What Makes Up Our Solar System? Crossword Puzzle

ISON

  I'm very excited to have the 'possible' chance of seeing a comet that is considered to be the comet of the century!  Comet ISON (click on the link!) will be the closest to us on December 26th, a nice after Christmas present.  We will have the chance to see it throughout November of 2013 to January 2014.

 

 

The June Lineup

  When I was on the hunt for things to look for in the June sky, I saw to look for this lineup of Venus, Pollux, and Castor.  Unfortunately from where I'm living this summer I'm unable to see these three!  They are too close to the horizon, and with this weather, I can barely see the stars to begin with.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch this sight this weekend.

Super Moon

**Saw this on Facebook!**

Pluto Who?

     We don't exactly have a clear picture of what our former planet Pluto looks like.  I think it is a ball of ice, that it is probably a bluish-gray color.  Also, maybe it has crater-like forms such as what the moon has.  Instead of just being a solid color, I think there is probably minerals that create different sources of color.  Here's my example:

Beyond the Beyond

Average Stars

  I did a homemade experiment where you can find the average amount of stars in the sky.  Since I didn't have a toilet paper roll I made a circle with my hand roughly the same size as the roll.  I did the experiment 20 times as told.  The total amount of stars I saw was 48.  I divided the number by 20 to get the average of 2.4.  Then I took that number and multiplied it by 99.2 and got 238.08 stars.  I did this on 6/16/13 at 10:15pm at the apex apartments to test out the light pollution.  It's really bad over here!  I know for sure if I was back at home my results would have been much higher.

My Sun Observation

 

  I had observed the sun through a telescope at my school's observatory.  It was difficult to differentiate the colors other than a bright orange.  I had seen some yellow, and a darker line towards the bottom left.  I saw two prominences towards the bottom right.

Test Your Knowledge on the Milky Way

1. What 3 main parts make up the Milky Way Galaxy?
• Halo, Bulb, Disk
• Bulge, Sphere, Disk
• Disk, Halo, Bulge 
2. Dark Matter makes up how much of the Milky Way Galaxy?
• 80%
• 90%
• 70%
3. Who named it the "Milky Way"?
• Native Americans
• Greeks
• Italians
4.  Where is the sun located?
• Disk
• Halo
• Bulge
5. Is there life located in the Bulge?
• Yes
• No 
6. Why is the bulge so bright?
• Supermassive black hole
• Clusters of Stars
• The Sun
7. What is something that is dark with a lot of mass?
• Black Hole
• Jupiter
• Galaxies
8. What is located in the halo?
• The Sun
• Star Clusters
• The Earth
9. Can you see the Milky Way from Earth?
• Yes
• No
10. How are WIMPS formed?
• When stars die
• Solar flares
• In the big bang

 Answers:
1. 3; 2. 2; 3. 2; 4. 1; 5. 2; 6. 2; 7. 1; 8. 2; 9. 1; 10. 3

Word Search: Light Pollution

*I made a word search using terminology I found looking at facts about light pollution*

Star Chart App

  I found this app on my iPod and figured I'd give it a try.  It allows you to explore space in a way you can't do by just going outside.  You can look for planets, stars, constellations, and messiers.  It also takes you on different tours of space!  It gives you a lot of quick facts about anything you want.  I recommend this for anyone who want to get a better understanding of where everything is in the night sky.  Plus, it's free :)

Zooniverse: Finding Planets Around Stars

     My group decided to pick the category "Find Planets Around Stars" on the zooniverse website.  Basically the Keplar spacecraft picks up on lightcurve changes and that shows that there are planets orbiting other stars besides the sun!

 

 The program showed us step by step how to determine whether a planet passes the star or not.  First it had us determine what kind of path the star was on..variable or quiet.  For this one I'll pick variable.

 After you choose "variable" it'll ask you what kind of variable.  I chose pulsating.


 Now this is where it'll ask you if the star has any transits.  For this one it does.  Transits basically tell astronomers that there is a planet orbiting it, if there are consistent transits.  You can tell which are transits by looking at the marked areas that drift away from the constant area of light.

 
When you're all done you can view your finds on your profile!

   I found this lesson to be very interesting because I didn't realize that there are planets that have been discovered orbiting planets before this!  Also I find it cool how that we know that by the shift in light from the star could mean something such as a planet could be orbiting it.

Newton's Laws

To help myself remember Newton's Laws I found a way to compare it to one of my favorite activities, being on the potter's wheel, or also known as throwing clay.

1)  An object at rest stays at rest while an object in motions stay in motion unless acted on by an outside force (law of inertia).

When the wheel is turned off the clay will just sit there.  When you press the pedal the wheel will begin to spin.

2)  F=Ma (Force= Mass x acceleration)

When you prepare your wheel, you typically ball up the clay, center it to the disk, and throw it downward so it will stick and not leave the possibility of being thrown off once the wheel begins to spin! 

3)  For every action there is an equal, but opposite reaction.

If you've seen the movie Ghost, you probably remember this infamous scene.  As you pull the clay upward, if you're not steady enough it will make the entire piece uneven/unsteady.  Also, as you pull upward and make it too thin, it will collapse on itself.

Reasons Behind the Seasons

     Below are pictures explaining the reasons behind why we have four different seasons.  The Earth stays at the same angled axis as it revolves around the sun.  This is why at two points we experience equinox (autumn and spring) and have twelve hours of night and twelve hours of daylight.  When we experience summertime in Pennsylvania, the upper hemisphere of the Earth is tilted towards the sun.  The lower hemisphere is tilted away so they'll be experiencing winter.  When the earth gets to the other side of the sun, we will be in winter and the southern hemisphere will be having summer.
     As another bit of information, since I have the phases of the moon also pictured below, when the Earth rotates on it's axis it gives us the day and night sky.  As the moon orbits with the Earth around the sun, we see the different phases.  That's a lot of moving!

The Four Seasons

Moon Phases