Saturday, April 25, 2015

Gravitational Pull; Gravity

                                                                           Gravity
Image result for gravity     Gravity is the natural, invisible force that pulls things in. Without gravity, all of the planets, stars, Earthlings, Earthlings' properties, and etc. can go flying all around the universe. Earthlings can die if there weren't any gravity pulling them in. Gravitational pull from the sun is what keeps the planets in their orbits. It is the force that acts upon everything. 
Sir Isaac Newton found the theory of Universal Law of Gravitation
 after an apple fell on his head.
     The modern idea of gravity came from Galileo Galilei. He and his assistant were standing on the Tower of Pisa, holding up two balls. The balls were different sizes: one small and one big. When the balls were released, they hit the Earth ground at the same time. Galileo did this experiment again rolling down the ball using inclines. The balls hit the Earth ground at the same time again.Galileo showed that gravity makes things fall at the same rate. Sir Isaac Newton, an English mathematician, developed the Universal Law of Gravitation which helped scientists with their discoveries of planets and other theories.
     

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Quasars

                                      Quasars
     Quasars are probably the brightest objects in the universe. That is because of  billions or trillions of electrons that surround it. The energy from the electrons can outshine the stars in the same galaxy as the quasar. They are humongous and have super large masses. Quasars can only exist if there are super massive black holes because the black holes are the accelerators of the quasars. While only some dust and gases get to go in the black hole, most of it gets pushed away in two lines opposite of each other. They can be pushed away at almost the speed of light. One line is located on top of the black hole and the other is located below the black hole. The lines contain volts of charged gases. Quasars probably last for billions of years.
     A lot of people get mixed up with what pulsars and quasars are. They think that they are the same things, but they're not. Pulsars are neutron stars that move and spin fast because of their super strong gravitational pull. It pulls in everything, which makes it spin fast. The two streaks of light coming out of the neutron star are made of radioactive waves, unlike the charged gases that come out of the quasar. 

     A super massive black hole eats everything that is coming its way. It becomes inactive when nothing is close to it. Scientists haven't figured out how quasars are formed yet, but as technology advances, surly we will find the answers to our questions.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Pulsars

                                     Pulsars 
The two streaks of light opposite of each other are the North and South sides of
the pulsar, which are emitting radioactive waves.
    Pulsars are formed when stars die down and are in a process called supernova. As the star collapses, the core begins to compact all of the neutrons in the star onto itself because of its super strong gravitational pull. The cluster begins to spin faster and faster. It's like an ice skater pulling their arms in so that they can spin faster. After this process, the cluster becomes a rapidly spinning ball of neutrons covered by an iron shell. The shell would be smoothed out because of the strong gravitational pull of the core. This creates a pulsar. Pulsars are smaller than the original old star but they weigh 1.4 times more because of the extreme gravity pulling things inward, making things on the pulsar heavier than they actually are. Pulsars are basically neutron stars that spin quickly and has a super strong magnetic field.
     Pulsars emit every kind of wave in the electromagnetic spectrum. The first pulsar found was emitting radio waves. Spinning at an incredible speed, the waves were like pulsing into the air. ("Puls"ars) Because of its strong magnetic field, the waves would pulse out in the North and South sides of the star. The waves only emit on the North and South sides because of magnetic fields having ends on the two sides. The pulsing happens every second on each pulsar. Try imaging a pulsar emitting gamma rays and being close to Earth. We would be super lucky if the North and South didn't face our direction!

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Horoscopes/Astrology

                          Horoscopes/Astology
     Horoscopes tell you what characteristics and events you will have in your life based on the time of your birth. I would usually never trust the horoscopes that people put online. There is a bunch of bogus horoscope charts that doesn't make any sense at all. My advice to you is to never trust the horoscopes that are online! If you must know what your future is then I would suggest to just accept it. You made your future. The thing that you're doing right now might affect what you're doing later! (Astrology was proven to be false and incorrect. Believe it if you want, I'm just telling you the facts.)
  Here's a list of the zodiac signs: 
 Aquarius: January 20-February 18; Man who carries water 
 Pisces: February 19-March 20; Fish
 Aries: March 21-April 19; Ram
 Taurus: April 20-May 20; Bull
 Gemini: May 21-June 20; Twins
 Cancer: June 21-July 22; Crab
  Leo: July 23-August 22; Lion
 Virgo: August 23-September 22; Maiden
  Libra: September 23-October 22; Scales
  Scorpio: October 23- November 21; Scorpion
  Sagittarius: November 22-December 21; Centaur 
  Capricorn: December 22-January 19; Mountain goat
     All of these zodiac signs are constellations. You can see them all, but they come in seasons. 

     The Chinese zodiac signs are different from this list of horoscopes. The zodiac signs are based on what year you are born in and not the month. The signs are animals and not constellations. The Chinese zodiac consists of the following:
Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and, finally, the pig.









Saturday, March 14, 2015

Colonizing Mars?

                                                   Colonizing Mars?
     Astronomers have found some significant evidence for liquid water to be existing on Mars. They found ice on Mars which made them conclude that a long time ago on Mars, there was a warmer atmosphere. Warmer atmosphere means that the ice was in a liquid form before. If there was water, then there must be some kind of life form on Mars. (Aliens??!!)  
     Now the big question is "can humans move and live on Mars?" Well the answer may have to be a "no". The reason for that is because on Mars, the ground is made of mostly iron. We can't  plant
crops on there. We'll have to send in food supplies from Earth to Mars. The atmosphere on Mars is about -81 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't think humans can live through the harsh weather. Also, Mars' atmosphere contains of mostly carbon dioxide. We'll have to use oxygen tanks to survive. It's going to be very uncomfortable  when we go to sleep. The gravity on Mars is lower than Earth's gravitational pull, so the houses on Mars might have to be an underground home. If we have real houses on Mars, they might get blown away by wind storms and even float in the air. 
     Living on Mars sounds awesome, but we have to face the facts. We can't survive there. There is no way we can grow crops there, no oxygen, and there are super cold temperatures on Mars. 

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Aliens!

                                    Aliens!
     Do you believe in aliens? That's the question that probably most websites are going to start with when they want to talk about this strange topic about aliens. I, on the other hand, will be starting off with a different question that is way more intriguing (in my opinion): Do you want aliens to be existing in this universe? If so, why? (Leave comments below!) Aliens is a topic that we, humans, love to argue about. Are they real or not? Well, in my opinion, I don't really care if they're real or not. So what if they're real? (If they do exist and they harm or change our humans lives, than that's something to worry about! But for the most part, who cares?) It fascinates me that people would love to argue about things that may or may not even exist. I actually find it hilarious that they would actually waste their time on these subjects. 
Fake!
     There was once this photo of an irregular shaped oval that kind of looked like a face. The picture was taken by a telescope. People and even some scientists say that it was a head of an alien! A Martian! Years later, that picture was proven to be just the top of a mountain in Mars that coincidentally looked like a face. 
     People believe in what they want to believe in. We can't force them to believe in something that they think is wrong. I just wanted to put out there that it's useless right now to talk about such things. If you really think that aliens exist, then wait a few years or a few decades. Advanced technology will be the answer to your questions. 

Saturday, February 28, 2015

How The Universe Began

       How The Universe Began: Big Bang Theory
     The universe started out as a tiny little dot. That little dot had alot of energy inside it. One day,  that dot released it's energy. Astronomers called this the Big Bang Theory, which explains how the universe began. Right this moment, the universe is expanding. Because of the expansion, the constant movement of spreading, galactic objects are also moving along. This constant moving of the universe is powered by an energy called the dark energy. Astronomers say that the universe's expansion is accelerating, expanding faster than before. Think of this expansion like an air conditioned room except that the walls of that room is endless and the cool, invisible air is flowing in at an accelerating rate. The air fills the empty room like the universe filling in the empty space that has yet to be occupied. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. 
     The universe is mysterious. Our present technology hasn't been able to crack this mystery, yet. Whether the universe is infinite or not and what is outside the universe are questions that astronomers still not know. The universe is like a code and our future generations of astronomers may be able to crack it with their knowledge and advanced technology.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

The Dwarf Planet: Pluto

                    The Dwarf Planet: Pluto 
     Pluto is one of the dwarf planets in our solar system. Pluto is located in the kuiper belt, similar to the asteroid belt. (The kuiper belt is a belt of asteroids that is after Neptune. It surrounds the 8 planets and the sun.) Instead of being aligned with the other planets' orbit, Pluto's orbit is tilted. It takes this planet 248 Earth days to complete an orbit around the sun. 
     Pluto is made of mostly ice and rocks. Astronomers believe that its core is made of rocks and its mantle is ice. Pluto has a thin atmosphere when it goes near the sun, but the atmosphere disappears when Pluto is not near the star. The reason for this is because when Pluto goes near the sun, some of the ice on the surface melts and evaporation occurs. When Pluto is far away, its surface becomes ice again. 
     Pluto has 5 known satellites: Charon, Styx, Hydra, Nix, and Kerberos. Charon is the largest and most inner moon. Kerberos and Styx are the smallest moons and are the outer moons. 
     In the 1900s, astronomers classified Pluto as a planet. But there was a problem. There were other space objects that were even bigger than Pluto. There were heated debates about whether Pluto is a planet or not. But in 2006, Pluto was classified as a dwarf planet. Pluto has no rings and it is about 5.8 billion km. away from the sun.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Neptune

                               Neptune
     Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun. It is the last planet in our solar system. Neptune is considered a Gas Giant and an Ice Giant. It is the most dense out of all the Gas Giant planets. Neptune's atmosphere is made up of hydrogen and helium along with hydrocarbons, fuel that humans use, and maybe even nitrogen. Because it is the last planet from the sun, Neptune has the coldest outer atmospheric temperature out of the eight planets. 
     Neptune has a place in it's southern hemisphere called the Great Dark Spot which is similar to Jupiter's Great Red Spot. The Great Dark Spot, like the Great Red Spot, has wind speeds that can reach as high as 2,100 km/h. Five years later after the discovery of the Great Dark Spot, the Hubble Telescope found another cyclone, known as the Scooter, that moved even faster than the spot. It was located in the planet's northern hemisphere. Like Uranus, Neptune is consisted of ice and rocks. Astronomers believe that there are various types of methane that makes up the blue color of Neptune. 
     It takes 18 hours for Neptune's equator to rotate on its axis. It takes Neptune about 165 years to complete an orbit around the sun. Neptune's tilt is almost the same as Earth's and Mar's tilt which is about 28.3 degrees. Due to the same tilt degree as Earth, this planet also has seasons, but it takes about 40 years for a season to change into another. ( 165 years divided by 4 seasons is about 40 years for every season.) Neptune is about 4.503 million km. away from the sun. 
     Neptune's name came from the Roman Mythology, the God of the Sea, Neptune. Neptune has 14 satellites and few, thin planetary rings. 

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Uranus

                                   Uranus 
     Uranus (lol) is the seventh planet from the sun. Like Saturn, it is shaped like an oval, but Uranus is tilted completely on its sides. It's like having humans lay down on the ground and then telling them to roll on their sides around and around. Uranus is considered an Ice Giant, but it has hydrogen and helium as its atmosphere just like the other two planets, Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus' atmosphere also has other substances like methane and hydrocarbon which is used as fuels on Earth. Unlike the other planets, Uranus does not have a molten, hot, lava mantle, but it has a mantle that has ice and rocks. This planet's core is also different from the other planets' because its core is made out of ice which is similar to its mantle. Uranus has the coldest atmosphere out of the eight planets, probably because of the different substances that its atmosphere contains of. Uranus has five thin rings made of rocks and dust particles.
     Uranus takes eighty-four Earth years to complete a whole rotation around the sun. Its tilt is about ninety-eight degrees. Because Uranus is rolling on its side, the pole at the end of the side that faces the sun, gets forty-two years of sunlight, while the other pole at the other side, gets forty-two years of complete darkness. Its distance from the sun is about 2.877 billion km. away from the sun. 
     Uranus was named after the Greek deity of the sky. Jupiter, the fifth planet, was named after Zeus. (In Roman mythology, Zeus is called Jupiter.) Then Saturn, the sixth planet, was named after Cronus, the father of Zeus. Now, the seventh planet was named Uranus, the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus. It's kind of weird about how the astronomers named these three planets.