What exactly is an Asteroid anyway?

Meteor explodes over central Russia, 500 people hurt – Yahoo! News.

Well, it appears another asteroid story is big news.  So, we need to be giving our children a refresher on asteroids (or teaching them what they are, if they do not already know).  We used Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Astronomy book with lots of Montessori Solar System Works from Montessori Etc and from Montessori for Everyone.  

Let’s start with what an asteroid is… it’s a space rock orbiting the sun.  Many were formerly short-term comets that had ice on them.  But as they flew past the sun, the ice melted and the core was left, a rock, an asteroid. Lots of folks get asteroids and meteoroids confused.  The primary difference is size.  Asteroids are larger than meteoroids (usually larger than a football field).  What are asteroids made of?  Per Apologia Astronomy, they are made material like iron, rock and carbon.  When asteroids enter our atmosphere, they begin to burn up (just like a meteoroid and comet).  And when it hits earth it is called a meteorite.  There are millions out in space!

Here are several great sites to help children understand what asteroids are:

Ask An Astronomer for kids

Astronomy.com 

Lunar Post

My children just learn a topic better if there is some hands-on aspect of the assignment.  Here are two great asteroid activities for children and one is edible 🙂  :

Edible Asteroids

Model an Asteroid

I hope this has helped you get some ideas as to how to teach your children about asteroids!  Leave a comment and link to your activities so we can see how they turned out!!!

Until next time…

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Trish Corlew

Founder and Author at Live and Learn Farm

Trish has been married to her best friend, David, for 16 years and they have three sons (aged 13, 12 and 9). Trish is from the coast of North Carolina, but they now live in rural West Tennessee on a 40+ acre farm. She has been homeschooling since 2009 and her homeschool style leans towards a Montessori approach with a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning. They also own a small business that Trish runs from home. Trish’s family is Messianic and they love studying the Scriptures, learning Hebrew and growing in their faith and walk daily. In her spare time, Trish loves to write, work in their garden and can regularly be found trying to learn something new, modeling that learning is indeed a life-long endeavor!

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