Astronomy Discoveries

Author's Note: I did this in science class for the topics about astronomy. I thought what I found was very interesting. I guarantee that you will learn at least 2 new things from this paper.

          Why do we learn about astronomy? Because we have to? Or because we want to? Some people think that astronomy is a waste of time and that people shouldn’t learn about astronomy. When you think about it, astronomy is so interesting to learn about. There are some things in astronomy that really capture my attention. One of them is learning about comets, asteroids, meteors and meteorites. In an article that I read called Windows to the Universe, I found some very interesting things, specifically on comets. One interesting fact that I found was back then, when people saw a comet in the sky, they always thought that something bad was going to happen to them. They didn’t know how the sky moved so when they saw a comet, it was very disturbing. There were many historical records and works of art that lead to terrible things such as wars and plagues. That was one thing that I found very interesting. I can imagine watching a comet go by in the sky and being disturbed because back then, astronomy wasn’t “invented.” They didn’t have any astronomers like we do today. Even though comets don’t occur very often, there have been many that are visible to the naked eye or through binoculars or telescope. From 1985- January 2004, there have been 9 comets that a spacecraft or that people see. I would have guessed many more comets occurring than just 9, so that was another interesting fact that I found. Although, there are two questions that I have: one is how often do comets occur? I think that comets occur once every year because to create the comets “tail,” the Sun would have to heat it up and I would guess that it would happen in the summer because that’s when the Sun would be the hottest. The second question that I have is how do comets get their names? I think that comets get their names by how they look or a how fast they go through the sky and match with a native name from the Native-Americans.

             The next article that I read was about the Sun. The website that I explored was called Solar Folklore and it talked about the Sun and the different worldviews that it had throughout ancient times. One interesting fact that I found out was back in the ancient times, people looked to the Sun as a god, a demon, a mischievous spirit, an omnipotent creator or a ruthless taker of life. I never would have looked at the Sun in that way. The article said that no matter what the Sun’s role plays, many cultures have seen the Sun as the controller of all life on Earth and that was something that I found very interesting. Within the same article that I read, what I didn’t know was that when you look through a telescope, you are able to see the planets without a problem. The same thing cannot be said with the Sun. If you look through a telescope to look at the Sun, you could damage your eyes extremely bad because of the Sun’s brightness. You would have to get the proper filters in order to look at the Sun safely. If you look at the Sun with your telescope and not the proper filters, you could permanently damage your eyes. Now that was something that I didn’t know. Two questions I have about this article are: Back in ancient times, when people saw the Sun as many different creatures, do some people still think of the Sun that way today or not? In some cases, I think that some people do because many people may look back at the ancient times and what they believed in and could potentially think it’s true and believe it. Another question is how hot is the Sun? Since the Sun has many different layers from the Interior to the Corona, I think that the Sun is over 2,000,000˚F. It’s a wild guess but the Sun is EXTREMELY hot!

               Now that I have read, learned and talked about the ancient times of astronomy, let’s go into the more modern day of astronomy and what is happening today. There was an article that I read called Space Exploration and Astronauts. One interesting thing that I learned and that I didn’t know was that we were not the first people to go into space. The Russians were. Although, we were the first people on the moon. Out of all people in America, the Russians? That’s was something that both shocked and startled me. Another interesting fact that I didn’t know and learned was there are over 10 human space programs. If there was one in Wisconsin, I would probably go there and check it out because it seems very interesting. Another interesting thing that I found was there were over 10 incomplete main missions in space. I knew that not every idea or mission would succeed but I thought that for both, there would be more than 10 missions. Anyway, two questions that I have are: When astronauts go into space, they wear all of their gear and everything, but what would happen if they took the suit and everything off? I think that if they are in space or on another planet, they would die because of the air from space and the different planets. Our bodies are used to the oxygen on Earth but not in space or other planets. Another question that I have is how many times have U.S. astronauts landed on another planet and returned to Earth? Space is a scary thing and I can’t imagine a lot but I would say that we have landed on 3 planets and returned safely.

             So there you have it! Three articles about 3 different things. Astronomy is truly an amazing thing to learn with everything about the planets and space. Astronomy is one of my favorite topics and I would love to learn more about it. Without astronomy, I think our world wouldn’t be as technological as it is today. With astronomy, we can learn all of the different cultures and history of what people learned about in space, with comets or whatever. Astronomy is very important and I can’t wait to learn more about it.