Shapes and Sizes

 Difference between the shapes and sizes of the Sun, Earth and Moon

The Sun, Earth, and Moon are all spheres. The Sun is the largest object in the Solar System. It is gigantic compared with the Earth, which is larger than the Moon. The Moon’s diameter is one-quarter that of the Earth’s. Although the Moon is much smaller than the Sun, when viewed from the Earth, they appear to be about the same size in the sky because the Moon is much closer to the Earth than the Sun. The distances between the major objects in the Solar System can be difficult to imagine because they are so large. Light, the fastest thing in the universe, takes about eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth, and just more than one second to travel between the Moon and Earth.

Activity: Click here  for a Matching Exercise to check your understanding of the Shapes and Sizes of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.