Titan Is Icier Then You Think!

Scientists have suspected that a vast ocean of water lies underneath the crust of Saturn’s moon Titan.  New analysis that the heat that keeps the that ocean from freezing relies on the moon interacts with Saturn’s other moons.  New analysis gravity and data from Titan indacates that Titan’s icy crust is twice as thick as has generally thought.  Scientists have suspected that there lies a vast of oceanof liquid water lies under Titan’s crust.

Nasa’s spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004.  They have been studying the topography of Titan and has combined the measurements of the moon’s surface with new realesed gravity measurements to make the new analysis.  Titan has long intrigued scientists because of it’s similarities to Earth.  Like earth, Titan appears to have a layered structure crudely similar to the concentric layers of an onion.  Titan has a core with a mixture of ice and rock.  The core is overlain by the ocean and icy crust.

The rock in Titan’s core is thought to contain radioactive elements left over from the formation of the Solar System.  As in Earth’s core, when those elements decay, they generate heat.  In Titan’s core that heat is crucial to keeping it’s ocean from freezing solid.  As Titan orbits Saturn, Titan is slowly spinnig on it’s axis, one spin for each trip around Saturn.  That spin is enough for the gravity instrument onboard Cassini to measure the resistance of Titan to any changes on it’s spin- also called the moment of inertia.   The moment of inertia depends on the thickness of the layers of material within Titan.

Titan’s crust is aproximately 100 kilometers thick.  If there is more ice, then there should be less heat from the core than had been estimated.  Titan is not a true sphere.  It’s shape is disorted by the gravatational pull of saturn, making sort of oblong along the equator and a little flattened at the poles.

The variation in the shape of the orbit, along with Titan’s slightly desorted shape, means that there are some flexure within the moon as it orbits Saturn.

The Cassini mission was recently given funding to continue operating through 2017, which means about five more years of data will be acquired that can contribute to further refinements of Titan.

              

I think that this is was a very interesting blog post and i enjoyed writing about it.  I love writing about Astronomy! I love everything about astronomy.  It is something that i am really interested in and that i enjoy writing about!

Autumn Sets On Saturn’s Moon

Seasons are now changing on earth but the same thing is happening on saturn’s giant moon Titan.  Nasa’s spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn’s moons since 2004.  Scientists have been noticing that Saurn’s moon titan is changing seasons.  This only happens every 15 years and is never visable from earth.  Tatin is a moon and it is bigger than mercury but has great atmophere.  It has similar seasons as earth because titan’s axis is tilted like the earth’s axis but titan takes longer than earth to change seasons because Saturn orbits around the sun every 29.5 earth years.

Some tools that astronomers used helped them study the atmospheric temperature.  That helped them to map out the seasonal changes on Titan.  Titan’s gases over the south pole are produced in Titan’s atmosphere. Sunlight and highly energetic particles break down that formed a vast of molceules on Titan. They are now waiting for the gas abundences that would change Titan’s atmophere to a new season.  The results are constriant of atmopheric modles on Titan. In the next few years they will still study how Titan’s seasons develop.  They will be looking out for Titan’s first equinox, a season which they have not viewed upclose yet.   This is showing the scientists great science that is coming out.  They are looking forward to seeing more changes in Titan’s seasons until the end of the mission in 2017.

 

Could There Be Life On Mars?

Astronomers have studied that there might be life on the planet mars.  Water  has shaped the landscape of mars’s surface.  Areas of the planet’s northen and southern himespheres have thawed and frozen in the geologic history and striking simalarties of the landscape os svalbard.   Mars is a changing planet that in recent times that it repeates frozen and thaw cycles that is expected to be forming a landscape.  Mars was likley to be formed by snow and water erosion.  The astronomers are analyzing images from the planet mars. The process of analyzing sattelite images from mars has been combined with simalar studies of an arctic environment  in svalbard. Svalbard is extremely warmer then Mars, the arctic landscape shows a number of striking similarities to certain parts of the planet Mars.  Both planets has a commin part of water on the surface.  Astronomers have taken images of both planets and there seems to be nothing new but what they have noticed is that svalbard turns out to be a very rocky planet.  Since mars has a cyclical climate, the conditions could change in the future.  It is important that astronomers study the images on mars because there could be signs of life on the planet Mars.  Astronomers say that the life on Mars is very possible because of all the frozen water and snow on the surface of the planet.  Research on Earth has shown that organisms can sirvive in extreme cold places with limited acces to liquid water.  Studying various areas on Mars therefore enables us to investagate  whether there could be places with conditions capable of supporting life.

A Wandering Planet

Astronomers in Hawaii with their huge telescopes have spotted something that they are guessing is another planet wondering through space. It is about ten light years away from our sloar system. Astronomers are predicting that there is a very bright star right next to it. Astronomers are now studying the atmosphere in great detail. This planet has given astronomers a preview of the exoplanets that the future that aim to image around the stars other than the sun.
Planets like this one has been found before. The wandering planet is apart of a group called AB Doradus. That group is very close to our solar system. Some planets simmalir to this one has been booted out of their home systems. This planet is 4-7 times the mass of jupiter with the temperature of 430 dergrees celsuis. The planet is about 120 to 150 billion years old. Astronomers say that the planet has a 95% of it being a rouge planet then a failed star. With this new moving planet it helps astronomers to find out the age of this newly discovered planet. Some astronomers have discovered that there are about a billion other planets like this one that are in other galaxies near our solar system.

My story

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Five Card Story: A mysterious place

a Five Card Flickr story created by jessica

flickr photo by bionicteaching

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by Intrepidteacher

flickr photo by Serenae

flickr photo by Serenae

They enter a barn and they find that the place is very mysterious inside!

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People like me and unlike me.

In Idea Hive we have to do a survey about students that are like us and that are unlike us.  we are doing it with a grade 8 class in Wingham Ontario.  We are like a combined class with them and us together.  We have to compare our interests and likes to their interests and likes and write a few sentences about it.    I found a person sort of like me and her name is Melissa M.  She has a dog and she has cats just like me.  She likes to hangout with her friends like i do and her favourite website is facebook.  Tamara W.She has dogs and cats just like i do.  She like the sport volleyball just like me.  We both brush our teeth three times a day and her favourite website is facebook just like mine is.   Amy R.  Amy has a cat just like i do, she likes to hangout with her friends just like me.  Her favourite website is facebook just like mine.  Niah T.   Her favourite part of school is gym just like mine, and she has a dog just like me.  She like to hangout with her friends just like i  like to and her favourite website is facebook just like me.     These are people that i don’t have any similarities to.  Anthony H.  His favourite TV show is South Park and mine is Much More Music, his favourite part of school is break and mine is gym.  He has no nick name and i do, he doesn’t play an instrument and i do.  He wants to be a miner and i want to be a astronomer.   Brayden C.   His favourite TV show is two and a half men and mine is Much More Music, His favourite part of school is The Idea Hive and mine is gym.  Shelby A.   Her favourite part of school is seeing her friends and mine is gym, she has no pets and i have three.  She doesn’t have a favourite video game and i do and she does not play an instrument and i do.   Jacob P.   His favourite TV show is the big bang theory and mine is Much More Music, his favourite part of school is math and mine is gym.  He has no pets and i have three, he hates spiders and i hate pinchers.

A littile Bit About Me

Hi, I’m Jessica and  I live in Snow Lake.  I came all the way from South Africa about 5 years ago.  I can speak afrikaans. I like to hang out with my friends and i like having fun.  I like to play on my laptop and watch TV.  I like to help out my parents aswell.  am in grade 7 and my teacher this year is Mr. Fisher he is really awesome! Here in snow lake we don’t wear uniforms to school and i really like that.  In South Africa you had to wear uniforms. Last summer i went home (South Africa) For a month to see my family and i had a blast.  I went to the coast and i stayed in a city called Secunda that is in Johanusburg with my family. We had to travel all over because my family lives all over the place. We travelled to South Africa and back to Canada for 2 days there and 2 days back on an airplane.  This summer i just stayed home with my parents.  we never went out of town which sucked but i had alot of fun.  I had a fun winter aswell.  I went ice fishing with my dad and i went ski-dooing.  I have 2 cats a boy and a  girl the boy’s name is Jingles and the girl’s name is tiger but when we first got her we thought she was a boy but then we found out she was acually a girl so now she has a boy name.  In grade 7 we are learning about tectonic plates which is a part of the earth.  It’s really interesting so far!  I love to help my mom bake i think that it is so much fun!  I love playing sports like gymnastics and figure skating.  My favourite colour is pink and purple and my favourite movie is Snow White And The Huntsman.