What is above your head?

By Prof Clare E. Parnell University of St Andrews

Above your head are…… birds soaring

Birds fly at about 150 m although during migration they may fly at 600 m-1500 m

The most common bird in Britain is a Chaffinch

Above your head are…. birds soaring and clouds making rain

Clouds are made out of drops of water. Light white fluffy (cirrus) clouds hold little water

Large black (cumulo-nimbus) clouds hold lots of water…. …. and cause rain and storms

Clouds form at about 150 metres -10 thousand metres (150 – 10 km)

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people

Most planes fly at about 10-13 km above us.

Hare you even been on a plane?

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people and

meteors burning up

Meteors burn up about 16 – 26 km above us

Meteors are tiny chunks of rock about the size of a peanut that fly towards the Earth so fast that they burn up and cause a fiery streak in the sky.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people,

meteors burning up and colourful aurora

Aurora form around 100 km up above.

Sometimes at night we can see colourful bright lights in the sky, called aurora.

Aurora are formed when storms on the Sun send winds (streams of charged particles) towards the earth.

The international space station has been home to a total of 196 people over the last 10 years. It is about 320 km up above us.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people,

meteors burning up, colourful aurora and spacemen walking

Astronauts (spacemen) have to wear special suits when they go into space because the air is too thin in space and they cannot breathe without it.

Mobile phones and Satnavs use satellites to connect people and to help people drive around.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking

and useful satellites

There are more than 150 of these satellites. They fly 20 km above.

The moon takes 27 days to circle around the Earth. It takes 3 days and 4 hours to travel to the moon.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites and our circling Moon

The moon takes 27 days to circle around the Earth.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking, useful satellites, our circling Moon and the dazzling Sun

The Sun is a star. Solar flares are big eruptions that blast out from the Sun

Size of Earth

It takes light 8 minutes to reach us from the Sun. The Sun is 150 million km away.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun and the red planet Mars

Mars is the nearest planet to us. It is very cold on Mars (-25C). In 2004 a space ship landed on Mars and a robot has been taking pictures of it ever since.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon , the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars and flying rocks called asteroids

Asteroids are huge lumps of rock – smaller than a planet - that fly around the Sun.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids

and the giant planet Jupiter

Jupiter is a giant planet 11 times bigger than Earth and 318 times the mass of the Earth. It is 900 million km away.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids, the giant planet

Jupiter and the ringed planet Saturn.

Saturn is 9 times bigger than Earth. Its large rings are made of rocks, ice and dust. It is over a thousand million km above us.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids, the giant planet

Jupiter, the ringed planet Saturn and the star cluster Pleiades

It is the most obvious cluster of stars seen at night. It contains more than a thousand stars. Pleiades is 400 light years above us. 1 light year is 157 million million metres

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people,

meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids, the giant planet Jupiter, the ringed

planet Saturn, the star cluster Pleiades and the Orion Nebula

A Nebula is a region where new stars and planets can be formed . It is one thousand light years above us. We can see far off stars, nebula and clusters by using the big space telescope, Hubble.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids, the giant planet

Jupiter, the ringed planet Saturn, the star cluster Pleiades, the Orion Nebula and supernova

When a star becomes old it may explode. An exploding star is called a supernova. The Crab Nebula is 6 thousand light years away and is the remains of a supernova.

Above your head are…. birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people, meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking,

useful satellites, our circling Moon, the dazzling Sun, the red planet Mars, flying rocks called asteroids, the giant planet

Jupiter, the ringed planet Saturn, the star cluster Pleiades, the Orion Nebula, supernova and galaxies.

Galaxies are collections of planets, stars, nebula and clusters

Andromeda is a spiral galaxy that is 2.5 million light years away and is thought to be 13 thousand million years old.

Andromeda

What is above your head?

Clouds

Satellites

Moon

Meteors

Mars

Jupiter

Saturn

Star clusters

Nebula

Supernova

Galaxies

Planes Aurora

Sun

Asteroids

Spacemen

Birds

The sky tonight

Orion

Andromeda

Jupiter Pleiades