Astronomy Unit Reflection

During our 7^th grade Astronomy Unit in science, we covered the theories of earth‘s creation, the moons and its phases, astronomy technology and life in space (gravity, nebulas).  Most importantly, we covered the happenings of a whole revolution around the sun (laws of the interactions of the (sun, earth, and moon).

I really enjoyed this unit because I learnt a lot of new things, but I also liked the way the Unit was planned/set up. First, we started with the key concepts like revolutions, rotations, satellites etc. Then, we focused on the moon and its phases. Next, we learnt about the earth, sun and moon: how they affect each other; tides, eclipses, phases and phenomena.  We learnt about space exploration and its costs. Last, but definitely not least, we had to write an essay and make our own planet. Most people wouldn’t favor writing an the essay, but I really liked it because I got to show what I know about money and how much it value.  I  also I got to debate and argue my point of view on space exploration and its costs.  The project was a fun way to finish up our unit - kind of like the cherry on a banana Sunday. The project allowed students to show their creativity and to use their knowledge to make their planet realistic and find a way to have everything making perfect scientific sense.

This project was a cool learning experience. I really loved learning why some phenomena happen. For example, I learnt about apogees and perigees of the moon, which I actually used in my day in one instance. On may 5^th my mother stated “WOW!! Look at the moon it is so big and bright!” Then I asked, “Do you know why its so big and bright” and she was absolutely clueless so I enlightened her. I told her “it is at its perigee around the earth, which is when the moon is at its closest point around earth. The reason why perigees happen is because the moons orbit around earth isn’t a perfect circle as many people perceive it to be.   It is actually an oval making some points in the orbit closer or further from earth. The moon is so bright because as the moon orbits earth it changes from being between the earth and the sun, and being behind the earth.   When the moon is behind the earth the suns rays reflect on to the moon, which then brightens it up and reflects on earth making the moon as bright as could be.

All in all, I loved this unit because of the activities and because I liked learning about  the mysteries of space.

The Best Moon Sighting Of 2012!!

Full Moons are a regular phenomenon that have always been considered as a special night for some people but also the full moon is a sign for trouble according to others. Full moons make tides rise,  dogs molest us with their loud barking and wakes us up in the middle of the night with its bright rays shining in your face. When that moon wakes you up on may 5 you might wanna get up and take a look. Its going to be a "Super Moon" 14% bigger and 30% brighter than a usual moon. I have mentioned this circumstance before, guess what it is. Maybe you got it right maybe you didn't but if you think you did the answer should be a "perigee", when the moon is at its closest point to earth.


When a full moon reaches its perigee its appear bigger but the only way that you can really see the difference in the size is when the "super moon" is just going into the horizon.


There is no way that I can describe what is going to happen on May 5th, better than this video.

"Goldilocks Zone" Current event

Kepler, NASA's spacecraft, has discovered numerous "alien planets". Planets having multiple suns, gigantic "super earths" and "hot jupiters"also,surprisingly, mini solar systems. These discoveries are fantastic and to me very surprising. I don't know about you but it is very hard to imagine any other world out of Earth. A different planet and solar systems.  To think that there are other planets "beyond" Earth is challenging to imagine in detail.

NASA believes that at this rate of discoveries astronauts will finally find an earth like planet orbiting its star in the "goldilocks zone". In "Goldilocks zones " the planet has to have a great enough distance from the sun to support enough water, and of course life. The reason why researchers and NASA named this type of zone a "Goldilocks zone, is mind boggling to me, at least they have creativity. 

"Goldilocks Zone" = Habitable zone

Kepler has already discovered some Earth-shaped planets, but happen to be to close to their "parenting stars". Luckily, these recent discoveries have researchers feeling that there is going to be a major find just around the corner. Especially Shawn Domagal-Goldman, a researcher at NASA HQ who specializes in exoplanet biology. Shawn states that "I believe Kepler will find a 'Goldilocks planet' within the next two years. We'll be able to point at a specific star in the night sky and say 'There it is—a planet that could support life!'". If I could talk to Shawn right now I would say "I think your right". 

Don't you fell the same way? If NASA does happen to find a second earth, what do you think it'll look like and what will we do first" 

Is Space Exploration Worth The Cost?

A very good question that people ask is: How does space exploration benefit us? How does putting astronauts in danger just to bring them up to space help us? These are the questions I will be answering today.


Sure there a few set backs like the budget, the danger, and the limited amount of resources but put aside all the disadvantages and think of the benefits. I can think of many more benefits than disadvantages. The two most important and most interesting that I will be talking about are: how space exploration develops medical technology and the daily use of technology to predict and manage natural disasters. 


Safety and protection from diseases in space is a major issue that scientists and medical staff at NASA pay attention to very aggressively. There are some really smart people that help NASA get all the information and top of the line technology to keep the astronauts safe. Alexander Tsiaras is one of these smarties who help the best of the best achieve their highest potential, he works as Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of Scientific Visualization at Yale University in the Department of Medicine.  Alexander Tsiaras helped  NASA learn how to perform surgery in space on an astronaut in case of an accident. Astronauts can't fly home when an emergency occurs. He and NASA were testing this new technology on Earth when they started to realize they were seeing new things using the new kind of scanning technology called an MRI , new things never seen before that could help manage disease, but also things that gave a new insight to things above the body that "just made you marvel". To better describe this discovery look at this video. You do not have to look at the whole thing the very start shows the most important and relevant to space and then the video goes to a visual to give you an idea of what they are seeing.

Due to this major breakthrough in technology Alexander and his partner received a Nobel Prize in Science.


Also a major benefit that space provides to me, you and everyone in the world is the benefit of having a place to put our satellites. NASA has launched numerous satellites into space and what this does for us is give us internet, television and most importantly satellites help us predict when natural hazards are going to occur. Yes, ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls you heard it right from...well me, if NASA didn't spend the billions of dollars they do on getting satellites up to space and astronauts up to space to fix them you wouldn't have internet which means...Disaster, NO FACEBOOK, TWITTER, OR MY SPACE!!! Also no T.V. and of course people of Earth couldn't be forewarned for a tsunami, earthquake, typhoon etc. Our world could actually become a "2012". NASA should keep sending out unmanned ships like satellites into space, for sure.Satellites benefit us better than sending people to the moon or mars etc.


What I find really ridiculous is that people are always complaining and stating with no proof that, "NASA and Russia are always wasting money on sending astronauts to space just so that they can discover new planets.  Seriously...who cares about the other planets".  First, if you ever hear this, mentally slap that person and tell them to keep their mouth shut and listen to what your about to say. You say,"No NASA and Russia aren't wasting money they are giving you tons of benefits, like internet,T.V and are keeping you safe and healthy through their research. Also Americans and others  spend 154 billion dollars on alcohol, which is useless, and spend 10 billion dollars in Iraq both practically useless while NASA spends 7 billion on space exploration, which actually benefits all of earth in mostly positive ways. Also even more amazing is that NASA is only given .5 of the US budget out of 100. If I was a member of congress I would ignore everyone's remarks and keep to what my gut tells me. Space exploration is head over heels important.


In conclusion space exploration is definitely worth the cost with very few disadvantages, which include the budget, the danger, and the limited amount of resources. But, then there are the benefits, such as development in medical technology, management of natural disasters and the importance of satellites. Space exploration is the greatest breakthrough of all human time!

MLA Format Bibliography

Sofia Infante 7B

Science-Mrs.M

9/4/2012

"Argument:Space Exploration has brought many practical benefits to Humans". Debatepedia. N.P, 16 June 2010. Web. 9 apr. 2012.<http://debatepedia.idebate.org>. 

Dubner, Stephen J. "Is Space Exploration Worth the Cost? A Freakonomics Quorum." Freakonomics. N.p., 11 Jan. 2008. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.<http://www.freakonomics.com>.

Current Event Saturday, April 7

Yesterday, saturday april 7 the moon mets its perigee at around 12:59 p.m. A perigee is when the moon is at its closest point to the Earth in its orbit.  Every moon always has a perigee around its planet, our moons perigee is when the moon is at around 358,315 kilometers away. Both the farthest and the closest point when the moon is from our planet are named. An apogee is the exact opposite from a perigee, it is the point when the moon is at its farthest part from earth. One thing that i found very interesting from the current event that i read is that they said that since our moons perigee happens directly after a full moon coastal regions have to expect higher tides for the following days.

As you can see during the moons apogee the moon is much bigger since it is closer.And even better is that during perigees the moon is always a full moon making the sight absolutely breath taking.

The Sky This Week.

This Week if you look at the shimmering moon in the night you can see that the shape of the moon has changed. The moon is going into its first quarter. This is when you can see half of the moon as so in this picture.

 

First quarter is also when the moon is going to a new moon. The first quarter is a waning quarter.Meaning that the moon gets smaller after this phase passes. One very cool thing that I noticed that I have never noticed before is that when you look at the moon at night during any phases you can still see the whole moon just not lit up. For example during, lets say, a waning crescent,

even though the phase of the moon is a crescent (the part lit up is a crescent) the light still shines a tiny bit around the boarder of the moon showing the whole moon. You can only see this if you study the moon for a couple minutes. Only then can you see it. This is my little discovery of the week that I found really cool.