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= Planets: =

Mars Saturn
Uranus Mercury Neptune Earth Venus Jupiter Pluto is known as a dwarf planet because it is too small and because it is too far away from the sun!

Technology used:
=== - The telescope was invented by ​ a German spectacle maker called Hans Lippershey. Many other people claimed to have invented the telescope but Hans Lippershey was the only person who applied for a patent to make it.But in 1609 Galileo Galilie made his own refracting telescope to gaze at the planets, stars and the solar system and was the first person to gaze at the solar system through a telescope. === - Space probes are what scientists use to discover more about the solar system and the universe. Scientists send them because humans may not be able to survive on the planets they are sending the probes too or they may not know what is going to happen if a human does set foot on that planet. **Facts on Jupiter:** - Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. - You could fit all the planets and their moons inside Jupiter and still have room for more!! - Jupiter is one of the gas planets and does not have a surface. - The patterns that we can see on Jupiter are formed by clouds. - Jupiter has 63 moons. - Jupiter's four largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. - Jupiter has faint rings that are not as visible as Saturn's.

 3) The sun is made of gas and is 4.5 billion years old.
====4) Like earth the sun is made up of different layers; the core, radiative zone, convective zone, photosphere, chromosphere, corona and the granulae. ==== = Shooting Stars: =

[[image:shooting_stars.jpg align="right" caption="Shooting star"]]
====Shooting stars look like stars but they aren't. They are actually meteors that shoot into the earth's atmosphere so fast that they heat up making them look like stars. Most meteors dissolve before hitting the earth's surface but some large meteors may occasionally hit the earth.====

**How the world began: The big bang theory!**
====The first scientist to come up with the idea of the Big Bang Theory was Friedrich Franz Friedmann. Then Edwin Hubble later proved this theory. ==== ====The universe was first made of space dust and gas. Gravity pulled all the dust and gas together forming a solar nebula. The solar nebula grew hotter and denser forming a disc of dust in the center. The nebula dust started sticking together forming the planets and their satellites. Later the hot center of the solar nebula formed a star - the sun. Left over dust and gas is still left floating in space, these are called meteorites. By observing these meteorites scientists can prove that our solar system has been around for about 4600 million years. ====

= The Milky Way =

[[image:The_milky_way.jpg width="332" height="332" align="right" caption="The milky way"]]
====The milky was is shaped like a large whirlpool that rotates every 200 years. Our solar system is positioned around half way out off the centre. The milky way has over 100 billion stars along with gas and dust. It is so big that light takes 100,000 years to cross from one side to the other. The centre of the galaxy is hard to see but scientists think that there is a giant black hole that sucks in anything that comes to close. Outside the main spiral of the milky way there are 200 clumps of stars. The milky way belongs to a group of 40 other galaxies. Out of these 40 there are the two largest - the Milky Way and the Andromeda. The other galaxies are much smaller but two of them can be seen by the naked eye in countries south of the equator. All the galaxies are called the Magellanic Clouds after the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan.==== = Black Holes = ====Black holes are like vacuum cleaners in a way. They suck all of the waste that is left in the galaxy. It is not suction power that sucks things into the black hole, it is the power of gravity pulling everything inside.==== ====Black holes do not give off any light so you can not see them. But scientists can monitor the movement in space and if they see anything moving really fast and sending off x-rays they know that there is a black hole there. There is evidence that black holes exist in large galaxies and in binary star systems (when two stars orbit around each other).====

Black holes are made when lots of matter gets crammed into a small place. When the matter gets so dense that no light can escape from it the place where it is becomes a black hole.
= Myths and Legends =

Different cultures had different beliefs on astronomy.
=Greek Legends:=

1) Ancient Greeks thought that the sun was a god and it was being pulled across the sky in a chariot.
=Chinese Legends:=

1) The Chinese believed that their first emperor was chosen by the Sun Queen.
2) The Chinese also believed that there was nine sons. Then they shot eight of them because they were glowing too bright but the ninth sun pleaded for forgiveness so they forgave the sun.Egyptian Legends:

2) The Egyptian sky God Ra traveled through the sky in the day and through the underworld at night.
=Aztec Legends:= ====1) Huitzilopochtli was the Aztec god of the sun. The Aztecs gave human sacrifices (mainly prisoners that were captured in the wars the Aztecs had with there neighbors) to Huitzilopochtli to make sure there was rain, harvest and success in war.==== 2) Coyolxauhqui was the moon Goddess. She was the daughter of the Earth Goddess and the brother of the sun god. 3) Coatlicue was the Earth Goddess. She was the mother of the Sun God and the Moon Goddess. 4) Aztecs believe that the Sun God Huitzilopochtli cut off the head of the Moon Goddess Coyolxauhqui and through it up in the sky to create the moon.Vikings: ====1) The vikings believed that when there was lightning and thunder it meant that Thor was banging his hammer against Ice Giants and the sound became the thunder and the sparks that came off it was the lightning.====

1) Calvin J. Hamilton, __Views of the solar system,__ 2009, [], (18 May 2010) 2) Windows to the universe, __Aztec Mythology,__ 2010, [], (20 May 2010) 3) NASA, __Ask an astronomer KIDS,__ ND, [], (20 May 2010) 4) European space agency, __ESA kids Our universe,__ 2010, [], (20 May 2010) 5) Lunar and Planetary Institute, __Ganymede__, 1997, http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/outerp/gany.html (21 May 2010) 6) Enotes, __Space, []__
 * References:**