The Moons of Our Solar System
A planetarium show teaching about our own Moon, and the strange moons around the Solar System
A planetarium show teaching about our own Moon, and the strange moons around the Solar System
We'll learn about all the bizarre colours, shapes, and sizes of the moons in our celestial neighbourhood.
Show Outline
This show is designed to last 25 minutes. It can be adapted for different grade levels, but is recommended for ages 10+.
- students enter the dome
- we get a view of the night sky from Earth and see our Moon
- we travel up into space and get a close-up view of the Moon
- we go to Mercury and Venus, finding they have no moons
- we travel to Mars and see it has two small weirdly shaped moons, Phobos and Deimos
- we explore the giant moons of Jupiter: Io, Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa
- off to Saturn to Titan and pasta-shaped moon, Pan
- finishing the show, we see a hockey-themed moon around Uranus
- time for questions
- students exit the dome
Curriculum Connections
Earth and Space
A. Matter
- 2. Organization of matter
- b. Describes the main structures on the Earth’s surface (e.g. continents, oceans, ice caps, mountains, volcanoes)
B. Energy
- 2. Transmission of energy
- a. Describes methods for transmitting thermal energy (e.g. radiation, convection, conduction)
D. Systems and interaction
- 3. Solar system
- a. Recognizes the main components of the solar system (sun, planets, natural satellites)
- b. Describes the characteristics of the main components of the solar system (e.g. composition, size, orbit, temperature)
Science and Technology
The Earth and Space
C. Astronomical phenomena
- 1. Concepts related to astronomy
- a. Universal Gravitation
- i. Defines gravitation as a force of mutual attraction between bodies
- a. Universal Gravitation
- 2. Solar system
- a. Characteristics of the solar system
- i. Compares some of the characteristics of the planets in our solar system (e.g. distances, relative size, composition)
- a. Characteristics of the solar system
Science and Technology
The Earth and Space
C. Astronomical phenomena
- 3. Space
- a. Scale of the universe
- i. Astronomical unit
- Defines an astronomical unit as the unit of length corresponding to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun
- ii. Light year
- Defines light year as a unit of length corresponding to the distance travelled by light in one Earth year
- iii. Location of the Earth in the universe
- Compares the relative distance between different celestial bodies (e.g. stars, nebulae, galaxies)
- i. Astronomical unit
- b. Conditions conducive to the development of life
- i. Describes conditions conducive to the development or maintenance of life (e.g. presence of a gaseous atmosphere, water, energy source)
- a. Scale of the universe