Astro Map

Opening Discussion:

Ask your students if they can name objects in our solar system. Keep a running list. Can they place them in order? How far apart do they think these objects might be? List out the major objects in our solar system, in order, on a piece of chart paper or chalkboard:

• Sun
• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth
• Mars
• Asteroid Belt
• Jupiter
• Saturn
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

If you can, show your students the NASA images of some of these objects included with this curriculum. You can print them out or show them the images on a computer. You can also visit NASA’s amazing solar system website, which is full of images, information and more: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets

The Challenge:

Make a map of the solar system that you can keep!

This is a highly staff-directed activity, so you will lead each child through the steps. Distribute a strip of paper and a pen or pencil to each child, and walk them through these steps to create their solar system map:

1. Label one end of your map “Sun” and the other “Pluto”.
2. Fold the strip in half, press down on the fold so it leaves a line (known as creasing the fold), and open it up again. Ask your students to refer to your solar system list that you shared earlier, and guess which object from the solar system goes on this middle crease. The answer, surprisingly, is Uranus. Have them write “Uranus” in small letters near the fold.
3. Fold the strip in half again, where the existing fold is. Then fold it in half again and crease it there. Unfold it – you should have three creases making four sections. You have gone from dividing the strip in half to dividing it in quarters.
4. Ask your students which planets they think might go on these new folds. The crease between Uranus and Pluto is Neptune – have your students label it. The object at the crease between Uranus and the Sun is Saturn.
5. You may notice that ¾ of the solar system is taken up by the space between only Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the dwarf planet Pluto. That’s a lot of distance for so few planets! Your students will still need to fit 5 planets and the Asteroid Belt in that last ¼ of their strip of paper.
6. Next step – fold the Sun up to Saturn and press down on the fold, then unfold it. Any guesses what goes at this mark? This is where Jupiter lives – write Jupiter at this 1/8^th line.
7. Fold the Sun to Jupiter and crease it. Label this as the Asteroid Belt.
8. Fold the Sun to the Asteroid Belt, crease it, unfold, and label that line between the Sun and the Asteroid Belt as Mars.
9. Three more planets to go, and not a lot of room to do it! Fold the Sun up to Mars, but leave it folded. Fold that section in half again and press down on the folds. Unfold and you should have three fold lines left behind. Label the line closest to Mars as Earth, the middle line Venus and the line closest to the Sun as Mercury. You may have to write in small letters! Look – you have completed your map! It should look like this:

Let’s Talk About It:

Ask your students if they were surprised by the results. It is worth reinforcing the vast distances between objects in our solar system – while it may look like they are close together, based on this activity, our solar system is a truly enormous place. Ask your students how long they think it might take to drive in a car, at 60 miles per hour, from Earth to Mars (using the average distance between the two). Write everyone’s guesses down on a piece of chart paper, dry erase board, etc. Did anyone come close? Reveal the answer (below), along with travel times to the Sun and the Moon:

• Mars – 92 years (48,500,000 miles)
• The Moon – 5.5 months (239,000 miles)
• The Sun – 177 years (93,000,000 miles)

Keep in mind this is non-stop travel. No bathroom breaks! Ask students to share the longest road trips they have ever taken. Can they imagine extending those trips to 92 years, or even almost 6 months? How long do they think it would take to travel in a car (or spaceship), at 60 mph, to the other major pit stops in our solar system? You can figure this out by dividing the distance between Earth and any object by 525,600 (the number of minutes in a year, since 60 mph = 1 mile per minute). If you are working with older children, you can give them this challenge – either share with them the average mileage listed below, or even have them research those distances on line. Then, have them calculate travel time by dividing the distance by 525,600. With younger children, you can have them guess travel times (now that they have some context with the three times above). Here are some distances from Earth (rounded) and 60 mph travel times:

• Earth to Mercury – 57,000,000 miles (108.5 years)
• Earth to Venus – 26,000,000 miles (49.5 years)
• Earth to the Asteroid Belt – 111,500,000 miles (212 years)
• Earth to Jupiter – 390,000,000 miles (742 years)
• Earth to Saturn – 792,000,000 miles (1,507 years)
• Earth to Uranus – 1,692,500,000 miles (3,220 years)
• Earth to Neptune – 2,704,000,000 miles (5,145 years)
• Earth to Pluto – 3,637,000,000 miles (6,920 years)

What do they think is in all that space between the planets/other objects (hint – we call it “space” for a reason…)? There is not a lot out there in space. The majority of the universe is a vast emptiness.

Build on What They Talked About:

If your students would like to, they can try to make another map of their solar system. They can also decorate their maps with drawings of the planets, based on the images you show them. You could have them include other objects, like Ceres (dwarf planet in the Asteroid Belt), and the Kuiper Belt, where Pluto, Eris and other distant objects are found.

You could also have a follow up discussion about how long it has taken NASA spacecraft to reach some of the objects in our solar system. List the objects, and have students predict how long it took NASA to get there: