Week of October 7th

In lab today we went over the positions of the sun and moon to create a new moon and full moon. We drew a diagram to look at it closer and understand better of the phases of the moon compared to the sun's position.  We then went into groups and talked about the presentations that we are going to be doing for next week. Then we started an investigation of building a physical model of the sun, 4 inner planets, and the moon.  During this investigation we had to compare the distances to scale to make our physical model. I was shocked to see how large the sun was compared to other planets, and the distance between the planets from each other and the sun.  We then made the model around the Lindquist building as a group. It was interesting to see how our group measured compared how others groups did.

After reading the pressbook I got an overview of the 8 planets of our solar system and what their environment is like including sizes. I thought this recap was very helpful, as I haven't learned about the planets in a very long time.  I then learned how small we really are in this universe. Lastly, I learned that pluto isn't a planet in our solar system as it did not meet the requirements to be a neighbor and can't be considered a planet. Growing up I remember this bring controversial so this was interesting as I never really got the real answer or reasoning. No more information needed this week/ No questions!

During lecture we talked about different scenarios and decided what type of moon would be during that time based on the location of the sun. During these scenarios we talked about setting sun (east to west), and different equinox/solstices.  I learned during the summer solstice for the southern hemisphere, you would have no shadow because the sun falls directly on the tropic of capricorn. When talking about shadows normally, the shadow points the opposite way the sun points. Example: if the sun is pointing to the right, our shadow is towards the left.  As we are in Iowa, for the most part our shadow will always be facing the north since we are northern than the tropic of cancer and the sun is pointing south. I also learned that the moon DOES rotate. We also talked about the characteristic of planets and how pluto doesn't fit in that category. We then looked closer into the crust thickness of the moon, it was interested to see that the crusts thickness varys on the moon.

Photos:

lecture

lecture

moons crust