How much does the Earth weigh? We obviously can’t put the Earth on a gigantic scale so it needs a tricky calculation to work it out. Scientists calculate how strong the gravitational pull on other planets is to calculate weight. Heavier planets have a stronger gravitational pull. We talk about a planets mass rather than…
The first person in space was a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin who completed a single orbit of the Earth on the 12th April 1961 onboard Vostock 1. Yuri’s spaceflight lasted 1 hour 48 minutes. The second person in space was Alan Shepard, Jr on May 5th 1961 aboard Mercury-Redstone 3. Less than 10 years…
I’ve got some fantastic space experiments to share today. These are great for World Space Week, a space science themed activity day or for learning about space in general! Space themed science experiments are one of my favourite themes for science at home and school. There’s so much to explore. Rockets, forces, potential life on…
I’ve got lots of fun activities and facts about the Moon to share today. The Moon is probably more important to the Earth than you think. Did you know it stabilises the wobble of the Earth on its axis, giving us a fairly stable climate and causing tides? Moon Facts Did you know the Moon…
From the bright full moon to the tiny sliver of a crescent in the night sky, lunar phases have fascinated humanity for millennia. This activity unravels the science behind the phases of the moon with some simple moon phase cupcakes. Cupcakes are a wonderfully visual representation of how the shape of the moon changes in…
Our Moon is the largest moon in the Solar System relative to its parent planet. It’s thought to have been created about 4.5 billion years ago when an object a similar size to Mars called Theia crashed into Earth. The impact melted part of the Earth’s rocky mantle, which together with debris from Theia was…
Have you ever looked up at the moon and wondered about its pockmarked landscape? Craters are fascinating geological features that give a small insight into the history of our solar system. This is a great ( and very easy ) activity for discovering how craters are made. Did you know the moon’s surface has millions…
We’ve been doing a lot of space themed activities recently focussing on the many famous scientists who changed people’s perception of the Universe. In the 1600s many people thought that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe, until Copernicus used mathematical models to prove that the Earth actually orbits the Sun. We’ve used…
Do you know how to find the North Star? Most people think of the North Star ( Polaris ) as being the brightest star in the sky, but there are actually many stars much brighter. The reason Polaris is so important is because the axis of Earth is pointed almost directly at it, meaning Polaris…
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Polish astronomer born in February 1473 who realised that the Earth orbits the Sun. This idea was strongly opposed at the time as many people believed objects orbited around a central Earth. The model proposed by Copernicus was called Heliocentrism. What is Heliocentrism? Heliocentrism ( helios means Sun ) is where…
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