Overview: Blue Coral Guide to the Solar System is an interactive 3D model of the solar system. Freely browse by selecting, dragging, and zooming or step through the grand tour. Each stop along the way contains an optional profile for more detail.

Included in the model is the sun, all 8 planets, Earth's moon, 3 dwarf planets, the asteroid belt, the kuiper belt, the oort cloud, and Haley's comet.

Blue Coral Guide to the Solar System is fully responsive in the web browser for large and small devices in both horizontal and vertical orientations.

Using planetary maps, students will be able to read cartographic information and compare the environmental conditions of Pluto/Charon to those Earth. They will understand the conditions needed for life to exist, and be able to explain why it cannot exist on Pluto or Charon.

In this special author session, Margaret Weitekamp reads the book, Pluto's Secret: An Icy World's Tale of Discovery

Tune in to a special Flights of Fancy Story Time interview with the authors of the children's book Pluto's Secret.

This course focuses on three particularly interesting areas of astronomy that are advancing very rapidly: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. Particular attention is paid to current projects that promise to improve our understanding significantly over the next few years. The course explores not just what is known, but what is currently not known, and how astronomers are going about trying to find out.

Now that we’re done with the planets, asteroid belt, and comets, we’re heading to the outskirts of the solar system. Out past Neptune are vast reservoirs of icy bodies that can become comets if they get poked into the inner solar system. The Kuiper Belt is a donut shape aligned with the plane of the solar system; the scattered disk is more eccentric and is the source of short-period comets, and the Oort Cloud which surrounds the solar system out to great distances is the source of long-period comets. These bodies all probably formed closer to the Sun and got flung out to the solar system’s suburbs by gravitational interactions with the outer planets.

Chapters:
Introduction: Where Do Comets Come From?
Kuiper Belt, Scattered Disk, and Oort Cloud
Long-Period Comets come from the Oort Cloud
Short-Period Comets come from the Scattered Disk
Pluto, Plutinos, and other Kuiper Belt Objects
Oort Cloud Objects
Review

Students explore the outermost planets of our solar system: Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. They also learn about characteristics of Pluto and its interactions with Neptune. Students learn a little about the history of space travel as well as the different technologies that engineers develop to make space travel and scientific discovery possible.

This is an introduction to the study of the solar system with emphasis on the latest spacecraft results. The subject covers basic principles rather than detailed mathematical and physical models. Topics include: an overview of the solar system, planetary orbits, rings, planetary formation, meteorites, asteroids, comets, planetary surfaces and cratering, planetary interiors, planetary atmospheres, and life in the solar system.

A conversation with New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern and astrobiologist David Grinspoon about their new book, Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto.

Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, shows the exciting images and science results yielded from the New Horizons mission as the spacecraft flew through the Pluto system

In this lesson, students will hone their investigative skills and form an opinion based on the credible evidence that they uncover. After learning about the decision to deem Pluto a "dwarf planet," students will have time for individual investigation. After using their background knowledge to choose credible sources, they will analyze the information they gather to form their own opinion, which they will support in a video response to a prompt on Flipgrid.