On Earth, water evaporates from all kinds of bodies of water including lakes, rivers, seas, oceans, puddles and anyplace else that water collects.  When the sun heats the water up it turns into vapor and floats invisibly towards the sky.

Up in the sky, the temperature cools down and so does the water vapor. When this happens the water vapor turns back into a liquid and sticks together. This is called  condensation.  This condensed water forms clouds.

When the clouds become to heavy with this condensed water vapor, can you guess what happens? That’s right, get those umbrellas out because rain is on it’s way! And the process starts all over again. Pretty neat system, huh?

Any questions? No? Then let’s get started!

materials

• modeling clay
• clear bowl
• hot tap water
• clear plastic wrap
• small models of houses, plants, animals, etc. (optional)

 here’s what you do

• Using the modeling clay, make the banks of a river with the clay and make it long enough to go up all the way around the bowl about a third of the way up the sides.
• Add small models of houses, animals, plants, etc. to make it more lifelike (optional)
• Fill the bowl about one third full, up to the clay bank, with hot tap water.
• Stretch the plastic wrap over the bowl and seal the edges firmly.

what happened?

Watch as the water droplets appear on the inside of the plastic wrap and bowl. Can you guess where the water came from? The water will fall like rain from the plastic wrap and run down the sides of the bowl into the lake, just like it does here on Earth.

You see, on the Tiny Planet of Technology, the floor is metallic and pretty smooth. But what would happen if the floor was made of carpet?

So, when we got back to the Home Planet we decided to do a little experiment to see just that.  We learned a  few things, but before we give you our conclusions why don’t you try it yourself.

things you need

•  long strip of sandpaper
• long, smooth piece of wood
• long strength of smooth carpet
• small toy car

what you do

1. Take the toy car and push it along the surface of the wood.
2. Now push the toy car along the strip of sandpaper.
3. Next push the toy car along the carpet.

On which surface does your toy car run best? Which one gives you the smoothest movement?

what we found

We discovered that our toy car had an easier time on the piece of wood than on the sandpaper or carpet because there was less friction.  What did you discover?

Scorpius as depicted in Urania's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825.

Have you ever wondered why the Orion Nebula has a sword and a belt? Hmm, who uses a sword? A warrior! But what could this warrior be fighting in the sky?

Orion is they mythological warrior and hunter who was friends with the goddess Artemis. They would hunt together and have many adventures. Pretty cool deal to go hunting with a goddess, huh?

Unfortunately for Orion, he developed a really bad attitude. He thought that since he was such a good hunter that he should go and kill every animal on earth! Not cool at all.

Orion boasted of his plans to Artemis, which wasn’t very smart. I mean, Artemis is the protector of animals. Did he really think she’d say, “Wow! That’s great — let’s do it!” Needless to say, Artemis wasn’t happy about his plans and decided that something should be done with Orion.

As punishment for his prideful boasting (also known as “hubris”) Artemis and her mother Leto sent a scorpion to deal with Orion. Who do you think will win? Orion had his sword and skills, but the Scorpion has that nasty sting in his curved tail. And, don’t forget those scary claws! If you look in the sky you can even see his blood red heart (also known as the star named Antares). It looks like Orion has his work cut out for him!

The pair battled fiercely and eventually the Scorpion killed Orion. The battle must have been pretty spectacular and caught the attention of  Zeus, king of the gods and Artemis’ dad. Zeus liked a good fight and decided to raise the scorpion to heaven. Sometime later Artemis asked her father to also do the same for Orion to serve as a reminder for mortals to curb their excessive pride.

Orion and the Scorpion never made up from their fight, so every winter Orion hunts in the sky, but every summer he flees as the constellation of the Scorpion comes. As September ends, the Scorpion is almost down in the southwest, in a little time Orion will rise due east.

Can you see Orion approaching?

Materials

• 11 x 17″ sheet of paper
• String (lots of string)
• Stapler w/staples
• Drinking Straw
• Doughnut Stickers (here’s an example)
• Hole puncher (optional)

Instructions

• Take a 11×17” sheet of paper and fold it in half so it now becomes 8 ½ x 11”.  Curl one corner tip to the center fold, 2” from the end same end.
• Do the same with the other side, and secure with a staple.
• Two inches below the staple, punch a hole near the center fold and attach doughnut stickers (to keep string from tearing through the paper).
• Attach a good length of string and run!

Note: To make a string handle, cut a straw in half and thread one of the pieces (save the other for another) onto the end of the string, looping the free end back onto the main line.  Wind excess string around the straw.

Teaching Tip:  When we teach kids how to make this kite, we punch holes both on both sides of the staple and ask the kids which hole works best.

Why does this fly?  This kite soars because you’re holding the kite at the correct angle to the wind. The wind flows both over and under the kite, and with this shape, the air flying over the kite is traveling a bit faster than the wind under the kite.  Recall that higher speeds mean lower pressure.  The underside of the kite now has a relatively higher pressure, thus pushing the kite upwards into the sky.

Pretty cool, huh?

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That’s a picture of the Orion Nebula. This is in the Sword section of Orion. Orion is in the Northern Hemisphere. (It’s also one of the nebula you can see from your own backyard. All you need is a good telescope or pair of binoculars.) Orion is a winter constellation. See the three belt stars and then the three sword stars? This is the middle star of the sword, and you can look there and find it.

The Orion Nebula is what they call an emission nebula. It means that nearby stars actually are heating up the gas so it starts to glow. Now, this is the important part, when you see this: any time you see red that’s going to be a hydrogen gas – and blue, that’s going to be dust.

So, if you look at this picture you kind of see red and purple, right? Purple is a combination of what two colors? Red and blue – red is hydrogen and blue is dust, so there’s hydrogen and dust in this picture. Does that make sense?

This is another look at the Orion Nebula. Do you see all of those colors? Remember each color represents a gas.  What gases do you think are there? Can you point to the hydrogen gas? If you pointed to red, you’re right! And since this is a nebula there’s also some dust and oxygen mixed in with the hydrogen.

Moving on, let’s take a look at the Cone Nebula. What is the primary gas in this one? The primary gas is red, which means… hydrogen! But do you see how the cloud itself is dark, but the background is lit up? It’s like having a street lamp on a foggy night. The stars in the background make the gases show up just like in a reflection nebula.

This picture is an example of a Reflection Nebula. You can only see this gas, this Reflection Nebula, because there’s a star behind it that’s shiny, and it basically shines on the gas cloud.

The cloud itself doesn’t glow like, I mentioned, the fog and the street lamp. It’s only illuminated because there’s another light source that’s doing that. This one actually lies close to the Orion Nebula. Okay? Pretty cool, huh?

There are even more nebulae in our celestial backyard including the Eskimo Nebula, the Cat’s Eye Nebula, the Ring Nebula and the Crab Nebula out there too.  There’s so much to see in space, just grab your binoculars and go for it.

Keep Exploring and Discovering Your Universe!

It’s time to head outside and  experiment water’s effect on different garden materials. Which one do you think would be best for making mountains like the one in our photo?

What You Need

• Dirt
• Sand
• Rocks
• Drinking glass or cup
• Water

What to Do

1. Go outside and build three mountains — one from dirt, one from sand and the last one from rock. Make the mountains as strong as you can.
2. Fill the glass with water. Pour the water over the first of your mountains. What happens?
3. Refill the glass and pour it over your second mountain. What happens?
4. Fill your glass one last time and pour the contents over the very last mountain. What happens this time?
5. Compare the three mountains — which one retained its shape and size?

Water and rain affect these materials in different ways. And as you can see from your experiment, the dirt and sand lost its shape and formed a new one. This is a example of how the different land formations on the Earth were also formed.

Challenge

How  many cups of water would it take to flatten:

• Your sand mountain?
• Your dirt mountain?
• Your rock mountain?

Add your results to our comments — we’d like to know.

photo credit: kakub1n

This picture of the Eagle Nebula was taken by a backyard telescope. Can you see the eagle? Try tracing it out with your fingers.

Okay, so this picture was taken by yours truly using the Hubble telescope. Can you see the eagle better? What color does it appear? Reddish-orange, right? So what does that mean the Eagle Nebula is made up of? Hydrogen! What other gases do you see? Not sure if I told you this yet, but the green usually means there is oxygen. Green can also be another gas, but for now it’s oxygen.

Now, put your finger on the tallest pillar.

Finally, let’s look at the Eagle Nebula close-up! We can see a lot of details. Look at the tip! Did you know each tip holds onto a star? It’s like a star’s home! Totally cool, huh?

I have pictures from a lot of other fascinating nebulae, but you will have to wait till our next journey together for those. Until then, keep exploring and discovering!

Aurora

Materials

• Water
• 10 glass jars or bottles
• Sticky labels
• Spoon, fork or stick/pencil
• Food coloring (optional)

Instructions

• Fill each jar with different amounts of water. Start with very little water in the first jar and continue to fill each jar with an increasing amount.
•  Have your child strike the jars carefully with a spoon (or whatever object you chose). Make sure to listen for the variety of pitches!
• Help your child put the sounds in order from low to high.
• Once they are in order, label the jars from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).
• Mix up the jars — see what beautiful musical tunes the two of you can make together!

Extend the activity by asking your child to add or subtract water from the jars to see what happens. Does this change the pattern? Add food coloring. Does that change the pitches? Play around and explore together!

How It Works

The more water you have in a jar, the lower the pitch will be. You see, the sound vibrations you hear come from the jar, not water. So, as you add water it takes up more space — providing greater vibrating mass. The less water in the jar means there’s less weight to vibrate so the pitch is higher.

Health & Safety

• Encourage your child to strike the jars gently and supervise them at all times. Explain the dangers of glass jars and breakages.

Happy exploring!

Edmond Halley (the astronomer who predicted when the “Great Comet” would return) was the first astronomer to suggest that the nebula contained dust and gas and he was right!

These large clouds of dust and gas serve our universe in a number of ways including the birth and death of stars.

Inside these huge “clouds” of dust and gas you may find baby stars (and sometimes planets) forming. That’s right, some nebula have gravity so strong that it packs the gas and dust into stars. The Eagle Nebula (picture on the left) is one of those star factories.

Nebula can be very beautiful with striking colors. One example of this is the reflection nebula. This nebula is made  up of tiny dust grains. It got it’s name because it does such a good job of reflecting blue starlight.

Another nebula, called an “emission nebula” is usually near a very hot star. It absorbs that star’s energy causing the gases around it to glow a vivid red color. Then there are nebula that are so dusty that they can block light from other nebula even an emission nebula. Imagine something so dusty that it can block that really bright red light!

Nebula can also be the final resting place for stars. As stars grow old they throw off their outer layers the way that we shed our winter coats when we enter our homes. The layers become glowing shells of gas that expands out into space and is lit by the star’s hot core. When 19th century astronomers discovered this type of nebula they thought it looked a lot like a planet. So, they decided to call it a “planetary nebula.”

Next week Aurora’s going to take us for a closer look at the nebulae and explain a few of the secrets they hold.