Category: For Kids and Students

Source: NASA

This article is for students grades 5-8.

Artemis is NASA’s new lunar exploration program, which includes sending the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Through the Artemis missions, NASA will use new technology to study the Moon in new and better ways, and prepare for human missions to Mars.

The first missions to take astronauts to the Moon were called the Apollo Program. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the nation to land astronauts on the Moon by the end of the decade. NASA met that challenge with the Apollo program, landing the first man on the Moon on July 20, 1969. That program was named after a god of Greek mythology, Apollo.Artemis was Apollo’s twin sister and the goddess of the Moon in Greek mythology. When they land, Artemis astronauts will stand where no human has ever stood: the Moon’s South Pole.

NASA’s new rocket is the Space Launch System (SLS). It is the most powerful rocket ever in the world. SLS will carry the Orion spacecraft with up to four astronauts riding aboard to lunar orbit. Then, astronauts will dock Orion at a small spaceship called the Gateway. This is where astronauts will prepare for missions to the Moon and beyond. The crew will take trips from the Gateway to the lunar surface in a new human landing system, and then return to the Gateway. When their work is finished, the crew will return to Earth aboard Orion.

Before Apollo put the first human on the Moon, the first Apollo missions launched to test the rocket and equipment. Before Artemis carries a crew to the Moon, NASA will test the rocket and spacecraft in flight then send a crew for a test flight:
Artemis 1 will be a test flight of the SLS rocket with the Orion spacecraft with no crew.
Artemis 2 will fly SLS and Orion with a crew past the Moon, then circle it and return to Earth. This trip will be the farthest any human has gone into space.
Artemis 3 will send a crew with the first woman and the next man to land on the Moon.

The Artemis 3 crew will visit the Moon’s South Pole. No one has ever been there. At the Moon, astronauts will:
Search for the Moon’s water and use it.
Study the Moon to discover its mysteries.
Learn how to live and work on the surface of another celestial body where astronauts are just three days from home.
Test the technologies we need before sending astronauts on missions to Mars, which can take up to three years roundtrip.

The Moon is a good place to learn new science. When astronauts study new places on the lunar surface, NASA will learn more about the Moon, Earth and even the Sun. The Moon is a “test bed” for Mars. A test bed is a place to prove that a technology or idea will work. The Moon is a place to demonstrate that astronauts will one day be able to work away from Earth on Mars for long periods of time.The first missions to the Moon required NASA to develop new technology. Many of those technologies have been made into items people use on Earth in their everyday lives. NASA is working with businesses and companies to create new technology for Artemis missions. Making new technology helps businesses grow and create more jobs on Earth. Other nations will work with NASA as partners. Just as partners work together on the International Space Station, they will work on Artemis to bring the world together for a mission to Earth’s nearest neighbor in space.
 More About ArtemisPuzzle BookPoster: SLS: Meet the RocketPencil and Paper Puzzles: Orion Activities and Coloring Sheets For KidsVideo: Rocket Science in 60 Seconds: What Is the Space Launch System?Video: We Are GoingArticle: What Is the Space Launch System?Article: What Is Orion?Article: What Was the Apollo Program?Article: What Is the International Space Station? 
Read What Is the Artemis Program? (Grades K-4)

Source: NASA

This article is for students grades 5-8

A black hole is a region in space where the pulling force of gravity is so strong that light is not able to escape. The strong gravity occurs because matter has been pressed into a tiny space. This compression can take place at the end of a star’s life. Some black holes are a result of dying stars.
Because no light can escape, black holes are invisible. However, space telescopes with special instruments can help find black holes. They can observe the behavior of material and stars that are very close to black holes.

Black holes can come in a range of sizes, but there are three main types of black holes. The black hole’s mass and size determine what kind it is.
The smallest ones are known as primordial black holes. Scientists believe this type of black hole is as small as a single atom but with the mass of a large mountain.
The most common type of medium-sized black holes is called “stellar.” The mass of a stellar black hole can be up to 20 times greater than the mass of the sun and can fit inside a ball with a diameter of about 10 miles. Dozens of stellar mass black holes may exist within the Milky Way galaxy.
The largest black holes are called “supermassive.” These black holes have masses greater than 1 million suns combined and would fit inside a ball with a diameter about the size of the solar system. Scientific evidence suggests that every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is called Sagittarius A. It has a mass equal to about 4 million suns and would fit inside a ball with a diameter about the size of the sun.

Primordial black holes are thought to have formed in the early universe, soon after the big bang.
Stellar black holes form when the center of a very massive star collapses in upon itself. This collapse also causes a supernova, or an exploding star, that blasts part of the star into space.
Scientists think supermassive black holes formed at the same time as the galaxy they are in. The size of the supermassive black hole is related to the size and mass of the galaxy it is in.

A black hole can not be seen because of the strong gravity that is pulling all of the light into the black hole’s center. However, scientists can see the effects of its strong gravity on the stars and gases around it. If a star is orbiting a certain point in space, scientists can study the star’s motion to find out if it is orbiting a black hole.
When a black hole and a star are orbiting close together, high-energy light is produced. Scientific instruments can see this high-energy light.
A black hole’s gravity can sometimes be strong enough to pull off the outer gases of the star and grow a disk around itself called the accretion disk. As gas from the accretion disk spirals into the black hole, the gas heats to very high temperatures and releases X-ray light in all directions. NASA telescopes measure the X-ray light. Astronomers use this information to learn more about the properties of a black hole.

Black holes do not wander around the universe, randomly swallowing worlds. They follow the laws of gravity just like other objects in space. The orbit of a black hole would have to be very close to the solar system to affect Earth, which is not likely.
If a black hole with the same mass as the sun were to replace the sun, Earth would not fall in. The black hole with the same mass as the sun would keep the same gravity as the sun. The planets would still orbit the black hole as they orbit the sun now.

The sun does not have enough mass to collapse into a black hole. In billions of years, when the sun is at the end of its life, it will become a red giant star. Then, when it has used the last of its fuel, it will throw off its outer layers and turn into a glowing ring of gas called a planetary nebula. Finally, all that will be left of the sun is a cooling white dwarf star.

NASA is learning about black holes using spacecraft like the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Swift satellite and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Fermi launched in 2008 and is observing gamma rays – the most energetic form of light – in search of supermassive black holes and other astronomical phenomena. Spacecraft like these help scientists answer questions about the origin, evolution and destiny of the universe.
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Words to Know
mass: the measurement for the amount of matter in an object

red giant star: a star that is larger than the sun and redbecause it has a lower temperature

white dwarf star: a small star, about the size of Earth;one of the last stages of a star’s life_________________________________________________________________________________________

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Read What Is a Black Hole? (Grades K-4)