In fact, I've learned so many things about our solar system. I liked that. I jot down all the new things. Planet Jupiter was the one that amazed me most. That planet is full of mysteries that made my mind twist and made me thrilled. :)
That one-night camp will not be possible and enjoying with these fantastic astronomers. I can't believe their knowledge about the stars and other heavenly bodies. They can point the location of a star or a constellation and it's name with their special laser. Unbelievable.
I'll share the thing that I've learned during AstroCamp.
Constellations
Andromeda
Perseus
Cassiopeia
Cepheus
Cygnus
Lacerta
Camelopardalis
Auriga
Taurus
Orion
Eridanus
Phoenix
Sculptor
Tucana
Pegasus
Pisces
Aries
Lynx
Ursa Major
Ursa Minor
Indus
Yeah. I know that I've not listed all the Constellations. The PowerPoint presentation was too fast. haha.
Orion Constellation is composed of these brightest stars: Betelgeuse, Meissa, Bellatrix, Alnitak, Saiph, M42 (Great Orion Nebulla), Alnilam, Mintaka, and Rigel.
Winter Triangle is made of Procyon (Canis Minor), Sirius (Canis Major, the brightest star), and Betelgeuse.
Capella - "red star"
Polaris is also known the North Star. This is the only star that stay on its place though that stars move across the sky. An observer on earth north or south pole would find the celestial north or south pole directly overhead because earth axis is identical with that of the celestial sphere.
Next is the Planet Jupiter, the thing that fascinates me most, featuring the Great Red Spot.
Planet Jupiter needs 10 earth day to complete its rotation. In 1979, Jupiter was discovered that it has a ring which believed that it was made by the dust coming from the outside moons.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is made of a huge space of mass. In that place, hurricane is 10x greatter than the hurricane in Earth. There is no water in the Great Red Spot. Non-stop thunders and strong winds are everywhere. It is really impossible to survive in that place. Its jet stream is 3 times the jet stream of the Earth. It has four moons that was discovered by Galileo Galilei.
IO is the major moon of the Jupiter that has 100 volcanoes. Its surface is covered by sulfur in different colorful forms .Ganymede has a size 5x to the Earth's moon. It is considered as the largest satellite in the solar system. Callisto is the third largest satellite. It has a diameter of 4,800km. Europa's surface has a "cracked", smooth and glassy appearance. As some astronomers believe, under the crust of the Europa is water. It has 3-5km ice cap. There are darkness and high-pressure. Wii. pretty scary huh?
Mars the "Red Planet"
The size of the Planet Mars is just a half of the Earth's size. It has a magnetic field that protects from the emission of the Sun. In this planet, water is unstable because water evaporates easily. Its highest volcano has a height of 15 miles. Its atmosphere has no oxygen.
Pluto
The name "Pluto" was named after a Underworld god. The average distance of Pluto to the Sun is 5.9B kilometers. It has a diameter of 2,360km. It takes 248 years to complete its revolution around the Sun and rotates on its orbit for 6.8 earth days. Pluto has at least three moons: the Charon, Nix, and Hydra. Temperature surface is -233C and has a gravity about 6% of Earth's.
What happened to Pluto?
1. Since the early 1900's, astronomers rare found several objects of comparable size to Pluto in an outer region of the Solar System called the Kupier Belt.
2. The critical blow or Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 Ub313.
Pluto became a "dwarf planet" from an "official planet" because it didn't passed the planet criteria: it must be in orbit around the Sun, it should be round in shape or must be big enough for gravity to squash it into a round ball, and it must have cleared its orbit of other objects.
New Dwarf Planets
-Eris (satellite: Dysnomia)
-Pluto (satellite: Charon, Nix and Hydra)
-Ceres
-Makemake
-Haumea (satellite: Hi'iaka and Namaka)
These are the things that I've written in my notebook. Pretty interesting that's why I wrote all of these. Unfortunately, I haven't jotted all the lectures in my note. Now, I want to share the pictures during this camp.
me, viewing the Sirius
viewing Saturn. (i really saw Saturn & it's rings). wonderful!
viewing the Venus
with some of my classmates during break
meteorites
kuya Mark, the astronomer, Ronalyn. Ramsie and me
Wiii. I'm so much grateful for this kind of activity. Very educating. Because of this Astrocamp, astronomy became more exciting and interesting for me. :)
