Week 7 Lab

1. Big question: How big is the universe?
2. What we did in lab: During lab, we explored how big our universe is. We specifically looked at the 4 inner planets in our orbit. We used a website to look at the distance between the planets and view their mass. We had to create our own model of the distance between the planets by converting to meters. We knew these planets are thousands of miles away from each other, so we had to scale it down. These planets are also massive, so we had to scale them down as well.

3. What did I learn in lecture?: In lecture, we learned about direct sunlight during seasons. During the summer solstice, the direct rays of the sun hit the tropic of cancer. During the winter solstice, the direct rays of the sun hit the the tropic of capricorn. We also looked at theories of the moon's origin. The widely accepted theory is that a collision happened between the earth and a small planet, and the debris from the impact created the moon that orbits earth. The side we never see of the moon has a thicker crust because the sun's rays are never hitting that side of the moon.

4. Textbook Reading:

1. What did I learn?
1. Our solar system is very big. Gaseous planets are bigger in mass as compared to the rocky inner planets.
2. The most helpful was the video describing how far apart and how big the planets are in our solar system.
3. I need more information on the concept of Pluto not clearing the neighborhood.
4. Is a blackhole forming a random event?