fandomhigh | Astronomy 101: Moons and Planets

Week 7 -- October 18: Jupiter, king of the planets

Syllabus | Class Roster

Handouts:
Starmaps: North | South | East | West | Overhead

Today's music? Holst's Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.

"Good afternoon," Ellie greeted the class. "I hope those of you who went enjoyed Ms. Frizzle's trip. I certainly did. Today we're going to talk about Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest within the solar system. It is usually the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus); however at times Mars appears brighter than Jupiter.

"Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all the other planets combined; it is 318 times more massive than Earth, with a diameter 11 times that of Earth, and a volume 1300 times that of Earth. Quite naturally, Jupiter's gravitational influence has dominated the evolution of the solar system. Some describe Jupiter as the solar system's vacuum cleaner, due to its immense gravity well.

"Jupiter also has the fastest rotation rate of any planet within the solar system, making a complete rotation on its axis in slightly less than ten hours, which results in an equatorial bulge easily seen through an Earth-based amateur telescope. Jupiter is perpetually covered with a layer of clouds, composed of ammonia crystals and possibly ammonium hydrosulphide, and it may not have any solid surface in that the density may simply increase gradually as you move towards the core. Its best known feature is the Great Red Spot, a storm larger than Earth which was likely first observed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini and Robert Hooke four centuries ago. Indeed, mathematical models suggest that the storm is stable and may be a permanent feature of the planet.

"The planet Jupiter has been known since ancient times and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. The Romans named the planet after the Roman god Jupiter (also called Jove). The astronomical symbol for the planet is a stylized representation of the god's lightning bolt."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Sure," Marie said. "Jamie and I are going to the movie in the park tonight, but that's not until later."

"Cool. I've got a couple notes already..."

After the lecture, Parker pulled out her project notes, and passed them over. "So, what's playing in the park?"

The notes had the following names:
Aeryn Sun
Stark
Zhaan?
Luke Skywalker (?)
- Cally, Anders, D'anna
River Tam
Agnes Nitt
Naomi Wildman

"It's an old movie, Roman Holiday," Marie told her. "I've never seen it, but the idea of watching a movie in the park is nice."

She glanced over the list that Parker gave her. "Kaylee is from the same place as River," she said. "And if we want to include teachers, we could ask Lorne."

"Oh, thanks. And you're right, although, I'm not sure if he's from another planet or another dimension-- I could ask him, though." She made a face. "If we're going to include teachers, there's the Ethics guy but yeeeee, no."

Marie rolled her eyes. "He gives Jamie detention every single week. Maybe we could send an email and ask if people are willing to participate," she suggested. "That way if there's someone neither of us know, we won't miss out."

"Good idea. Just put the questionaire in the email, do you think? That way they don't have to track us down to get the answers back to us?" Parker suggested, making another quick note. "And every week? I know Jamie can get on people's nerves sometimes, but that seems excessive. He can't be a very good teacher if Jamie trying to piss him off that badly."

"Oh, yeah, that would work," Marie nodded. "Should we set up a separate email address that we can both check for this? We can use one of those free email sites."

She sighed. "Yeah, every week. He's been serving on the Beautification Committee in lieu of it some weeks. He claims he's just trying to make the guy feel more welcome or something..." She trailed off, leaving Parker to draw her own conclusions on that.

"Good idea. MarieandParker@yahoo.com, maybe?" Parker shook her head. "Yay Beautification Committee, but wow. Talk about a personality conflict. Which knowing what I do, I have to believe is on Vader's side mostly, but I don't know whether to admire or facepalm at your boyfriend for continuing to get on his nerves. Does he *like* collecting the trash?"

Marie shrugged. "Jamie is..." she paused for a long moment, looking for the right word. "Jamie," she finally said. "I don't get a lot of what he does, but I know that underneath it all, he's got an amazing heart."

Which stabs at Parker unexpectedly, enough that she turns away, frowning at the paper, trying to re-focus on the project. It sounded like something she'd say about Jarod less than a month ago. "That's... cool. Do you want to do the graphs, or write the report? I'm fine with either."

Marie sensed that she'd said something wrong, but she had no idea what. "Um, I'm not great with graphs, so I'd rather write the report. Do you want to set up the email address?"

Equilibrium restored, Parker nodded, and said, "I'll send you a copy of the questionaire before I send it out to everyone, in case I forget something, but most of it should be what we came up with last week. I'll do the graphs before you write the report, so you have something extra to comment on. Nice thing about visuals is it gives you more ideas." She was quiet a second, then said, "Roman Holiday is a good movie. Princess on the run. You'll like it."

"Great," Marie grinned. "I think this is going to be a lot of fun."

Parker's return smile is small but real. "So do I. I'll send you an email from the new address, with the password, tonight. Thanks."

Astronomy 101: Moons and Planets - Class 7

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

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Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes

Re: Discuss, talk amongst yourselves, pass notes