Neptune

All About Neptune

By Madison Nef

Neptune’s discovery is considered to be perhaps the most exciting discovery in astronomy. It can’t be seen from a telescope, but it was first seen in 1846 from the observatory in Berlin. HOWEVER, the existence of the planet had been known for roughly a year before it was even seen.

Neptune is the 8th planet from the Sun.  Uranus, the 7th planet, was first discovered by means of a telescope in 1781.  Two astronomers; J.C. Adams in England and Urbain Le Verrierin France, had been puzzled by the shape of Uranus’ orbit. Using mathematics, they figured out that a larger and more distant body must be giving Uranus its strange orbit, pulling it closer during certain points in its orbit.

The Berlin observatory, following the calculations for the possible position of this then-unknown object, searched for Neptune and found it. It was named Neptune after the Roman God of the Sea.

In the same year that Neptune was first seen, 1846, its first moon was also spotted and named Triton. Triton is a most unusual moon since it orbits Neptune in the opposite direction of Neptune’s own rotation on its axis.  All the other major satellites (or moons) in the Solar System follow their planets around as they turn.

Triton is about the same size as our own moon.  A smaller moon, Nereid, was discovered by telescope in 1949 and six further moons were discovered in the 1980’s by the Voyager spacecraft.  All these moons are in between Triton and Neptune. Now, we are aware that Neptune has 13 total moons- since Neptune was the god of the sea, all of the moons were named after the less important Greek sea gods. This started with Triton and worked its way down to sea nymphs, like Nereid.

Neptune is the third largest planet in the Solar System, much smaller than the real giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and only a little bigger than Uranus. Giants? What? That’s right: Neptune is one of the four ‘gas giants’. Like the others, it is composed only of gas. Neptune is made up of hydrogen and helium.

Like all the other planets in the Solar System, Neptune moves in an orbit round the Sun at the center of the system.  It takes Neptune 165 of our Earth years to orbit the Sun.  The Earth orbits the Sun in 365 days (or one Earth year). In 2011, Neptune completed its first orbit of the Sun… since its discovery in 1846.

Like all other planets, Neptune turns on its own axis while orbiting the Sun. While the Earth makes a full revolution on its axis in 24 hours (one turn = one day), Neptune spins a bit faster, completing its turn in just 19 hours. This means that one day on Neptune is only 19 hours long.

The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun; and this measurement is taken as the standard for astronomical measurements of distance.  Astronomers say that the Earth is one Astronomical Unit (1 AU) from the Sun.  Neptune is unimaginably further… at 30.1 AU from the Sun. This makes it 2793 million miles from the Sun, and 2700 million miles from Earth.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this paper and learned a little bit about Neptune. I know I did. I like the fact that all the moons were named after minor sea gods or people associated with the sea… it’s a nice touch and a good way to coordinate things and tie them all together. It’s also a great connection between ancient mythology and astronomy.

I’ll leave you here.

Maddie

Jupiter

All About Jupiter

By Madison Nef

Jupiter is known as the giant of the Solar System, and for good reason. It is the largest planet known to date, with a mass more than 300 times that of Earth. Jupiter has a diameter of 88,700 miles and is the fifth planet from the Sun, about 483 million miles away from it. Jupiter is so far away that the Earth is closer to the Sun than it is to Jupiter. Recounting back to Jupiter’s massive size… it’s so large that it could easily fit up to 1,300 Earths inside it and still have room.

Such a regal planet deserves an important name- like all other planets; Jupiter was named after the Roman god Jupiter. What is lesser known is that Jupiter was the sky-god, and in Greek, he would be known as Zeus- figuratively looked upon as the most important Greek god. What’s more; Jupiter is the stormiest planet in the Solar System.  There is a permanent, but ever-changing whirlpool of storms, known as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot which can only be seen when using a telescope. This Red Spot was first seen by Robert Hooke in 1664. However, the reason I find it interesting is because once again, it ties in with the name Zeus- Zeus is often depicted controlling lightning bolts and storms in mythology.

 Jupiter, being so large, can be seen relatively clearly without a telescope. Thus, it was known to many of the ancient civilizations. However, it was not until the invention of the telescope that something quite remarkable was discovered- Jupiter’s moons. The first 4 to be discovered were the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. They were so-named the Galilean moons due to the fact that Galileo was the first to observe them through the telescope and discover them in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s. Since then, 64 lesser moons have been discovered- making Jupiter the planet with the most moons known.

Jupiter is also a gas giant, and was the first to be discovered and is typically known as the first gas giant alongside Neptune, Uranus and Saturn. The gas giants earn their name not only due to their size (being the 4 largest known planets) but also because they are thought to be made up entirely of thick layers of many gasses. Jupiter itself is composed of hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia. This causes the planet to have very thick mists that change and also bright belts on the outer layers that change.

The cause of all the change in appearance on Jupiter is mainly due to the fact that it has quite odd weather patterns. Allow me to explain:

All planets in the Solar system orbit round the Sun.  The Earth takes just over 365 days, so the Earth’s year is 365 days. However, it takes Jupiter 11.9 of the Earth’s years to make its orbit round the Sun. Although Jupiter’s orbit; and therefore its year; is so dramatically longer than Earth’s, its day is far shorter (much like Saturn). The Earth, spinning on its own axis, takes 24 hours to make a full rotation around the Sun (hence giving us day and night). Jupiter, on the other hand, spins a LOT faster and turns on its axis once every 9.84 hours.

This high level of spinning causes very strong, dramatic weather patterns in the clouds that surround the planet. Because of these ever-changing clouds, the appearance of the planet is altered quite often.

 There is still SO much to be learned about Jupiter… it’s so vast that we may never know everything about it. On August 5^th of 2011, NASA launched the Juno unmanned spacecraft on a mission to Jupiter in an attempt to learn more about this strange planet. This spacecraft will take 5 years to actually reach the planet; and is the first spacecraft to be entirely solar powered.

·        Fun fact! Juno was a Roman goddess… best known to be the wife of Jupiter. Perhaps astronomers thought that by naming the spacecraft this, it would bring them more luck. Who knows.

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this paper and learned a bit about Jupiter. Who would have known that such a large planet could have SO MANY moons?! I think that that’s the fact that I most enjoyed learning about Jupiter. In fact, I have written a long paper that goes into detail on each of Jupiter’s moons. If you want to check that out, you can scroll down farther and you should be able to find it. Fascinating stuff!

Anyway, I have to go now. Thank you for reading.

Maddie

Saturn

All About Saturn

By Madison Nef

Saturn is the sixth known planet in the solar system and is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful planets when studied through a telescope. The intensely bright globe of the planet is surrounded by rings that are thought to be composed of ice. While there are only 3 rings visible from Earth, photographs sent back from the US Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s were able to identify further narrower rings “ringlets” in between the three main rings.  The main rings are labeled A, B and C, with A being the outermost ring. 

Saturn is the last planet that can be seen without using a telescope of any kind or binoculars. It was known in the ancient world for centuries before telescopes were invented. However, the rings AROUND the planet can only be seen when using a telescope. These rings were first seen by Galileo in 1610.

·        Saturn was named, as all other planets, after a Roman god. Saturn was a very mysterious god and not much is known about him, but it is thought that he is the god of sowing seed and the god of the harvest.

Saturn has 18 different moons that orbit around it, attracted to its gravity. The largest moon, Titan, is the second largest moon in the entire Solar System- right behind the moon Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter. Titan is far larger than Earth and is the only moon in the solar system known to have an atmosphere. The atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and methane.

Side note- titans were considered to be Jupiter’s giant sons. Saturn is the second largest planet in the Solar System, right after Jupiter.

Speaking of the size of Saturn; it’s very large and its mass is 95 times that of the Earth. It has a total diameter of 75,098 miles and is 886 million miles from the Sun. Distances from the Sun are measured in astronomical units, or AU. The Earth is the standard unit, and is one AU from the Sun. Therefore, one AU equals 93 million miles… since that is the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Saturn is 9.5 AU from the Sun.

Some facts about Saturn:

• Saturn takes 29½ years to make one complete orbit of the Sun.  The Earth takes one year. However, much like Jupiter, Saturn spins far faster on its axis than Earth does… the Earth completes one full rotation, turning, on its axis in 24 hours. Saturn, however, makes a full rotation around the Sun in just 10 hours.
• This rapid spinning leads to hurricane-like storms that are far, far stronger than anything that is or has been seen on the Earth.  There is a constant whirlwind storm at Saturn’s South Pole which can be observed when using the strongest telescopes. 
• Saturn is what’s known as a “gas giant”.  This is because the four biggest outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are thought to be made entirely up of dense layers of gas. Saturn itself is composed completely of hydrogen and helium. 
• Saturn’s axis is rather tilted and because of this, as the planet orbits the Sun we get different views of the rings.  Twice in every orbit only the edge of the outermost ring can be seen; but even that can only be seen by using the strongest telescopes. Twice during the orbit we can see the fully opened rings. 
• The rings all orbit Saturn at different speeds and have gaps between them. In 2010,  a spacecraft from the NASA Cassini mission went between rings F and G and is now orbiting Saturn. The instruments on board this spacecraft are still sending back valuable information that can help scientists here on Earth understand this gorgeous planet and its mystifying rings even better.

Well, there you have it! I hope you enjoyed this report and learned a little something about Saturn. I know I did. I really love learning about the planets and all they have to offer… each one is so unique and mysterious

Anyway, I’ll end things here.

Maddie

Mars

All About Mars

By Madison Nef

It’s easy to forget that Earth is not the only planet in the solar system. Seven (or eight if you include Pluto) other planets whiz around the sun just like ours. Of those planets, none of them are closer or more engaging to the imagination than Mars. Often called the Red Planet, Mars is named this due to the high levels of iron oxide that lay on the surface of the planet in mineral form. This causes the planet to give off a reddish tint.

Besides this, however… Mars is quite similar to Earth. It’s the fourth closest planet to the sun (Earth is the third) and while they’re similar in size and terrain- the planet is (as mentioned above) completely red, as opposed to Earth’s green land formations, mountains, and deep blue oceans. However… once you get past the minor difference in coloring, the planets are still quite similar.

Here are a few of the similarities, listed out:

Polar Ice Caps
Mars has both North and South polar ice caps, much like Earth. Also like Earth, both ice caps are made mostly of frozen water. Since so much water is frozen in the ice caps of Mars, some scientists think that life could have once existed there. As long as there was water… existence would have been possible. 

Length of a Year
Mars isn’t too much farther from the Sun than Earth is... As a result, a typical year on Mars is the equivalent of roughly two years for us; the exact time period being a year and 320 days. 

Length of a Day
While a year on Mars might be almost twice as long as a year on Earth, the length of a day there is almost identical. A Martian day is 24 hours and 39 minutes long, less than an hour longer than a day on Earth. 

Seasons
Mars has seasons like Earth too. These seasons are much longer than Earth seasons because Mars is so much farther from the sun… so much so that the average high for a summer day on Mars is 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mars and Earth seem so similar at this point that you’re probably shocked life hasn’t been found there yet, right? Wrong. Not everything is so similar… in fact, there are a great many differences too. If there weren’t… Mars wouldn’t be so interesting.

A good example is Mars’ size. Many planets are far bigger than Earth- for example, 318 Earths could easily fit inside Jupiter. Mars is nowhere near as big- in fact; it’s one of the only two planets in the solar system that seems to be significantly smaller than Earth. To put the sizing into perspective- if you put the planets side by side, Earth would be a basketball and Mars would be a softball.

However, just because Mars is small doesn’t mean it isn’t fascinating… OR that there aren’t landmarks to be found on Mars. The Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest mountain in the entire solar system at an astonishing height of over 25 kilometers high. To put this into perspective for those who haven’t memorized metric units… that’s more than 3 times higher than Mount Everest. It’s so big that astronomers in the 19^th century could see it through basic telescopes.

Then, there’s Valles Marineris, which is the largest known canyon in the solar system. It stretches 4,000 kilometers across the planet’s surface and if you look at photos of Mars taken from telescopes, you can see the gigantic indent/gash that is Valles Marineris.

Finally, last but not least, the Borealis Basin makes up over 40% of the planet’s entire surface… in fact, it takes up almost the whole entire northern hemisphere. Not only does the basin take up this much space, but the entire planet in and of itself  is covered in craters caused by asteroids and meteorites hitting it throughout the years.

As of today, 43,000 of these craters have been found… and that only includes the extremely large ones. Mars only has two moons- Phobos and Deimos.

I’d love to continue, but I have to write a report on Saturn now… I’ll leave this report here.

Maddie

All About Earth

All About Earth

By Madison Nef

Earth is an extremely important planet for multiple reasons- the first and foremost being that it is the only known planet in the entire universe that supports life. From space, it is gorgeous- being comprised of 71% salt water and 30% land and air, it is seen as brown, white a blue. The blue is the water that covers most of the planet, while the brown and green makes up the land masses and the white is the cloud cover.

Earth, much like Mercury and Venus, features many different types of landforms such as mountains, ridges, plains, volcanoes, and more. The only difference between the three is that Earth is the only one that life can survive on… in all of those terrains. As of today, scientists have identified roughly 3 million different life forms currently alive on Earth, and they believe there are many, many more yet to be found.

Also unlike Mercury and Venus, Earth has many water sources- water being needed for everything to survive. The total amount of water on Earth (to a depth of 2,000 meters) is known as the Earth’s hydrosphere. The Earth in total is made up of roughly 71% water, the remaining 29% being land and air. Another difference is the time it takes Earth to orbit the sun- a grand total of 365 days, which is more than the length it takes both planets combined. The Earth orbits the sun at an average distance of about 93,000,000 miles.

Earth’s gravity is also relatively different from these two other planets, and can be measured using the following mathematical formula:

 Gravity on earth = 9.80665 m / s2

Essentially, this formula describes how the acceleration of an object falling freely near the Earth’s surface increases by about 9.8 meters per second every second.

Now, about the atmosphere of Earth- it is almost the same as Venus, besides temperature. The atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide and other similar gaseous molecules.

The oxygen that is present on Earth is quite unique from other planets- this due to the fact that Earth’s oxygen is mainly generated by plants. Scientists have figured out that Earth’s biosphere began to alter itself roughly 2.7 billion years ago, with the evolution of photosynthesis.

The production of oxygen enabled the succession of organisms that could succeed in oxygenated settings and also enabled the formation of the ozone layer to protect the planet from most of the sun’s harmful ultra-violet rays. This, combined with the greenhouse effect, the planet’s tendency to capture and re-radiate energy from the ground, served to moderate temperature in most parts of the planet, enabling life to evolve.

Temperatures on Earth vary widely depending on location. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth was -128.6 F in Antarctica. The hottest temperature ever recorded was 136 degrees F at Al’ Aziziyah, Libya. The overall average temperature of Earth is somewhere in the vicinity of a relatively comfortable 59 degrees F.

The Earth has only one moon that controls the ocean tides through magnetic attraction. On average, the moon is about 238,885 miles from Earth. Fun fact: Most people drive three times that many miles in their lifetime.

 Interesting Facts:

·        Human beings are thought to be responsible for the Earth’s increasing surface temperatures, a phenomenon known as global warming.

·        For much of history, the human population believed Earth was flat and the center of the universe.

Well, there you have it. I hope that you enjoyed learning about our own planet… I know I learned something. I never would have guessed that some people drive the amount of miles it takes to get to the moon THREE TIMES in their life… that’s crazy!

I hope you got an interesting tid-bit from this as well.

Maddie

Mercury

All About Mercury

By Madison Nef

Now that Pluto is no longer classified as a planet, Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system. Mercury has an extremely rocky surface with an iron core. The iron core in Mercury is relatively large, compared to other rocky planets like Earth and Mars. This makes Mercury's mass very high compared to its relatively tiny size. It’s a barren planet covered with craters from the impacts of asteroids and other objects, and looks quite similar to our own Earth’s moon.

Mercury has virtually no atmosphere and rotates very slowly in relationship to the sun. A single day on Mercury is as long as almost 60 Earth days. As a result of its long day and little atmosphere, Mercury has some wild extremes in temperature. The side facing the sun is incredibly hot (800 degrees F), while the side away from the sun is super cold (-300 degrees F).

How does Mercury differ from Earth?
Mercury is much smaller than Earth. It's actually a lot closer to the size of Earth's moon… yet another similarity between the moon and Mercury! It has a shorter year, but a much longer day. There is absolutely no air to breathe and the temperature changes wildly each day. Mercury is similar in that it has a hard rocky surface like Earth's. You could walk around on Mercury; but only if you had a space suit and could take the extreme temperatures.

There is evidence that the planet Mercury has been known since 3000 BC by civilizations such as the Sumerians and Babylonians. Galileo was the first to observe Mercury by telescope in the early 1600's… but it was thought to have been known about long before then.

Several other astronomers since then have added to our knowledge about the planet.
Since Mercury is close to the Sun, it is very difficult to send a space craft to explore the planet. The gravity from the sun is constantly pulling on the space craft causing the ship to need lots of fuel in order to stop or slow down at Mercury. There have been two space probes sent to Mercury. The first was Mariner 10 in 1975. Mariner 10 brought us the first close up pictures of Mercury and discovered that the planet had a magnetic field. The second space probe is Messenger. Messenger reached Mercury in 2009. Scientists will learn a lot more about Mercury from this drone, which is still up there today, in the coming years. 

Mercury is very tough to study from Earth because it is inside the Earth's orbit. This means that when you try to look at Mercury, you are also looking at the Sun. The bright light of the Sun makes it nearly impossible to see Mercury… because of this, Mercury is best seen right after the Sun sets or just before it rises.

I hope you enjoyed this paper and learned a little something about Mercury in it. I know that I did.

Maddie

Venus

All About Venus

By Madison Nef

Venus is known in astronomy mythology as the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Greek, Venus is Aphrodite. Venus is one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood inner planets. Much like Earth, Venus has an atmosphere. However, Venus’ atmosphere is a lot thicker than Earth’s; which makes it harder for modern scientists to gather information about the planet.

Regardless of this, quite recently scientists have been able to peer through the dense clouds and get a small look at the planet as it is. Much like Earth, there are volcanoes and many misshapen mountains. Sadly, there is still a lot we don’t know about this planet, how it looks and what it is like on the surface. However, in the 1970’s, the Soviet Union managed to land a few probes on Venus that lasted a few hours before being destroyed due to the extreme heat. Before getting destroyed, the probes managed to take a few pictures that were sent back to earth for scientists to study.

Venus is often seen as the Earth’s sister planet due to the enormous amount of similarities between the two. They are nearly the same exact size, and they have identical chemistry, gravity and density. In easier terms; Venus is composed of the same materials that Earth is in roughly the same quantities. Due to this, your weight on either planet would only be a few pounds difference because of the similarity.

If these planets are indeed sisters, Venus is the evil one. She is the version of Earth gone wrong- Venus is deadly and extremely hot; so hot in fact that a human would not be able to survive even a minute before being burned alive. What’s more, there is absolutely nowhere to hide from the scorching heat so we can’t even visit Venus.

Global Warming
In the early days of Venus' 4 billion year long life, it would have appeared very similar to the Earth. The two would have been almost identical. However, over a period of a few million years, forces on Venus caused it to take a very different course than the Earth.

Venus lies much closer to the Sun than Earth. That single fact has caused an unstoppable chain of events that doomed Venus to its fiery existence. Owing to its closer proximity to the Sun, Venus' temperature should have been only slightly warmer than that of the Earth. But as the planet warmed, the water evaporated. This increase in water vapor in the atmosphere began a cycle of global warming that could never have been stopped. Water vapor is a very effective greenhouse gas (greenhouse gas soaks up hot air and prevents it from escaping into space). The increase in water vapor caused the temperature to rise further, which caused more water to evaporate, causing the temperature to climb EVEN HIGHER.

Today, it is likely that all of Venus' water has evaporated into the atmosphere. This atmosphere effectively traps the Sun's energy causing the surface to burn much hotter than it naturally would. The temperatures on Venus can reach almost 900 degrees Fahrenheit… way too hot for anything living; at least of this world.

I hope you enjoyed this paper and learned a little something about Venus. I know I did! OH! Before I end the paper- Venus has no moons whatsoever. Since I just wrote a paper about the moons of Mercury, I figured I’d just add that little tidbit in there.

-Maddie

The Galilean Moons

The Moons Of Jupiter

By Madison Nef

Jupiter is the largest known planet in our Solar System as of right now. It also holds the record for the most moons in stable orbit around any planet IN THE ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM at the astonishing number of 67.

In this paper, I obviously am not going to be covering ALL 67 of these moons in this one paper; that would be far too many! Instead, I’d like to focus on the 4 largest of these moons, or the Galilean moons. These moons were first discovered in the early 1600’s when an astronomer named Galileo Galilei studied the sky for the first time using one of the earliest telescopes. At this time, he could only see 4 moons… they were the first to be discovered; but many more were discovered in the years that followed.

These four moons are the only ones large enough to be seen through a normal, small telescope like the one Galileo used. Since he was the first to discover them, they are so named the Galilean moons.

Okay, let’s get right into things now! Four moons; roughly 3 paragraphs about each if I can muster it. Here we go.

The Four Galilean Moons (And their stories)

Io

Io is the third largest moon of Jupiter. It was named after a maiden who Jupiter fell in love with in Greek mythology. A summarized version of this story is essentially that Io was a maiden living on Argos, and she was extremely kind-hearted and beautiful and everyone loved her. Jupiter observed her from above and grew to love her- in fact, he loved her to the point where he would make lengthy visits to Argos to see her.

This was all well and good, but Juno, who was the equivalent of Jupiter’s wife, did not like Io at all. When she figured out where Jupiter was disappearing to, she got extremely jealous and highly angered with him… and with Io, who didn’t even know who Jupiter was. She was under the belief that he was a prince from a far-off land.

Juno came down to Argos, and in an effort to protect Io, Jupiter turned her into a white dairy cow, thinking that he could easily change her back to normal later. However, Juno realized his trick and took the cow for herself. She made the transformation permanent, and Io was forced to live the rest of her life as a cow.

Back on track. The moon Io is an extremely violent place where any human being wouldn’t survive long enough to enjoy the gorgeous colors and surroundings this moon is thought to have. It has been guaranteed that it has higher mountains than anywhere on earth, and it also has many volcanoes.

However, we may never be able to visit it as it lies within a very dangerous part of Jupiter’s magnetic field. The radiation level in this area is SO HIGH that it has been estimated to be more than 1000 times stronger than the level of radiation needed to kill a human. And even if you DID survive the radiation for long enough to reach its surface… you still wouldn’t be safe.

Io has gigantic volcanoes that erupt with extreme frequency and spurt sulfuric acid everywhere. These spurts then land on the moon’s surface, which causes the gorgeous red, yellow and oranges that make Io look the way it does.

Europa

Europa is a cold, smooth, ice covered world. A long time ago in space there was a period of time when it was very common for asteroids and comets to hit other worlds… this was called the Heavy Bombardment Period. During this time most worlds, including Earth, were scarred with bowl shaped impressions; or craters. Most of these worlds remain scarred today. However, some, like the Earth, have since recovered their surfaces with new rock lava or ice, hiding these scars.

Because Europa is smooth, we know it too has recovered its surface since the Heavy Bombardment Period. This, along with a few other clues, has led scientists to believe that beneath its icy outer shell lays a liquid water ocean that is likely heated by Europa's hot core. This makes Europa one of the most likely places for life to exist outside of the Earth.

Ganymede

Not much is known about Ganymede. It, like Europa, has a smooth icy surface but it was recently discovered that it also has liquid ocean water beneath that exterior. Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter’s moon, being large in diameter than the planets of Mercury and Pluto. Ganymede was named after an extremely attractive Trojan boy from Greek mythology who Zeus took from Earth to be a cup-bearer for the gods.

Since this section seems rather short, I’ll include the story of Ganymede from mythology.

The Myth of Ganymede
A singularly beautiful boy called Ganymede was playing one day on the hills near Troy, when a great black cloud suddenly overspread the sun and a sudden wind sent the dust and the leaves flying. There was a roll of thunder, with a few flashes of lightning, and then an enormous black eagle suddenly swooped down from the cloud, caught up Ganymede in its talons, and sailed away.

Tros, Ganymede's father, who was in a neighboring field, saw all that happened; but although he shouted and ran and threw sticks and stones toward the fast rising bird, the eagle was far beyond the reach of such missiles long before Tros arrived at the hill where Ganymede had been playing.

So the poor father, overcome with grief, went home and told his wife what had happened. When the neighbors heard the story, they all gathered together at the house of Tros and mourned with the grief-stricken father and mother. It was of no use to search for Ganymede, for the eagle had taken him far beyond the mountains of that country.

A few days later a strange visitor came to the house of Tros. He carried a curious rod with snakes twined round it, and two shadowy wings fluttered from his cap. "Do not mourn for Ganymede," said he, "the boy has met with great good fortune. His beauty has caused him to be loved by Jupiter, who has taken him for his cup-bearer; he pours ruby nectar into a golden cup for the king of the gods; he will never die nor grow old."

When Tros heard these words, he was comforted.

Callisto

Callisto is the eighth moon from the surface of Jupiter, and the second largest.  This moon was named after a nymph, loved by Zeus but hated by Hera. Hera changed her into a bear, Zeus then placed her in the sky as the constellation Ursa Major. 

Not much is known about this moon besides the fact that it is almost the same size as the planet Mercury.  

And there you have it! A little something about each of the 4 Galilean moons. I hope you learned as much from this as I did.

Maddie

Inner Planets

All About Planets

By Madison Nef

There are currently 9 (if you count Pluto still, which I do) planets in our solar system. In this paper, I’d like to lightly touch on the planets of the Inner Solar System. The inner system is composed of four planets, the four that revolve closest to the sun. Below, I have given some information about each of them.

Mercury

Mercury is a relatively small planet. It is known for being the closest planet to the sun as of right now- even so; it is still roughly 18 million miles away from the sun. In accompaniment to being very hot, it features a barren, crater covered surface which bares resemblance to the Earth’s moon.

Due to it being so close to the sun, Mercury is EXTREMELY hot. In fact, its average daytime temperature is usually above 400 degrees Celsius. At night, however, the temperature is quite the opposite- with no atmosphere to hold the heat from the daylight in, the temperatures completely plummet; getting down as far as -180 degrees Celsius.

Due to its low gravity, there is no water OR air to be found on Mercury- however, there is speculation to the fact that there may be air and water vapor clouds beneath its dry surface.

Venus

Venus is the second closest planet to the sun and is quite fascinating due to the fact that it is similar in size to Earth. While the size is almost the same, the two planets are still quite different due to climate, atmosphere, AND surface conditions. Its thick clouds lock in the heat while the surface rages with active volcanoes.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere of Venus is made up entirely of carbon dioxide. It’s also surrounded by clouds consisting of mercury, ferric chloride hydrocarbons and sulfuric acid. These clouds are the cause of the most corrosive acid rain found anywhere in our solar system.

These clouds are so thick that barely any light can even reach the surface of Venus. The light that DOES make its way through the clouds is converted automatically to heat and can’t escape the atmosphere… making Venus the hottest known planet at over 500 degrees Celsius.

Here is where I would have written about Earth, but to be honest there’s SO much known about it that it’s rather pointless. On to Mars.

Mars

“The Red Planet”, otherwise known as Mars, has a dusty, rocky surface and a thin atmosphere. Its relatively calm conditions and close proximity to earth make it the most likely destination for future planet exploration by humans. Mars has already been visited by man Mars Rovers in many successful robotic missions. These rovers collect many samples and record a lot of important scientific data that scientists back on Earth study to learn more about the planet.

Mars earned its nickname due to the fact that it is covered in a red, rust-like dust. Even the atmosphere in and of itself is a pinkish red; colored by small particles of dust thrown up from the surface of the planet. It tends to experience extremely violent dust storms… these storms continually change the texture and the surface of the planet.

So, that covers the inner solar system! The above planets, including Earth, are the four closest to the sun.

Along with being close to the sun, these four planets (Earth, Mercury, Mars and Venus) also have other large differences that make them unique from other planets in the universe. To begin with, these planets are all of rocky terrain; being composed of mainly metals and silicates. The outer planets are all gas giants.

Also, the inner planets are much closer together than the outer planets… so much so that you could fit the radius of the entire region between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn and still have plenty of room. The planets are also within the frost line- an area a little less than 700 million km from the sun. The line signifies the point where solids can turn to liquid. Some scientists will refer to the line as the ‘Goldilocks Zone’- an area where life in the future may be ‘just right’.

Well- there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this paper and learned something about the planets. I know I did.

Maddie

Psychology

Psychology: Body Language

By Madison Nef

In this day and age, verbal communication plays a large part in our interactions with each other. However, studies have shown that this verbal communication makes up ONLY 7% of our entire communication perception. The other 93% is given through tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, posture, and many other types of body language. This is why body language is so crucial to learn, use, and be able to understand CORRECTLY.

However, while it seems simple… body language is actually quite complex and is often confused when people with little to no experience try to interpret it. Nervousness can easily be passed off as confidence, and lies as the truth when you know what you’re doing. However, even professional fakers cannot hide how they truly feel as EVERYTHING is conveyed in body language, whether you realize it or not. In the video I watched, many popular public figures were used as examples.

Throughout it, I learned to detect nervousness and lies. While I learned a great deal more from the video, I’d like to just touch upon my two favorite topics covered in the video in a bit more detail below.

Signs of nervousness

Some of the key signs of being nervous are quite obvious. The first sign is supporting yourself. If you’re a public speaker, you may be seen gripping the podium tightly with both hands, with your arms locked and pushing you away from the audience to which you are speaking. This shows that you’re defensive, since you are pushing yourself away from the audience.

The second sign that points toward nervousness is the “self-touch” method. This method is signified when you hold your hands/wrist behind your back, or maybe hold your upper arm while talking. If you have high anxiety, you may also be slowly rubbing your hand or arm with your thumb, almost reassuring yourself that everything will be ok and that you can make it through whatever is stressing you.

The third and perhaps most important factor that shows nervousness is how you react at the end of whatever you end up saying. This holds true for anyone; not just public speakers. Those who back or shy away from conversation after saying what is needed to say are often-times nervous, and/or lying. They will fold their arms, take a few steps back, or even purely walk away without another word. Yeesh. This leads us to our second body language:

Lies and how to detect them

Liars are some of the easiest to detect… in my opinion. However, since lies are so common in pop culture and current-day media, apparently not enough people can spot them. Some of these I learned from the video… but some I have learned elsewhere. Here is a neat little list of things people tend to do when they are lying.

·        Failing to make direct eye contact. People who are lying have trouble maintaining eye contact with the person they are lying to because they know it’s wrong.

·        Fidgeting. People who are lying will often times nervously move their hands or shuffle their feet in a subconscious effort to distract the person from the apparent lie.

·        Lack of shaking the head. When someone lies, they will sometimes shake their heads no while saying it because they know that they’re speaking and untruth. On the other hand, if a liar tells the truth about something such as saying “No, I didn’t do that” and shakes their head in agreement with what they are saying, but FAILS to shake their head at another negative statement… the statement they failed to shake their head at was a lie.

Aside from that… I learned a lot more from the video… but those key points were what I really found to be useful. I will DEFINITELY use them in life… especially with my friends. Very good. This is why I take such an interest in psychology; it is one thing that all humans have in common and is something that can be used no matter the gender, race, language, ANYTHING of a person. It is even common in most animals… it is universal and will never be irrelevant.

Maddie