The Secret Lab – Series 1 Episode 4
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The Secret Lab
The two assistants Dr Bright and Dr Spark are challenged as Professor Knowitall attempts to answer this week’s question from Oscar and Brandon in Milton Keynes. Their question is “How does a satellite stay in orbit and not drift off?”
The mysteries that lie beyond the Earth can be somewhat puzzling yet Dr Knowitall and his two-person squad aim to uncover the mysteries: check out this website to find out more about the solar system. The universe contains over 100 billion galaxies. A galaxy is a group of billions of stars- our own galaxy is called the Milky Way, and it contains about 300 billion stars (300,000,000,000) and one of these is our Sun.
Planets and other objects go round the Sun, and these make up the solar system, with the Sun at the centre. But what keeps our planets in check? Professor Knowitall pushes Dr Spark off a bungee jump platform to demonstrate gravity- a force that keeps all planets and other objects in space in line.
A myth claims that the famous scientist called Newton realised the force of gravity when he was hit on the head by an apple but he actually observed the apple falling down perpendicularly. Click here to watch a funny take on the anecdote.
The fall of the apple made him realise that the Earth has a gravitational force that keeps objects to the ground- this is a similar situation in outer space, where planets are kept in line by gravity.
Check this out to see how gravity works.
It takes the Moon 28 days to make a complete orbit of the Earth. As it orbits, we see the Moon lit from different angles. This is why we see phases of the Moon.
Click here to find out how big is the Earth compared to the Sun and other planets in space.
Professor Knowitall also teaches Dr Bright the rites of passage of the Moon: the Moon orbits the Earth, so it is called a satellite of Earth. The Moon is a natural satellite. Gravitational forces between the Moon and the Earth keep the Moon in orbit. The Moon does not produce light. But it does reflect light from the Sun, which is how we are able to see it from Earth.
The exploration of the phases of the moon crosses wires with the topic of gravitational force: all objects have a force that attracts them towards each other. This is called gravity. Even you attract other objects to you because of gravity, but you have too little mass for the force to be very strong. Thus, it is the gravitational force that keeps the Earth and other planets in orbit, as demonstrated by poor Dr Spark on the roundabout: no matter how many times she spins around, she remains on the roundabout due to the gravitational force. This parallels how the moon remains in orbit around the Earth. Check out this link.
See if you can remember the order of the planets?
Why not attach a tennis ball to the end of string to see how the gravitational force keeps the tennis ball in the air?
Challenge your friends to this quiz and see who is the next Buzz Aldrin.
