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Space Lapbook
Planet research and minit books contribued by Kelly Ward
Other lapbook templates by Kris Doyle, and Ami
Other research contributed by Shannon Cook and Rachel Harris

                             

These are a collection of various minit books that you can pick and choose from to help you on your way as you create your own space themed lapbook.  Some books are similar in content to provide greater variety in hopes of helping you with something that will suit your needs.  Books marked with ** will require research beyond what is included on this page.

Planet Minit Books

Sun, Moon, and Stars Minit Books
 

Misc. Space Minit Books
 

Planet Information

Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun. Its average distance from the sun is 36 million miles.  Mercury has a quick orbit, making one complete revolution around the sun  every 88 earth days making that 0.241 earth years. Compared to Earth, Mercury rotates on its axis slowly, making one complete rotation every 58.6 earth days. Mercury is a terrestrial planet meaning it has a solid surface. Its surface is covered with craters. Because of Mercury’s small size it has almost no atmosphere to protect it from things like meteorites and the Sun’s heat. What atmosphere it does have is composed of helium and hydrogen. Such a lack of atmosphere allows extreme temperature changes. The side that faces the sun can get as hot as 800°F and the side facing away from the sun can get a cold as -360°F. Mercury is the second smallest planet with a diameter of 3031 miles. Its gravity is only 0.38 times as much as the gravity on earth. Mercury was named after the Roman messenger of the gods. Mercury does not have any moons. Some fun facts about Mercury are all of the craters are named for artists, musicians and writers. All of the valleys are named after observatories and the ridges and cliffs are named after ships that have explored the earth. Mercury probably received the name for the Roman messenger of the gods because it moves so quickly across the sky. MESSENGER , which is an acronym for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, is a spacecraft that was launched by NASA in 2004 and will orbit Mercury starting in 2011 after several flybys.

Venus
Venus is the second planet from the sun. Its average distance from the sun is 67 million miles. Venus makes one revolution around the sun in 224.7 earth days making that 0.615 earth years. Venus has the slowest rotation in the solar system. It rotates on its axis once every 243 earth days. Venus has a rocky, solid surface with several large craters. Venus' atmosphere is 100 time thicker than Earths. It is made up of 90% carbon dioxide and about 10% nitrogen. The sky of Venus is full of clouds made of sulfuric acid. With such a thick atmosphere heat gets trapped and the surface can get as hot as 900°F. Venus is the planet that is closest in size to the earth. Its diameter is 7523 miles. Its gravity is 0.91 times that of earth. Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. Venus also has no moons. Some fun facts about Venus are Venus’ nicknames are the Evening Star or the Morning Star because, besides the moon, it is one of the brightest objects in the nighttime sky. That is because of its think atmosphere it reflects over 75% of the light that hits it. Also there has been evidence of former lava flows. This shows that at one time Venus had volcanic activity. It is believed that the surface use to be covered with hundreds of volcanoes.

Earth
The third planet from the sun is Earth. Its average distance from the sun is 93 million miles.  Earths revolution around the sun takes 365.26 days or 1 year. Its rotation takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, or one day. Earth has a solid surface of which 72% of it is cover with water. The atmosphere consists of 78% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, 0.9% argon and 0.1% carbon dioxide. Earth’s temperature range is -60°F to 140°F. It has a diameter of 7926 miles. On Earth gravity is figured out by multiplying by 1. In Roman Mythology, the goddess of the earth was Tellus, which means the fertile soil. In Greek Mythology the goddess’s name was Gaia which means Mother Earth. The name Earth itself does not derive from Greek or Roman Mythology but from Old English and Germanic. There are hundreds of other names for the planet Earth in other languages. Earth has one moon which is sometime referred to as Luna. Some fun facts about Earth are that out of all the planets Earth is the only one to have a significant amount of water. Unlike Mercury, who has little atmosphere, and Venus, who’s atmosphere is to thick, Earth has the perfect atmosphere to support life. At the equator, the Earth is spinning at 1000 mph about its axis and moving at 67,000 mph around the Sun.

Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. The average distance from the sun is 142 million miles. Mars revolves once around the sun every 686.98 earth days making that 1.88 in earth years. It rotates on its axis every 24 hours and 37 minutes. Mars solid surface is mostly made up of iron oxide (rust) which accounts for its red color and is covered with many craters, mountains and valleys. Mar’s atmosphere is about 7% as thick as the atmosphere around the Earth making it very thin and is composed mostly of 95.3% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, 0.15% oxygen, and 0.03% water. Its temperature ranges from -220°F to 80°F. It has a diameter of 4222 miles. Mars gravity is about the same as it is on Mercury and is 0.38 times the gravity on Earth. It was named after the Roman god of war, probably because of its red color. There are two moons that revolve around Mars. Their names are Deimos and Phobos. Some fun facts about Mars are that the largest canyon on Mars would stretch form NYC to LA on Earth. That makes the Grand Canyon look very small. Also Mars has higher mountains and deeper canyons than any other planet in the solar system. Mars is also home to the biggest volcano in the solar system and it is called Olympus Mons. Mars moons were named after the attendants of the Roman god Mars.

Jupiter
The fifth and largest planet in our solar system is Jupiter. It is an average of 483 million miles from the sun. Jupiter takes 4332.59 earth days or 11.9 earth years to revolve around the sun. However, it has the fastest rotation in the solar system-- rotating every 9 hours and 55 minutes. Jupiter’s nickname is the Gas Giant because it has an atmosphere mainly composed of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium. Its atmosphere is hundreds of miles thick. Jupiter’s average temperature is -250°F. Jupiter is 1 ½ times larger than all of the other planets put together. It has a diameter of 89,372 miles. Because of Jupiter’s large mass it has a gravitational pull that is 2.64 times that of Earth. It was named after the ruler of all the Roman gods. Jupiter has at least 63 moons.  The four largest are referred to as the Galilean moons because Galileo was who discovered them. They are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Some fun facts about Jupiter are that you can see the four larger moons with a pair of binoculars at night. Also because of its fast rotation, the planet bulges in the middle. So instead of being round it is really short and fat. Jupiter is home of the famous Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a giant windstorm that has winds like a super hurricane and it is the size of three Earths put together. This storm is in the same position and is the same shape as it was when it was first discovered 300 year ago. One other thing, like Saturn, Jupiter has rings but they are much fainter and smaller. Unlike Saturn’s, Jupiter’s rings are dark and contains no ice.

Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun and the second largest planet in the solar system. It has an average distance of 888 million miles from the sun. Saturn revolves around the sun once every 10759.2 earth days or 29.5 earth years. Like Jupiter, Saturn spins very quickly on its axis, making one rotation every 10 hours and 13 minutes. Saturn is a gas planet and its atmosphere consists of 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. Its average temperature is -300°F. Saturn has a diameter of 74,898 miles. Saturn has a gravitational pull that is 1.13 times that of Earth. Its name comes from the Roman god of agriculture. Saturn has 34 moons, the most famous of which is Titan. Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system and is bigger than both Mercury and Pluto. Some fun facts: Although Saturn isn’t the only planet with rings it is the one that is famous for having them. When Galileo first discovered Saturn in 1610 he could not see the rings clearly to know what they were. He thought that Saturn had two smaller globes circling it because what he saw looked like “ears” on the side of the planet. In 1659, an astronomer named Christian Huygens was able to use a better telescope and saw that the “ears” were actually rings around Saturn. The band of rings is mostly composed of pieces of ice, dust and rocks and is about 170,000 miles across.

Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. The average distance from the sun is 1783 million miles. It revolves around the sun once every 30,684 earth days or 84 earth years. Uranus spins on its axis once 17 hours and 14 minutes. It is a gas planet with an atmosphere of 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane. Because Uranus is so far from the sun its average temperature is -365°F. It has a diameter of 31,763 miles and its gravity is 1.17 times that of Earth. Uranus is named for the Roman god of the heavens. Uranus has 21 named moons and six unnamed ones. Some of their names are Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, and Stephano. Some fun facts about Uranus are that it rotates at a 90-degree angle compared to that rest of the planets. It’s as if it was rotating on its side and appears to roll around the sun because of this unusual tilt. Uranus also has rings surrounding it. There appears to be about 13 rings and link Jupiter’s, they are very dark. Uranus' moons were named from the writings of Shakespeare and Pope. Since Uranus takes so long to orbit the sun, each season is 21 years long.

Neptune
The eighth planet from the Sun is Neptune. Its average distance is 2794 million miles from the sun. It revolves around the sun once every 60,190 earth days or 164.8 earth years and rotates on its axis once every 18 hours and 30 minutes. Neptune is a gas planet whose atmosphere is made up of about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. Its average temperature is about -370°F. Neptune’s diameter is 30,775 miles. Its gravity is 1.19 times that of Earth. Neptune’s name came from the Roman god of the sea. It has 13 moons one of which is named Triton who was the Greek god of the sea. Some fun facts about Neptune are that it is so far from the sun that from the surface the sun appears to be only a bright star. Also, like Jupiter, Neptune has what is believed to be a giant storm called the Great Dark Spot. The winds in the Great Dark Spot blows at more than 700 mph. Neptune also has rings and like Uranus and Jupiter they are very dark but their composition is unknown.

Pluto
Pluto is the ninth planet from the sun. It average distance from the sun is 3647 million miles.  Pluto orbits the sun once every 90,465 earth day or 248.5 earth years. It rotates on its axis once every 6 day and 9 hours. Because Pluto is so far away very little is known about it. It is not known whether it has a solid or a gas surface. Its atmosphere is believed to be made up of nitrogen with some carbon monoxide and frozen methane. Pluto’s average temperature is believed to be -390°F. It has a diameter of only 1425 miles and its gravitational pull is only 0.08 time that of Earth. Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld. It is believed that Pluto received this name because it is so far from the sun that it is in perpetual darkness. Pluto has three moons. The largest is named Charon which is named after the boatman who worked for Pluto in Roman mythology. Some fun facts about Pluto are that it is believed that the person who was credited with discovering Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, also choose the name Pluto because “PL" are the initials of Percival Lowell who founded the Lowell Observatory in Arizona which was where Clyde discovered Pluto. Also 20 out of 250 years Neptune and Pluto cross orbits. The last time this happened was from 1979 to 1999. In 2006 Pluto was demoted to a “dwarf planet”. In January of 2006 a spacecraft called New Horizons was launched towards Pluto. If all goes well it should reach it in 2015.

Stars

General Information
~A star is a big ball of gas that gives off heat and light.

~Stars are not shaped like stars. They are shaped like balls.

~There are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way.

~On a clear night, out in the country away from light and pollution, you can see thousands of stars without a telescope.

~The hotter the star, the brighter it shines.

~Stars vary in color based upon how hot they are. The main colors are red, yellow, white and blue. Blue stars burn the hottest (36,000 plus degrees fahrenheit) and red stars burn the coolest (5,500 degrees fahrenheit). Our sun is a yellow star (11,000 degrees fahrenheit).

~A supernova is a type of stellar explosion that happens when a really big star (at least eight times as big as our sun) runs out of fuel. It is one of the most energetic explosions in nature. A supernova can glow for days or even months. Supernovas are rare in our own galaxy, occurring about once a century in the Milky Way.

Five Sizes of Stars
Supergiants are the largest stars, and may have diameters several hundred times the size of the Sun.
Giants are more common than Supergiants, and have diameters 10 to 100 times as large as the Sun.
Red Giants have cooler temperatures than giants, and are thus less bright, but their size is still massive.
Medium-size or dwarf stars are about as large as the sun.
White dwarfs are small stars (smaller than the distance across Asia).

Life of a Star
-Stars begin as clouds of dust and gas. These are called nebulae.
-When a star is born the gas, which is mostly hydrogen, is pulled together by gravity into a cloud, the cloud starts to spin.
-The gas atoms begin to bump into each other faster and faster, and this makes heat energy.
-The cloud gets hotter and hotter, and finally gets so hot that something called "nuclear fusion" happens. The cloud begins to glow, and at this point it is called a protostar.
-The protostar continues to grow, and when it stops, it is known as a main sequence star.
- After a long period of time, the outer shell of the star will begin to expand, cool, and glow red. At this point it has reached the red giant phase. After this phase, the mass of the star determines the rest of its lifespan. (Stars have different lifespans. The smaller the star the longer it is going to burn.)

Shining Stars
The following are some "famous" stars:

Antares – Means Rival of Mars.  Brightest star in the Constellation Scorpius.  This red Supergiant star has a diameter of around 700 times that of our Sun and is approximately 520 light years from Earth.  This star is the 16^th brightest in the sky.

Arcturus – Brightest star in the Bootes (The Herdsman) Constellation.  This red giant is the fourth brightest star in the sky, but the second brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. 

Betelgeuse—Pronounced “beetle juice,” this supergiant star is the second brightest star in the Orion constellation and is the ninth brightest in the sky. It is between 420-520 light years from Earth.   Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars known.

Deneb—This blue supergiant is 1500 light years away and is the brightest star in the Cygnus Constellation.  It is the 19^th brightest star in the night sky, and is approximately 60,000 times MORE luminous than our Sun!

Polaris – Commonly referred to as The Pole Star or Northern Star, it is the brightest star in the Ura Minor Constellation, also known as The Little Dipper, and is located in the handle. Polaris is around 6,000 – 10,000 times brighter than the Sun.  It is the current Northern pole star, as it is very close to the Northern celestial pole. Polaris is estimated to be around 432 light years from Earth.

Orion – One the most popular and one of the largest constellations, Orion is also known as “The Hunter.”  Located on the celestial equator, Orion’s stars are visible throughout the world.  The brightest of these stars are Rigel, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix.

Rigel – The sixth brightest star in the sky and the brightest star in the Orion constellation, this blue supergiant is almost 100 times larger than the sun.  Rigel has a diameter over 60 million miles! Rigel is over 900 light years from the Earth and is more than 50,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Rigel is almost always brighter than Betelgeuse. 

Sirius – The brightest star in the sky (except for our sun).  Also known as “The Dog Star.”  Part of the Canis Major Constellation, which is also known as The Great Dog Constellation.  It is about twice the mass of our Sun, and is over 70 times more luminous.  Sirius is 8.6 light yeas from Earth. Sirius is actually a binary star system, so while it appears to be only one star, it is actually a main star and a faint dwarf companion star. 

The Moon

Moon Characteristics
Daily Temperature:  107 degrees Celsius
Night Temperature:  -153 degrees Celsius
Complete Orbit around the Earth:  Every 27.3 days.
Layers of the Moon:    Three - Crust, Mantel, and Core

Lunar Surface
~Plains – Visibly dark areas on the Moon’s surface, composed of fine-grained volcanic rock.
~Mountains – Also called the Highlands, these are the visible light areas on the Moon’s surface
~Regolith – Fine grained soil covering the lunar surface. Astronauts say it feels like snow and smells like gunpowder
~Craters – Several visible from Earth on the Lunar surface, these formed when asteroids and comets crashed into the Moon.

How Big is the Moon? 
Although the Moon is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System, it is only a quarter the size of the Earth’s Land area.  This is approximately the size of Russia, Canada and the United States Combined.

The Far Side of the Moon
While orbiting the Earth, the Moon always keeps the same hemisphere facing the Earth. The side that faces the Earth is called the “Near Side,” and the opposite side is called the “Far Side.”  While the far side is often called the “Dark Side,” this is incorrect because that side is illuminated by the Sun as often as the Near Side. 

The Sun

Basic Sun Facts
~Medium-size yellow Dwarf Star
~Created by God on the 4th day
~1.496x10¹¹ m away from Earth
~Surface Temperature of 5,780 Kelvin or over 15,000,000 degrees Celsius!
~1,392,000 Kilometers in size

Layers of the Sun
1. The Core
2. The Radiation Zone
3. The Convection Zone
4. The Photosphere – the surface
5. Chromosphere – gas layer above photosphere
6. Corona – one of the two gas layers above the photosphere

Why We Need the Sun
~Energy:  The Sun is the Primary Source of the Earth’s Energy
~Photosynthesis – Plants capture the energy from sunlight to convert it into oxygen and sugar for food.
~Solar energy -- Solar Power equipment, such as greenhouses and solar water heaters, use the sun’s energy to generate electricity.   
~Fuel – The energy in Fossil Fuels and Petroleum, which is used for gasoline and diesel, were originally converted from sunlight due to photosynthesis in the past. 
~Vitamin D— Needed for proper health, Produced by Ultraviolet Light

Space Vocabulary

Asteroid – a rocky space object that can be a few feet wide to several hundred miles wide. Most asteroids in our solar system orbit in a belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Astronaut – a person who travels in space

Astronomer – a scientist who observes and studies planets, stars, and galaxies

Atmosphere – all the gases which surround a star, like our Sun, or a planet, like our Earth

Cosmonaut – an astronaut from the former Soviet Union or present day Russia

Galaxy – a giant collection of gas, dust, and millions or billions of stars

Gravity – the invisible force between objects that makes objects attract each other

Meteorite – a piece of stone or metal from space that falls to Earth’s surface

Milky Way – the name of our galaxy

Revolve – to move in an orbit or circle around something

Rotate – to turn around a center point, or axis, like a wheel turns on a bicycle

Solar System - the Sun and all of the objects that travel around it. These objects include planets, natural satellites such as the Moon, the asteroid belt, comets and meteoroids.

Telescope – a device that creates a larger image of a faraway object

Universe - a huge wide-open space that holds everything from the smallest particle to the biggest galaxy. No one but God knows just how big the Universe is.

Black Holes

When a large star runs out of fuel, it begins to collapse under its own weight. It gets smaller and smaller until it is squashed up into a very tiny space - less than a tiny atom.  As it gets more compact, its gravity becomes stronger and stronger. Its gravity becomes so strong that anything that gets too close to it gets pulled in. Even light cannot escape a black hole's gravity.

(You can take a dry sponge the size of a soda can, and squish it up in your hands until it is completely covered by your fist and you can no longer see it. This will demonstrate the idea of the star compacting and collapsing in on itself.)

Comets and Meteors

Comets are lumps of ice and dust that come every so often into the center of the solar system from somewhere in its outer reaches. Some comets make several different trips into the solar system. When comets get close enough to the Sun, heat causes them to begin evaporating. Jets of gas and dust form long tails that we can see from Earth. These tails can sometimes be millions of miles long. The dust particles are as tiny as a grain of sand and are called meteors.

Meteors are debris and particles left over from passing comets. When they enter the earth’s atmosphere, they get hot very quickly. As the meteors burn up, they leave bright streaks of light across the night sky. These are often called 'shooting stars' or 'falling stars'.

Satellites

A satellite is a smaller object that orbits a larger object. There are natural satellites such as the earth's moon. There are many different kinds of man-made satellites. Some (like the Hubble Space Telescope) are used to take pictures of planets and other objects in space. Some other functions of satellites include: spying, gathering weather data for prediction, mapping and GPS, and transmitting signals for cell phones, radio, and television.

Who's Who ~ Astronauts and Astronomers

Yuri Gagarin: Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin was born on a farm west of Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934.Yuri Gagarin joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honors from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957. He became a military fighter pilot, and by 1959 he had been chosen for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of USSR cosmonauts.Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth. Gagarin's spacecraft was Vostok 1. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer program. As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by parachute. Colonel Yuri Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 in a plane crash. Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin is often called "The Columbus of The Cosmos!"

Alan Shepard: Alan Shepard was born in 1923 in New Hampshire. He attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland where he graduated in 1944. Shepard served on a destroyer during World War II and was a Navy test pilot when he was chosen to join the Astronaut Corps. He became the first American to enter space on May 5,1961. Shepard spent only 5 minutes in actual space aboard Freedom 7. His flight paved the way for the United States to become a leader in space exploration. In 1971 he became the fifth man to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission. Shepard carried a golf club onboard the ship and was able to play golf on the Moon. After his Moon adventure, he became an admiral in the United States Navy, and was the first astronaut to ever achieve this rank. Admiral Shepard died on July 22, 1998.

John Glenn: Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr. was born in Cambridge, Ohio on July 18, 1921. He flew combat missions during World War II and the Korean Conflict. After service in Korea, John Glenn attended the Naval Test Pilot School. While serving as a project officer, he set a transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 3 hours and 23 minutes. It was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speeds. John Glenn was chosen as one of seven Project Mercury astronauts in 1959. In February of 1962, he became the first American to orbit Earth. John Glenn retired from the Marine Corps in 1965. He became a U.S. Senator in 1974. In 1998 he was given the chance to return to space, and was a member of the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery. Senator Glenn would be a subject for research on how weightlessness affects the body of an older person.

Neil Armstrong: Neil Alden Armstrong was born on August 5,1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. From 1949 to 1952, Armstrong was a naval aviator, and after leaving the military, he became a test pilot. While serving as a test pilot, he was chosen to be a member of the astronaut corps. In July of 1969, Neil Armstrong was the commander of Apollo 11, America's first mission to try to land a manned vehicle on the Moon. On July 20, 1969 Commander Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the Moon. As Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface, he spoke the unforgettable phrase, "That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind". He and Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his accomplishments and contributions to the space program.

Tycho Brahe – Danish, 1546-1601 16^th century astronomer who created precise measurements of the solar system and more than 700 stars.  One of his greatest discoveries occurred in 1572, when he found a supernova near the constellation Cassiopeia.  He worked to combine the Copernican system with the Ptolemaic system into his own model of the universe, the Tychonic System.  Credited with the most accurate observations of his time.  Was assisted by Johannes Kepler, who later used Tycho’s information to develop his own theories of astronomy and to derive the laws of planetary motion. 

Claudius Ptolemy – AD 100? – 170? Unsure of where he was born, but most of his life was spent in Egypt. Even though most of his theories have been proven wrong or incorrect, Ptolemy was probably one of the most famous astronomers.  His theories, originally developed in the first century AD, dominated science until the 16^th century.  His early work shows his belief that the earth was the center of the universe, but later work shows that he began to believe that the earth and planets moved in circles around larger objects.  His work, however incorrect, laid the foundation for later astronomers. 

Johannes Kepler – German 1571- 1630 Key figure in the 17^th century astronomical revolution.  Best known for his laws of planetary motion, now known as Kepler’s Laws. His laws also provided one of the foundations for Newton’s theory of universal gravitation. He invented an improved version of the refracting telescope. 

Nicholas Copernicus – Polish 1473- 1543 in the 16^th century Copernicus became the first astronomer to publish his scientific theory of heliocentrism (Greek: Helios-Sun, so the theory that the sun is the center of the solar system), which stated that the sun rest near the center of the universe and the earth revolved annually around it. 

Galileo Galilei – Italian 1564- 1642 In 1609, he created the first telescope.  Later that year, he built a stronger telescope that he used to discover craters on the moon, stars in the Milky Way and the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons now).  Made some of the first known Western observations of sunspots.  He is called the “father of modern observational astronomy”, “the father of modern physics” “the father of science.” And the “Father of Modern Science.”

Edmund Halley – British 1656- 1742 First to calculate a comet’s orbit.  In 1705, he published the Synopsis on Cometary Astronomy, where he mathematically demonstrated that comets move in elliptical orbits around the sun and how over time they would pass the same point.  His prediction was so accurate that when the comet returned in 1758, it confirmed his theory and the comet was named after him – Halley’s Comet.

Maria Mitchell – United States 1818 – 1889 Born in the 19^th century, one of the first famous female astronomers. Her love for astronomy began when her father began maintaining a small observatory.  In 1847, she received international recognition for her discovery of a telescopic comet.  The following year she was the first woman elected at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Maria's Comet Unit Study and Lapbook

Links

Space Lapbook Squidoo Lens by Jimmie

Planets Printable Page

Planet Roll Call Song

Solar System Trading Cards

Constellation Strips

Solar Flare Flipbook

The Moon in Motion Flipbook

Kid's Astronomy ~ Solar System

Solar System Exploration

The Planets

Tons of Information!

Size of the Planets