A brief journey
through the universe

Hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element in the universe. It makes up 75% of all the mass of the universe. It is the main fuel that stars use to generate all their energy. The most common form of Hydrogen is made up from one proton and one neutron, which are extremely small particles.

Infrared radiation is the heat we feel from the Sun. Its wavelength is just past the color red. 49% of the heating of our planet Earth comes from the infrared radiation from the Sun. When we view our universe within the infrared spectrum it can look very different and teach us different things.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is a gas giant and it is so large its volume is as large as 1,321 Earths. It takes Jupiter almost 12 years to orbit around the Sun and it has over 60 moons.

Kelvin is the most commonly used temperature scale when talking about the universe. You might be familiar with Fahrenheit (F) or Celsius (C). On the Kelvin scale, zero degrees is the coldest temperature there is - Absolute Zero. Most of the time when you hear of a temperature relating to astronomy it is in the Kelvin (K) scale.

A light-year is the distance light would travel in space in one year. When we talk about how far away distant objects are in the universe we sometimes describe it in light-years (ly). One light-year is about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion kilometers).

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and is also the second smallest planet in the Solar System. Mars is called the ‘Red Planet’ because it can look reddish from iron oxide (rust) on the surface. It is about half as wide as Earth and has two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and is the smallest planet. It only takes 88 Earth days for Mercury to orbit the Sun but a day on Mercury lasts 176 Earth days! It is only about 1.4 times wider than the Moon.