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What is Astronomy?

Many scholars of astronomy, both magic and non-magic agree that the great achiments of people like Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton were radical and changed the thinking of humanity. Science influences how people think of the world around them. Galileo, in 1609, was the first to monitor craters on the moon and the phases of Venus. His challenging of the Catholic Church made many religious, and those not so religious, rethink the way the Church was controlling science. Countless believed that Saturn was the most external planet, until Uranus was discovered in the 19th century, making some wonder if maybe something else was circling the sun. The notion of the speed of light has made people realize how very gigantic our universe is. In the past century alone, with better technology and communication, the Milky Way galaxy was charted in 1923, the discovery of remote heavenly bodies called quasars, the detection of extremely intense stars called pulsars and the discovery of enormous black holes during the early 1990's.

Your first assignment is to produce a brief ((five line)) description of one of the planets of our solar system.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined (318 times Earth).
orbit: 778,330,000 km (5.20 AU) from Sun
diameter: 142,984 km (equatorial)
mass: 1.900e27 kg
Jupiter (a.k.a. Jove; Greek Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman state. Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn).
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus; at some times Mars is also brighter). It has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo's discovery, in 1610, of Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (now known as the Galilean moons) was the first discovery of a center of motion not apparently centered on the Earth. It was a major point in favor of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets; Galileo's outspoken support of the Copernican theory got him in trouble with the Inquisition.

Drake Faydark Ravenclaw.

"Wonderful Drake! More than double what I asked for! Take ten points for Ravenclaw!"

{kiara, slytherin}


Name: Mars
4th planet to the sun and the 7th largest
Mars (Greek: Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this name due to its red color; Mars is sometimes referred to as the Red Planet. (An interesting side note: the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares; those in favor of colonizing and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name of the month March derives from Mars.

The first spacecraft to visit Mars was Mariner 4 in 1965. Several others followed including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to land on Mars and the two Viking landers in 1976 (left). Ending a long 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on 1997 July 4 (right).

The mars is the planet which is most like the earth.
Of course wizards knew this planet for ages...
a wizard named Jeff Dalens found the Mars with his super-eye in 1045, since he saw this plaent the wizard studys the planet often and they found out that a special way of live could be there, little worms who dont need the atomsphere of the earth.

Pluto.
Pluto is the smallest planet in our solar system.
It weighs only 1/455 as much as earth and is 20% as large.
Some people say it is not large enough to be a planet, but it orbits the sun and has an unusually large moon called "Charon".
Pluto was the latest of the nine planets in our solar system to be discovered.
It is covered of rock and ice.
It mostly is the farest planet to the sun, but it has an elliptic orbit thats cutting into neptunes (as in 1979 and 1999).
A Pluto year is lasting 248 earth years.

Joshua Granger; 3rd year; Gryfindor

chris weasly
slytherin

Chris walked to the front of teh classroom and turned in his paper, it was sloppy and short, but at least it was done and on time. It was even the correct amount. HE had chosen the easiest planet of course. Who would do more work than neccesary.
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the sun, and the only planet that has living conditions that allowed humans, and pretty much anything else to survive. one day on earth lasts 24 hours and one year lasts 365 days, except on leap year, which there are 366 days. The earth revolves around our sun, making the year, and it rotates on it's axis, making the days.

Laura weasley
ravenclaw

laura walked in and turned in her paper. astronomy wasn't her favorite class, but it was alright. she enjoyed the nighttime walks up to the tower and looking at the stars, it gave her a sense of peace to look up at the huge sky and the seemingly endless number of stars

Pluto
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic understanding of its characteristics. Today Pluto remains the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft, yet an increasing amount of information is unfolding about this peculiar planet. The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal. Pluto is usually farther from the Sun than any of the nine planets;Unlike most planets, but similar to Uranus, Pluto rotates with its poles almost in its orbital plane. Pluto's rotational axis is tipped 122 degrees. When Pluto was first discovered, its relatively bright south polar region was the view seen from the Earth. Pluto appeared to grow dim as our viewpoint gradually shifted from nearly pole-on in 1954 to nearly equator-on in 1973. Pluto's equator is now the view seen from Earth.

Li dumbledore, gryffindor
Pluto: Pluton is the smallest of the planets in our solar system. Pluton is one of two planets never to be visited my a space craft. Pluton adn the newest found planet are the two. PLuto is also the naem of the romain god of the underworld, better known as hades. PLuto is the farest away from the sun there for the coldest.Other anesm for pluto in other langs: Pluton.(french)

Jasmine rushes into class and pulls out her assignment on Saturn, her favorite planet, because it is very fascinating to her. She also takes out an illustration and places it on her desk. She twists her hair up in an elegant bun and waits for the professor.

http://ringmaster.arc.nasa.gov/saturn/PIA00335_thumb.jpg

SATURN

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and is the second largest in the solar system with an equatorial diameter of 119,300 kilometers (74,130 miles). Much of what is known about the planet is due to the Voyager explorations in 1980-81. Saturn is visibly flattened at the poles, a result of the very fast rotation of the planet on its axis. Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long, and it takes 29.5 Earth years to revolve about the Sun. The atmosphere is primarily composed of hydrogen with small amounts of helium and methane. Saturn is the only planet less dense than water (about 30 percent less). In the unlikely event that a large enough ocean could be found, Saturn would float in it. Saturn's hazy yellow hue is marked by broad atmospheric banding similar to, but fainter than, that found on Jupiter.
The wind blows at high speeds on Saturn. Near the equator, it reaches velocities of 500 meters a second (1,100 miles an hour). The wind blows mostly in an easterly direction. The strongest winds are found near the equator and velocity falls off uniformly at higher latitudes. At latitudes greater than 35 degrees, winds alternate east and west as latitude increases.

Saturn's ring system makes the planet one of the most beautiful objects in the solar system. The rings are split into a number of different parts, which include the bright A and B rings and a fainter C ring. The ring system has various gaps. The most notable gap is the Cassini Division, which separates the A and B rings. Giovanni Cassini discovered this division in 1675. The Encke Division, which splits the A Ring, is named after Johann Encke, who discovered it in 1837. Space probes have shown that the main rings are really made up of a large number of narrow ringlets. The origin of the rings is obscure. It is thought that the rings may have been formed from larger moons that were shattered by impacts of comets and meteoroids. The ring composition is not known for certain, but the rings do show a significant amount of water. They may be composed of icebergs and/or snowballs from a few centimeters to a few meters in size. Much of the elaborate structure of some of the rings is due to the gravitational effects of nearby satellites. This phenomenon is demonstrated by the relationship between the F-ring and two small moons that shepherd the ring material.

Radial, spoke-like features in the broad B-ring were also found by the Voyagers. The features are believed to be composed of fine, dust-size particles. The spokes were observed to form and dissipate in the time-lapse images taken by the Voyagers. While electrostatic charging may create spokes by levitating dust particles above the ring, the exact cause of the formation of the spokes is not well understood.

Saturn has 18 named satellites and more than a dozen of newly reported satellites that have been given provisional designations until they are verified and named.

Jasmine Tonks, 7th year, Hufflepuff

well done Kiara! ten points!

7 points!

"A poor effort. However, it is on time, so I will award 3 points. Please try harder in furture."

wonderful! Take 8 points!

four points

Quite outstanding! Take FIFTEEN points!

YAY!!!

swot...

bumping...

Earth
Otherwise known as 'The third rock from the sun'. The infatuation muggles have with their own planet has led American comedians to make and star in a prgram named after the other name. 'The Third Rock From The Sun', which is about aliens landing on Earth and not knowing what to do.

Ten points Sonia!

3 points to Dale

well done! 12 points!

RACHEL RIDDLE SLYTHERIN

Mercury
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun. It is a rocky planet, like Venus, Earth, and Mars. but no gas planet ,like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The most conspicuous feature on the surface of mercury is Caloris Basin - a crater 1300 km wide. It is one one of the largest impact craters in the Solar System. The impact that created this crater was so strong that it created large rocky ridges even on the the other side of plane mercury.
It is named after Mercury, the Roman messenger of the gods.
Mercury is the eighth largest planet. Only Pluto is smaller in our solarsystem. Mercury is even smaller in diameter than Ganymede, the seventh and largest of Jupiter's known satellites, and Titan, the largest planet of saturn, but more massive.

When Mercury is closest to the Sun, it is 46 million km away from it. The farthest that Mercury can go from the Sun is 70 million km.

Mercury's path around the Sun is like a highly flattened circle. Also, its rotation is a bit erratic due to its proximity to the Sun. Hence, if one were on the surface of Mercury, one would see the Sun rise and expand gradually. When the Sun would reach the highest point in the sky, it would stop for some time, reverse direction and then resume its earlier path. And while this was happening, the other stars in the sky would be seen moving rapidly and steadily along the sky. On different points of Mercury's surface, the Sun's movement would be different!

Of all planets, Mercury has the most wildly varying temperature ranging from -180 degree to 426 degree Celsius.

Being so close to the Sun, the atmosphere of Mercury is constantly exposed to streams of particles erupting from the Sun. Hence, the elements in the atmosphere of Mercury are constantly blasted into space and more particles from the surface of mercury come up into its thin atmosphere.

The gravity of Mercury is about one-hundredth that of Earth ad has no moons.

some facts
Average distance from the Sun: 58 million km, i.e. about one third the distance between the Sun and Earth.
Length of a year: 88 days
Rotation period: 58.65 days
Average speed of travel in orbit: 48 km/s
Diameter: 4,878 km, about one third the size of earth.
Number of observed satellites: 0
Mass: 3.30 x 1023 kg, about 5% the mass of Earth
Orbit: 57,910,000 km (0.38) from Sun


actually i had something written about saturn, but when i wanted to post i saw, airangel, had the very same subject with probably the same source... so...mercury, nobody had that yet!

and another pic..

OOC: ya did homework? what happened to you

joke

:P yeah, it's new.... er...

but makng homework in the forum is easier, than real, cuz it's more fun...

er..long time ago, i've made homework for school, should do something today...

luckily, you are my little voice, which reminds me at that kind of stuff...

I will accept no more homework assignments. I will assess and award points for those already submitted, then set a new assignment for next week...

Give a detailed description of one constellation and its implications/importance

or

Give a general overview of all the constellations

minimum: six lines

excellent! Ten points!

thx professor!

bumping...