'Avoid the gravitational pull of larger planets and rocks. Harder than it looks!'

Suzanne Elvidge gazes up at the stars, or rather, at her monitor, while playing a bundle of online star games

That’s it – I’ve lost my chance to be an astronaut – President Obama has cut NASA’s funding to send people to the moon.

That means the closest I have to getting into space are these ten star games and Robert Harrison’s pictures of earth from his balloon

Small but important print: All games are free downloads or free to view online, and need the minimum of equipment. Some games require your browser to have a 'plug in' for Shockwave, Flash or Java.

To play a game, simply click on its name. If you are a parent, we advise you to try the game and the site it's on first before letting your kids play them, to make sure you're happy. When downloading games from the Internet, don't forget to keep your anti-virus and anti-spyware software up to date.

• Crossword

Test your star knowledge with an astronomy crossword. There are more games on the Kid’s Astronomy site.

Use the arrow keys to move your planet and crash into stars, asteroids and smaller planets to make your planet bigger. Avoid the gravitational pull of larger planets and rocks. Harder than it looks!

Solve the maths problems, match the answers with letters and make a word to answer the question about the Milky Way (the galaxy, not the chocolate!)

Place the objects and then roll the ball to knock off the stars. I know that doesn’t help much – try playing the tutorials! You’ll need a bit of strategy here – frustrating but a little addictive.

You can restart each level, and if you are completely stuck, there is a video solution.

People are buying up stars at higher rates than usual. Solve the mystery by classifying the types of stars that different companies are buying, and look for trends and patterns to work out why this is happening.

Destroy stars by connecting three of the same colour. Drag stars horizontally or vertically using the mouse.

Easy and completely education-free! You seem to need to refresh the page (usually f5) to restart the game if you time-out.

Work through the questions to learn about light, colour, temperature and the stars.

Put pairs of words together to make phrases to do with stars and space.

And a couple about the sun, which is, of course, a star.

Align all moons and rings with the sun. There is a reset button on the bottom right hand side.

Randomly clicking on things seems to make random things happen – beyond that, you are on your own… and if you give up, find out how much you would weigh on the sun and other stars.

• Earth, Moon and Sun

Fly the rocket to the earth, sun and moon, and then report back to Reevo the alien. Use your arrow keys to move around the asteroids and fire with the space bar to destroy them.

Click on the earth, sun and moon to find out more. On the way back, move your mouse over the asteroids and click to fire, and then tell Reevo about your mission by answering the questions.

You can print off a certificate at the end.

And an extra – not about stars, but make an eclipse and build your own universe exploration fleet out of paper.

Suzanne Elvidge is a freelance writer and Surefish Ethical Living Editor

Links

• Other games
• surefish.co.uk culture section index