Time and Space Science — homeTimeAndSpace.Science
Explore day and night, seasons, Moon phases, tides and planetary orbits. Change a date or setting to see what happens and discover why.
Learning guide
What you’ll learn
Identify how Earth’s rotation, Earth’s orbit, the Moon’s motion and gravity explain familiar patterns in the sky and ocean.
What to change
Start with one activity. Move the time slider on the daylight map, choose a season, or change the moon’s orbital speed.
What to observe
Look for what changes, what stays the same, and whether the same pattern repeats.
Why it happens
Each activity links to a focused explanation. Use it to connect your observation to Earth’s motion, sunlight or gravity.
Teacher notes
Objective: Students choose an activity, describe one observed change and use its focused learning page to explain the cause.
Suggested ages: 9–14 for the introductory activities, with adult adaptation for the group. This is an editorial suggestion, not a verified grade alignment.
Suggested duration: 5 minutes to choose an activity, followed by the duration suggested on its learning page.
Prerequisites: Vary by activity. Check the focused page’s Teacher notes before teaching.
Common misconception: A simulation’s sizes, distances and speeds are necessarily shown to scale. Ask students to read the model-limitations note.
Sources and limitations: Read the methodology and the sources on each focused learning page. Animations simplify sizes, distances or speeds and should not be treated as exact measurements or predictions.
Lesson status: These are exploration activities. Lesson development and drafts are separate; classroom testing is not implied.
Earth
Where is the Sun right now?
Move the time slider and watch which places enter daylight or darkness as Earth rotates.
Half the Earth is always in daylight, and the other half is night.
The Sun is directly overhead at 0.1° S, 34.9° E. Day and night are approximately equal in length in most places near the equinox. Earth’s axis keeps pointing in nearly the same direction.
Open the day and night map →Can the moon be up in the daytime? The Moon is up about twelve hours of every twenty-four, and those hours drift through the day.
Earth
Earth’s tilt makes the seasons
Earth’s tilt changes the angle of sunlight and the length of the day. Choose a season and watch where the Sun is directly overhead.
Showing right now.
The Sun is directly overhead at 0.1° south. Day and night are approximately equal in length in most places.
Explore the daylight map, sunlight angle and Earth’s orbit.
Earth
The Moon’s orbit and phases
Watch the Moon orbit Earth. Then open the simulator to explore why the Moon’s appearance changes through the month.
The Moon orbits Earth in about 27.3 days. Its phases repeat about every 29.5 days. Distances are not to scale.
See the Sun, Earth & Moon simulator →Why does the Moon change shape? One half is always lit. The picture above is that lit half, seen from a different angle each night.
What is a synodic month? Full moon to full moon is about 29.5 days, a little longer than one trip around Earth.
What is tidal locking? The same face stays toward us because the Moon turns once per orbit.
Earth
When the tide turns
The Moon’s and Sun’s gravity cause tides. Compare the charts to see how high and low tides differ between coastal locations.
What causes tides? The Moon’s and Sun’s gravity cause tides. Explore why the pattern differs from one coast to another.
Space
Explore the solar system
Compare Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars as they orbit the Sun. Which planet completes an orbit first?
One Earth year passes in about 24 seconds. Planets are enlarged so you can see them. Distances are adjusted for visibility.
See the solar system simulator →Space
What if a moon slowed down?
Change the moon’s speed and watch how its orbit changes. Compare the closest and farthest points of each path.
At this speed, the moon follows a circular orbit.
How does an orbit work? Gravity pulls inward while the moon moves forward, continually bending its path.
Time
Time tools for the classroom
Set a timer for an activity, measure elapsed time with a stopwatch, or compare local times around the world.
Open Time tools →How this site works
Explore by topic
Choose Earth, Space or Time to continue.