Astronomy Unit

PART ONE

There are many mysteries involving space and our universe. Like what is it like on the outer planets? Of what is it like on Pluto? But the biggest question which is most asked is of course “aliens”. Well that is what people call them; however the technical term is extraterrestrial life. Is there any extraterrestrial life on other planets? Well scientists are still trying to figure it out and answer that question. They are using the knowledge they have of Earth’s surface and atmosphere in search of those so called aliens. They can use the Earth to see what life forms need to survive, for example we need oxygen and the atmosphere to protect us. So in conclusion you can see that by using things we already know about, we can find out more.

2.     

  During this unit I learned that the International Space station and space probes as well as satellites are excellent tools for further space study. The scientists in the future can take those machines and make them better and more useful. With that they can find out more facts which we weren’t being able to find. I have learned that we only know a little bit about other planets, our solar system and the universe, since we found a way to travel to space and back or send space probes or robots up. Telescopes where the first tools used to find out about space. We learned about the Hubble Telescope as well, it is a telescope which we have put in spoace to take much more detailed pictures of our planets. It gave us the basics of the outer space. however it made us want more, made us want to know a lot more about our solar system. That is when we realized that if we see something with a human eye, the data will be much more accurate. The International Space Station is a very good way to discover more, and what is out there in our solar system.

PART TWO

1.       Manny effects are caused by the motion of the planet Earth. The main effect of Earth's rotation is the phenomenon of day and night. The rotation around the Earth’s axis in an anticlockwise direction gives us the sense that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
Another are the winds, they are caused by the rotation of Earth around its axis, it is called the Carioles effect. In the Northern Hemisphere the winds go counterclockwise, and in the Southern Hemisphere winds rotate clockwise. The Rotation around the sun also cause a huge effect on our planet. When the planet rotates around the sun, it causes seasons. When It is winter or fall on the Northern Hemisphere, it is Summer or Spring in the Southern Hemisphere. It is always the opposite.
The moons motions can cause some effects. Like the rotation around planet Earth. The moon is what causes tide. They are high and low waters. There are 2 high tides and 2 low tides every day. As you can see by the picture there are 2 types of tides, Neap and Spring. Spring tides are the highest since they get the Moons and the suns force and only occur during a full and new moon. During Neap tides you can see the least difference between lunar and solar tides and thy only occur during the 2 quarter. First and third. So as you can see the Moons and Earths movements can cause many effects.

The Development of technology and space flight really helped astronomers learn more about the other parts of the solar system and the structure of the universe in many ways. First of all with the technology we found out that we can’t survive out in space. We found out how our universe looks like and how our planets look like and in what order they go. However there are some facts that are unrevealed, like we don’t know if there are any other life forms on other planets. They also found out all the galaxies stars and how to protect us from asteroids and other universe danger. As you can see having all the technology and knowing what our universe looks like will improve our knowledge, it will make our lifestyle safer. However not knowing brings the fun and mystery in. Like aliens people can imagine them the way they want. Maybe green with oval heads, or colorful with 4 arms.

Space and Earth are two very different things. In space there is no nature nothing to keep it alive, so it is pretty much dead. As well the Earth is not open to any meteoroids, however space is. Space and the universe is so much more different from Earth. It has no gravity; it’s humongous and contains many galaxies. Our Earth has life forms living on it while in space there aren’t at all, or at least as far as humans think. The Universe also is a “home” of the planets, and the planet is our “home.” Space has no gravity and no oxygen so in other words we wouldn’t be able to breathe and we would glide in space, (It can really deform our bodies after a long period of time), and we have to wear heavy suits in order to breathe and not float away. On Earth we would be able to live freely breathing oxygen, and feeling the ground. In other words one wouldn't be able to survive in the Universe. The Earth is way more fitting for us. The Universe as well is wide, and the warmth of the sun doesn't have so much power to warm it all. So we would freeze. Space has benefited modern society it many ways. It brought much more questions and much more tasks to complete. It expanded our minds by seeing things we would only imagine about. It helped us understand how Earth and how we came to be.  It also led to many other complex creations. Like the rocket, shuttle or the space station which is in space. And that made us realize that we can create even more. All those contraptions really benefited modern society. It led us to figuring out all the amazing facts about space and made space exploration much more important and interesting. So as you can see space technology made everything better for us and led to even more.                                                     

 

4.      

I really enjoy learning about space. Space is so big, and so interesting. It is really fun, because it's not something someone can look at and learn about every single day, a person doesn't travel into space every single day, it costs a lot of money, and it's a lot of work. I actually wish that it could go to space. At first I thought we were going to learn about the different galaxies and stars, and go a bit into more detail. I also thought we were going to watch the moon and make a map of the phases of the moon. However its not only learning facts, also about seeing how amazing this whole other world is. I think that this unit was the most fun so far. I learned many things that I didn’t even know that excited. Learning about this was very important. I found out many different facts which I never knew for. I never knew for shuttles or for the space station, I never knew that astronauts can stay in space for more than 1 day and I thought that people already had landed on mars. I also didn’t know that the ozone layer wasn’t only saving us from the sun, but also from meteoroids. Even though I didn’t find any connection to my everyday life, it was supper fun. My favorite part of the unit was the planet project; it was very fun and creative. It let us use all the knowledge we got during the unit, put it all on paper and present it. I think this unit was perfect, I don’t think I would have changed anything and I really enjoyed every minute of it. :)

Space Exploration: Is it worth the cost?

 

Miona Milenkovic

29. May

Science 7A

Mrs. Medenica

Is Space Exploration worth the cost?

Have you ever been to the moon, or maybe some other planet. I know I haven’t. Well other people have and have discovered a lot about the outer space which you might not know about. They have discovered so many planets galaxies, as well as stars, black holes and moons. Scientists already know all that and are about to start learning even more. Yet is it really that important? Have you ever asked you self a question; how much does space exploration really help our cities? Or what are the benefits and what are our limitations?

Scientists all over the world work together to build many different contraptions and machines to be able to discover all those amazing facts involving space. I know that you must be thinking, from one side it’s probably cool and interesting for you, but on the other side, it is very expensive.  Millions of euros and dollars are used up a day just to plan and create all those rockets, space shuttles and space stations. On the top of that, only launching them takes up a lot of energy, time and money. So question that is raised, is space exploration really worth all that attentions it’s getting?

If you don’t believe me that it’s expensive, well here is the proof. Only one mission called the Messenger mission cost 280 million dollars. Launching only one shuttle out of 130 into space costs 450 million dollars. And the most shocking of all, to build only one of the “five-strong fleet” costs 1.7 billion dollars. Lastly but certainly not least, the entire space station costs about 142 billion dollars not including the small parts and missions. Even though some of these numbers aren’t that high, compared to some other topics, however that money could be used for much better purposes. Money can’t grow on trees, which is why we need to use it wisely.

Even though it is expensive, there are some good parts to this mess; many benefits of space exploration exist. Some of them are bringing all countries of the world together through team work, when they share knowledge, experience and many learning’s. Some more tangible benefits are for example predicting the weather more accurately. That doesn’t only mean predicting rain or sun, but also hurricanes and other natural disasters. Also the satellites which are up in space can easily predict information concerning infestation of fields by different types of bugs.  Medicine also benefits from space exploration. To start with, spacecraft materials have really helped and improved our medicine. Different metals which are used to build rockets and space shuttle are successfully used in medicine today. So as you can see even though space craft is quite expensive, it helps and improves our daily lives.

            There are many different ways to study space. Many new contraptions and machines are built every year to improve our knowledge. So our first option, and the most obvious one, is of course, sending humans into space. However there are many bad and good parts to this option. First of all, we get the clearest pictures of space with a naked eye. Seeing something with our own eyes is much different from pictures taken from the Hubble. It lets us use all of our 5 senses, touch, smell, taste, see and hear, however with pictures, we only se one sense, sight. Now you decide which one is better. Nevertheless, taking people up to space is a huge risk. Something can always go wrong. One part of the rocket might not be properly adjusted, or maybe someone else does something wrong. Even if you get up to space alive, that doesn’t mean you will stay alive. There are many dangers out there which we might face.

            Another approach to space exploration is much safer then the first one. It is sending robots, or any type of machine which will do the same job as if humans were up there. Again, there are benefits and drawbacks to this point. Robots would be much more accurate than telescopes, but not as accurate as humans. However doing this might save many lives. However giving money for that to be made is an issue. Paying for it and not knowing if it will break in space is a huge risk, and not being able to fix it is a huge problem.

Lastly, the least expensive is using telescopes. The first thing which popes into your mind are probably those little home telescopes; well no, I am talking about huge ones like the Hubble. As I said before, telescopes are probably one of the safest ways to explore space. Yet when it comes to collecting data and information, it is not the best choice. The only things which you will get are pictures but nothing to support and materialize your conclusion and learning.

If I was a member of the government there are many things which I would change. I would change how cities are organized; even though that is not speaking of my topic it is very important to me. If I was responsible for spending all the money on anything I desire, space exploration wouldn’t be on top of my list, however not on last on my list either. I would rather spend money on homeless people on the streets and children from orphanages. I strongly believe that everyone deserves to get even a bit of education, fresh food and water, as well as respect. That would probably be on top of my list. After that come the sick and disabled people. Even though they are not able to do much they need our help and attention, as well as animal shelters and stray animals. Nevertheless through space we have gotten much more good and useful medicine as well as warnings for death traps such as hurricanes. With that money I would also fix any transportation such as buses and roads. And lastly I would give out money to all those people who work hard to make our society a much better place, because without them, our town would be a mess.

Bibliography:

"Benefits of Space Exploration." Space Exploration. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 June 2012. .

" In these uncertain times, BBC astronomer Mark Thompson shares his opinion about the funding of space exploration in light of global tragedy." Discovery News. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 June 2012.

.

GET YOUR FLYING CAR !!!

Many people during their life time think about what it is like to have a flying car, even I did. Well finally this dream is a reality. People started building it in 2006, the car/aircraft. It can fly 400 miles with only one ank of gass. Its top speed is 105 mph in air, and on ground 65mph.

To change from a car to an airoplane or the other way is done with one push of a button. The best part of all is that when its a car, its only 80 inches wide and 9 inches long,so it can fit pretty much anywhere you want it to be. Until now, you wont have to wait for airplanes, wait in traffic or wait anywhere in your car, since now it can fly.

So as you can see this week I did a different article. So the reason why I choose it is because every time when I am stuck in traffic with my mom or dad, I always ask them “Why can’t you spread out your wings and fly over those cars?”  Well my question has been answered. Another reason why is because all my current events are about science. I just wanted to make it different this time.

http://www.dogonews.com/2012/4/5/need-a-flying-car-now-you-have-a-choice

By Meera Dolasia on 04/05/2012