Royce Jeffrey
UMBC
MD

Scope on the Skies: And then there were eight

Mon, Oct 10, 2011 3:52 PM
John and Kate Plus 8 Planets

This article deals with the new definitions for objects in our solar system. Specifically, a planet has changed to a dwarf planet, asteroids have also changed to dwarf planets, and many other objects have been categorized as small solar system bodies. The article says that the goal of all this is to acknowledge newly discovered and potential future discoveries of TNOs (Trans Neptunian Objects, which are Solar system objects that have orbits ranging from the orbit of Neptune outward. The article states that another goal of reclassification is give more clarity to how solar system objects are grouped based on properties and orbits. The next section details how planets are classified. I learned that Mercury) has the only orbit that is not almost perfectly circular. We also learn about the Perihelion (a planet’s minimum distance from sun) and the Aphelion (a planet’s maximum distance from sun). Now Dwarf Planets are covered and information is given about the new dwarf planets and some history regarding them. Finally, the article covers small solar system bodies. These include all other objects in the solar system with orbits around the sun, including asteroids, comets, and many TNO’s. Information is given about a few of the small solar system bodies including teaching us that the Oort Cloud is considered to be the source of comets that come into the inner solar system. Questions are then provided to give your students which involve conducting further research, making connections, and using information attained from reading the article to answer questions. There are also official names and orbital information given for all 15 planets, dwarf planets and small bodies. These are presented in a chart-form. A random list of moon events is given for the month of January, which I am unsure as to why they included. I would have liked an article titled “And then there were 8” to have a lot more detail about the history of Pluto the planet, and the ins and outs of it being declassified as a planet and reclassified as a dwarf planet. Based on the content of the article, I believe the title is inappropriate, and should be altered to something along the lines of “The reclassification of our Solar System.”

Podcast: Are We Alone?: Geography of Mars

Mon, Oct 10, 2011 3:47 PM
Geography comes to the surface

The pod cast begins abruptly without any introduction which makes it a little difficult to understand and follow. The first thing that jumps out is that the narrator sounds like he is speaking to us from a spacecraft. Is he? There is a picture of the narrator in the upper left corner on-top of an orange background. Pictures and titles relevant to what the narrator is speaking about cycle throughout the presentation in the middle of the screen. The presentation begins by touching on small spherical rocks which are called “blueberries are then discussed. These spherical particles are said to be interesting because water is usually involved with spherical objects. Fossilized lake beds are then mentioned and equated to deserts in the southwest. There were lakes on Mars. The topic then jumps back to the blueberries that were discussed earlier. It is concluded that the blueberries are where the hematite is contained; whatever that means. Questions are then posed. From the sounds of it, there used to be ground water on Mars and we can see that evidenced in the geography of Mars. “Water was active coming and going on the surface here.” But could the blueberries be caused by anything else other than water? All the minerals that make up the rocks are minerals that have to be deposited in water. This leads the narrator to believe that water definitely existed on Mars. The narrator rambles on at some points where he could make his answers much more succinct and direct. However, he does make good analogies, such as the lakes on Mars being like Southwestern U.S. lakes rather than more northern lakes like the Great Lakes in Michigan. The presentation ends abruptly after the narrator disproves another theory as to the history of these blueberries. One can gain a relative amount of insight as to what the narrator is speaking about just by listening to the podcast, but it may be helpful to have prior knowledge about the geography of Mars before listening to this. If one does not have prior knowledge, it can feel a little overwhelming to just be dropped right into the middle of this discussion. What I gained from this podcast is the knowledge that water definitely existed on Mars at some point.