Earth in Motion: Seasons

This interactive activity from the Adler Planetarium explains the "reasons for the seasons." Featured is a game in which Earth must be properly placed in its orbit in order to send Max, the host, to different parts of the world during particular seasons.

Earth System: Satellites

This video segment adapted from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center shows how integral satellites are to everyday life and describes the different types, including orbital and geostationary.

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Eclipse of the Century

This video segment adapted from NOVA features spectacular footage from the 1991 solar eclipse that fortuitously occurred directly over several major astronomical observatories in Hawaiʻi.

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Expedition 8 Crew Talks to Students in Japan

In this video segment adapted from NASA, students in Matsuyama City, Japan, interview Expedition 8 Commander and NASA Science Officer Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander Kaleri about life and work aboard the International Space Station.

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Galileo: Sun-Centered System

In the early 1600s, most people believed that the Sun revolved around a stationary Earth. This video segment adapted from NOVA tells how Galileo proved that the Sun, not Earth, is at the center of our universe.

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Global View of the Seasons

This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain features satellite data of Earth's seasonal cycles. Visualizations and comparative still images reveal how successfully plants are photosynthesizing at different times of the year.

Lunar Eclipse Essentials

In this video from NASA, learn how the path of the Moon through Earth's shadow creates lunar eclipses.

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Meteor Showers

This video segment adapted from NASA uses animation to illustrate the properties of meteor showers and comets. Included is are visualizations of a comet's tail and of Earth passing through a debris stream left behind by meteoroids.

The Moon

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K discusses the physical characteristics of the moon, as well as its gravity, and distance form the earth. It includes video of Apollo 15 on the moon.

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Natural Climate Change in Djibouti, Africa

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations are used to illustrate how change in the tilt of Earth's axis produces dramatic climate change over thousands of years.

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The Origin of the Moon

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

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Phases of the Moon

When we look up at the night sky, why do we see the Moon's appearance changing over time from a full sphere to a crescent to nothing at all? Find the answers in this interactive resource adapted from the National Air and Space Museum.

Satellites Orbiting Earth

This animation adapted from NASA shows the orbital paths of spacecraft in NASA's Earth Observing Fleet that are a source of wide-scale, primary research about Earth.

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Seasons

This video animation illustrates how the combination of the tilt of earth's spin axis and the orbit of the earth about the sun creates the geometry responsible for earth’s seasons. There is no sound.

Solar Eclipses

What is a solar eclipse and why are they only visible in some parts of the world? In this video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Susan Stolovy uses animations to provide an answer to these questions.

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Solar System Dynamics: Orbits and Kepler's Laws

In this video from NASA, learn about Kepler's laws of planetary motion, and explore how human understanding of planetary orbits has changed throughout history.

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Thank Goodness for Gravity

In this video adapted from the Lexington, KY Public Library, a young boy learns about Earth’s rotation from a librarian, a pendulum, and Leon Foucault.

Total Solar Eclipse Animation

This brief animation adapted from NOVA illustrates how total solar eclipses form and explains the stages from first contact to totality.

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Why Doesn't the Moon Fall Down?

In this animated video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Doris Daou explains how the forces of speed and gravity keep the Moon in a constant orbit around Earth.

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Your Weight on Other Worlds

This interactive resource from the Exploratorium calculates your weight on other bodies in our solar system and offers an explanation of mass and weight and the relationship between gravity, mass, and distance.