What is above your head? By Prof Clare E. Parnell University of St Andrews

What is above your head? By Prof Clare E. Parnell University of St Andrews

Above your head are birds soaring The most common bird in Britain is a Chaffinch Birds fly at about 150 m although during migration they may fly at 600 m-1500 m

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

birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people Hare you even been on a plane? Most planes fly at about 10-13 km above us.

birds soaring, clouds making rain, planes carrying people and meteors burning up 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. Meteors burn up about 16 26 km above us

meteors burning up and colourful aurora 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. Aurora form around 100 km up above.

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. 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.

meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking and useful satellites Mobile phones and Satnavs use satellites to connect people and to help people drive around. There are more than 150 of these satellites. They fly 20 km above.

meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking, useful satellites and our circling Moon The moon takes 27 days to circle around the Earth. It takes 3 days and 4 hours to travel to the moon. The moon takes 27 days to circle around the Earth.

meteors burning up, colourful aurora, spacemen walking, useful satellites, our circling Moon and the dazzling Sun Size of Earth The Sun is a star. Solar flares are big eruptions that blast out from the Sun It takes light 8 minutes to reach us from the Sun. The Sun is 150 million km away.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. Andromeda 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.

What is above your head? Galaxies Supernova Saturn Nebula Mars Clouds Meteors Spacemen Moon Star clusters Asteroids Jupiter Birds Planes Aurora Satellites Sun

The sky tonight Andromeda Pleiades Jupiter Orion