Space World learning pack

Solar Neighbors

Meet the Sun and Moon that shape our sky.

Two short discoveries about our home star and Earth's natural satellite.

Discoveries
2
Facts to explore
6
Recommended ages
5–8
Explore time
4 min

Discovery 01

The Sun

The star that holds our solar system together

💡 The Sun holds 99.8% of all the mass in our solar system!

A glowing yellow Sun with looping prominences and a tiny Earth in the distance.
A storybook illustration of the Sun and distant Earth.

The Sun is a huge ball of hydrogen and helium. Its gravity keeps Earth and the other planets travelling around it.

Did you know?

  • Go deeper: The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago when gravity pulled together material from a giant spinning cloud of gas and dust.
  • Advanced: Deep in the Sun, nuclear fusion joins hydrogen atoms to make helium. That process releases the energy we receive as sunlight and heat.

Discovery 02

The Moon

Earth's always-turning companion

💡 The Moon spins, but it always shows Earth nearly the same side!

A half-lit cratered Moon floating above the curved blue Earth.
A storybook illustration of the Moon and Earth.

The Moon takes about the same amount of time to spin once as it takes to travel once around Earth. This is called synchronous rotation.

Did you know?

  • Go deeper: The far side is not permanently dark. Sunlight reaches different parts of the Moon as it orbits, creating lunar days, nights, and the phases we see from Earth.
  • Advanced: Earth and the Moon are tidally locked. Over a very long time, their gravitational interaction slowed the Moon's spin until its rotation matched its orbit.