My class visited the American Museum of Natural History to learn more about the Solar System. The first place we went was the Hall of Meteorites. When we walked in there was a huge meteorite in the middle called the Ahnighito. It was found in West Greenland and weighs 34 tons! A meteorite is a piece of a meteor. Whenever a meteor hits a planet like earth it starts breaking up into smaller pieces which are called meteorites. Have you ever wondered what a shooting star really is? Well, a shooting star is just another name for meteoroid that burns up as it passes through earths atmosphere.

The next place we visited was called the Rose Center. We saw the Big Bang Movie where I learned that the universe was a lot hotter, smaller, and denser than it is today. Just after leaving the movie theater, right outside there was the Cosmic Pathway. This showed us how the earth evolved since the Big Bang which happened over 13 billion years ago. Then we went to our second movie, Journey To The Stars. The movie was about the history of the solar system. I learned that the sun is just a huge star that uses fusion so shine bright light over the universe.

After visiting this museum I still have some questions. What do asteroids specifically do? How fast do they move and how large are they?