Astronomy+Ambassadors

April - 3 AHAP students chose their favorite celestial bodies! Here are the Flexibles Facts:

Lauren and Emily worked together to find out about Venus. Venus is one of the brightest planets. It is the only celestial body besides the Sun and the Moon that is bright enough to cast shadows on the Earth. Venus is important to aboriginal cultures who gather after sunset to await the rising of Venus which they call //barnunbirr//.

Tyler studied Neil Armstrong for AHAP and for the Living Museum at Vanderbilt. Neil Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the Moon. He was the first civilian astronaut, although he was in the Naval Reserve. He went to Moon on July 16, 1969. He arrived on July 20, 1969 at 2am. He almost crashed the Eagle when it was landing on the Moon.

Gilbert chose Halley's Comet because he once saw a picture of it and thought it looked really cool. Halley's Comet is probably the most famous comet ever. It takes about 75 - 76 Earth years to orbit around the Sun. It is about the same age as the Sun - about 4.5 billion years. Halley's Comet is about 10 to the 15th kg It's orbit take sit really close to the Sun and very far past Pluto. The last time it passed the Earth was in 1986, and it will reappear in 2062!

Christine studied our home planet -- the Earth! The Earth is the 3rd planet from the Sun and is about 150,000,000 km away from the Sun. It is home to millions of species including humans. Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist! Earth is almost round in shape and measures 24,901 miles in circumference. Earth is only a few hundred kilometers larger than Venus.

Linden studied Pluto and found out almost all the planets travel around the Sun in nearly perfect circles but Pluto's path does not. It is off center from the Sun and tilted differently than all the other planets.

From the Divergents...
Nolan and Dylan found out about Jupiter.

Marc studied Jupiter and found out that Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system.

Gianni and Steven worked together on the Sun. The Sun is made up of only gases. Nothing is liquid or solid on the Sun - it is too hot! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Sun is the largest object in the solar system!!!!!!!!!! The Sun has 99.8% of the mass for our entire solar system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Timmy is studying Saturn's moons. Did you know that two of Saturn's moons have names with Q but no U? Good for Scrabble! Siarnaq and Tarqeq.

Aman is studying Saturn. Each day on Saturn is 10 hours and 39 minutes long. Saturn is only made of gases. So there is no solid surface to land on! Saturn would float in water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Fluents chimed in with information they found out about...
Ben found out about asteroids. Several hundred thousand have been discovered so far.

Alex says that the Moon is the second brightest object in the sky after the Sun. Below the crust of the Moon is a mantle and probably a small core which account for roughly 2% of the Moon's mass.

Danielle studied the Earth. The circumference of the Earth at its's equater is 24,902.4 miles. The diameter (the distance through the center) is 79,026.42 miles through the equator. The diameter from the North to South pole 42 km less than the equator. The polar diameter is 7899.83 miles and the total surface area is 110,100,000 square kilometers. The volume of the Earth is 1,083,230,000,000 cubic kilometers.

David knows that the atmospheric pressure on Venus is 92 times that on Earth. Venus is also the brightest natural object in the night sky except for the Moon.Its apparent magntiude is 4.6. Even though Venus is similar in size to earth, its magnetic field is smaller (closer to the planet) than the one on Earth.

Anthony studied Neptune. Almost two centuries ago, Galileo observed Neptune, but did not know it was a planet.

Dani & Sophia - Europa is the sixth moon of the planet Jupiter, named after a mythical Phoenician noblewoman. Eurpoa was courted by Zeus and became queen of Crete.Europa is just over 3,100 km in diamter and it is slightly smaller than the Earth's moon. It is the sixth largest moon in the solar system. It probably has an iron core and a liquid ocean. Scientists are trying to find out if there might be life on it! Very cool fact: Europa has a metallic core, a rocky interior and an H2O layer. The surface contains ice which covers the liquid ocean.

**March - A Close Up of Orion's Belt**
The three bright stars that you see when you look at Orion's belt are actually the three blue supergiants Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. These stars are all much more massive and much hotter than our Sun. In this digital image, you can also make out the amazing Horsehead Nebula, Flame Nebula, and a myriad of other stars. By the way, not all of the best star images we have come from the Hubble Space Telescope or the biggest observatories on Earth. This image was taken in Switzerland, by attaching a digital camera to a small telescope.

**Looking in the Night Sky - by Karena**
Orion is a visible constellation from all points on the globe once during the year. Orion is a pattern formed by the brightest stars. Such as, Rigel, Betelgeuse, Sirius, Monocerous, Canis Major, Lepus, Eridanus, Aidebaran, etc. Orion is the entire area of sky outlined in the diagram below. Orion is located east of Gemini and below of Taurus. Orion forms around Rigel and Betelgeuse. Orion has a very interesting story. Apollo was the god of healing and his sister was Artemis. Orion was the demi-god and the son of a mortal woman and Poseidon the god of seas. Artemis fell in love with Orion. Apollo knew that was inappropriate for Orion to fall in love with Artemis because she was a Virgin Goddess. Apollo tried to kill Orion to protect his sister. He sent a scorpion to kill him. Orion died from the scorpion's sting but Artemis was furious at Apollo. Artemis put Orion in the sky so she would remember him. Apollo put the scorpion in the sky and named him Scorpio. Whenever Scorpio rises Orion goes down in the other horizon, so it looks like Orion is running away from Scorpio.
 * [[image:orion010707-full.jpg width="210" height="276"]] || [[image:orion7swa.gif width="211" height="271"]] || [[image:Orion.gif width="245" height="263"]] ||  ||

The big dipper has some very bright stars. Ursa Major is one, and the Great Bear is another name for this star.
===In the picture above, there are 3 main stars. If you look at the big dipper you will find Merak and Dubhe. Those two stars lead to Polaris witch is one way you can find the dippers. Both the little and big dipper have asterisms (a pattern of stars).===