the authority on astronomy, has investigated the source of this popular belief. Turns out that in the past, blue moons were figured a different way. Read about the controversy here, and then celebrate blue moons both ways!
Small Bodies - Did you ever make a wish on a "falling star"? It isn't a star, of course, but a meteor--a bit of rock captured by Earth's gravity, burning as it enters our atmosphere. Sometimes these space rocks don't burn completely, and they can reach Earth. When this happens, they are known as meteorites. You can get a close-up look at some well-traveled rocks at this site, which also features fascinating Hubble Space Telescope photos of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fragments hitting Jupiter in 1994. Compare various portraits of Comet Halley, the world's most famous comet, which swings by Earth about every 75 or 76 years. The spectacular 1910 appearance over Flagstaff, Arizona, makes the more recent 1986 visitation look like a fizzled firecracker.
Star Journey: The Heavens - Star Chart @ Nationalgeographic.com - Explore a map of visible stars as they appear from the North and South Poles. All 2,844 of these stars (plus nebulae and star clusters also pictured on the map) can be seen with the unaided eye. As you click on the various quadrants, you'll come across special blue squares. That means a Hubble Space Telescope photo of that star is available to view as a close-up. Letters from the Greek alphabet are used to describe the apparent brightness of various stars within a constellation. Alpha is the brightest, followed by beta, gamma, and so on. It's all explained in the Star Chart Notes section.
Sun - It's big, it's hot, and it's the brightest thing around. No, we're not talking about glow-in-the-dark slime. We're talking about our very own star: the Sun. The Sun makes plants grow and keeps us warm. It's over 4.6 billion years old and is big enough to hold 1.3 million Earths. Read all about what it's made of and how it works.
Sun: Man's Friend & Foe - The Sun: should it stay or should it go? Most people would say STAY, but the Sun is also a force behind terrible weather conditions and other disruptions. Find out science facts about our nearest star as well as cultural influences the Sun has had over the centuries. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
The Aurora Page - Shimmering curtains of light in the night sky--it's the aurora borealis. Find out about aurora borealis sightings and forecasts. Various aurora maps and images are here, including images taken from the space shuttle. Ever heard the northern lights? They also make sounds! Learn all about the theories on why this happens. There's even a survey for those lucky people who have "heard" one.
The Nine Planets - Here's a site with pictures of all the planets and their moons and much, much more. How did they get their names? Find out what planets are made of and which are most dense, brightest in the sky, and so on. Many of the words are linked to a glossary; just click on a highlighted word for an explanation. Also find out which planets have the best prospects for supporting life. Earth is listed first!
The Sun - It's pretty hot stuff! With a temperature of 15 million degrees Kelvin at its center, the Sun is the source of energy for all life on Earth. Each second, the Sun burns enough fuel to produce 386 billion-billion megawatts of energy (that's a lot of lightbulbs!). But don't worry, it has enough fuel to burn another five billion years. There are many more interesting facts here to discover about the Sun.
The Sun: Man's Friend & Foe - The Sun: should it stay or should it go? Most people would say STAY, but the Sun is also a force behind terrible weather conditions and other disruptions. Find out science facts about our nearest star as well as cultural influences the Sun has had over the centuries. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
Views of the Solar System - What do you think of when you hear the word "Mars"? Mars, ah yes, one of my favorite candy bars. How about "Pluto"? Hey, that's Mickey's pet dog! "Saturn"? My dad's got one of those in the garage! OK, now what do they all have in common? They're all planets, of course. Did you know Mars has volcanoes and the biggest one is 16 miles high (the biggest one on Earth is only 6 miles high)? Did you know that for 20 years out of its 249-year orbit Pluto is closer to the Sun than Neptune? (This won't happen again until 2226.) Scientists also think that Pluto's atmosphere freezes and falls to the ground when Pluto gets farther away from the Sun--imagine shoveling clouds off your front walk! Did you know that you can drive a Saturn, but you can't make it sink? At least not the pla Net--it floats! There's lots more here, including many images and animations of planets, comets, and asteroids.
Welcome to the Planets - This collection centers on images taken from NASA's planetary exploration program. There are different annotated views of each planet, including close-ups. You'll also find pictures and facts about the spacecraft NASA used to take these photos, including Mariner, Viking, Voyager, Magellan, Galileo, and the Hubble Space Telescope.
What's Up Tonight? - Hey, did you see how clear it is tonight? I wonder what that star is over there--gosh, it's bright! Maybe it's a planet. Anyone got a clue? Anyone got a URL? Try this one--there's a picture of what the sky looks like from your backyard tonight! And don't miss the planet roundup, which explains where they all are, and whether they are visible tonight or not.
Woman in the Moon - You may have heard of the Man in the Moon, but have you ever seen the Woman in the Moon? Some people think she's actually easier to see! She looks a little like Wilma Flintstone to us, but study the pictures here and see what you think.
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