Sunday, April 24, 2011

Science, the world and the universe

After reading a science book, one learns a lot about the universe.  For homework, I was assigned to read two sections of this one chapter in my science book about the solar system.  Apparently all of the gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,Neptune) have rings(Saturn's are just the most impressive and well-known).  They are also less dense but have greater gravity than all of the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars).  Pluto is a dwarf planet related to the Kuiper Belt (a belt made mainly of chunks of ice and objects similar in composition and size to Pluto) and has been classified as a dwarf planet since 2006.  Sorry Clyde Tombaugh (astronomer guy who discovered Pluto).  Eris, one of the dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt is slightly larger than Pluto and most likely led to Pluto being called a dwarf planet.  The credit for finding Eris goes to astronomer Mike Brown.  Well enough about the solar system, I am probably boring you (sorry).  I just find the universe so interesting.  I plan to study it in college (along with the beautiful subjects of art, music and writing).

Another thing I learned is that apparently oil is still seeping from the gulf and that there was practically no point in cleaning it up if there is still a problem (well we did get rid of some oil luckily).  Speaking of the Earth, I hope everyone had a wonderful Earth Day, and did their best to conserve and educate others about the environment, as we should every day.   I do my best to conserve, and I continue to get better with wasting less water.  Going back to the oil spill, if you are interested in learning more about what is till happening then  read an article by going to    http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-20/us/gulf.oil.environment.recap_1_oil-spill-gulf-oil-puzzles-scientists?_s=PM:US or    http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/2011/0/damages_costs_from_the_bp_oil.html

There are many other articles on the oil spill as well (along with numerous videos and pictures).  It is very unfortunate that something such as this was a man-made problem.  The effect of this will be catastrophic (and already has been).  I seriously hope that humans figure out ways to harness renewable resources of energy or at least make sure that what they have will not break down in any way.  I hope we can figure out not only the Gulf Oil Spill, but also problems in Japan, which were cause by a natural event (a 9.0 earthquake that resulted in a tsunami due to the fact that Japan in on a subduction zone that caused the nuclear problems in their country). There are so many articles on Japan, and you should definitely pick up a Time or Newsweek magazine on Japan, if you are interested in learning more about Japan.  Oh, the bad things in life.  Well, maybe people will learn to respect the planet more, now that these things have happened. I hope everyone has a wonderful day (or night), and make sure to do something good for Earth today and every day.  

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