Space explained to kids

Space is the area beyond Earth's atmosphere, where there is no air to breathe or animals to live. Outer space is full of stars, planets, and other space objects. People have been looking at the stars for thousands of years. In the past, they thought the stars were little holes in a black cloth that wrapped around Earth. Now we know that the stars are huge balls of gas, like our sun. They are so far away that they look like tiny dots to us. The first person to fly into space was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. He made one orbit around Earth in his space capsule on April 12, 1961. Since then, many other people have flown in space. Today, people live and work on the International Space Station. They conduct experiments in space and take pictures of Earth. Robots have also been sent into space. The Mars rover Curiosity is exploring the planet Mars. It has found evidence that there may have been water on Mars in the past. People have also sent probes to the outer solar system. They have found many strange and wonderful things, such as volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus. In the future, people may live on other planets, such as Mars. They may also mine resources from the asteroids. But first, we need to learn more about space and how to protect ourselves from its dangers.