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Glossary term: Solar System

Description: All objects that are under the gravitational influence of the Sun are members of the Solar System. Apart from the Sun at the center, the Solar System includes the eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune), their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, meteoroids, and other objects in the Kuiper Belt and beyond, as well as artificial satellites and space probes. It is believed that the Solar System extends up to 100,000 astronomical units from the Sun in what is called the Oort Cloud, comprising of billions of icy objects.

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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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Deadly Moons

Deadly Moons

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Through art and science, children learn about moons of our solar system.

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Art , Creativity , Hands-on , Drawing
Age Ranges: 6-8 , 8-10 , 10-12
Education Level: Primary , Secondary
Areas of Learning: Fine Art focussed , Social Research
Costs: High Cost
Duration: 1 hour
Group Size: Group
Skills: Asking questions , Communicating information

Solar System Model

Solar System Model

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Make a model of the Solar System planets using household materials.

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Hands-on , Model , Planets
Age Ranges: 4-6 , 6-8 , 8-10
Education Level: Pre-school , Primary
Areas of Learning: Modelling
Costs: Low Cost
Duration: 30 mins
Group Size: Group
Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Communicating information , Developing and using models

Solar System Model on a City Map

Solar System Model on a City Map

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Build a scale model of the Solar System on your city map

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Hands-on , Scales , Distances , city map , scale model
Age Ranges: 12-14 , 14-16
Education Level: Middle School
Areas of Learning: Modelling
Costs: Low Cost
Duration: 2 hours
Group Size: Group
Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Communicating information , Developing and using models

Living in the Milky Way

Living in the Milky Way

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Build a model of the Milky Way to discover what our galaxy contains.

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Hands-on , Model
Age Ranges: 6-8 , 8-10
Education Level: Primary
Areas of Learning: Problem-solving , Social Research
Costs: Medium Cost
Duration: 1 hour 30 mins
Group Size: Group
Skills: Asking questions , Communicating information , Developing and using models

Sun, Earth and Moon Model

Sun, Earth and Moon Model

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Build an Earth-Moon-Sun mobile to learn about how they orbit.

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Hands-on , Model
Age Ranges: 8-10
Education Level: Primary
Areas of Learning: Game-mediated learning , Modelling , Social Research
Costs: Medium Cost
Duration: 1 hour 30 mins
Group Size: Group
Skills: Asking questions , Communicating information , Developing and using models

Know Your Planets

Know Your Planets

astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website)
Description: Play a game of card and learn about the Sun and planets.

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Tags: Game , Planets
Age Ranges: 4-6 , 6-8 , 8-10
Education Level: Pre-school , Primary
Areas of Learning: Game-mediated learning , Social Research
Costs: Low Cost
Duration: 1 hour
Group Size: Group
Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Communicating information