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Astronomy is a serious science. Many people get involved with it when they are very young. There are a lot of resources for astronomy for kids who are interested in the planets, the solar system, the universe and everything else that's part of this exciting science. A number of astronomy subjects interest kids. Movies like Star Wars only serve to increase this attraction.

The moon is Earth's only satellite. It takes about 27 days to orbit the Earth. Being so near, it has hosted the only human footsteps on a space object other than the Earth. The moon is important for the Earth because it causes the tides through gravitational forces between the Earth and the moon. Because it's close enough to see clearly with the naked eye, kids are often drawn to astronomy by it.

Consider Sol, our own star, the sun. The gap between our home and the sun is very large. The distance fluctuates between about 91 million miles and about 94 million miles. It's not an inaccurate measurement, it's because the Earth orbits in an uneven ellipse. Life on Earth is only possible because of the sun. The sun provides both light and heat to the planet. Over 98% of the total stuff in our solar system is in the sun. Think about how small a person is compared to that.

Our own galaxy is the Milky Way. It's full of space stuff. Most of the area in a galaxy is filled with nothing, just empty space. That's a lot of nothing because our galaxy is 100,000 light years across and 3,000 light years deep. Our sun is over 30,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. The Milky Way contains something like 100 billion stars. In fact the galaxy takes its name from the appearance of the band of stars that shine from the main section of the galaxy. It looks like a pool of liquid, thus the name “Milky Way.” It's a spiral galaxy, one of four major types of galaxies in the universe. The others are elliptical, lenticular and irregular.

You can find a wealth of resources for astronomy for kids on the world wide web. Kids could spend hours wrapped in detailed 3D representations of the universe around us.