What an amazing universe we live in!

Year 5 have been studying 'Space & Beyond' as part of their science programme this term. This week they looked at the solar system and considered the immense distances that separate the planets from each other. The topic stimulated lots of big questions such as will humanity ever traverse interstellar space and, of course, does intelligent life inhabit other worlds?

 

As part of their work the children were involved in making a scale model of the solar system. Jake, a member of 5 Bronte, described the vast distance between Neptune and the Sun as 'mind blowing!' 

 

Liam, also from 5 Bronte, composed a mnemonic to help him learn the order of the planets. He came up with, 'My Velociraptor Entertains My Jolly Smiling Uncle Neil!'.

 

Edward from 5 Hawking was amazed to discover that the planets with the biggest diameters spun more quickly. For instance, a day on Earth is 24 hours but on Jupiter a day is only 9.8 Earth hours.

 

Classmate, Cass, added, "I was shocked to learn that even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun it is not the hottest. In actual fact, Venus is the hottest.'

 

Skye, also from Hawking class, was amazed at the vast distances between stars and planets, "I learnt that it takes light over 8 minutes to reach the Earth from the sun even though light travels at 186,000

miles per second!"