Planet Earth, our home in space

Mouse — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 03:00:57 +0000

Earthrise, taken by astronauts from the Apollo 8 mission. Image courtesy http://nasa.gov

The Apollo 8 mission was the first manned voyage to orbit the moon. Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell were the astronauts in this historic mission. On Christmas Eve 1968, they got to see the Earth rising over the moon’s surface just like the sun. William Anders took the picture you see to the right. Known as Earthrise, it became one of the most famous pictures taken from space. Galen Rowell, a wilderness photographer, called it

…the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.

It changed how many people viewed the Earth, including astronaut Lovell of the Apollo 8 mission. He said Earth looked like a

…fragile oasis in the vastness of space.

On Christmas Eve of 1968, the crew of the Apollo 8 mission read the creation story from Genesis 1 to the people back on Earth. In memory of this, the US Postal Service made a stamp including the picture of Earthrise and the words “In the beginning God…”

Commemorative stamp of the Apollo 8 mission, issued by the US Postal Service

In the second century, the astronomer Ptolemy described the Earth as a globe at the center of the universe. This is called geocentrism. Geo means Earth and centrism means center. People believed this for a very long time because when you look at the sky, it seems like everything is orbiting around us. There are also some verses in the bible which talk about the foundations of the Earth, and many religious leaders thought these verses meant that the Earth did not move in space.

In 550 BC, Pythagorus said the Earth was round and that it was not the center of the universe. He thought it orbited around a point. Many years later, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus said the Earth orbited the sun with the other planets. This is called heliocentrism. Helios means sun.

Since then, there have been many advancements in our knowledge of our solar system, thanks to the hard work of many astronomers over the centuries and incredible advancements in technology. With bigger telescopes, different kinds of telescopes and the ability to send probes to other planets, we have learned a lot about the universe and the planet Earth. Please join us as we tour our solar system and learn more about our amazing home.

If you do any of the projects in this edition, or make your own artwork of the solar system, please email me a picture of it at thesciencemouseATgmailDOTcom and I will include it in my Reader Gallery!

The Sun, the center of the solar system

The terrestrial planets

Mercury

Venus, Our Sister Planet

Earth, Our Home in Space

Mars, the Red Planet

The Gas Giants

Jupiter, the Largest Planet in Our Solar System

Saturn, Ringed Beauty

Uranus

Neptune, Uranus’ Sister Planet

Other Features