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168 Results for "earth"

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The Earth is our home. So far, it's the only place that we know of that has life. Everywhere you look on Earth there...
Game

Have you taken our planetary field trip, in celebration of Earth Day 2020? Watch the video and then test your knowledge.

Reading

Take a peek at our planet's layers, learn what secrets rocks reveal, and gain a long view of history.
Game

Test your knowledge about our planet Earth with this quiz.
Hands-on

Send a note to a friend with these earthy letterheads.
Hands-on

Make a model of Earth's layers that's good enough to eat!
Reading

Explore the layers of our planet: the crust, mantle, and core.
Game

Test your knowledge about the major groups of life on Earth.
OLogy Card
Igneous rocks form when magma, or melted rock from inside the Earth, cools and hardens. They can form above ground wh...
OLogy Card
These rocks provide the most clues about the history of life on Earth. 
Reading

What faraway places might humans travel to someday, and how will we get there?
Hands-on

Build your own miniature greenhouse to see the greenhouse effect at work.
Reading

Find out why a ball thrown in the air will return to the ground. 
OLogy Card
Scientists have identified over 1.75 million species on Earth -- over one million of them are insects and spiders.
OLogy Card
Like many kids interested in science, Ro Kinzler thought she wanted to be a marine biologist. But later on, she reali...
OLogy Card
The Earth is always changing. Mountains form and erode away. Volcanoes erupt and grow larger. Earthquakes shift the l...
OLogy Card
If you look at a map, the coasts of South America and Africa seem to fit together like puzzle pieces.
OLogy Card
If you ever go to Mercury, bring your sunscreen because it is the planet closest to the Sun. You'll also need a pair...
OLogy Card
Meteorites and asteroids have bombarded the Moon for billions of years, leaving deep craters on its surface.
OLogy Card
Granite is an igneous rock, which means it formed from magma, or melted rock. It forms deep inside the Earth under a...
OLogy Card
Deep inside the Earth, intense heat and pressure can change rocks into entirely new metamorphic rocks.
OLogy Card
The plates that make up the Earth's crust are always moving. When two plates meet, the motion causes lots of pressure...
OLogy Card
When viewed from above, the wide-open sea is vast and flat. But venture below and you'll find a varied landscape that...
OLogy Card
Most volcanoes form along plate boundaries. But some of the world's largest and most active volcanoes are found far f...
OLogy Card
If you marked every active volcano in the world on a map, you'd start to notice a pattern. Most of the world's active...
OLogy Card
In satellite images of Earth's atmosphere, it's easy to spot the large, spiraling clouds of hurricane. These powerful...
OLogy Card
Ed Mathez has always been fascinated by rocks and the Earth. As a young boy, he went with his mother to old rock quar...
Reading

Meet six rocks that travelled to the Museum from places like Mexico, Scotland, and even outer space.
Reading

Find out how he became a geologist and what you can learn from studying rocks.
Video

Do you dig the Earth? If so, you'll want to meet Ed.
OLogy Card
Deformed conglomerate is a metamorphic rock that has been changed by heat and pressure.
OLogy Card
Ninety-three million miles from Earth, a giant ball of hot gas brightens the sky. Nuclear reactions in the Sun's core...
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Venus and Earth are sometimes called sister planets because of their similar size, but don't let this comparison fool...
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Craters are formed when objects from space crash onto a planet's surface. The impact blasts a hole or impression wher...
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When you ride in a car, watch your favorite television show, or take a hot shower, you're most likely using fossil fu...
OLogy Card
Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Your body just released carbon dioxide, a colorless gas that's essential to lif...
Reading + Video

Astronomy is a BIG subject. We've brought learning about it down to size with these big ideas.
OLogy Card
To find north, find Polaris. Earth rotates on its axis, which points directly at Polaris. From Earth, Polaris is the...
Reading

Find out about Earth's climate, its consequences, and what we can do.
OLogy Card
Jim is fascinated with volcanoes. He wants to know why some volcanoes erupt explosively, and how he might be able to...
OLogy Card
Some volcanoes erupt explosively, like opening a shaken soda bottle, because their magma is full of gases.
OLogy Card
Arctic ice is melting. Coral reefs are disappearing. Sea levels are rising. These events are part of an even bigger p...
OLogy Card
Asteroids are space rocks that have existed since the formation of the planets over 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists...
OLogy Card
Early civilizations offered it to appease their gods. Ancient Egyptians placed it in tombs to support the dead on the...
Reading

Take a closer look at how the atmosphere keeps our planet warm.
Game

Take this quiz to find out if you're up for the challenge!
OLogy Card
Want to turn something old into something new?
Reading + Video

How do simple storms turn into swirling hurricanes?
OLogy Card
The seafloor covers more than half of the Earth's surface. Most of the seafloor consists of the flat, expansive abyss...
OLogy Card
The deep sea is not an easy place to explore. To observe the ocean below 2,000 meters (or 6,562 feet), scientists mus...
OLogy Card
Tornadoes are nature's most powerful storms. These swirling funnels of wind can rip cars, trees, and even houses from...
OLogy Card
The Viking mission was the first to explore Mars' surface. Two spacecraft, Viking 1 and 2, each with an orbiter and a...
Game

All aboard! Hop on a submersible and explore an amazing diversity of life at the ocean floor.
Reading + Video

Earthquakes are happening all the time. Find out what makes the earth shake.
Video

Find out how five different environments produce Earth's amazing minerals!
OLogy Card
Earth was a very different place at the beginning of the Triassic. All of Earth's continents were combined into one s...
OLogy Card
One look at Redondasaurus, and you might think it's a crocodile. After all, it has a similar long, armored body, with...
OLogy Card
There are many kinds of energy. But only one makes plants grow, drives the weather, and keeps our planet warm enough...
OLogy Card
Many famous dinosaurs, such as T. rex and Triceratops, first appeared in the Cretaceous Period.
OLogy Card
Did you ever see a "shooting star"? What you really saw was a meteor burning up in the Earth's atmosphere.
Reading

Find out more about global warming. How, and why, we should slow it?
OLogy Card
George Harlow travels the world over to study how jade, rubies, and diamonds form. George wants to find out what thes...
Hands-on

See if you can find north by making your own compass.
Game + Video

Volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes... Examine how plate tectonics affect our world!
OLogy Card
The name Jurassic conjures images of tremendous dinosaurs roaming the Earth.
OLogy Card
There is nothing in the world like water. Without it, our world would be a very different place. Water covers over tw...
OLogy Card
Bubbling hot springs. Antarctic ice. Deep ocean trenches. The Himalayan peaks. Few organisms can live in any of these...
OLogy Card
It's fitting that the largest planet in our solar system is named after Jupiter, the supreme king of all Roman gods....
OLogy Card
Mars is often called the "red planet." It's red because its surface is covered with rusted particles of iron.
Reading

A paleontologist travels to Antarctica to collect fossil evidence.
OLogy Card
Obsidian doesn't look like your typical rock. In fact, it looks more like dark glass than a rock you'd pick up in you...
OLogy Card
From waves to waterfalls, water is usually on the move. And that means it has energy. When this energy is captured an...
OLogy Card
Miles below your feet, scorching temperatures can get hot enough to melt rock. In some places, water heated deep unde...
OLogy Card
Most reflecting telescopes use glass mirrors to focus light from faraway objects, such as stars and galaxies. In a li...
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The smallest and most distant of the "gas giant" planets. Neptune has much in common with its three huge ne...
OLogy Card
On July 5, 1997, the six-wheeled robotic rover, Sojourner, rolled down a ramp from the Pathfinder spacecraft onto the...
OLogy Card
Pathfinder landed on Mars' surface carrying thesix-wheeled Sojourner rover, a mobile robot. Rover and lander took ov...
Reading + Game

Find out what we know about Mars in this online tour of Earth's closest neighbor.
Hands-on

Size up the planets with a model scavenger hunt.
Reading

Water is a precious resource, and all things need water to survive.
Reading

Tour this spinning pinwheel in space that we call home.
Reading

Museum scientists answer kids' questions!
OLogy Card
Scientists are developing and improving "clean" energy sources. But for the next hundred years, the world w...
OLogy Card
Comets are like "dirty snowballs" that have orbited the Sun since our Solar System formed, billions of year...
OLogy Card
Are we alone in the Universe? There are billions of stars in our galaxy, and 100 billion galaxies in our Universe.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) runs the space program, but that's just part of what they do.
Hands-on

Find out how biodiversity depends on you.
Hands-on

Create weather tools to gather wind, rain, and pressure data in your neighborhood.
Reading

Find out what makes the Sun glow, and other amazing facts, in an up-close interview with the Sun.
Game

Think you're an expert on changing climate? Test your knowledge with this quiz!
OLogy Card
Many animals and plants use color to warn predators to stay away, and the blue ringed octopus is no exception. When t...
OLogy Card
Eleanor Sterling is the Director for the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural H...
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When Paula Mikkelsen moved to Florida, she turned a fun hobby into an exciting career. She enjoyed walking along Flor...
OLogy Card
Some of Earth's oddest creatures live arounddeep-sea hydrothermal (hot water) vents. These vents spew plumes of hot,...
OLogy Card
The giant squid is the largest invertebrate, or animal without a backbone, ever to have lived on Earth! 
OLogy Card
Imagine you are a marine biologist, traveling far beneath the ocean surface in a submersible.
OLogy Card
What was it like outside when you left your house today? Cool and windy? Hot and sunny? That's the weather: the condi...
OLogy Card
Winter brings snow and ice in places like northern Minnesota. But during the same season along Florida's beaches, tem...
OLogy Card
Ross MacPhee has always loved dirt. It means the opportunity to find lost things--from bones and teeth to pirate trea...
OLogy Card
If there's life on any other planet in our solar system, it's probably on Mars. Scientists have sent orbiters, lander...
OLogy Card
It started with a cough and stuffy nose. But now you're achy, feverish, and exhausted. You just might have influenza,...
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Fossils are the key to understanding life in the past.
OLogy Card
The Orion constellation is known for having some of the brightest stars in the night sky. On a clear night, try to fi...
OLogy Card
The oddest thing about Uranus is that the planet, its rings, and its moons "roll" around the Sun on an axis...
OLogy Card
Edwin Hubble was one of the great astronomers of the 20th century. His work made the Universe a bigger place. He prov...
OLogy Card
On a clear night, Mike Shara sees more than just the beautiful twinkling of stars when he gazes at the sky.
OLogy Card
About 1,000 years ago, a massive star exploded at the end of its life cycle. What remains is the Crab Nebula, a glowi...
Reading

Learn about fossils, extremely rare—and valuable—records of the past. 
Game

Go on a virtual journey from Earth, to the International Space Station, to the Moon and beyond. Then test your knowledge!
OLogy Card
Gravity is the force of attraction between all objects in the Universe. Objects with more mass have greater gravitati...
OLogy Card
Some people may call invertebrates spineless because they lack a backbone or spine! But these amazing creatures are t...
OLogy Card
Limestone is made up of fossils. After small marine animals die, their shells and skeletons build up on the ocean floor.
OLogy Card
At the top of the world is a cold and icy area called the Arctic. It is made up of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Nort...
Game + Video

Examine fossils and gather clues from experts!
Video

What's threatening planet Earth and how can we protect it? Find out more in these videos of kids at the Museum.
Video

Microbiologist Susan Perkins answers kids’ questions about microbes.
OLogy Card
When someone asks you, "What time is it?," the answer's easy. Just look at your watch! But "What is ti...
OLogy Card
The Big Dipper is a grouping of stars within the constellation Ursa Major, also known as The Great Bear. The best tim...
OLogy Card
You have to be a really big thinker to imagine the size of the Universe.
Reading

Visit a scientist's lab to see how he creates a magma chamber!
Game

Do you have what it takes to drive a robot on Mars?
OLogy Card
Jade is a special and rare rock. For thousands of years, people around the world have been using this durable and bea...
OLogy Card
Of all the dinosaurs to roam the Earth, the largest ones belonged to a group called sauropods- huge plant-eating dino...
Hands-on

See the moon in action! And discover why our view of it changes nightly.
Reading

OLogy learning: Find resources for K-5 grade levels.
OLogy Card
Antarctica is like no other place on Earth. The continent is covered almost entirely by a thick ice sheet. Yet there...
OLogy Card
Since he was a boy, Vladimir Ovtsharenko has been fascinated by nature. Growing up, he loved collecting spiders, beet...
OLogy Card
Effigia looks just like a dinosaur. It particularly looks a lot like bird-like dinosaurs called ornithomimids, or ost...
OLogy Card
The Hubble Space Telescope is the first major optical telescope to orbit Earth.
Reading

Discover how species have evolved to survive in some of the most extreme environments on Earth.
Hands-on

Do fresh water and salt water mix? Find out in this experiment.
Game

Test your knowledge about the water you didn’t know you were using. 
Game

Test your knowledge about our watery world with this quiz.
Game

Mundo Shamundo! Can you help Mandy study for her geology test?
OLogy Card
Thousands of plants and animal species may be in danger of becoming extinct and disappearing forever.
OLogy Card
Far beneath the ocean's surface is a mysterious world of cold temperatures, intense pressure, and almost total darkne...
OLogy Card
The blue whale is the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth.
OLogy Card
Polar bears are the top predator of the icy Arctic. But these large, furry white mammals have to work hard for their...
OLogy Card
For thousands of years, humans have relied on the power of wind to sail across oceans, pump water, and grind grain.
OLogy Card
Atoms are tiny building blocks that make up all matter in the Universe. Atoms may be tiny, but they hold an extraordi...
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A star is a huge glowing ball of hot gas. Deep inside its core, hydrogen atoms smash together, forming helium and rel...
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More than 60 moons orbit Jupiter. One of these moons is Europa. It is especially intriguing to scientists. Miles belo...
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Mercury is unlike any other metal. At room temperature, it is a shimmering liquid. In nature, mercury is found as a s...
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These creatures have lived in Earth's oceans for over 545 million years!
OLogy Card
Long before dinosaurs, these strange roach-like creatures scurried along the ancient sea floor.
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Saturn is known for the beautiful rings that form a giant hula hoop around it. The rings are made of chunks of ice an...
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Many historians consider English scientist Sir Isaac Newton the first modern physicist. He explained how gravity affe...
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Scientists believe that everything in the Universe began about 13 billion years ago in a giant explosion called the B...
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A solar system is made up of a star and everything that travels around it. Solar means "of the sun.
OLogy Card
A galaxy is a giant, spinning object made of gas, dust, and stars held together by gravity. Galaxies come in differen...
Hands-on

Every rock has a story to tell. Learn how to create a collection that rocks!
Reading

Check out this quick guide to reading the periodic table of elements.
Reading

Take a look at some unusual living and extinct mammals.
OLogy Card
One of the earlier dinosaurs to appear on Earth was Coelophysis. It was a small, but skilled hunter that lived during...
Reading

Did you know that biodiversity provides us with things that we need?
Reading

Take a peek into a mineralogist's scrapbook to see why he thinks jade is so special.
Reading

How is the ocean like a layer cake? What creatures live there? And how important is the ocean? Take a dive and find out!
OLogy Card
The Portuguese man-of-war is actually a floating colony of individuals called polyps that are all dependent on each o...
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A rotting log is a mighty tasty meal -- if you're a termite. Termites not only eat wood, some kinds live in it, too....
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The Sumatran tiger is found in only one place on the Earth -- on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Fewer than 500 o...
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Growing up, Joel Cracraft loved reading travel and adventure books. In high school, he became interested in ornitholo...
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Even though this whale of a whale weighs many tons, the humpback whale can make acrobatic leaps out of the water!
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That toothy grin might make you think this is a crocodile or an alligator. But the Yacaré caiman is neither. Caimans...
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Galileo was a "jack of all trades." He was a musician, a philosopher, a physicist, and an astronomer. He is...
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Sandstone is made of tiny pieces of sand you can see and feel. You can actually scratch away grains of sand from a pi...
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In the 1940s, paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History discovered rich fossil beds in the high des...
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When the famous Tyrannosaurus rex roamed North America, a very similar dinosaur was living on the other side of the E...
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Sterling was always fascinated by nature, ancient history, and archaeology. Since he was 15 years old, he has spent e...