You might also want to have a few pictures of constellations handy.
I found a fantastic activity for forming constellations on a great blog called Deceptively Educational, which I’ve linked at the end of this post.įor this activity, you’ll need some glow bracelets, which can be found at a store like Walmart or a party supply store. This is a handy way for scientists to quickly find a star- can you find Ursa Major? What about Orion? Scientists still use this map today! Odds are if it isn’t one of the 88 constellations, it’s an asterism! In 1922, a group of people called the International Astronomical Union decided what the constellations were.
Then all the schools in your city are the constellations that make up your night sky! How do I know what is a constellation and what is an asterism? Imagine everyone in your class is a pattern of stars, or an asterism, and all the other kids around you in your school are the constellation. It’s kind of like how you belong to your teacher’s class, and you also belong to your school. The Big Dipper is an asterism, but it is part of the constellation Ursa Major, or the Big Bear. The big dipper How can something be an asterism and also a constellation? Some of our most famous constellations are actually asterisms, like the Big Dipper! The pattern of stars we see that is sometimes an asterism, and the area around those stars is a constellation. What you might not have known is that sometimes what we call a constellation is actually an asterism. Almost as long has humans have been on Earth, we have been making patterns in the night sky. The easiest way to say it is that a constellation is a group of stars. There are 88 constellations in our sky, but what are they? This will become the center of the star, or the core.įor millions more years, the Frisbee will spin and burn, collecting more dust and gas, until it is hot enough and has enough material, then it will explode outward into a star! It might even have a little bit of extra dust and things, and a planet might form to orbit around it.Ĭonstellations in our night sky What is a constellation? The disc spins and spins, getting hotter and attracting more dust and gas.Īfter about a million years, a small, hot lump forms in the middle. The ball starts rolling out into a disc like a Frisbee. Gravity pulls the clumps in to one ball, which starts to get smaller and smaller, kind of like taking a big lump of play-doh and squeezing it down into a tight ball. It's like the beginning of making a cake- all the ingredients are loose in the bowl, but once you stir them they start to clump up. This change in gravity makes the cloud start to get clumpy. Something happens near a cloud of gasses in space that changes the gravity- maybe a nearby explosion or a passing object flying through space. Just like fire, a hotter star can be white or blue. You can tell how hot a star is by what color it is. You may think that stars are very far away- most of them are, but there is one close star we see every day… the sun! They can live alone or in pairs or groups! Stars are different sizes, shapes, colors, and temperatures.
Stars are huge balls of hot glowing gasses like hydrogen and helium. Let’s learn more about them! What is a star?
#STARS CONSTELLATIONS FULL#
The night sky is FULL of stars! If you live in the city, you might need to take a camping trip or visit our planetarium to see them, but there are billions and billions of stars in the sky.
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