Planets In Our Galaxy:

There are more planents than stars in our galaxy.

The inner planets are:Mercury, Venus, Earth and mars.

The outer planets are:Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Beyond Neptune, there is a newer class of smaller worlds called dwarf planets, including Pluto.

Facts About Space:

1.There is no sound in space, Astronaunts use radios to stay in communication, while in space.

2.Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system,and has a temperature of around 450c.

3.Of all the planets in our solar system (apart from Earth), Mars is the one most likely to be hospitable to life.

4.The sheer size of space makes it impossible to accurately predict just how many stars we have. Right now, scientists and astronomers use the number of stars only within our galaxy, The Milky Way, to estimate.

Galaxies:

We live on a planet called Earth that is part of our solar system. But where is our solar system? It’s a small part of the Milky Way Galaxy.

A galaxy is a huge collection of gas, dust, and billions of stars and their solar systems. A galaxy is held together by gravity. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, also has a supermassive black hole in the middle.

When you look up at stars in the night sky, you’re seeing other stars in the Milky Way. If it’s really dark, far away from lights from cities and houses, you can even see the dusty bands of the Milky Way stretch across the sky.

Earth:

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest planet in the Solar System with the highest density. It is currently the only known location where life is present.

Our home planet Earth is a rocky, terrestrial planet. It has a solid and active surface with mountains, valleys, canyons, plains and so much more. Earth is special because it is an ocean planet. Water covers 70% of Earth’s surface.

Our planet sits in a small corner of the Milky Way galaxy, 25,000 light-years from the galactic center and 25,000 light-years away from the rim.

First shuttle launch:

A new era in space flight began on April 12, 1981, when Space Shuttle Columbia, or STS-1, soared into orbit from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Astronaut John Young, a veteran of four previous spaceflights including a walk on the moon in 1972, commanded the mission. Navy test pilot Bob Crippen piloted the mission and would go on to command three future shuttle missions. The shuttle was humankind’s first re-usable spacecraft. The orbiter would launch like a rocket and land like a plane. The two solid rocket boosters that helped push them into space would also be re-used, after being recovered in the ocean. Only the massive external fuel tank would burn up as it fell back to Earth.