What is up with Mercury? Lab 3 (10 pts)

Look up the rotation rate and the revolution rate of Mercury at nineplanets.org What happened in the lab we did with class? What does it mean for the a) rotation rate of mars? b) the intensity of radio waves over time? c) the meaning of the five slices of data we got back over time? Post your answer in your blog...

What is it? (10 pts)

Click here for an alternative to the UFO explanation.

What is YOUR opinion on the Tunguska explosion? Meteor, comet, nuclear blast? Place a post on your blog, with three pieces of evidence to support your rationale.

Why Does a Magnet Matter (10 pts)

The earth contains a giant magnet. Van Allen pointed this out, discovering the radiation belts for which he is famous. This leads to the auroras, or Northern and Southern lights.

Watch the clip and give 3 pieces of evidence for the earth experiencing magnetic reversal. Also explain why the earth as a magnet is such an important feature. You may do this in your blog or here, in the comments section.

Reflecting vs. Refracting Telescope (10 pts)

Compare Newton's telescope to Galileo's telescope, and then answer the following on the comments section of this blog.

What advantages did Newton's telescope have over Galileo's?
Why were people afraid Galileo's telescope was a 'blasphemy'?
What impact did the telescope have on our society? List three advantages that occurred as a result of the improvement.

The Moons of Jupiter: Astro Lab 2 (20 points)

Did you know that Jupiter has 63 moons? You need to know about4 ofthem by doing the activity found at CLEA on a Windows-based machine.

Go to here and download Juplab.exe. Track the progress of the 4 moons of Jupiter of 30 days, and then graph the patterns generated. Hand these in, after answering the following questions:

a) what patterns are observed, and what does that suggest?
b) why did Galileo see this as a 'mini-solar system'
c) what is so special about Io?
d) how do your findings relate to Kepler's laws?

Please make a comment on the COMMENTS section of this blog post, rather than your own.

Scaling the Solar System (10 points)

Today, you will use the part of the solar system you chose yesterday and create a new personal blog post. If you chose a part of the solar system not mentioned on the sites given, assume you are on Mars, instead.

Go to: http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/age/index.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/weight/index.html

Now, answer the following questions:

a) If the solar system was the length of the hallway between my room and guidance, and the Sun was in my room, where would Earth be located? What about your solar system feature? Why do you believe this?

b) If you were three years old on your planet, how old would you be on Earth? Why the difference?

c) If you weighed 200 lbs on earth, how much would you weigh on your planet? Which planet in the solar system would make you the heaviest? Why does this matter?

One Great Part of the Solar System

Find a YouTube or other video clip that describes your planetary features. Watch it. Embed it into your blog.

Summarize your top five facts from the adventure in your blog post. (15 points)