Where Is Our Solar System [Paperback]

Readers will want to grab a telescope and explore the night skies after finishing this overview of our solar system.

Our solar system consists of eight planets, as well as numerous moons, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids. For thousands of years, humans believed that Earth was at the center of the Universe, but all of that changed in the 17th century. Astronomers like Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, and Isaac Newton proposed the unthinkable theory that Earth and the other planets actually revolved around the Sun. This engaging book chronicles the beginning of the modern age of astronomy, then follows later discoveries, including NASA's current missions in space.Stephanie Sabol is a native of the Jersey Shore and a graduate of Boston College. She currently resides in Hoboken, New Jersey.Where Is Our Solar System?
 
 
Thousands of years ago in China, farmers were out in the field working. It had been a sunny day. But suddenly the sky began to darken. This wasn’t just a cloud—the sun was disappearing! In a few minutes, the sky was completely dark. The farmers thought they knew what was happening. A dragon was eating the sun. 
 
Quickly, they started to make noise. They chanted songs, beat drums, and banged pots and pans. They had to scare the dragon away. Then the sun would come back. Sure enough, in just a few minutes, it did. Making noise had worked, the farmers believed. 
 
Today we know that a dragon wasn’t trying to eat the sun. What those farmers in China saw was a total solar eclipse.
 
Every year and a half or so, the moon, which is always circling Earth, will get in between the sun and Earth. For a few minutes the moon blocks the sun completely. There is no sunlight. 
 
However, in ancient times, the Chinese and other people didn’t know the scientific reasons why certain events happened in the natural world. So theylÃ-