Beyond Earth inquiry

Our inquiry this term is into the universe beyond earth. One of the first things you begin to discover about space is the sheer size of it. We did some exploring today and went out side to measured some distances. If the sun was 1.4 cm wide the planets would stretch over a 60 meter distance. If the sun was the size of a basketball the planets would stretch over a distance from our school to the end of Corcoran road. Earth is tiny compared to the sun as can be seen in the picture. Our sun is tiny compared to other stars. Our galaxy, the milky way, is just one galaxy among millions of others. They think that if a galaxy was the size of a pea, you could fill the Royal Albert Hall with the galaxies in the universe. It has been fascinating and we had some great discussion around questions it raised for the students.

Fill this with peas and that is the number of galaxies in our universe!