Mercury!!!

Mercury is the next planet to the sun and so we are not able to observe it well because of the sun.
The only space craft that has ever gotten very close is the "Mariner 10."
The Mariner 10 got some information on Mercury but not much.
Mercury, during the day, gets up to 750 degrees!
So being so close to the sun it would never get cold? Not!
During the day it's unbelievably hot but at night it gets to be -300 degrees!
COLD!!!
Well the reason that Mercury doesn't have the layer of gasses called atmosphere to keep the heat in so at night it just keeps getting colder and colder and colder and colder.
Because Mercury doesn't have any atmosphere the sky is always gray.

Solar Eclipse

Alright, last day on the old sun!
So a solar eclipse happens once or twice a year when the moon goes over the sun and causes a shadow to pass over the earth. Sometimes it happens up to five times a year! Which is really cool because I thought it was when the clouds come over the sun but this is a different kind.
For a solar eclipse the moon covers the sun and makes it appear to be night! And even some animals get ready for bed.
But a Solar eclipse only happens for a minute or two.
You can also find websites that will tell you when the next solar eclipse in your area is and when it is and then you can watch it.
Although not to be "Johnny Rain Cloud" but the sun still peeks around the moon and you could hurt your eyes so maybe you should find some pictures instead and you also wouldn't have to go anywhere.

(Sorry, no pictures!)

Color

How do we get color?
Well the sun shines a white light which contains all the colors in the rainbow.
Light goes in a stright line. That is pretty easy to figure out because when you but your hand in front of a light it makes a shadow.
Then how do we get color?
OK. Light is a form of energy The Light travels in a straight line but the colors although going in a straight line are wavy, and each wave is a different size.

Blue is a short wave and yellow is a long one.

Then when the white light hits a object the white light is absorbed.
Some waves are absorbed but some aren't. Instead the wave bounces off your the object and up into your eyes.

When your eyes see a blue object you are really seeing a yellow wave. Your eyes see it and your brain recognizes it, and makes it appear blue.

Now if there was no eye there to see the object, blue light would still bounce off the object, but would not go to anyone's eye as blue. It would just bounce up until it hit an object that would absorb it.

So here's a question: Is the blue object still blue if there isn't a eye to see it?
(If you find out please tell me.)

And by the way the sun is orange because of the atmosphere around it.

Sun spots!

Sun spots are spots on the sun that are cooler than the rest of the sun.
When the number of spots is large Scientist think that there is a lot of activity going on inside the sun.
Many scientists believe that sunspots affect the weather here on earth.
Without the sunspots the earth would be cooler than it is today.
And if there were to many sun spots the earth would be hotter than it is today rain would not fall and this would cause a drought.

GOD has made everything just right.

Sorry that there aren't any pictures.

The Sun

The sun is so cool!
The sun is where we get our day and night.
Our colors, our warmth and if there was no sun the plants could not live and there would be no oxygen.

The sun is a big ball of flaming gasses so big that a million planets the size of the earth could fit inside of it.
It is 10,000 degrees on the out side and millions of degrees on the inside.
Some times the suns flaring gasses are so big and there is so much energy produced that our power here on the earth has to shut down.

GOD has put the earth the perfect distance from the earth a distance of 92,935,700 miles from the sun. If we were any closer all the water would evaporate and everyone and everything would die. And if the sun were any further away everything would freeze.
And so we see that GOD made every thing just right.

Jupiter's Moons

Last night we heard that we could see Jupiter and it's four moons.
So we went outside and ate a picnic dinner while we watched the moons.

Jupiter is only separated from us by one planet. Mars.

So we got our binoculars. Put them on our tripod and watched the moons and got to see them move across the sky.
Pretty cool!

Jupiter's four moons are:
Europa, an icy moon.
Io is a colorful moon because of all the sulfer.
Callisto; all ice and rock.
And Ganymede is a lot bigger than Jupiter.

So whats the difference between a planet and a moon?
A planet orbits the sun, and a moon orbits the planet.


(Well I hope I haven't gotten to boring yet!)

In the Beginning

All righty!

Now I have never done anything like this before! So if it gets boring I'm sorry!
I think will get better with time so - here goes!!!!

I am going to start with Astronomy. I don't know why, but I am. First goes first or something like that and the first is...(Building up suspense!)


You ready?

The first is...What does Astronomy mean? And the answer is "The Study of the Universe"

The universe is full of fascinating things! Planets, moons, stars, galaxies and so many more things all wrapped up in one big universe for us to study!
So enjoy!
~Emily.