Leep-a-Year

Today is Leap-a-Year.
The twenty ninth of February! A big day because it only comes every four years.
  Do you know why that is?
  Well, the earth takes approximately 365 and one quarter days to orbit the sun. So what dose one do with the extra quarter day?
  If you just let it be, with in ten years, you would have Christmas in July and fourth of July in December. (I was just guessing on how many years it would take to mix every thing up.) But it would get mixed up if some very smart person hadn't figured out what to do about that small issue.
  So every four years, you add an extra day. And because February got dumped with the bad end of the day deal and got stuck with only twenty eight days, some one decided to give February the privileged of getting the Leap-a-Year day.
  There is also a Leap-a-Second because the earth doesn't take exactly twenty four hours to go around in a circle but that's another confusing matter.
  "So have a very Happy Leap-a-Year! :)
  

The Last Post Is On Comets.

There are so many amazing things in our universe we cannot even begin to find all the things there are out there.
Comets are balls of frozen water, dry ice and rocks. As they move, they leave behind a trail of dust and dirt.
Once a year, the Earth passes through a Comet's path. When the dust and stuff hits the Earth's atmosphere, the dust and dirt catch fire. We call this a meteor shower. The best time to see it is between August 9th to August 13th.
The word 'Comet' comes from the Greek word kometes which means head of hair. And actually the Comets do look like they have hair.
The hair is actually all the steam rising off the Comets as they go on their orbit around the sun.
A Comet's orbit can be 200 years! Of course, some Comets like Halley's Comet only take 76 years to go around the sun.

Well I hoped you liked Astronomy as much as I did!

Pluto!!!

Pluto is the last planet in our solar system and it is rather confusing so just try to stay with me.
Pluto is the smallest planet and it's number 9. But that's only part true. Every 248 years Pluto and Neptune change places Pluto becomes number 8. The last time Pluto became the 9th planet that was in 1999.
Pluto swaps with Neptune for about 20 years then goes back.
Scientists haven't been able to study Pluto very well because of it being so far away but they think it's about 390 degrees below zero over there. Pluto rotates in the opposite direction of most of the other planets and is like Uranus is on it's side.
All the planets orbit around the sun in all at more or less the same height but Pluto orbits up and down.
Pluto was discovered 1930 and 48 years later Pluto's moon Caron was discovered.
Earth's moon is equal to about a 50th of Earth's size but Caron is about a 6th of the size of Pluto.
Most People think that Pluto should be a comet because of it's size and behavior. But some think it should be a planet.
In 2006 NASA sent out a spacecraft that is supposed to reach Pluto in 2015.
Pluto also has something called the Kuiper belt which will probably need it's own post.

Uranus!!!

• Uranus is the second to last planet in our solar system!!!
• Now most planets spin around the sun but Uranus rolls. Just imagine that Uranus has a North pole and a South pole. While Earth is spinning the poles are be up and down(More or less.). But Uranus's poles would be straight out on both sides while spinning so that means that Uranus is on it's side.
• Uranus has 11 rings. The rings are straight up and down which effects Uranus orbiting and make it all wobbly.
• Like Venus, Uranus spins the opposite way from all the other planets.
• And being away from the sun Uranus is -350 degrees.
• Like Saturn, Uranus's rings have dust, rocks and moons. Two of the moons are Cordelia and Ophelia. Two of the characters from one of Shakespeare's plays!
• Believe it or not Uranus was only discovered in 1781 by William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
• One year on Uranus is equal to 84 Earth years. And one day is 17 hours.

Wow!!!

Orbiting

When something just spins in a circle it's called "rotating" and when something spins around another object it's called "revolving" but when something rotates and revolves it's called "orbiting."
The earth takes 24 hours to rotate which is one earth day.
And a full circle around the sun is one year.
On Mercury it takes 59 earth days to rotate one time.
And just under 30 earth days of being hot and 30 earth days of cold dark.
All that to say that it's 88 earth days to make one Mercury year.
Well that is enough on Mercury for today.

(Sorry there aren't any pictures!)