The Universe

Welcome: The Universe
Description: The universe contains everything that exists including the Earth, planets, meteoroids, comets stars, space, and galaxies. This includes all matter, energy, and even time. No one knows for sure just how big the universe is. It could be infinitely large. Scientists, however, measure the size of the universe by what they can see. They call this the "observable universe." We humans have been astonished by our existence for a long time. Trying to make sense of it all is one of the oldest projects around, and each era seems to make some progress in this all-encompassing effort. The consequences of these insights are huge, because whenever humans become convinced that their understanding goes beyond what their ancestors knew, they find themselves reinventing what it means to be human. We are always at the very beginning of this quest, profoundly stunned, even horrified, by the vastness of what we know and what we do not know. It is an important search, because we build our civilizations upon our understanding of the cosmos. No previous generation had our knowledge of a trillion galaxy universe. it was out of 'curiosity' we wanted to know how the things formed, why are they acting the way they are acting etc to understand the physical laws that govern us. Knowing the history enables us to understand the universe. Without studying the universe, we would never have discovered the famous laws which we read in schools today (Laws of Motion, Energy-Mass Equivalence etc) and in turn without these laws and discoveries, there would have been no technology ! So, everything is inter-related. Launching of satellites would have never happened if there was no interest in learning about our earth and outer space. No satellites, No GPS !!. At the same time, it also tells a lot about of life and understanding of the living world today. Discovery of various elements and chemicals also amounts to the study of the world beyond our cosmos. Necessity plus curiosity is the mother of inventions.
Grade Level: 6-8
Curriculum: Social Studies
Keywords: Universe, galaxy, stars, planets, comets, meteors, meteorites, asteroids, asteroid belt, halo, space, black hole, satellites, volcanoes, gases,
Author(s): Avril Barnes