Space Compilation: Crash Course Kids

space it's really cool actually it's really cold and really big and really awesome space has inspired a lot of us to do a lot of really cool things but probably one of the best things that's inspired many of us to do is just simply learn about it the more we learn about stars other planets galaxies and asteroids the more we learn about the universe and even ourselves so let's start this off by talking about one specific star one that's really close to us pop quiz what's the closest star to earth it's called soul never heard of it you say sure you have soul is the Sun ancient Romans who once worshiped the Sun called its soul and it's become the kind of official scientific name for the Sun it's where the term solar system comes from soul or the Sun is the star at the center of our eight planet solar system that provides us with energy without the Sun earth would be a dark frozen world with no life but how does the sun's energy get to us well first let's talk about what the Sun is it's a five billion year old big ball of superhot gas the hottest part of the Sun is its core or center which is about 15 million degrees Celsius well its surface is not quite as hot but it's still almost 5,600 degrees Celsius which is pretty toasty if you ask me and as for its size the Sun is so huge you can line up over a hundred earths along the face of it and more than a million earths could fit inside it but the Sun size isn't what makes it seem so big and bright to us on earth it's because it's so close to us that it seems way way way way bigger and brighter than other stars so you know that the Sun is hot and bright and that heat and light are both kinds of energy that we get from the Sun let's take a look at a model to see how the sun's energy gets from good ol soul to our planet hmm here's the Sun energy is created in its super hot 15 million degree core that energy then travels outward from the core to the surface of the Sun but this journey from the center of the Sun to its surface can take over 100,000 years to complete but once the energy deep inside the Sun finally gets to the surface it travels as light and heat all the way to earth in fact it only takes about eight minutes for light to travel approximately 150 million kilometres through space to earth over here that's not such a long time so to sum up energy is created in the Sun's core it travels very slowly to the Sun surface before it takes a super speedy trip to earth in the form of light and heat and you and I can see and feel that energy as sunlight without the heat and light we get from the Sun earth would be just a frozen ball floating around in space which would be a total bummer so thanks soul you're a real star so yeah the Sun is big really big but understanding the universe is sometimes about perspective the Sun is big to us sure but it's nothing compared to the galaxy or even some of the other stars and compared to the universe well our Sun is pretty tiny compared to the universe because the universe is huge how huge the universe is big really big bigger than that no you're not thinking big enough it's so massive that it makes my brain hurt it's so ginormous sweet teeny-tiny humans can barely just barely get our brains to comprehend it but just because we can't really fully understand how big the universe is doesn't mean it's not important the universe is our home we should at least poke around so how big is the universe let's start off with our cosmic address that's where we live in the universe you could say my current cosmic address is the crash course kids studio Toronto Canada North America earth the solar system the Milky Way galaxy the observable universe the universe knowing our cosmic address helps us understand where the things in the sky are things like stars asteroids planets it even other galaxies every time we go up and out a level in our cosmic address the actual space we're talking about gets more spacious distances in space are so large that scientists had to come up with a whole new way of measuring them you can't talk about space using miles or kilometers the numbers get so big that they just sound like nonsense that's where a Lightyear comes in it sounds like a measure of time because it has the word Year in it but it's really a measure of distance light is the fastest thing we know in the whole universe clocking in at a whopping 300,000 kilometers per second in one second light can travel around the earth the whole earth have been times it's moving so fast our brains can't detect that it's moving at all so a light year is the distance that light can travel in one year does your head hurt yet well buckle up because we're just getting started back to our big question how big is this universe of ours nobody knows really that's pretty weird right well that's partly because the only part of the universe we know about is what we call our observable universe the parts that we can actually see or observe in any direction some things are so far away that light from those objects haven't even reached us yet that is the limit of our observable universe beyond that we don't know what's out there but even sticking to the observable universe we're going to need to scale things way down to understand any of it hmm let's try to visualize our cosmic address on a scale that we can handle let's use this room as our scale it's about 10 meters by 10 meters the size of an average classroom if the Sun were the size of this room the earth would be about this big okay not too crazy now imagine our whole solar system where the size of this room this would be the Sun don't see anything that's because it's just a grain of salt a grain of salt yeah that's our Sun and the Earth's orbit around the Sun would be about the size of this disc at this scale the earth is just a microscopic bacterium we can't even see it at this size our whole big huge solar system is just a grain of salt now what if the entire Milky Way galaxy were the size of this room our solar neighborhood would be this big whoa boy now for the finale the biggest thing we know the observable universe imagine the observable universe is this room can you spot the Milky Way nope it's just way too small it's not that it's just unseeable it's smaller than microscopic the whole Milky Way are you dizzy I'm dizzy so that gives you an idea of the size of the things in the universe but what about the size of the space you know that the Sun is the closest star to the earth but what is the second closest that would be Proxima Centauri it's 4.24 light-years away that means it takes light from That star for years to reach us by comparison it takes the sun's like 8 minutes to get to earth if you want to visit the sun's closest star friend traveling in the fastest object humans have ever built it would still take 19,000 years to get there and that's only four point 24 light years away the observable universe is are you ready for this 93 billion light years across even using light-years it's so big it still sounds kind of like nonsense huh so space it's big really big mind-bogglingly big but it's also our home even if we're just unbelievably small little things floating on a speck of dust in a teeny tiny galaxy we're still here and we know where we are in the universe and that's pretty awesome but I think I need to go lie down now okay now that we have a little perspective let's start looking a little deeper into the Stars stars aren't all like our Sun actually they're all really different from white dwarfs to red supergiant stars have all kinds of appearances and personalities my brain still hurts from last time it's like intergalactic whiplash YouTube but there's a reason we zoom through the mega giant unbelievably huge vastness of space it helps us understand how big the universe really is not just how big it appears from our perspective down here on our itty-bitty earth if you glance up at the night sky the stars seem like they're all on the same plane that is at the same distance from Earth and the stars all seem pretty similar but don't let your eyes fool you some stars are relatively close just four or so light-years away and some are hundreds of thousands of light-years away the further stars are billions of light-years away billions people and in the big huge space enos of space there's a lot of room for variety even in our galaxy the Milky Way there's a wide range of stars so stop stereotyping then let's take a look what are the different kinds of stars well scientists organize stars by their color and size which also happens to be how I organize my rock collection we've learned that stars glow because they create energy through nuclear fusion but not all stars produce the same amount of energy and stars can produce different amounts of energy throughout their lifetimes I mean they're not alive but in a sense stars are born grow up age and eventually die once they burn through all of the hydrogen in their core and don't feel bad this all happens over billions and billions of years now first thing to remember stars that produce less energy glow red these stars are relatively cool with the surface of about two thousand seven hundred sixty degrees Celsius but the very hottest stars in the universe glow blue-white put on your shades because these stars can have a surface temperature of over thirty thousand degrees Celsius our Sun by the way is a perfect mellow yellow temperature right in the middle with a surface temperature around ten thousand degrees stars also come in a range of sizes the smallest known star is just a little bit bigger than Jupiter pretty small considering you could fit about 1000 Jupiter's inside our Sun meanwhile the largest star that we know of is many hundreds of times larger than the Sun if it were in our solar system it would then past Saturn's orbit once again our Sun is in the middle of this range we're in a real-life Goldilocks situation here so now that we know how stars are classified let's see if we can identify two of our star neighbors I've got the perfect stars in mind a foot and an armpit Oh have you met Orion hmm he's one of the most recognizable constellations and he's got two body parts that are made from totally different kinds of stars remember Betelgeuse we talked about this star in a previous episode it's the right shoulder some people like me call it the armpit of Orion and let me introduce you to Rigel Orion's left foot Betelgeuse and Rigel are both in our home galaxy the Milky Way take a look at this picture of Orion based on the evidence that you can see which would you argue is hotter does one star look kind of reddish and another kind of blue you smarty pants I bet you already guess the answer Betelgeuse the armpit star is a red supergiant it's much much cooler than Rigel and sadly its nearing the end of its starry life on the other hand or foot Rigel is a blue-white supergiant star this star is in the prime of its life burning super hot and super bright but stick around a few million years and Rigel will probably start to look like Betelgeuse red and cool now since Rigel shines more brightly you might assume that it's closer to us and that would be a great guess but using brightness to judge distance can be tricky Rigel has much greater true brightness or luminosity than Betelgeuse so the foot' outshines the armpits so in summary a star isn't just a star from here on earth the stars may look similar but you know better now they come in different colors and different sizes you could say they've got their own personality stars they're just like us except millions or billions of miles away and gigantic they're not really like us now that we've talked about stars and their places in the universe let's have a look at a couple of episodes that show us how we have used the stars throughout history to both help us tell stories and actually guide us like points on a map I'm talking about constellations now you might be thinking but we've already learned about stars well you're right or at least you've been paying attention but we learned about individual stars basically how they do what they do as solo acts out there in the universe but what happens when a bunch of stars band together to form a supergroup sort of like the Avengers of the night sky well then they're called a constellation today we'll talk about these groups of stars and why they're so important to astronomers besides being just plain cool or hot you know what I mean so what exactly is a constellation a constellation is a cluster of stars in the sky that have been grouped together in a pattern or shape and have been given a name but before we take a closer look at constellations let's review what a star is remember a star is a bright object in space that gives off light through energy that it makes in its core the Sun is the most famous star to us Earthlings we've already talked about a few other well-known stars though like bright Betelgeuse astronomers use bright stars like Betelgeuse as markers in the sky to help find other less bright objects in space for example if you are looking for a dim star like Sirius B you might have to look for a long time to spot it among the many many many many other stars in the sky but if you're able to spot a much brighter star like Sirius a and you know that Sirius B is located to the lower left of sirius a then it'll be much easier to find Sirius B like I said there are so many stars in the sky that trying to spot just one can be tough especially if it's not near a bright one like Betelgeuse or Sirius A that's where constellations come in astronomers use constellations to help them better map the night sky think of stars like cities on a map in constellations like countries finding a large shape in the sky made of many stars is a lot easier to spot than trying to find one single speck plus there are only 88 named constellations which is a much more reasonable number to deal with then a billion and most of the 88 recognized constellations came from the ancient Greeks the stars in a constellation aren't related in any particular way they just form a shape that the Greeks used to tell stories about their gods goddesses and mythical creatures like flying horses and giant scorpions we know what a constellation is why don't we get to know some of the more famous ones Harry Potter fans will recognize the name of our first constellation its name means dragon in Latin and also happens to be the name of Harry's biggest nemesis well second-biggest after volley he-who-must-not-be-named of course yep it's Draco according to legend Draco was a dragon killed by the goddess Minerva and was tossed into the sky Draco is one of 48 constellations described way back in the second century by Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy people have been seeing this dragon like shape in the night sky for a long time constellations aren't just named after creatures though some are named after mythical people particularly gods and goddesses one of the more well-known Greek gods has his own consolation and a Disney movie I'll give you a hint he'll go the distance it's Hercules the stars in the Hercules constellation take the shape of the mighty hero as if he's holding a bow after just releasing an arrow you go Hercules the name of our next notable constellation also makes an appearance in the Hercules movie as a super cute winged horse say hello to Pegasus according to Greek mythology Hercules never actually rode Pegasus like in the movie but the flying horse did spend some time with Zeus king of the gods Zeus like Pegasus so much he transformed him into a constellation and placed him in the night sky for everyone to see now you're familiar with at least three of the 88 constellations in our sky only 85 more to go as the Earth rotates you'll see Draco Hercules and Pegasus plus all the other constellations over the course of a year but more on when and where you can see the constellations in the next episode so now you know what a star is and that a cluster of stars in the sky that are grouped together in a particular pattern is called a constellation besides having really cool shapes and stories behind their names constellations help astronomers and us map the night sky since space is so huge and massive and ginormous our map is far from complete so anything that helps us navigate that vast well space of space is okay by me people have been studying the skies for centuries and who can blame them it is beautiful up there on any given clear night there are probably more than 2,000 stars that you can see and that's without a telescope way before telescopes were even invented ancient astronomers track the movement of objects in the sky and over time one group of objects ended up getting a lot of attention I'm talking about the 13 constellations that make up something called the zodiac so what's the zodiac in which constellations are part of it we'll get to that in just a sec but first do you remember what a constellation is sure you do a constellation is a cluster of stars in the sky that are grouped together in a particular pattern and have been given a name we've talked about a few famous constellations before like Draco Hercules Pegasus Ursa Major and crux but none of these constellations are part of the zodiac you might recognize some of the constellations that are in the zodiac though do the names Gemini Leo or Sagittarius sound familiar they're among the 13 zodiac constellations and they actually form a kind of pattern in the sky this pattern makes it easier for observers to know where to find each constellation throughout the course of the year so what are all of the constellations in the zodiac and what pattern do they form let's take a look you know this guy hires at the beginning of the year January the constellation of Sagittarius is highly visible to us on earth the Greeks called Sagittarius the Archer because it looked like well a guy shooting a bow and arrow Capricornus is also highly visible in January toward the end of the month it's sometimes called the Sea Goat since it happens to have the head of a goat and the tail of a fish which is not something you see every day next up in February is Aquarius or the water-bearer a group of ancient people called the Babylonians thought that this group of stars look like an old man pouring water from a pitcher moving on to March this is Pisces or the fishes Pisces represents Venus a Roman goddess who is said to have turned into a fish and jumped into a river to escape an evil monster Aries is up in April in Greek mythology air was a ram with wings the constellation of Taurus visible in may looks like a bull it's named for the Roman god Jupiter who could supposedly turn himself into a bull when he swam Jun's prominent constellation Gemini is sometimes called the twins because it reminded the ancient Greeks of the twin sons of Zeus cancer which you can see pretty well in July is called the crab because that's what it reminded some folks of august's constellation is called Leo and looks like a ferocious lion seen in September Virgo is called the maiden since it looks like a lady holding grain which symbolized the harvest to the Greeks and the Romans this constellation of Libra appears in October when days and nights are roughly equal and is considered a symbol of balance I bet you can guess what Scorpius is named for yep it looks like a scorpion finishing off the year in late November is off the yuccas which was once called serpent arias because it looked like a man holding a serpent or a snake Hey better him than me all right now that you've met all of the constellations in the zodiac let's light them up and see if we can spot a pattern looks like a circle to me and here's a fun fact zodiac loosely translates to circle of animals or circle of life in Greek so the zodiac isn't just a random bunch of stars it's a group of constellations that form a circular pattern in the night sky and now you know which constellations are part of this pattern and that people have been observing these constellations for centuries the zodiac has helped astronomers figure out how other objects travel in space objects like the Sun and even our own planet so constellations are super important for many many reasons we use them as markers to help us find our direction on earth but also to help us find other stars it's neat but now let's pull this all together and see how the Sun affects how and when we see the zodiac constellations which is something that is also neat I've still got my eye on the sky particularly those 13 constellations in the zodiac that we learned about earlier we found out that the zodiac constellations follow a circular path around our planet today we're going to learn more about where our Sun falls in this path I'll give you a hint it involves something called the ecliptic intriguing so what is the ecliptic before we head into imaginary space to find out it's time for a quick well crash course on astronomy you know what a constellation is a cluster of stars in the sky that are grouped together in a particular pattern and have been given a name some of the constellations we've visited so far include Hercules Pegasus and Draco and last time we met a group of constellations that form something called the zodiac 13 constellations that have been studied in track since ancient times the constellations in the zodiac are all highly visible from Earth during different months of the year starting with Sagittarius in January and ending with Ophiuchus and last time we saw how these constellations form a sort of belt like shape around the earth well this time we're going to see what the sun's up to while the constellations take turns popping up in our night sky hmm okay so there's earth in the middle of space looking good home planet and here are the zodiac constellations that surround Earth but we've got to make room for another major player in space you remember the Sun of course Earth scooch over Sun hit the center stage you're on okay you already know that Earth rotates on its axis making a complete turn in one day while it's rotating it also revolves around the Sun making one full trip around the star every year this movement of the earth also makes it seem as if the Sun is moving through the stars over the course of the year this is because during any given month the Sun sits between the Earth and a different zodiac constellation but we know the Sun is not really moving it's the Earth's movement that makes it seem that way and astronomers have come up with a nifty way to track the sun's apparent path through space they draw an imaginary line from the earth through the Sun and toward the Stars beyond it as the earth moves so does this line with it while the Sun stays steady in the middle as Earth follows its orbit around the Sun this imaginary line spins pointing to different stars throughout a complete trip around the Sun forming an imaginary circle astronomers call this imaginary line that the zodiac sits on and that tracks the sense apparent path through space the ecliptic eventually over a year the earth will return to Sagittarius where it started and the cycle or pattern will start all over again so that's what the Sun is doing as one Zodiac constellation in the night sky moves to the next not a whole lot it remains in the same spot while Earth makes its annual journey and now you know that even though the Sun is not really moving the path it appears to take and the path that the zodiac sits upon is what astronomers call the ecliptic no one ever said understanding what happens in space would be easy but isn't it fun to try and that wraps up our little journey through the cosmos the universe is big the Sun is big stars are big it's all big big big big but understanding what happens in space is fascinating don't you agree if you enjoyed this check out the rest of our 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Channel: Crash Course Kids

Views: 1,056,664

Rating: 4.6951842 out of 5

Keywords: crash course, crash course kids, compilation, space, sol, the sun, astronomy, kids science, constellations, the zodiac, the ecliptic, the universe, 5th grade science

Id: Td_A9H69eE8

Length: 25min 4sec (1504 seconds)

Published: Thu May 19 2016