This week we were very lucky to Skype call Ben Montet a Canadian astronomer based in Australia.
He told us all about what an astronomer does and that he specializes in finding out about new planets. The boys asked him lots of super questions and Ben kindly and patiently answered all of them!
Here are some things we found out:
Jupitar is 1000 times bigger than earth. It would take you 6 years to get to Jupitar on the fastest rocket.
Astronomers have sent probes to find out why Saturn has rings around it. They are not exactly sure why it has rings around it but it more than likely is caused by pieces of moon falling into orbit and joined onto the area around the planet.
The sun is really hot, 10 million degrees in fact! The inner part of the sun is the hottest part of the whole solar system.
The solar system is almost 5 billion years old.
If you flew straight up for 100 km, you would be in space.
Asteroids come in different sizes but are generally about the size of a car.
We have 24 hours on earth with a day and night because it is constantly rotating. Jupitar is the fastest spinning. One day on Jupiter is 10 hours long.
Venus, on the other hand, rotates at a much slower pace. A day on Venus is 8 months long! So, for example, day time is four months long and night time is another 4 months!
Anytime you see a shooting star- that’s an asteroid.
An asteroid about the size of Dublin hit Mexico. It can still be seen under the ocean.
Star’s are not twinkling they are just sitting there. Wind on earth, pollution, smog, water, cloud, oxygen, carbon dioxide, e.t.c changes the way the light from the star looks.
Astronomers are not sure exactly what is inside the black hole. It’s really difficult to see inside it. Also, anyone that would go into the black whole would be stretched in a process called spaghettification!
The solar system is 5 billion years old. It took 100 million years to form the moon which was formed by a collision that took place about 100-200 million years ago.
There are about 10 billion galaxies.
This is a picture of Jupitar.
About Nicola Lavelle