Milky Way's Black Hole

This film, from Twig World, looks at how scientists study black holes. Scientists believe there is a supermassive black hole 26,000 light years away at the centre of our Galaxy. But how do they know, when they can't see it?

The key points made in the film are:

•Black holes are formed when massive...

How Are Mirrors Made?

This film, from Twg World, looks at the process of manufacturing glass into sophisticated mirror systems in the world's largest telescopes.

The key points made in the film are:

•Mirrors are made from glass, which is melted and spread over a base.

•Telescopes use mirrors to focus light onto a...

Black Holes

This film, from Twig World, looks at how dying stars transform into black holes and are areas of mass so great that even light can't escape.

The key points made in the film are:

•When a star dies, it collapses and condenses into a single point, known as a singularity.

•The gravitational pull...

Scale of the Universe

This film, from Twig World, looks at how big the universe is.

The key points made in the film are:

•The Universe is constantly expanding.

•The Universe is already billions of light years across.

•Our Solar System is part of the Milky Way galaxy.

•Beyond our galaxy lie many more...

Spacecraft Engineer

Simon Meek is a spacecraft engineer, designing, building and tracking satellites. This Department for Education clip shows how studying science and mathematics open the gateway to interesting careers. Simon studied maths, physics and English at A-level and went on to study for a degree in Physics.

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Speed of the Earth

This video, from Twig World, explains that the planet earth is constantly moving through space and models the Earth’s orbit as a circle in order to approximate the distance travelled in one year and hence estimate the distance the Earth travels every second. The video is accompanied by a lesson plan and a...

Solar System Puzzle Kit

Produced by NASA, this activity contains information about the planets of the solar system. The main activity allows students to create an eight-cube paper puzzle of the solar system. In assembling the puzzle, students colour images of the Sun, planets and asteroids. In addition to puzzle pieces, the kit contains...

Solar System Scale Model

From NASA, this activity helps students see the relative distances from the sun of the planets in our solar system. Astronomers refer to the distance from the sun to the Earth as one 'astronomical unit' or AU. This activity demonstrates an easy way to calculate the distances of the other planets from the sun and...

The Solar System, Planets, Asteroids and Comets

Produced by Teachers TV, as part of the Teaching Astronomy and Space series, this video looks at Saturn, its moons and finally on the risk of an asteroid colliding with Earth.

Planetary scientist Sheila Kanani shows...

What's Moving on Titan?

This Science upd8 activity draws on Titan which is the biggest of Saturn's moons.

There are two student activities; one involves labelling a diagram to tell students on Earth about the nature of Titan.

The other asks students to take the role of Titanian space explorers and use data to compare the...