Jupiter!

     Hello everyone, and welcome to... Meapz4Science! Today we will be talking about the biggest planet in our solar system. We will talk about... Jupiter! We will talk about all its REALLY cool facts Jupiter has to offer.

     Alright, first we will talk abut how Jupiter got its name. Jupiter was given its name by the Roman who named it after the King of the gods (because they thought of it as the king of the planets) and also the Roman god of sky and thunder. Jupiter the god is sort of similar to the Greek god Zeus.

     

      Now we will talk about some of the things that makes it a really cool planet. To help me I have Science Cat! "Hello, Emma The Meap! I would be happy to help you instruct people about the gassiest giant in our solar system!" Okay then! First we will talk about its atmosphere. See all those swirling gases on Jupiter? That is really its atmosphere. "It gets extra points for being really pretty." Okay, Science Cat! I know you like Jupiter, but stick to the facts! "It is a fact that it's pretty!" Ugh. Anyways, the atmosphere contains of mostly hydrogen and helium. "Does that sound familiar? Could you have heard that when we talked about stars?" You are correct, Science Cat! Some also think that Jupiter has liquid on its surface and a solid core.

     Jupiter has 63 known moons! "Four was just enough for people of Galileo's time. He was the person to discover four moons." Those are Europa, Io, Ganymede, and Callisto. "Some interesting facts about Europa..." I was getting to that. Europa might possibly have life on it. Why would that be, Science Cat? " Europa has ICE on it. Ice is made of frozen water! therefore, there might be water underneath the ice, containing LIFE!" Thank you, Science Cat! Next we will talk about the thing that makes Jupiter unique.

     Next, we will talk about The Great Red Spot! "What is the Great Red Spot?" The Great Red Spot is actually a GIANT storm raging in Jupiter's atmosphere. You can fit THREE Earths in the Spot comfortably. "It is basically like a giant hurricane." It has also been around for at least 300 years- " because that's when the first person noticed the Spot up there." Thank you for INTERRUPTING me! Oh well. Moving on!

     Next we will talk about the differences between Jupiter and the inner planets. "For starters, it is a LOT colder, with the highest temperature being about -234 degrees Fahrenheit!" It is also a lot bigger. "This also means a much stronger gravity. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you weigh around 235 pounds on Jupiter! Man, you would be fat!" Science Cat, you can stop talking now. It also is like a magnet for meteors. It most of the time will attract large asteroids to it instead of them coming to Earth.

Now, here are five fun facts about Jupiter:

1) A day on Jupiter is 9.9 hours long.

2) Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons, is larger than Mercury.

3) Jupiter has a diameter equivalent to 11 Earths.

4) Jupiter is bigger than all the planets except Saturn combined.

5) Io, another moon, has the most volcanic activity than any other object in the Solar System.

     I hope you all enjoyed my post. I'm Emma the Meap, and I will see you next time. PEACE!!!

For more info on The Red Spot, Click Here! 

Want more info on Europa? Click here! 

Check out Science Cat's blog by clicking here! 

Comets, Asteroids, and Meteors!

     Hello everyone, and welcome to... Meapz4Science! Today, we will compare a bunch of objects in our solar system! What I'm talking about are Comets(my personal favorite), asteroids, and meteors! We will compare and contrast all three. Let's get started!

     Okay, now that we are started, let's first talk about how they are all similar. They all are in space-"Like DUH!" Science meap, what are you doing here? "I am here to save the world! To teach about ROCKS in SPACE!" Okay... as long as you are going to help. "Okay, sure." Okay. Let's keep going.

     As I was saying, They are all in our Solar System. They all can either get close to the Earth's atmosphere, or can go throught the atmosphere and hit Earth. "Pick me! Pick me!" What, Science Meap? "When a meteor is not in our atmosphere, it is a Meteoroid. When it passes through the atmosphere, it is a meteor." Well, what happens then? "Most meteors burn up when they it the atmosphere. If they don't, and they hit the ground, they are a meteorite." Is that why most meteorites are small? "Yep." Cool, thank you Science Meap. "No problem." Let's move on. They all have at least some rock or dust in them. Now Let's move on to comets. "I like comets!" I know you do.

     Let's talk about how comets are different from asteroids and meteors. First, they contain ice in them. None of the others do. "They also are called 'Dirty Snowballs' because they have ice and dirt in them." Thank you. They also have a tail. "Do they chase it?" Wha..Th... No! They aren't dogs! "I'm only trying to help. Jeez." Actually, you made me think of something about their tail. "I TOLD you they chase it!" Not that! When they orbit the sun, the tail always points away from the sun because of solar wind. "Can I fly a kite with the wind?" No! Why do I even bother? " I don't know! I'm not a mind reader." *Sigh* Anyways, let's move on to asteroids.

     Asteroids are big chunks of rocks that float about in space. "They can also contain minerals." There are three categories of asteroids- "also known as meteoroids"- Based on what they are made of. Will you tell us, Science Meap? "I'd be glad to ! They are stony, iron, and stony-iron. Guess which one has iron in it?" The iron one. Anyways, the stony asteroid contains mostly rock and stone, - "The iron contains, well, iron," and the stony-iron have both in them.

     Next on our list is... "Meteors!" Darn it, Science meap! I was going to say it! Anyways, meteors are essentially asteroids that have entered the Earth's atmosphere. "They are a LOT smaller though." Many meteors just burn up immediately when they hit the Earth's atmosphere. "But sometimes they do hit the Earth. And when they do, it is a meteorite." Thank you. Anyways, we hope you all enjoyed. I'm Emma The Meap, "And I'm Science Meap," And we will see you next time. PEACE!!!

Want some extra info? Check out these links below!

Asteroids

Comets

Meteors

Also, check out science Meap's blog post below!

Science meap's Blog!

Meapz4Science News!

     Hello everyone, and welcome to another Meapz4Science News! Today, we will be going over an article called "King of Gore" by Janet Raloff. We will go to the paleontologists to find out their new discovery about dinosaurs! Apparently the think this new species is more menacing than the T-Rex.

http://www.npr.org/2011/04/03/135024274/dinosaur-boneheads-one-mans-search-for-t-rex

     About 90 million years ago, two-footed meat-eating dinosaurs were starting to undergo big changes. They were adapting to conditions in what is now the western United States.The best known of these types of beasts would be the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex. But some of its ancestors also would have been a

terror throughout the countryside. What I'm talking about is the Lythronax argestes, a new found addition to the T-Rex family, and it’s the "oldest" of the bunch. If you aren't terrified already, its Greek name says it all: Gore King of the Southwest. How is THAT not horrifying?

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/king-gore

     The fossil they found of Lythronax in southern Utah is a juvenile, and is roughly 24 feet from snout to tail. That is already big. Not big enough for you? Here's some more size. Lythronax adults could have topped out at around 35 feet long according to the scientists. That would make it about 80 to 85 percent as big as a T. Rex. THAT is BIG! Lythronax can also help scientists determine more about dinosaurs. I have a feeling this might lead to more discoveries and new species.

  https://student.societyforscience.org/article/king-gore 

     Alright, I hope you all enjoyed another Meapz4Science News! I will be doing more of these later. I think this article is very interesting. I'm always eager to learn more about life's past and its secrets. Well, that's all for today. I'm Emma The Meap, and I will see you next time. PEACE!!!

Link for article:  https://student.societyforscience.org/article/king-gore

Mars!!

     Hello everyone, and welcome to... Meapz4Science! Today we will talk about one planet that has captivated and confused the minds of many. It has baffled scientist leaving them scratching their heads. It is... Mars! Yep, today we will talk about the red planet and all of its cool features.

     Let's talk about its origin first. Mars was named after the Roman god of War. He is similar to the Greek god Ares. However, Mars is honored and worshiped more than Ares. Mars is said to be the son of Juno and Jupiter, such as Ares was the son of Hera and Zeus. I could put more, but that would be a LOT, so I'll stop there.

     Okay, now let's talk about the planet's geography. Mars is the most similar planet to Earth in the whole solar system. Mars is the fourth planet to the sun, while being the closest planet to Earth. It is known as the red planet because that literally is what is. It is a red planet. It's ground is rich in iron, which makes it red. And like Earth, Mars has ice caps, seasons, and dust devils! However, it is still horrible to support life. It is a cold desert. On Mars, the average temperature is -55 degrees Celsius! THAT is cold! It still has similarities, though.

     Like Earth, Mars has moons. It has two, named Phobos and Deimos. Scientists think they might be asteroids that got caught in Mars' orbit. Scientists also think there might be life on Mars, and they have some evidence to back their statements up.

     While looking at Mars through telescopes, Italian scientists found river-like structures on the surface of Mars, suggesting there might have been water. They called them channels, but they were mis-translated as canals. Everyone took that as proof that aliens lived on Mars.

Everyone imagined a huge metropolis on Mars like this:

But sadly, when scientists got pictures back from spacecraft, They got this:

 

     *Sigh* The truth isn't always what you want it to be.  Still, they didn't give up exploring and still have not. In fact, a rover called Curiosity is going to Mars to find out more. It will take over eight months to reach Mars, but hopefully it will be worth it. Curiosity will take rock samples and study the land to find out if Mars could have ever supported life. Well, that's all for today. I'm Emma The Meap, and I will see you next time. PEACE!!!

Mercury and Venus!!!

     Hello everyone! Welcome to... Meapz4Science! I know it has been a LONG time since my last post. I'm sorry. But today I have a new blog! It is on... Mercury and Venus! we will compare the two today. So we have to travel! Let's go!!!

Mercury

     OK, we are here. So first we will talk about Mercury. Mercury is a planet in the inner part of our solar system, and it is the closest to the sun. Of course, everyone knows that. Let's get on to the stuff you may not know. It has an iron core, much like Earth. It is the smallest planet, being only slightly bigger than our moon, and it looks like our moon. It doesn't even have a moon! Talk about irony. Now let's get down to the more complicated stuff.

     Mercury is named after the Roman Messenger God. This is probably due to the fact that it is the fastest planet to orbit the sun, only taking about 88 Earth Days to orbit the sun! However, it rotates on its axis very slowly. A day on Mercury is 55 Earth days! A day is almost as long as its year! Because of this, it can get VERY hot and VERY cold. a day on Mercury can get as hot as 430 degrees Celsius. that can melt lead! On the other hand, nights on mercury can get to -173 degrees Celsius! Wow, that is cold.

 Venus

     Okay, now we are going to talk about Venus. Venus is the second planet in our solar system. Venus is the sixth largest planet in the solar system. Venus is also named after the Roman God of love and beauty. It's a shame it was HORRIBLY named! Venus is closer to the sun than Earth, so it is a LOT hotter. It can get to 400 degrees Celsius. However, unlike Mercury, it has an atmosphere. That is what makes it so hot. Carbon Dioxide makes up most of its atmosphere, about 96%. A day on Venus is about eight months on Earth. That is a LONG day! However, you can almost never see the sun on Venus. There is always a super-thick cloud.

Okay, now let's head back. 

     

      Well, I hope you have all enjoyed this blog. Again, I am SOOO sorry With the lack of posts lately, I have been busy. Anyway, I'm Emma The Meap, and I will see you next time. Peace!

Meapz4Science News!!!

Hello everyone! You can probably tell by the title that THIS post is going to be WAY different Than what I normally do. This is... Meapz4Science News! Today I will tell you about an article I found. It is called Sleep Therapy for Fears. I know, right? It was written by Stephen Ornes. It states that a new study has shown that while sleeping, a person can lessen their fears.

 
     Katherina Hauner and Jay Gottfried are at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. and they made up a test. They recruited 15 volunteers. Hauner and Gottfried showed the participants photos of a man’s face. At the same time, they smelled a particular scent (such as that of lemons) and received a small electric shock. They repeated this experience several times over half an hour for each subject. It started to leave the recruits fearing the face and the scent — because both were linked to the horrible shock. How did they know? There was one way scientists measured this fear: The volunteers sweated more.

     After they recorded that data, the scientists had each subject fall asleep in the lab. When the subject fell into the deepest stage of sleep, the researchers put in the fearful smell. Upon waking, these volunteers showed less fear when encountering the once-frightening face and smell. But sleep alone did not erase the fear. What they smelled during sleep was important. The scientists know that because they trained the volunteers to also fear a different face/smell combo. But the researchers didn’t deliver that odor to volunteers while they slept. And afterward, they found that face just as scary as before.


     Brain scans also showed that sleep-scent training also altered parts of the brain involved with different memories and/or emotions. The Northwestern scientists and their coworkers published all of these findings September 22 in Nature Neuroscience. The new sleep-scent treatment resembles something known as exposure therapy, Hauner told Science News. During exposure therapy, a person confronts a fear over and over. Such as a person with a fear of spiders may interact with spiders, eventually even learning to touch them. This therapy continues until new, safe memories replace the fearful ones (Yeah, I have a huge fear of spiders, NOT HAPPENING!)

 

 As such, the new findings also suggest that sleep-scent therapy may be able to help  with the success of treatment for disorders like phobias. Phobias are extreme or irrational fears. (Arachnophobia, for example, is the fear of spiders.) The new sleep treatment may also lessen deep-seated fears in people with post-traumatic stress disorder. People with this condition suffer severe mental or emotional stress after an injury or shock.

Well, that is the end of the article. Personally, I think that the article is very interesting. I would try it, IF I could ever get to SLEEP in the FIRST PLACE! I like the whole testing thing, but the part with the spiders? NO WAY AM I TOUCHING A DANG SPIDER! They are terror on 8 hideous legs! Anyways, i hope you all enjoyed Meapz4Science News! I don't know if I'm going to do anymore, but I still hope that you guys are enjoying. I'm Emma the meap, and I will see you next time. PEACE!!!

 

 

Galaxies!!!

Hello everyone, and welcome to... Meapz4Science! Today, we will talk about something so immense, It makes up most of our universe! Today, we will talk about... Galaxies!!! We will talk about their shapes, and what they are, and so much more! Let's go!!!

 

Man, we do this a LOT now! Technology, baby!

Alright, we are here. You might ask, what the heck is a galaxy in the FIRST place? Galaxies are huge group of stars, gas, and dust held together by gravity. We have over 10,000 galaxies in the whole universe. And there can be anywhere from 10 million to 1 trillion stars in each galaxy! That is a LOT to wish on! I'm kidding. Anyways, let's start out with the smallest type of galaxy, the Irregular Galaxy, such as this one:

 

Irregular galaxies are very small, and contain only young stars. It is what the name implies. It has no real shape. Not a single irregular galaxy looks like another. That is REALLY cool! Anyways, the next galaxy is the Spiral Galaxy, such as this one:

 

 Spiral galaxies are what we all think of when we think of galaxies. They are like pinwheels in space. They also contain middle-aged stars. The next one we have is the Barred Spiral Galaxy, Such as our own Milky Way.

 

Barred spiral galaxies are basically spiral galaxies with the bulge being a bar to which arms spiral out of. Lastly, there is the Elliptical Galaxy, such as this one:

 

Elliptical galaxies are sort of like spheres of stars. Also, they contain old stars. Anyways, scientists believe that there is a super massive black hole in the middle of every galaxy. We have to go back home to talk to someone very important. Edwin Hubble! Let's go!

 

Now we will have to time travel to when Hubble made his discoveries. Let's go!

 

Okay, we are here. Look! there is Edwin Hubble!

 

Awesome! I'm going to say hi!

 Me: Hi, Edwin Hubble! How are you today?

Hubble: I am the happiest man in the whole universe! I just made a HUGE discovery!

Me: Cool! What is that discovery?

Hubble: Well, I just discovered with my telescope that we are not the only galaxy out there!

Me: Oh, cool! That's great!

Hubble: That isn't even where it stops! I also found they are all flying away from each other!

Me: That is a HUGE discovery! Well, I have to go now! Bye!

Hubble: Okay. Bye!

Wow. That was eventful! Now, we will  talk about two things call the Redshift and the Blueshift. These have to do with the expansion of the galaxies. So we have to go into space again. Let's go!

 

Okay, we are now in space! Before we get into the different shifts, I need to tell you about Wavelengths. Wavelengths are literally the length between the top of one wave to the other. The redshifts and blueshifts have different wavelengths. The redshift occurs when a star starts to move away from us. It would emit light on the red side of the visible light spectrum. If it was moving towards us, it would emit blue light, creating the blueshift.

 

I think that is all for today. Let's go home.

Alright, we are now home. I hope you all learned a lot today. Also, feel free to check out my other blog posts on the Milky Way, Stars, and Black holes. I will see you next time. PEACE!!!

 

 

Stars!

Hello everyone! Did you like my last blog? This one will be even better. Anyways, welcome to... Meapz4science! Today we will talk about STARS! We will talk about the different lives they lead. Yes, stars lead different lives too. And it might not be what you think. Let's go find out what they might be!

We will also have to time travel a bit. I apologize. Hold on!

Okay, we are here now. Where are all the stars, you say? Well, that will be coming up soon. As you can see, all of these clouds of gas and dust are what make up a Stellar Nursery. This is what makes the stars. It really is what the name implies. It is a nursery for stars. Take this one, for example.

 

Oh look! Gravity is creating a clump of the dust! The clump is getting bigger! And hotter! Oh, and you don't have to call it a hot clump anymore. It is now a Protostar. It is really small right now. It is hard to believe that this is how all stars start their lives. And it will get so dense and hot, that gas will start spurting out of it! Look! There it goes!

Oh my! Even when stars are little babies they are a riot! Eventually it will stop doing all of this. It will ignite because of the immense heat.

Anyways, it is inly producing light and heat right now. Oh look! Nuclear fusion is taking place. Nuclear fusion is when two hydrogen atos fuse to create a helium atom.

You know how I didn't tell you why we time traveled? Well, it turns out that this is our very own sun. I know. Isn't it crazy that our sun is that little ball? Anyways, when nuclear fusion happens, it enters its Main Sequence. This is the longest part of a star's lifetime. Our sun, in regular time, is in this stage. It is about halfway through it. our sun is 4.6 billion years old. So let's travel to when it dies, because it won't happen for a very long time.

 

Okay, we are here. It is now way bigger, and more red? That is because it is now a Red Giant. They start to cool down, and expand. They grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger. Eventually the sun will engulf the inner planets, incluing Earth! Don't worry. We will all be long gone before that happens. Eventually, the outer layer will drift off, forming a Planetary Nebula.

What is left of the actual star is the dead core. A small, but SUPER dense object called a White Dwarf. Other stars will collapse into itself to also form a white dwarf.

 

Anyways, that isn't the only way a star can die. It depends on its mass and size. Kind of like humans! Oh, I just said that, didn't I? Oh gosh. Anyways, let's just move on.

Larger stars can collapse in itself so quickly, it can bounce off of itself and EXPLODE into a Supernova. Some supernovas last for a MONTH, and can outshine our whole galaxy!

 

Others collapse into a Black Hole. It is a super-dense result of a collapsed star that not even light can escape! My last blog post was on black holes. If you would like some more information on black holes, you can check that post out.

 

Anyways, when a supernova occurs, it spits out the raw material to make new stars. Then, we start ALL over again! Anyways, let's go back to our own time, then head home.

 

 Okay, now let's travel home.

 

 Alright everyone, we are at home. Remember, for our sun, the end ISN'T near. Also, other stars are always being made, and always dying. So, we are balanced out. Anyways, I hope you learned a lot today. I'm Emma The Meap, and I will see you next time. PEACE!!!