Nah, not me, at least. The worst potential thing I would ever do to you would be to make you a peanut butter sandwich and forget to leave off the jelly. ;-]
I saw Mars tonight!!! I looked to the south and it was easily the brightest celestial body in sight. It was so incredibly neat. Its glow had a faint orange hue to it. I laid down in my backyard and just stayed there staring at the sky for the longest time. It was wonderful. I wish I had a telescope (I've actually wanted one all my life), or at least a decent set of binoculars.
But I have a (non-Mars related) question that maybe you can answer...
Why do some stars appear to be twinkling? Actually, a whole heck of a lot of them do. It looks like they're 'blinking' or 'twinkling' with light, you know what I mean. It's so cool, but what makes that happen? I think we covered something like this once in one of my science classes, but if we did, I've forgotten. I figured perhaps you would know.
Also! I have one more question you might know the answer to...
It might be a stupid question, but why do the stars shine? I mean, how can we see them at all? What is making them so bright that we can see them all (or at least a lot of them)?
Yes, my mind was wandering tonight as I was gazing up at the sky. It's just so big and beautiful, and makes me wonder about so many things. Since I'm not as knowledgeable in the field as you, I figured I would ask. :-]
Stars twinkle cause their light has to pass through our atmosphere. All the air is very turbulent, as evidenced by the fact that we have weather. The winds of all different temperatures blowing around up there, disturbing the light.
And we can see the stars, even though they are terribly far away, simply because they are very big, bright, hot, or all of the above. However, all the stars we see are within a small patch of our galaxy, and we don't actually see as many as we want to say we do. You can actually count them, if you have the patience.
Stars twinkle cause their light has to pass through our atmosphere. All the air is very turbulent, as evidenced by the fact that we have weather. The winds of all different temperatures blowing around up there, disturbing the light.
Interesting! Very cool. Mars wasn't twinkling at all last night when I was watching it (even though other stars close to it were), does that mean that the air in the part of our atmosphere between me and Mars wasn't very turbulent?
And we can see the stars, even though they are terribly far away, simply because they are very big, bright, hot, or all of the above.
So if a star is hot enough, it gives off light? That seems weird to think of, but then again, maybe not so much, given that they're probably thousands (maybe even millions) of times hotter than most things. I'm thinking of how the coils on a stove will light up bright red when you heat them (I don't know if that is a good analogy or not, but I think that's probably sort of what it's like). So yeah, it makes sense to me.
You can actually count them, if you have the patience.
I actually started to do that last night, because there were just so many of them and I was curious, but I gave up. That would certainly be a fun nighttime activity, though - count the stars! You could even have a star counting party. That would be such fun.
I think it's because Mars was so big. Such a big dot that you don't notice the small variations, maybe?
And yeah, hot stars give off more light. I could go into a big nerdy technical description, but basically stars "burn" gasses (hydrogen 99% of the time) and that's what makes them stars. Our sun, for example, is 15 million Kelvin on the surface.
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Date: 2003-08-27 11:18 pm (UTC)From:I saw Mars tonight!!! I looked to the south and it was easily the brightest celestial body in sight. It was so incredibly neat. Its glow had a faint orange hue to it. I laid down in my backyard and just stayed there staring at the sky for the longest time. It was wonderful. I wish I had a telescope (I've actually wanted one all my life), or at least a decent set of binoculars.
But I have a (non-Mars related) question that maybe you can answer...
Why do some stars appear to be twinkling? Actually, a whole heck of a lot of them do. It looks like they're 'blinking' or 'twinkling' with light, you know what I mean. It's so cool, but what makes that happen? I think we covered something like this once in one of my science classes, but if we did, I've forgotten. I figured perhaps you would know.
Also! I have one more question you might know the answer to...
It might be a stupid question, but why do the stars shine? I mean, how can we see them at all? What is making them so bright that we can see them all (or at least a lot of them)?
Yes, my mind was wandering tonight as I was gazing up at the sky. It's just so big and beautiful, and makes me wonder about so many things. Since I'm not as knowledgeable in the field as you, I figured I would ask. :-]
JELLY?? YOU FIEND!!!
Date: 2003-08-28 09:55 pm (UTC)From:And we can see the stars, even though they are terribly far away, simply because they are very big, bright, hot, or all of the above. However, all the stars we see are within a small patch of our galaxy, and we don't actually see as many as we want to say we do. You can actually count them, if you have the patience.
*flings jelly at you with a spoon* Heehee.
Date: 2003-08-28 10:48 pm (UTC)From:Interesting! Very cool.
Mars wasn't twinkling at all last night when I was watching it (even though other stars close to it were), does that mean that the air in the part of our atmosphere between me and Mars wasn't very turbulent?
And we can see the stars, even though they are terribly far away, simply because they are very big, bright, hot, or all of the above.
So if a star is hot enough, it gives off light? That seems weird to think of, but then again, maybe not so much, given that they're probably thousands (maybe even millions) of times hotter than most things. I'm thinking of how the coils on a stove will light up bright red when you heat them (I don't know if that is a good analogy or not, but I think that's probably sort of what it's like). So yeah, it makes sense to me.
You can actually count them, if you have the patience.
I actually started to do that last night, because there were just so many of them and I was curious, but I gave up. That would certainly be a fun nighttime activity, though - count the stars! You could even have a star counting party. That would be such fun.
EEEK! JELLY! *cries*
Date: 2003-08-29 02:05 pm (UTC)From:And yeah, hot stars give off more light. I could go into a big nerdy technical description, but basically stars "burn" gasses (hydrogen 99% of the time) and that's what makes them stars. Our sun, for example, is 15 million Kelvin on the surface.
Re: EEEK! JELLY! *cries*
Date: 2003-08-29 02:13 pm (UTC)From:Thanks for providing answers and entertainment to an inquisitive kid.
*makes you a plain peanut butter sandwich as a thank-you*