Semester 2: 14 Lessons
Enjoy 14 jam-packed lessons as you and your students ride alongside comets with our spacecrafts, dodge meteors, search for exo-planets, get lost in colorful nebulae, explore the moons of other planets and loads of other amazing phenomena in space!
Computer-Based Lessons
These vivid and engaging lessons run on any computer system.
Engaging Imagery
Enjoy high quality images that will keep your student captivated for 14-weeks.
No Prep Time
You are busy enough. Everything is done for you ahead of time.
Take a Tour
Comets are among the most beautiful astronomical objects in our sky, but brought fear to our ancestors when they appeared. Find out what comets are and where they come from in this lesson. What’s the difference between a comet, an asteroid and a meteorite? Could one of these objects really hit the Earth? You will know after streaking through the solar system with this lesson.
Do you want to learn about the whole universe in one lesson? Did you know that only a hundred years ago we thought our Milky Way Galaxy was the entire universe? How much of the universe can we really see? Tour the universe with Home School Astronomy and get a sense of where we are located in the grand scheme of the universe and how big the universe really is.
Exoplanets – Planets Beyond our Solar System
Discovering exoplanets is one of the most exciting fields in astronomy today. We have found thousand of planets besides the ones that circle our Sun now, and planet hunting has reached a fever pitch. What are these other planets like? How do we find them? Are any other planets like the Earth? Explore planets from all over the galaxy orbiting different stars.
Home
The Earth is our home. How many of us can live here? How unique is the Earth in all the solar system? Investigate what the universe looks like from the surface of the Earth and why we divided our planet up into hemispheres, time zones, longitude and latitude. Find out how we took our first steps into orbit around this big blue marble we call the Earth and what it taught us about our own planet – Home.
How to really use a telescope
Did you ever wonder how a telescope works? Have you ever wanted to own a telescope but where not sure how to choose the right one for you and your family? How do we get these spectacular pictures of the universe from orbiting telescopes like Hubble and what can we find out about the universe by looking at it in other types of light besides the kind we see?
Little Green Men: The search for life beyond earth
Moons of the solar system
Many of the moons in our solar system are more interesting than some of the planets. We have found moons with oceans, volcanoes, geysers and earthquakes. There are moons that look like rocks, sponges and cheese. How many moons are there in the solar system? What is the difference between a moon and a planet? Take a trip around the solar system and see what the moons have to offer your curiosity.
Nebulae
The most beautiful objects in the universe are nebulae. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors, but what are they really? Learn to differentiate between different kinds of nebulae and find out how they get their names. Why is the galaxy littered with them and do the pictures we see really represent what they would look like if we went there?
Robotic Space Exploration
We are inspired by human space exploration, but these space robots can go places humans could never go – and for longer periods of time. Much of the exploration we’ve accomplished in the solar system is because of our ability to make robots and send them to explore. They travel at speeds humans could not endure, they don’t need water, heat or food and they don’t need to be entertained – they just work. Explore the many different kinds of robot emissaries we’ve sent into the solar system and what unexpected discoveries they’ve made for us.
Space-Time and Gravity Simplified
The universe operates by rules that are not easy to determine. See how we discovered some of the universe’s rules with the understanding of humanity’s greatest minds like Newton and Einstein. Did you know that Space and Time are connected and that large objects actually bend space, because space is a lot like a fabric? See how understanding these rules helps us in everyday life and what the possibilities are to enhance space travel like we’ve never imagined before.
stars and star clusters
Stars are the workhorses of the universe and account for most of its mass. They come in many shapes and sizes, some as small as just a few miles across and others that are as large as much of our solar system. Some are hundreds of times hotter than the Sun and others are just a few thousand degrees. When stars start running out of fuel they do some crazy things like explode into supernovae or implode into tightly packed white dwarfs or black holes.
the edge of interstellar space
One of the cutting edge areas of astronomy has to do with where our solar system ends and where interstellar space begins. The Sun’s influence extends much further than we previously thought and we have just started to explore the outer edges of our home solar system with space probes launched in the 1970s. What kind of objects are out that far from the Sun?
Venus: Approach with caution
Venus is the closest planet to the Earth but could hardly be more different. Spacecrafts melt and are pelted with sulfuric acid rain as they streak to the surface of Venus in pitch black skies. 900 mile an hour winds blow as we try to explore this greenhouse of a planet. When studying Venus it is best to approach it with caution.
WHAT ON EARTH ASTRONOMY?