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A constellation is a group of stars. The groups are identified according to patterns that people have seen in the stars. For example, the stars of the constellation Leo seem to trace the outline of a lion. The name Leo means "lion" in the Latin language. The constellation Draco, whose name is Latin for "dragon," is said to look like a dragon. However, these are not scientific groupings. They are simply ways that people have imagined the stars.

Since ancient times people have tried to explain the night sky. Over thousands of years different cultures have seen different patterns in the stars. They have named many different constellations after familiar animals, everyday objects, and characters and beasts from stories.

Today constellations provide a connection between modern humans and ancient stories. They are also interesting to spot in the night sky. Astronomers, or scientists who study stars, have named 88 constellations. They use the constellations to help describe the location of specific stars. Among them are the 12 well-known constellations that lie in a band of space called the zodiac. These are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces.

A person looking at the sky from the same point every night will see different constellations at different times of year. This happens because Earth moves around the Sun, while the stars do not. Earth completes one trip around the Sun each year, so different stars are visible from Earth in the course of a year.

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A constellation is a group of stars. The groups are identified according to patterns that people have seen in the stars. For example, the stars of the constellation Leo seem to trace the outline of a lion. The name Leo means "lion" in the Latin language.

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Facts about space

1) One million Earths could fit inside the Sun - and the Sun is considered an average-size star.

2) For years it was believed that Earth was the only planet in our solar system with liquid water. More recently, NASA revealed its strongest evidence yet that there is intermittent running water on Mars, too!

3) Comets are leftovers from the creation of our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago - they consist of sand, ice and carbon dioxide.

4) You wouldn't be able to walk on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune because they have no solid surface!

5) If you could fly a plane to Pluto, the trip would take more than 800 years!

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable space facts primary resource and a solar system primary resource? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

6) Space junk is any human-made object orbiting Earth that no longer serves a useful purpose. Scientists estimate there are about 500,000 pieces of space junk today, including fragments from rockets and satellites, and everyday items like spanners dropped during construction of the International Space Station!

7) An asteroid about the size of a car enters Earth's atmosphere roughly once a year - but it burns up before it reaches us. Phew!

8) The highest mountain known to man is on an asteroid called Vesta. Measuring a whopping 22km in height, it is three times as tall as Mount Everest!

9) There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth. That's at least a billion trillion!

10) The sunset on Mars appears blue.

And now, it's time for the lowdown on the planets of our solar system to one seriously sick beat! Just a word of warning - you might end up singing the song in your head all day!

Would YOU like to go to space? Then check out our chat with real-life astronaut Tim Peake or learn all about record-setting Peggy Whitson!

Images ⓒ Getty Images: 455439-001

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10 Facts about Space! - National Geographic Kids

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Discover ten fascinating facts about space here at Nat Geo Kids. How big is the sun? What are comets made of? Find out the answers to these and more!

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Overview
In contemporary astrology, there are 88 constellations that are recognized by the International Astronomical Union. 42 depict animals, 29 depict inanimate objects and 17 depict humans or mythological characters.
The ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, and later, the Greeks established the majority of the northern constellations that are officially recognized today. That is why many stars and constellations are connected to ancient myths and legends. For example, the Lyre constellation represents the celestial harp created by Hermes and gifted to Orpheus by Apollo. When Orpheus played love songs to his beloved bride Eurydice, both people and animals would become captivated. When Eurydice died suddenly, Orpheus' enchanting lyre music convinced the ruler of the underworld to release Eurydice under the condition that Orpheus does not look back at her as she followed him out to the surface. Unable to endure the doubt that she was not behind him, he glanced over his shoulder and witnessed Eurydice fade away back into Hades' domain. After Orpheus passed away, Zeus placed his lyre in the stars in honor of his beautiful music and forsaken love.

Egyptians and the Zodiac
The ancient Egyptians are believed to have developed the Zodiac system, which was later adopted by the Babylonians.
Early astrologers understood that it took 12 lunar cycles for the sun to return to its original position. They then identified 12 constellations that correlated with the progression of the seasons and named them after certain animals or people. These became the Zodiac signs. The Zodiac signs are divided into four groups. Fire signs include Aries, Sagittarius, and Leo. Water signs include Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. Air signs include Libra, Aquarius, and Gemini. Earth signs include Capricorn, Taurus, and Virgo. Babylonian astrologers believed that the Sun, Moon, and five known planets (Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, and Venus) imbued distinct powers onto each Zodiac constellation.

Top 10 Constellations
The largest constellation is the Hydra, which takes up 3.2% of the Southern night sky. It is commonly depicted as a water serpent. The best time to see Hydra is in January. The top 10 largest constellations are as follows:

1. Hydra - 3.2%

2. Ursa Major - 3.1%

3. Virgo - 3.1%

4. Cetus - 3%

5. Hercules - 3%

6. Eridanus - 2.8%

7. Pegasus - 2.7%

8. Centaurus - 2.6%

9. Draco - 2.6%

10. Aquarius - 2.4%

Check out our sleep education center for more infographics and information on sleep!

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The 88 Constellations and Their Brightest Stars | Sleepopolis

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The signals Voyager sent to Earth to give us these pictures looked something like this:
. . . 1101 0010 1001 0101 0000 1011 0001 . . .
How did we ever make enough sense of these 1's and 0's to get these magnificent images?

Spacecraft engineers and computer scientists have had to solve many big problems. But none of these problems could be tackled without one thing: a special language so people could communicate with machines. That language makes . . .

Spacecraft seem very smart.

The huge dish antennas that pick out the spacecraft's signal from millions of miles away seem very smart.

The computers that decode and process the signals into pictures seem very smart.

But none of these machines can learn English, or Spanish, or any other human language the way people can. These machines understand only two ideas:

So the big question is.

How do we feed complicated information IN and get complicated information OUT, if we can only say "ON" and "OFF"?

Let's find out!

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What's the secret code for talking to spacecraft?

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The signals Voyager sent to Earth to give us these pictures looked something like this: . . . 1101 0010 1001 0101 0000 1011 0001 . . . How did we ever make enough sense of these 1's and 0's to get these magnificent images?

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Binary Code Letters and Numbers 4 - Tech Skills for Kids

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Use the Binary Code Converter Key to Decode the Letter or Number on the card. The answers are not case sensitive.

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A lot of moons or no moons at all?

We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Others don't have any. Which planets have moons, and which don't?

Let's go in order from the Sun.

Mercury and Venus

Up first are Mercury and Venus. Neither of them has a moon.

Because Mercury is so close to the Sun and its gravity, it wouldn't be able to hold on to its own moon. Any moon would most likely crash into Mercury or maybe go into orbit around the Sun and eventually get pulled into it.

Why Venus doesn't have a moon is a mystery for scientists to solve.

Earth (That's us!)

Up next is Earth, and of course we have one moon.

Mars

Mars has two moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. Don't you wish our moon had a cool name like that?

Jupiter

Next are the giant outer planets. They have lots of moons. Jupiter, for instance, has 79 known moons!

The most well-known of Jupiter's moons are Io (pronounced eye-oh), Europa, and Callisto. Jupiter also has the biggest moon in our solar system, Ganymede.

These moons are so big you can see them with just a pair of binoculars.

Saturn

Saturn has 53 moons that have been named. Saturn also has 29 moons awaiting confirmation. They're unconfirmed because we're waiting to get more information about them. If all of these moons get confirmed, Saturn will have 82 moons. And that's not counting Saturn's beautiful rings.

Saturn's moons have great names like Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys. One of these moons, named Titan, even has its own atmosphere, which is very unusual for a moon.

Uranus and Neptune

Uranus has 27 moons that we know of. Some of them are half made of ice.

Lastly, Neptune has 14 named moons. One of Neptune's moons, Triton, is as big as dwarf planet Pluto.

To learn more about the moons in our solar system, visit the NASA Solar System Exploration moons page.

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We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Others don't have any. Which planets have moons, and which don't? Let's go in order from the Sun. Up first are Mercury and Venus. Neither of them has a moon.

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The solar system consists of the Sun and everything that orbits, or travels around, the Sun. This includes the eight planets and their moons, dwarf planets, and countless...