As explained by one description by NASA, if Earth were the size of a United States nickel, the moon would be about as big as a coffee bean. The moon is an average of 238,900 miles from Earth, and NASA reports show about 30 planets the size of Earth could fit between the earth and the moon.

These were a few of the fun facts about space that children learned at Russellville Public Library last week.

July 5 at 1 p.m., Katie Parker, an education specialist at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham conducted a space program at the Russellville Public Library. Parker said this summer’s theme was chosen in honor of the upcoming 50^th anniversary of man landing on the moon for the first time. Friday’s show, one of two space programs offered by McWane this summer, was titled “Exploring Our Universe.”

Parker led a discussion about the distance from Earth to the moon, and the group created spheres out of modeling dough as part of this process. The first step was to guess the sizes of Earth and the moon compared to each other and to represent them with the dough. After that, the children were guided along a process to arrive at a more accurate understanding of the Earth’s and the moon’s sizes relative to each other and the distance between them.

Next came a hands-on activity to help understand how rotation of celestial bodies works, plus a little exploration into magnetic fields an constellation mapping.

Approximately 22 children attended.

The McWane Science Center is located at 200 19^th Street N. in Birmingham. For more information, visit mcwane.org or call 205-714-8300.

The Russellville Public Library is located at 100 Lawrence St. E. For information about upcoming programs and available services, visit RPL’s Facebook page, send an email to ruslib110@yahoo.com or call 256-332-1535. Information is also available on the library’s website.