JUPITER:  "EPIC-NESS" IN A PLANET FORM

Hey, this is Jack at my epic blog! I am going to talk about ...well, come on!  What's the title?  Anyway, time for the "epic-ness" to start. 
 
The planet Jupiter is named after the Roman god Jupiter, who was the king of the Roman gods:

It makes sense to name the planet after the king of the gods because Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system.  It's truly massive.  More than 1,000 Earths could fit inside Jupiter!  Here's a visual.  The big planet is Jupiter, and the tiny blue planet next to it is Earth:

 
This massive size is the reason the gravity on Jupiter is the strongest in our entire solar system.  The gravity on Jupiter is about 2.5 times what it is on Earth.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. 

Here's a picture of Jupiter.  This picture is epic because it's actually a true color picture of Jupiter:

Jupiter is a gas-giant planet.  It doesn't have a solid surface.  Gas-giant planets are called "Jovian" planets (Jupiter-like).  There are four of them:  Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.  The inner planets are not gas-giants.; they're called "terrestrial" planets.  They're mostly solid, and they include Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Scientists think that Jupiter has an inner, solid core that is about the size of the Earth.

Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. 

Jupiter has a giant red spot on it, called the "Great Red Spot," or "The Eye of Jupiter."  Here it is: 

This "spot" is not a spot at all.  It's actually a humongous storm.  I mean really humongous.  The storm itself is about the size of two or three Earths!  This storm has been going on for hundreds of years!

Jupiter has many, many moons.  Fifty moons are known.  There are 17 more moons that are waiting to be confirmed as actual moons.  For those of you who hate addition, that's a total of 67 moons!


One of Jupiter's moons is called Europa.  Here's a truly epic pic:

Europa is an icy moon.  The surface contains many cracks in the ice.  It's a little bit smaller than the Earth's moon.  Scientists think that Europa has some qualities that are similar to Earth:  an iron core, a rocky mantle, and a surface ocean of salty water.  Can you believe that?  The problem is, this ocean is so deep that it covers the entire surface of Europa.  Because Europa is so far from the sun, the surface of the ocean is basically frozen over. 

The ocean may not be frozen solid, however.  Recently, the Hubble telescope captured a picture of a puff of water vapor that was spouting about 125 miles above the surface of Europa.  Here's an artist's interpretation of what it looked like:

Even though it's frozen on the surface, the water spout supports the theory that the water underneath may not be completely frozen.  This is because the friction created by Jupiter's gravitational pull on Europa generates some heat.  It's water may have the right chemistry to sustain some very basic aquatic life.


Five interesting facts about Jupiter:
(1) If you think about the sun as being the size of a regular front door, in comparison, the Earth would be the size of a nickel, and Jupiter would be the size of a basketball!
(2)  Many space missions have gone to Jupiter.  There's another one scheduled to take place in 2016.  It's called the Juno mission, named after the Juno probe.  Here's a pic:

(3) Another word for Jupiter is "Jove."  That's why scientists refer to things about Jupiter as "Jovian." 
(4)  It takes Jupiter only 10 hours to rotate on its axis, compared to 24 for Earth.
(5)  A year on Jupiter lasts 4,333 days, or about 12 Earth-years!


That's all about Jupiter.  Thanks for reading my blog.

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The Second Class Citizens of the Solar System

Hi, this is Jack at my epic blog! Breaking news: there are other things besides planets in the Solar System!  These other things may not get all the glory, but they're worth talking about.  If only because that's our assignment for this week.  Let's address these second-rate space inhabitants one by one.

Comets
Comets may not be the "stars" of the universe (get it?), but they are extremely rare objects in space.  They come from either the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud, which are large groups of asteroids.  They can be in either of those places for billions of years!  Until, one sad day, they crash into the wrong comet.  The crash sends them shooting in the direction of our Inner Solar System.  That's where we meet them.  And that's where they will ultimately MEET THEIR END!

Physically, they're like the snowballs of the universe.  They are frozen balls made up of rock, ice, dust, methane, and ammonia.  Ever wonder what they look like?  Here's a pic:

 

Epic, huh?

Comets have four parts: a nucleus, (the solid part), a coma, (no, it's not asleep, it means the aura around it), a dust tail, and a ion (gas) tail.

Here's a diagram of the parts of the comet.  Get ready for a snooze fest:

 

Just kidding, diagrams are epic!  Back to comets.

A comet can spend billions of years in the Kuiper Belt or the Oort Cloud, but once they get close to the sun, it's the beginning of the end.  The comets begin to melt.  That's where the brilliant tails come from.  After a few thousand years, they're reduced to nothing more than a little ice and dust. 

Betcha didn't know this:  Scientists consider comets to be small worlds, and sometimes call them planetesimals.

Well, that's a comet. 

Asteroids

Asteroids and comets have a few things in common.  They're both considered leftovers from the giant cloud of gas and dust that ultimately formed the universe billions of years ago.  An asteroid is a lump of . . . rock. Plain, old rock. They always have north and south poles. Just like Earth!  As I have already brilliantly stated above, a comet is a chunk of rock too, but it also contains ice, dust and gases.  Here's a picture on an asteroid:

Another difference between asteroids and comets:  asteroids orbit the sun in an asteroid belt that runs between Mars and Jupiter, while comets orbit from way further away.

Betcha didn't know this:  Although it's sometimes hard to tell if you're looking at an asteroid or a comet, a comet appears "fuzzy" when viewed through a telescope.

Meteoroids, Meteorites,  and Meteors

Ok, so what's the difference between meteorites, meteors, and meteoroids?  Everything starts with meteoroids:

• Meteoroids are little chunks of rocks and debris from space.
• Meteoroids become meteors (aka shooting stars) when they interact with a planet's atmosphere and cause a streak of light in the sky.
• Debris from meteoroids that make it to the surface of a planet are called meteorites.

Got it? Good.

This is what a meteor looks like:

 

It's hard to get a good picture of a meteoroid because we usually see them after they become meteors.

Meteorites can be as small as a grain or as large as a boulder.  Most meteorites are either iron, stony, or stony-iron.  Cool, huh?

Meteor showers are associated with comets.  Comets often leave a dusty trail when they come around the sun.  The Earth passes through these dusty comet trails.  This allows debris to enter the Earth's atmosphere, where it burns up.  The burning up of the debris creates fiery and colorful streaks (which are the meteors) in the sky:

Meteoroids, meteors, and meteorites cannot support life.  But betcha didn't know this:  they may have provided the Earth with amino acids, which are the building blocks of life!

Comets, asteroids and meteorites give us clues to the origins of the Universe.  Have they told us everything there is to know?  We don't know! So . . .  even though they are the "second class citizens" of the Solar System, and even though they are very, very old, I think that scientists should continue to study them.  Who knows what discoveries are on the horizon.

Thanks for reading my blog.

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 DIE, VEGETABLES, DIE!!

KIDS HATE VEGETABLES.  Overstatement?  Ok, I'll modify that a little.  MOST kids hate MOST vegetables.  There, better? 

Parents are always pushing kids to eat vegetables.  WHY, oh why do they load up our plates with this nasty stuff?  Unfortunately, there are many good reasons.  I hate to admit any of them, but here are two:

(1)  Vegetables are very HEALTHY.  This is just one of many, many articles listing the health benefits of vegetables:
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/vegetables-why.html

(2)  Adults have fewer taste buds than kids, so they can't tell (and they apparently do not remember) how vile most vegetables taste.  Kids suffer much more when we eat vegetables than adults do:
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/difference-between-taste-buds-adults-kids-27362.html

Some inventor guy in Japan named Dr. Takayuki Kosaka thinks he can get kids to eat vegetables.  He works at the Kanagawa Institute for Technology in Tokyo, Japan. Here's what the dude looks like.  Check out how happy he is.

Dr. Kosaka has invented a sensory video game called Food Practice Shooter.  It requires the player to move through a city looking for "bad guys." Sounds like a million other video games, right?  Well, with this one, the "bad guys" are giant . . . VEGETABLES. Yes. Vegetables. They're trying to take over the city.  Seriously.  Here's a view of the game.  Sooooo . . .  here come the GIANT . . . carrots? And, uh, peppers!  And, oh my, tomatoes!  LOOK OUT!!  FIERCE VEGETABLES ON THE LOOSE!!

The object of the game is to shoot down the invading giant vegetables.  You shoot them down with more, umm, vegetables. So, how does this thing get kids to actually EAT vegetables?  The game includes three scales which must be loaded up with actual vegetables in order for the game to work.  You have to wear headphones that contain sensors.  Every time you fire, your ammunition is depleted.  There's only one way to get more ammo.  You must chew your vegetables AND - get this - SMILE while you're doing it!  The headphones can sense a chewing motion! You must smile at a camera on the controller while chewing!  Or else, no more ammo.  Game over. Wanh wah.

So it seems kind of stupid and it pretty much is. The only cool thing that I can see is the controller.  It looks like a rocket launcher (check out happy guy above again . . . he's holding the controller).

I think this game would be better if kids got to shoot junk food with vegetables.  Shooting vegetables with vegetables doesn't make any sense.

 

Well that's it.  I wouldn't play this game.  Would you?

Thanks for reading my blog.

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