SnitchSeeker.com - View Single Post - Astronomy Lesson 1 :: Cosmic Collisions

sweetpinkpixie · 09-10-2015, 05:02 PM

SPOILER!!: ABBY!

Pursing his lips and furrowing his brow, the professor looked over at Pebbles and gave a small shrug. Maybe she just needed to dig a little deeper? “How do you see water having a connection to rocks, Lieutenant commander Valentine?”

SPOILER!!: AUSTIN!

“Yes, very good, Lieutenant Moore,” he saluted the Ravenclaw, trying hard not to get TOO excited or else he would start propelling himself upwards and have to swim back down to continue the lecture. Although he was BOUND to forget about this at some point...seeing how easily excitable it was. “In fact, it is the study of rocks brought back from the Moon that have a tiny excess of a heavier variant of the element zinc to help support this claim.”

SO DOUBLE IMPORTANCE OF ROCKS!

Or something.

SPOILER!!: ADI!

Hufflepuffs were very good finders, but that little stereotype did not take away from the astronomer’s amusement and mild admeration for the seventh year’s dedication to finding a pair of fake eyebrows. He could only imagine how many joke and costume shops he must have gone to in search.

Like himself and his Admiral costume.

OH YES THAT! YES. THAT WAS SOMETHING HE WAS GOING TO TOUCH UPON HERE IN JUST A MOMENT AND THEREFORE WAS FLAPPING HIS ARMS EXCITEDLY.

And the disturbance of the air surrounding him by said failing was making him rise into the air. Oops. Going into a bit of what could only be perceived as a slow motion spin, the man found himself struggling to get himself back into an acceptable teaching position. Now hovering upside down a few feet above the class, he was finally able to focus enough to nod his head and give the Hufflepuff two thumbs up.

Yup. Carry on.

SPOILER!!: OLIVER!

OH OH OH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

About that trying to get into an acceptable teaching position? Yeah, out the window.

More excited flailing occurred, including some excited pointing towards the Slytherin as he quite literally floated past the young man’s head and nearly knocked foreheads with him. “HOLE IN THE GROUND! YES...BUT WE HAVE A BETTER WORD FOR THA--”

SPOILER!!: HENRIC!

But there would be no finishing of that sentence as the Astronomy professor had flailed himself over towards the wall. Well, this was actually rather advantageous considering circumstances. Pushing off on the wall, he sailed by the Hufflepuff as he said, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say the same time.”

This wasn’t something to compare to the chicken and the egg, after all. We all knew which came first, the rock or the planet.

And neither had to cross any street to get to the other side.

SPOILER!!: DORA!

“To make you look even more sophisticated and distinguished as an active member of a team,” he said with a grin as he flapped one arm to turn himself back to a standing position in the air. Would just need to wiggle his other one every now and then to keep the balance until he found equilibrium. “If you want the full Starfleet history of them, you are welcome to stop by my office.”

Because one he started talking Star Trek...it was unlikely he would stop. And he could say with 100% certainty that the Ministry would not include questions about Star Trek on OWL and NEWTs.

“FOSSILS!” he exclaimed, this time keeping his arms at bay. “A key concept. Yes.”

Just with a slight twist to the usual image the term fossil brought to mind.

SPOILER!!: YOONGI

Right...well...while the Gryffindor dealt with that crisis….

OH! THAT WAS INTERSTING!

“We are all rocks,” he repeated, testing the expression out himself and wetting his lips as if to taste the way it felt. “That is...absolutely BRILLIANT! Well put, Commander Hyland!” He clapped his hands together loudly, which caused him to lose his center of gravity again and start his slow spin once more. Had everyone been paying attention? The Gryffindor had made a very VERY keen observation just now. “The calcium found in rocks and that makes up 3.63% of the Earth’s crust, is the same calcium we find in our teeth. The iron in our blood is the same iron that makes up 5% of the Earth’s crust…”He could go on and on but he would spare the class for now “...all these elements were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are all made of stars. You, me, Pebbles. Absolutely STELLAR observation. Take 3 points.”

And he simply could NOT not flap his arms excitedly about this. This was the downfall of an pseudo antigravity classroom, no desk jumping.

Alas.

SPOILER!!: AVA!

Still in a big of a slow spin from applauding Commander Hyland, he ALMOST missed the raised hand of Ensign Burton. But he did not. Thank Merlin.

“Not all the planets, but a good observation nonetheless.”

SPOILER!!: HADY!

Floating a bit, Airey reached out for the nearest desk to assist him in his quest to cease spinning. “Oops, sorry about that, Lieutenant Lynch. Thank you for the use of your desk,” he said with a boyish nod. “Lovely penmanship.”

SPOILER!!: PHILLIP!

Alright. He was going to hold on to Lieutenant Lynch’s desk just for another moment or two so he could dramatically point at the first year. “YES!” he nodded, turning his excited finger towards Ensign Dora and then back again.

SPOILER!!: JET

Giving Lieutenant Lynch another boyish grin as he FINALLY let go of her desk, he nodding approvingly at the fifth year. “Yes, very good.”

SPOILER!!: CANDICE!

“Four if you count ourselves,” he chuckled. Clearly, he found himself amusing. Excuse him.

And don’t you dare through a pet rock ANYWHERE! And also be thankful the astronomer was not a Legilimens. Ahem.

SPOILER!!: COLT!

Airey nodded at Ensign Winchester, a tinge of guilt tugging at his scientific heartstrings that the boy was asking about a field of study that he was not too familiar with. “In a sense, yes, but not ALL rocks. That sort of research has to do with absolute ages and relative ages. Planetary geology and planetary geomorphology are not my area of expertise, but I can connect you with one of my colleagues if you have an interest.”

SPOILER!!: FREYA

Quote:

Originally Posted by VRSCIKA

Professor Flamesteed's classes always proved interesting, that was for certain. First off, there was the fact that their classroom floor looked like a giant sandbox. Upon seeing that , she seriously thought she had just wasted her time using the professor's little brush thingy. Secondly, she had no idea why they had needed to float up to their desks. She had to admit that it was fun and she float/swam up to her bestie , but she still didn't know the purpose....hopefully there was one. Thirdly....she took one of the little badge things but had no idea what they meant or were for. She had chosen the one with two dots and the third looking as though it had been only half there and pinned it to the front of her clothes. It was different from all of the others, hopefully it didn't volunteer her for anything during class.....

Looking around, she noticed that some people added titles before their name and year. What the purpose of this was, or if it was permissible....she really had no idea. Did it have to do with their badge things? Was this another one of those muggle things that eluded her? Oh for Circe's sake....Henric had done it too. She flipped her plain name tag around on her desk in mild aggravation. Freya Ilia Valke, 5th year Slytherin was all that it said and all that it would say unless the professor 'Admiral' did something with it, because she was effectively lost. It was like a joke that almost everyone got besides her......

When greetings were made she heard the professor speaking in some language with which she was unfamiliar along with his hand symbol. She ad learned to do that when greeting the professor, but the meaning behind it other than an odd greeting was utterly lost on the fifteen year old.

His introduction made her internally sigh. Now she was to call him Admiral all the time in class? They were on a 'star ship'? She was having words with Henric after all of this was over......

Okay it was finally time for something that she understood! Yes questions, she could handle that. "Without rocks, we might not have a class." In more ways than one. "Most of the heavenly bodies that are studied in Astronomy such as Meteors, Comets, Asteroids, and even some of the Planets themselves are comprised ,at least partially, of rocks. "

Chuckling, he nodded his head at the young lady - who seemed to be recovering quite well from her ordeal last term, if he did say so himself. “I’ll take you one further,” he mused. “Without rocks, we may not be here at all. Take 1 point.” For amusing him mostly with such blunt wording.

SPOILER!!: DANTE

Airey was not going to try and swim over to see if he could compliment the Slytherin’s handwriting...but if his penmanship was anything like his puns...well...there would be no compliments.

Even if the Admiral enjoyed them.

SPOILER!!: CINNA

“You could say that,” he chuckled. “One giant space rock with several key bells and whistles.”

SPOILER!!: AJ!

Panic washing over the man’s face, he was back to full scale flailing and trying to cover up Pebbles’ ears. Thankfully this time, his legs had joined in his awkward little air dance and compensated for the movement...so he essentially stayed put. With his palms pressed firmly against either side of the rock.

“SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” he hissed. DON’T BRING IT UP!

SPOILER!!: ANGEL!

Plants? Surely the fifth year had meant to say planEts. Although, if they were going back to the notion of everything being made from stars….or, never mind. It was all too philosophical for him to deal with at the moment.

“Yes,” he said cautiously. “Good.”

SPOILER!!: ROONEY!

Airey, still holding his hands firmly against the rock, smiled at the Ravenclaw. How incredibly thoughtful - and the answer WOULD have been STELLAR had she not just been forced down the dark spiral that was memory lane.

He held the rock up towards Ensign Bronwyn to let her answer while he moved on to the next raised hand.

SPOILER!!: DAVIE!

“STELLAR reference, Ensign Truebridge,” he applauded, his voice cracking eeeeeeever so slightly on the last name. For reasons. Ahem. Anyway…. “Panspermia, as the theory is known as, is often times overshadowed by its destructive counterpart - the one that many of you have referred to, the impact theory. But evidence supporting the notion that the very building blocks of life on earth have come from comet impacts continues to surface to this day. Back in August 2015, scientists showed evidence that early comet impacts influenced amino acids to change into peptides. Stellar, take 3 points.”

And yes indeed Newton’s First Law of Motion was sometimes referred to as the Law of Inertia. A pity the young man had not brought it up. Inertia was a fun word to say and rolled off the tongue rather pleasantly.

SPOILER!!: NORAH!

She had him...until the ISH. The ISH was an answer breaker, but he still nodded his head and smiled at the Hufflepuff.

And was Pebbles finished telling Mr. Bronwyn how she was? He would just hold her in the young man’s general direction a little bit longer.

SPOILER!!: BLAISE!

“Cross what out?” he asked, eyes squinting towards the young man. He couldn’t float closer to him since Pebbles was apparently not done and her voice did not carry very far.

He needed to remind himself that first year though in this way. Big dreams and big ambitions and unique out of the box perspectives. Just don’t crush this one, alright? He did not have the tact for letting people down gently. Just ask Alexa Cambridge about her dead star her first year under the astronomer wing. And the man didn’t do honorary titles - you either were or you weren’t.

“While I am sure others will acknowledge your captain-ship on the first year boats, in my classroom there are different guidelines and standards necessary for that title. As capable as you may be for boats across the Black Lake, you are not quite there yet in here.”

That was...delicate enough...right?

RIGHT?!

Being too concerned with out the first year would handle this let down...he kind of sort of missed the rest of his answer. But there was something about surfing...

SPOILER!!: PAULINA!

Crossing the fingers in his mind for NO tears - not that the man was superstitious enough to believe that sort of thing really worked - he was pleased to have the distraction of another raised hand.

“Yes yes. Good Good.”

SPOILER!!: JANELLE!

OH? He was not familiar with this show. But what a clever name! It surely must have been an incredibly educational program.

“Very good,” he nodded. “And I will add that to my watch list.” He wondering if his frequent muggle hobby shop had that in stock….”

SPOILER!!: MARISOL!

Nodding his head, he offered the Slytherin an encouraging smile. “Yes, thank you.” As disjointed an answer as it may have been.

SPOILER!!: CHLOE!

Oh? Did this first year want some face time with Pebbles? He was sort of getting that vibe from her and seeing that the rock was done describing her mood, he slowly turned his arm so she could look at the Ravenclaw.

There. Face time acquired. Now where was the next raised hand?

SPOILER!!: NOELLE!

“You pose a VERY interesting inquiry, Ensign Summers. One that has plagued astronomers for YEARS. Just what IS the universe made of? Rocks fall into a category called baryonic matter and astronomers have been able to, thanks to the lingering radiation left over from the Big Bang, been able to measure the density and composition of the universe. This baryonic matter of which rocks belongs to, makes up ONLY 4.6% of the universe. 4.6%!”

But the truth of the matter was...humankind may never truly know the answer to just what the universe is made of. It may always be beyond our reach. FASCINATING!

SPOILER!!: KATE!

“Perhaps it is the oceans that have you thinking the Earth isn’t very rocky?” he asked. It was what happened when one only looked at the surface level of things. Things like Hogwarts houses.

SPOILER!!: KYROH!

…………...what?

Entirely unsure of what he had just listened to, Airey nonetheless found it INCREDIBLY amusing when he probably shouldn’t have and began to laugh. Perhaps a little too loudly. Oh sweet solstice, leave it to a Ravenclaw to come up with that one. Just one thing wrong with the story…

“Bodies would not float in the atmosphere,” he said after catching his breath. “Not naturally, at least. Like how we are up here thanks to magic. Bodies in the atmosphere would…” Actually...no, he was just going to stop there. “Thank you for that little display of humor. Take 1 point.”

Aaaaaaaaaand moving on.

SPOILER!!: CALEB!

“Mmmhmm. That is the general gist of things,” he nodded. Perhaps a bit too general.

SPOILER!!: DOT!

Polka dots.

….

“I wonder what Starfleet would think of your interpretation of their pips,” he wondered out loud. Sweet solstice. He could only imagine some of their faces. “Just please, for next lesson, follow instructions.” He could hardly blame her for wanting to wear so many, however. Official Star Trek pips were quite valuable among collectors these days.

“Yes. Excellent.”

In relation to her answer. Not the polka dot confused pips.

SPOILER!!: KAYCEE!

“They certainly are,” he chuckled.

SPOILER!!: HEATHER!

“Right. Xantho…..poulos…” he repeated. He would even go back to his office to practice. Only he would probably forget by the time he got back to his office that he had told himself he would. Maybe he should just stick to calling her by her first name like he did with some others. Heather was a safe name.

Still repeating her name in his head, he only offered her a distracted ‘mmmmmhmmm’ in response to her answer.

SPOILER!!: ELLERY!

Pause.

Stare.

Pause some more.

Stare.

BURST INTO A FIT OF LAUGHTER.

“Take a point for the joke.”

Although now he had some imagery with asteroid belts tied in with Lieutenant commander Scabior’s answer and the astronomer gave an involuntary shudder.

SPOILER!!: TIMMY!

“Yes, very good. Although they are not limited to just our solar system,” he nodded. Just to make sure that the Gryffindor, and the rest of the class, were not only thinking on an immediate scale.

Although he had set them up to do so. Good going, Flamsteed.

SPOILER!!: ZANDER!

His blue eyes glanced over the Head Boy and the astronomer offered a small nod before moving on to the next raised hand.

SPOILER!!: SOPHIE!

Quote:

Originally Posted by feeheeheeny

Rocks... and their links to the field of astronomy and the planet as a whole. Was the whole class going to be about rocks? Was THAT why Pebbles was here, and MORE pet rocks were going to be offered up for adoption? A class... about... rocks.

Well, could've been worse. Somehow. Probably.

Soph kicked back (not literally) and let everyone else respond because they seemed to be super excited to offer up their answers. By the time most of her classmates got their turn, there wasn't a WHOLE lot left to say, at least about rocks in GENERAL... but eventually, Soph's hand raised anyway because she knew better than to stay too silent in Airey's class. He always gave her that LOOK like, Come on, Sophie Brown, quit holding out on me.

"Uhhh, so... rocks have an important link to astronomy 'cause... well, okay, first 'n foremost, I'm sure this is NOT where you're goin' with this question, but I'm gonna go my own way - so the kinda rocks we'd be talking about on planetary bodies are made up of silicates, right? Which are rock-forming minerals made up of oxygen and SILICON," hence the name, for those young'uns who didn't know, "'n this is important 'cause there's hardly ANY rock in our whole Solar System when y'think about it 'cause there's WAY more hydrogen atoms than silicon atoms in the whole Solar System, like 20,000 hydrogen atoms to ONE silicon atom or somethin' wild, so rock is gonna be pretty scarce compared to the hydrogen that makes up a lot of the Jovial planets. BUT," because she was going somewhere with this, "rock DOES make up the majority of the inner terrestrial planets 'cause..." briefly distracted by Zander's face and his ridiculous smile next to her rahhhh, "'cause... the more 'bundant materials in the Solar System like hydrogen, methane, 'n..." there was another one in particular, ammonia, she couldn't quite get off the top of her tongue, "... 'n they can't condense to hang out with the rock 'cause of the Sun's HEAT on the inner planets - they're HOTTER since they're closer to the Sun so it's harder for those planets' bodies to hold onto those lighter elements, y'know?" DID HE KNOW? WAS SHE MAKING ANY SENSE? "So since the lighter materials can't cling onto the inner planets' atmosphere, but silicon 'n oxygen CAN, they'll condense 'n form the silicates that makes the rock of our inner planets." Or something. "But there IS rock at the core of the outer planets, too, s'just not a lot, whereas rock DOES dominate in the inner planets 'cause of... thermal energy 'n..." stuff, "yeah." Better than stuff. "Important 'cause we NEED 'em."

Got a little carried away there, but she was done.

Which was oh so conveniently right next door.

And Airey just simply pointed towards the Head Girl and looked to the rest of the class. “I hope you were all taking notes. Brilliant, Miss Brown. Take 3 points.”

SPOILER!!: DAXTON!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

If he heard 'Live Long and Prosper' just one more time, Daxton was sure he was going to go completely insane. He hadn't returned the weird salute thing, and had simply nodded his head instead.

As the classroom filled up, the volume started to creep higher and higher. Daxton frowned slightly and looked around at his classmates. It was a strange thing about crowds, there was noise coming from everywhere, but you could never quite pinpoint where the bulk of it, or the loudest contributor, was speaking from. Well. Generally speaking. They were in a class with Charlotte Kettleburn and her band of merry Gryffindors, so doubtless most of the noise was coming from them.

Daxton was just trailing down that line of thought, and wondering about the volume levels in the Gryffindor Common Room, when Airey Flamsteed happened.

Yelling.

Hadn't David Truebridge mentioned the man was Head of Gryffindor House?

Yeah. Believing it now.

Daxton hurriedly clamped his hands over his ears as the yelling started, but thankfully it seemed like it would not continue. Unsure, the Ravenclaw uncovered his ears again, eyeing Airey Flamsteed suspiciously, just waiting for that next yell to sound. But it seemed as they were getting right into the topic matter, and so Daxton listened.

... The man named his rock, and was offering more for... adoption. Well... somehow, Daxton found himself completely unsurprised. He eyed both man and rock appraisingly, both in their ridiculous attire (was it called 'attire' if you were talking about a rock? or just... craft supplies?), while Airey Flamsteed spoke and asked the first question. Daxton had no intentions of answering out loud, but he had his pen and parchment ready, and was quite willing to record his own thoughts. It was also handy, because if he was wrong, nobody else would need to know.

He wrote extra small, too, in case anyone thought about being nosy.

SPOILER!!: Notes

Would it be awful for the man to admit he missed the laptop? Something about the first year typing out his words reminded him of the infamous Stephen Hawking and quill and parchment just did not have the same esteem that muggle electronics had.

Pity magic was the way it was. Alas.

SPOILER!!: ZEKE!

Not...the sort of response he had come to expect from the Gryffindor and Airey would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed. But he tried to keep a neutral face as he...kind of sort of just glazed over that response and quickly moved on to the next student.

SPOILER!!: STEFAN!

Who was remaining silent it seemed. No harm no foul there. Thank you for your attentive listening.

SPOILER!!: OWEN!

“Yes, good,” he nodded in a bit of a half daze while glancing down at his sundial watch. Needed to move along here soon.

SPOILER!!: BRIAN!

“THEY DO INDEED!” he cheered. 100 points to Hufflepuff? Was that a bit too dramatic? It was also a personal opinion and he supposed he should not impose his pet preferences on others. So...no 100 points to Hufflepuff. Boo. “I DO suggest you all go look for Quill articles from last term. I am sure there are some in the library if you ask. Brilliant little piece about pets and familiars you all ought to read.”

And he was too distracted now to process what he was sure was an excellent answer, so he nodded and gave the boy a thumbs up.

SPOILER!!: CHAR!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

"We don't?" Charlotte asked in genuine astonishment. Really? She usually got the things she wanted eventually, and if she didn't then she was PRETTY SURE it was because she stopped wanting them, and not because she couldn't have them. But oh now she was TORN because Davie seemed happy enough about being a sign, and Char wanted to be what Davie was, so she had to be one TOO. DILEMMA. She WAS wearing the pip though. She didn't think they looked like any pips she had ever seen, however. Probably they were vegetable pips. That would explain why she hadn't seen them, because she avoided eating her vegetables or LOOKING at the vegetables that she had to eat, if she could help it.

Aaaaaaand all this redshirt stuff went over her head. Totally. "Oh, its a muggle thing, okay." Nod. That was explanation enough. Muggle meant weird, and also almost entirely outside of her realm of experience, and also usually pretty easily dismissed. ESPECIALLY if it was super OLD muggle things. That was even before her MUM was born! Even before DAVIE's mum! AND probably both their dad's combined! ~~so old~~. "Don't worry, I won't die. My mum warned me about people dying here, and I won't do it." She said this last part to be reassuring okay? It was COOL. She was PREPARED.

And she was FLOATING and enjoying it. Also she WAS wearing a skirt, but since she had stockings on underneath, it was okay.

Charlotte commenced making puzzled faces at her head of house though. Because okay, who would confuse NOMY and LOGY? Dumb people, that was who. Also what did he mean about pseudoscientific hokum? Astrology was magic, not science.

Probably he didn't have the inner eye. That was okay though, she didn't either. At least probably not. She was pretty sure. Her mum was a seer after all, so if she DID have the inner eye she would know by now maybe.

This was irregular? Char looked around. Okay so she didn't get to float in what was prooooobably an anti-gravity mist very often, but it didn't seem THAT weird to her.

She was FAR too busy a) puzzling over adopting rocks, and b) internally gushing over how SMART her best friend's answer was to properly volunteer one of her own (She gave him a very enthusiastic thumbs up). Besides, most people were saying stuff and Char already knew some of it and was bored by the rest.

Instead she started doodling costumes on a piece of parchment.

... pet rock costumes. Pebbles would look stunning in a cape.

He wasn’t sure if she was expecting a genuine answer or not...but to avoid any possible dream crushing and waterworks...he was going to avoid doing just that.

“That is certainly reassuring,” he said, perhaps with a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit of sarcasm to his tone. But it wasn’t noticeable. Except maybe to Pebbles.

SPOILER!!: REA!

He imagined Captain Penrose had stellar handwriting. He seemed to recall it being pleasant to the eye.

Oh right. Lesson. Yes. Anymore hands?

SPOILER!!: NOEL!

Nope? No more hands? His blue fell on Commander Wallace and lingered there for an uncomfortable second too long.

SPOILER!!: MILO!

OH WAIT THERE WAS A HAND!

“STELLAR!” he said with some dramatic pointing.

SPOILER!!: BENTLEY!

Mango….had he ever savored a mango? He was ALMOST positive he had had dried mango once…

Trying to keep his GASP at the mention of throwing rocks at bay - and not doing so well, but he did get over it because skipping stones was a pastime he did enjoy and was, well, technically throwing rocks after all - he simply nodded his head with a small smile. No connection to….astronomy there...but now he was stuck thinking about mangos…
Mangoes…

Oh hello class, what?

He looked down at his sundial watch. Oh yes. TIME TO MOVE ON!

“You all raised stellar points,” he applauded the class, literally. Just his hand was sort of smacking up against Pebbles as he did so. “Each as valid as the last, but today I want to focus specifically on the aspects presented by your classmates referring to cosmic collisions and planetary geology. Just the basics.” He paused to clear his throat and tuck his legs up underneath him so he was sitting crisscross applesauce in the air.

Just call him Professor Broda. Only no, don’t. He much preferred the sound of Admiral Flamsteed.

“As was brought up in our discussion, some 6.5 million years ago approximately three quarters of all life on Earth became extinct - an instance in our Earth’s history that many refer to as ‘the extinction of the dinosaurs.’” Just to put it all in layman's terms. “This extinction marks the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Paleogene period and geologists and planetary geologists refer to this geological instant as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary or K–Pg boundary for short. This geological instance has been under great scientific scrutiny for centuries, with rocks and fossils dating back to that period being carefully examined by specialists.”

This was all just basic background necessary for the punch line of the...er...non-joke-lecture.

“Now, rocks dating back to this period all indicate some sort of global catastrophe, but the most telling clue found in these rocks is a layer of grayish clay found in K-T boundary era rocks. All of them. When this clay layer was inspected, unusually high concentrations off an element called iridium were found. This element is EXTREMELY rare in rocks from the earth’s surface and with the concentration rate found...the only plausible solution was that it came from elsewhere. Thus, a large meteorite impact DID occur - along with other supporting evidence. But all this...everything...just from examining ROCKS!”

So who wanted a pet rock now? Never know. Some of them could be extraterrestrial.

“Now, the location of this cosmic impact is believed to be near Chicxulub in Mexico, and the way this has been determined is...surprise surprise...but examining rocks. The Chicxulub crater, caused by an asteroid impact, and the K–Pg boundary coincide precisely, but some will still argue that other craters on our planet are THE one.” He paused for a moment as her, er, sort of went all over the place here...but it was ALL important. “Our focus today will be on craters, but before we get to that I would like us to brush up on some basic terminology,” he said as he waved his wand towards the board to make three words appear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by blackboard

asteroid
meteoroids
meteors
meteorites

“Who would care to give me the definition of ONE of these?” he inquired of the class. “Or rather than a definition a little factoid will do as well.”

OOC: thank you all for your patience <3 Class will resume approximately 18 hours from the time of this post.

09-10-2015, 05:02 PM	#96 (permalink)
sweetpinkpixie Wizarding World RPG Admin Minister for Magic Alley Proprietor Romanian Longhorn Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: The Paths Posts: 39,976 Hogwarts RPG Name: Briallen Ashburry-Hawthorne Gryffindor First Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Nyle Harden Hufflepuff Second Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Iris Harden Ravenclaw Second Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Calliope Barrington Slytherin First Year Hogwarts RPG Name: Diamond Marchbanks Gryffindor Sixth Year Ministry Department Head: Charles Hollingberry Minister's Office Ministry Department Head: Airey Flamsteed Mysteries Diagon Alley Proprietor: Zachaël Lufkin Owl Post x12 x12	astronomizzle ♧ gryffinDORK \| & the rest is drag ♣ #badluckDerf SPOILER!!: ABBY! Quote: Originally Posted by Saz Hale Abby was embrassed that she got the title wrong but still early in term she would get it right and thought about something to do with Astronomy and raised her hand and said "Would water be one of those links that are part of our history of our planet" Abby wasn't sure but it was worth a guess in all honesty Pursing his lips and furrowing his brow, the professor looked over at Pebbles and gave a small shrug. Maybe she just needed to dig a little deeper? “How do you see water having a connection to rocks, Lieutenant commander Valentine?” SPOILER!!: AUSTIN! Quote: Originally Posted by keepmeclose22 Austin raised looked fondly at Pebbles. Adopting a rock sounded really cool, and it would probably be easier to take care of than an owl. It wasn't that he didn't like Athena, and she would probably get jealous if she knew he had another pet. But it would be nice to have a little pet to carry around with him. He'd have to come up with a clever rock name. Anyways, onto Admiral Flamsteed's question. He raised his hand and waited to be called on. "Rocks float around in space, and even help create planets. Earth itself was made from a bunch of rocks that collided together. Right?" He hoped he was right. The last thing the fourth year wanted was to embarrass himself in front of every body. “Yes, very good, Lieutenant Moore,” he saluted the Ravenclaw, trying hard not to get TOO excited or else he would start propelling himself upwards and have to swim back down to continue the lecture. Although he was BOUND to forget about this at some point...seeing how easily excitable it was. “In fact, it is the study of rocks brought back from the Moon that have a tiny excess of a heavier variant of the element zinc to help support this claim.” SO DOUBLE IMPORTANCE OF ROCKS! Or something. SPOILER!!: ADI! Quote: Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19 Hehe. Adi DID enjoy these brows. Ever since they had been hexed on to him but unfortunately, nope. He hadn't found that darn spell so he could hex it onto himself or ~~Benny~~ any others. And he knew Flamsteed enough by now so it wouldn't do well to ASK for the incantation. He would be told that he would have to research it. "Nah, Admiral. Your Captain went on a lengthy expedition to acquire these. They originally came in black so I had to change the colour.'' .................... Adi saw you Benny. Look at you wanting to laugh at him. ''You can laugh, lab rat,'' he told his bestie cheerfully and smirking at the 'Master' title. "I will be Captain Master class clown for the day." Hehehe. Oh hiiiii, Candice! The Hufflepuff wiggled his fashionable eyebrows at her. Look, look, look! She had a HIPPOGRIFF feather quill! He approved of this! ..................... Ah! There was The Suit getting a move on things! Hang on? Oh, yeah... Adi was doing just that with his left hand so that he sort of hovered between rising up completely and remaining on his seat. He didn't think Flamsteed would approve of him floating all around. And there would be more rocks for adoption? Hmmm. The seventh year had Pride but his lone pet rock could always use a rock friend. He wiggled his eyebrows as he considered getting another. But then there was a question for the class. Rocks and Astronomy and the history of the planet. Time for a little thinking! After a moment, his right hand went up as the other was still busily hanging onto his seat. "There was a GIANT space rock that crashed into Earth a zillion...or not that many... years ago. I read that the debris from the crash travelled to the atmosphere and this caused many of the living things on earth to die.'' RIP, creatures. Adi tilted his head. "I reckon the debris caused them to suffocate, Professor?" Hufflepuffs were very good finders, but that little stereotype did not take away from the astronomer’s amusement and mild admeration for the seventh year’s dedication to finding a pair of fake eyebrows. He could only imagine how many joke and costume shops he must have gone to in search. Like himself and his Admiral costume. OH YES THAT! YES. THAT WAS SOMETHING HE WAS GOING TO TOUCH UPON HERE IN JUST A MOMENT AND THEREFORE WAS FLAPPING HIS ARMS EXCITEDLY. And the disturbance of the air surrounding him by said failing was making him rise into the air. Oops. Going into a bit of what could only be perceived as a slow motion spin, the man found himself struggling to get himself back into an acceptable teaching position. Now hovering upside down a few feet above the class, he was finally able to focus enough to nod his head and give the Hufflepuff two thumbs up. Yup. Carry on. SPOILER!!: OLIVER! Quote: Originally Posted by littledhampir Hold on to their seats? Oliver thought not. He still was not in a seat, instead opting to idly float around the classroom. If a writing surface became necessary then he would consider the desks, but not yet. And he was wearing a pip that he had picked up outside the door. He didn't know what it meant, but apparently it meant something. Ensign was unknown to him as well. If they knew the law? Who was Newton? Some sort of police office slash lawmaker? If Admiral Airey did not elaborate then Oliver assumed it was not very important. He certainly did not care enough to raise his hand and ask for clarification. He did, however, raise his hand in order to answer the question. "Meteors are like rocks." Were they rocks? Whatever. "They crash into planets and leave holes in the ground." OH OH OH OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! About that trying to get into an acceptable teaching position? Yeah, out the window. More excited flailing occurred, including some excited pointing towards the Slytherin as he quite literally floated past the young man’s head and nearly knocked foreheads with him. “HOLE IN THE GROUND! YES...BUT WE HAVE A BETTER WORD FOR THA--” SPOILER!!: HENRIC! Quote: Originally Posted by Symphora Twirling his quill, he admired the title given to them proudly. He liked to be called Lieutenant Commander Henric Nicolei for once. This was nice. He remained silent as his Professor/Admiral Flamsteed asking them if they wanted to adopt a pet rock again. Umm..nope. Noo...he wasn't prejudice against them but after losing his pet toad Princess last term, he didn't think he could adopt another pet of any matter for now. Henric would need time away from caring for creatures...Oh right! The question! Wait what was the question again? Hmm..something which links space and pet rocks right? He raised his hand,"Rocks and our planet probably formed at the same time together...maybe billions and billion years ago? "Henric nodded, he wasn't convince with his answer but it sounded definitive...shrugs But there would be no finishing of that sentence as the Astronomy professor had flailed himself over towards the wall. Well, this was actually rather advantageous considering circumstances. Pushing off on the wall, he sailed by the Hufflepuff as he said, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say the same time.” This wasn’t something to compare to the chicken and the egg, after all. We all knew which came first, the rock or the planet. And neither had to cross any street to get to the other side. SPOILER!!: DORA! Quote: Originally Posted by Eriin Dora giggled as the Professor gave her some strange salute thing, which she immediately did in return... as well following suite with all the others, "Good day, Admiral Starman. What's these thingies for? " She asked as she pointed to the pip on her robes. It was clear that her Head of House was an odd duck, but she was beginning to see just HOW odd. Heh. She could dig it. After thinking on it a munite she raised her hand. She had no idea, but she could ALWAYS venture a guess. "Some rocks are like REALLY old... fossils? And well the planets are really old too? " See. No idea. That rocks and planets were both old. Solid answer Dora. “To make you look even more sophisticated and distinguished as an active member of a team,” he said with a grin as he flapped one arm to turn himself back to a standing position in the air. Would just need to wiggle his other one every now and then to keep the balance until he found equilibrium. “If you want the full Starfleet history of them, you are welcome to stop by my office.” Because one he started talking Star Trek...it was unlikely he would stop. And he could say with 100% certainty that the Ministry would not include questions about Star Trek on OWL and NEWTs. “FOSSILS!” he exclaimed, this time keeping his arms at bay. “A key concept. Yes.” Just with a slight twist to the usual image the term fossil brought to mind. SPOILER!!: YOONGI Quote: Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi He did not like this, he did not like this ONE BIT! He had been trying to get over his fear of height by practising at the treehouse but when he was there he KNEW he would go up high. Now it had taken him by surprise and he still did not know how to deal with those. In his fright, he did see Penelope floating towards him and he visibly relaxed a bit. At least Penelope was nice unlike that Ava girl who had laughed in his face when she had seen him train at the treehouse. He looked in to her eyes and took a deep breath to calm down. “Y-yes…” he muttered, he wanted to get down but before he could try to swim down , the ~~professor~~ Admiral spoke words of….awkward comfort. “I don’t care! I trust your enchantments and that we won’t get hurt but I just don’t like being up this high… and I REALLY want this ship to land!“ he looked down and his face whitened. The feeling of floating in the air didn’t help either cause It made him nauseous though not so much that he needed to puke. “Okay..okay..i can do this. You can do this Yoongi. You’re a commander! A Gryffindor! They’re brave! You’re brave! You’re not afraid of a stupid thing called heights? Right? No no you aren’t. You’re perfectly safe yes, yes. Safe. Breathe idiot” he took a deeeeeeeeeeeeep calming breath after his self-encouraging talk that probably made him look insane. He scribbled his nametag with the assigned name on it and with shaking hands he pinned it on his uniform and then listened to the professor’s question. Wait….he wanted to talk about rocks? WHYYYY? He clearly had not been interested last year when he was talking about them! Why now huh? Hmpf whatever. Who cared about Newton and his laws anyways? “Rocks can float in space which means we’re all rocks” there. Right...well...while the Gryffindor dealt with that crisis…. OH! THAT WAS INTERSTING! “We are all rocks,” he repeated, testing the expression out himself and wetting his lips as if to taste the way it felt. “That is...absolutely BRILLIANT! Well put, Commander Hyland!” He clapped his hands together loudly, which caused him to lose his center of gravity again and start his slow spin once more. Had everyone been paying attention? The Gryffindor had made a very VERY keen observation just now. “The calcium found in rocks and that makes up 3.63% of the Earth’s crust, is the same calcium we find in our teeth. The iron in our blood is the same iron that makes up 5% of the Earth’s crust…”He could go on and on but he would spare the class for now “...all these elements were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are all made of stars. You, me, Pebbles. Absolutely STELLAR observation. Take 3 points.” And he simply could NOT not flap his arms excitedly about this. This was the downfall of an pseudo antigravity classroom, no desk jumping. Alas. SPOILER!!: AVA! Quote: Originally Posted by RandomRaven Astronomy.... History... Oh no. Ava had never succeed in History stuffs when she was in primary school. Dunno why but it's quite for her to process the dates and ancient stuffs like that. And now... they were talking about the relation of rocks, astronomy and history? Let's see if she could survive this class without getting caught falling asleep in the middle of the class. Okay, back to the lesson. "I think because the planets actually consists of rocks or something like that?" The first-year tried to answer as she answered her hand. Still in a big of a slow spin from applauding Commander Hyland, he ALMOST missed the raised hand of Ensign Burton. But he did not. Thank Merlin. “*Not all* the planets, but a good observation nonetheless.” SPOILER!!*: HADY!* Quote: Originally Posted by SpiritWolfe Malfoy Oh Admiral Airey was adopting out more Pet rocks?! Did Elvis need a friend/sibling to keep him company? Speaking of which, Hady reached into the pocket of her rocks and pulled him out. See Admiral Airey she still had him and he was perfectly fine too! Rather the seat Elvis down on her desk like normal Hady opted to holding him in her hand so he wouldn't get away or anything. Speaking of rocks though a question was being asked about how they linked with planets and astronomy. Giving this a bit of thought Hady decided to just listen for now rather then answer. Floating a bit, Airey reached out for the nearest desk to assist him in his quest to cease spinning. “Oops, sorry about that, Lieutenant Lynch. Thank you for the use of your desk,” he said with a boyish nod. “Lovely penmanship.” SPOILER!!: PHILLIP! Quote: Originally Posted by hermionesclone This lesson was GREAT already and it had EVERYTHING to do with the fact that they were floating. Fifteen feet up in the air. WHOOSH! As if they were FLYING without actually using brooms!! This ~~first year~~ ensign was STOKED. Though, Phillip made the small mistake of peeking over the side of his desk only to see the floor waaaaaaaaaaaaaay below. Uh. Yeah, if he continued doing that, the lasagne he ate for dinner was going to make a comeback, which was the last thing he wanted to happen when they were learning about SPACE. Speaking of space, OOH PICK HIM HE KNEW THIS ONE. "Rocks tell you a lot about hiiiiiiisssssssstory, Admiral," he said, his hand up in the air and waving it around a little, "You see, we weren't AROUND when the solar system was first made," Like DUH. "So rocks help to tell us what happened waaaaaaaaaaay back in the olden days." So they KNEW and UNDERSTOOD. Phillip Romalotti was S M A R T. Uh huh. Alright. He was going to hold on to Lieutenant Lynch’s desk just for another moment or two so he could dramatically point at the first year. “YES!” he nodded, turning his excited finger towards Ensign Dora and then back again. SPOILER!!: JET Quote: Originally Posted by Hey Ju Jet 'hung on to her seat' and listened to professor Flamsteed as he started the lesson. She looked at him intently, wondering why he had decided to force his Star Trek addiction down their throats this term. She didn't linger too much on that thought for now, though, as he would let something out eventually, she believed. The fifth year took mental notes of everything that was being mentioned by the Astronomer and watched as Pebbles floated its way towards the professor. She raised her hand. "Rock is part of some planets' structure, including ours." Jet gave the vague answer just to take part in the 'discussion'. She didn't exactly want to call attention to herself, but she also wanted to make sure she had participation points. That would do for now. Giving Lieutenant Lynch another boyish grin as he FINALLY let go of her desk, he nodding approvingly at the fifth year. “Yes, very good.” SPOILER!!: CANDICE! Quote: Originally Posted by Poolicious She thinks the pips was kinda cool. Do they allowed to keep it? And the new tittle, its okay. But the floating classroom was the BEST! Candice was playing with her quill when she saw Adi was wiggling hi weird eyebrows at her. The Fifth year just shook her head at the Hufflepuff Prefect. What a weirdo! She turned her attention back to ~~Professor~~ Admiral Flamsteed started the lesson. He was talking about the rules and stuffs. And adopting a pet rock? Whuuut?! Yeah. Nope. Not for her thank you very much. What would she do with a pet rock? Throw it to the lake? As for the question, Candice raised her hands before answering the question "Three inner planets in our solar system are made of rock." “Four if you count ourselves,” he chuckled. Clearly, he found himself amusing. Excuse him. And don’t you dare through a pet rock ANYWHERE! And also be thankful the astronomer was not a Legilimens. Ahem. SPOILER!!: COLT! Quote: Originally Posted by Expecto-Penguin SPOILER!!: Le Professor! Colt heard the Professor speak to him and he heard his words of advice. He wrapped his toes around the legs of his desk and it WORKED. He gave him a thumbs up and said "Thank you!" He laughed at the way he said butt. He could have said it but it proper to say derrière instead. Now time for the lesson to start. He saw a lot of students made it to the lesson. Man there were a lot of people at Hogwarts. He couldn't really hear over all the talking but he tried to make it out. He heard they were going to be learning about rocks. Alright he understood that. Was he interested in having a pet rock? Nahh he wasn't. Infact his mother told to get one because they required the less care. Shows you how much his mother thinks that he is responsible. He began to think about how rocks link to the history of the planet. He was thinking and heard his fellow ex Durmstrang's answer and he quite agreed with that. "Professor I agree with Candice's answer. Also can't markings on a rock determine the age of the planet?" He heard from it somewhere but he didn't know if it was true. Airey nodded at Ensign Winchester, a tinge of guilt tugging at his scientific heartstrings that the boy was asking about a field of study that he was not too familiar with. “In a sense, yes, but not ALL rocks. That sort of research has to do with absolute ages and relative ages. Planetary geology and planetary geomorphology are not my area of expertise, but I can connect you with one of my colleagues if you have an interest.” SPOILER!!: FREYA Quote: Originally Posted by VRSCIKA Professor Flamesteed's classes always proved interesting, that was for certain. First off, there was the fact that their classroom floor looked like a giant sandbox. Upon seeing that , she seriously thought she had just wasted her time using the professor's little brush thingy. Secondly, she had no idea why they had needed to float up to their desks. She had to admit that it was fun and she float/swam up to her bestie , but she still didn't know the purpose....hopefully there was one. Thirdly....she took one of the little badge things but had no idea what they meant or were for. She had chosen the one with two dots and the third looking as though it had been only half there and pinned it to the front of her clothes. It was different from all of the others, hopefully it didn't volunteer her for anything during class..... Looking around, she noticed that some people added titles before their name and year. What the purpose of this was, or if it was permissible....she really had no idea. Did it have to do with their badge things? Was this another one of those muggle things that eluded her? Oh for Circe's sake....Henric had done it too. She flipped her plain name tag around on her desk in mild aggravation. Freya Ilia Valke, 5th year Slytherin was all that it said and all that it would say unless the professor 'Admiral' did something with it, because she was effectively lost. It was like a joke that almost everyone got besides her...... When greetings were made she heard the professor speaking in some language with which she was unfamiliar along with his hand symbol. She ad learned to do that when greeting the professor, but the meaning behind it other than an odd greeting was utterly lost on the fifteen year old. His introduction made her internally sigh. Now she was to call him Admiral all the time in class? They were on a 'star ship'? She was having words with Henric after all of this was over...... Okay it was finally time for something that she understood! Yes questions, she could handle that. "Without rocks, we might not have a class." In more ways than one. "Most of the heavenly bodies that are studied in Astronomy such as Meteors, Comets, Asteroids, and even some of the Planets themselves are comprised ,at least partially, of rocks. " Chuckling, he nodded his head at the young lady - who seemed to be recovering quite well from her ordeal last term, if he did say so himself. “I’ll take you one further,” he mused. “Without rocks, we may not be here at all. Take 1 point.” For amusing him mostly with such blunt wording. SPOILER!!: DANTE Quote: Originally Posted by Meizzner You know, Dante would just like to chill in zero gravity for a while. Not move, just chill and float around for a while. It would be awesome. But now is not the time for that. It was the time for learning about Astronomy stuff. Not Astrology because Airey hates that one. But he had no punny, smart aleck, or even funny reply to this question and the one he probably would have said was said much better by older students. So Dante just sat and listened. Maybe next question he would answer. Maybe. Airey was not going to try and swim over to see if he could compliment the Slytherin’s handwriting...but if his penmanship was anything like his puns...well...there would be no compliments. Even if the Admiral enjoyed them. SPOILER!!: CINNA Quote: Originally Posted by SarcasticStrawberry Right, the seventh year settled into her seat again. It wasn't the easiest to stay in the seat while sitting and trying to defy gravity. Although all classes should be held up near the ceiling. That should be a thing. Anywho on with the lesson. Not the pet rocks again! Really she had nothing against them or the people who owned them. But if you really wanted a pet you could at least get a hamster, right? Space rocks now that was something a bit more interesting than pet ones. "Earth is essentially one gaint space rock" “You could say that,” he chuckled. “One giant space rock with several key bells and whistles.” SPOILER!!: AJ! Quote: Originally Posted by MudInMyBlood Lieutenant commander. That had a nice ring to it. Fifth years must be extra important because they had TWO names. Important stuff right there. Yeah, technically the older students were ranked higher, but they didn't sound as cool, and that was that really mattered. Apparently she had been thinking about this for far too long because Airey was moving on and she had not wrote her name down yet. WHOOPS. It sounded better as a middle name, and that was how she was going to keep it. As far as the pips were concerned she was pretty sure that she was wearing hers correctly for a lieutenant commander. If not Airey was bound to take notice. Speaking of rocks, AJ held on to her seat and looked over at Pebbles. She didn't have an answer because everybody else seemed to have that aspect down. "Admiral Flamsteed, how is Pebbles doing after last term's erm... adventures?" Because she cared, and didn't have anything else to add about the actual question. Ahem. Panic washing over the man’s face, he was back to full scale flailing and trying to cover up Pebbles’ ears. Thankfully this time, his legs had joined in his awkward little air dance and compensated for the movement...so he essentially stayed put. With his palms pressed firmly against either side of the rock. “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” he hissed. DON’T BRING IT UP! SPOILER!!: ANGEL! Quote: Originally Posted by Harry174 Angel looked at Admiral Flamsteed and raised her hand. "Admiral Flamsteed, I think that one of the links is that different plants have different types or rocks right?" Angel wasn't sure but she thought it was worth a guess and it was something that she thought must happen otherwise whey would they explore the different plants. Plants? Surely the fifth year had meant to say planEts. Although, if they were going back to the notion of everything being made from stars….or, never mind. It was all too philosophical for him to deal with at the moment. “Yes,” he said cautiously. “Good.” SPOILER!!: ROONEY! Quote: Originally Posted by Shanners Hand straight in the air, Rooney showed his own rock in a little wave. Mostly for Pebbles, but definitely for Sir Flamsteed. Einstein, his rock, was doing definitely well. "How are you, Pebbles?" Yes? That was allowed, right? He wanted to check in on one of the first things he had encountered at Hogwarts. And he was definitely going to stay behind afterwards and encourage other students to adopt a rock for themselves. It had been a healthy experience for the Ravenclaw and being a rock parent had taught him ever so much. Getting a rock dressed every morning wasn't even effort any more. And keeping Einstein clean was the most fun that Rooney had every day. His only other contribution was a smile and scribbling down the answers of his peers, shaking his head at those he deemed unimpressive and nodding approval to those that were...okay. Step it up, peers. Airey, still holding his hands firmly against the rock, smiled at the Ravenclaw. How incredibly thoughtful - and the answer WOULD have been STELLAR had she not just been forced down the dark spiral that was memory lane. He held the rock up towards Ensign Bronwyn to let her answer while he moved on to the next raised hand. SPOILER!!: DAVIE! Quote: Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl Oooh it was live long and PROSPER, yes, that made much more sense. Swinging his legs merrily from his seat, Davie just beamed at the professor in response. Got it, chief! AND LOOK CHARLOTTE WAS HERE NOW HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAA BFF HI HI HI. Hyper!Davie waved to his seat companion, or his fellow ensign, or shippmate, or whatever the theme was today, and then turned his focus back on the professor. Ooh, was THAT rock ~~the infamous pet known as~~ Pebbles? HAH. She kind of did look like a dog, to Flamsteed's credit, but mostly like what a crazy person would call a dog. ~~She~~ It looked like a rock with googly eyes glued on, like a toddler's crafttime project, or like what a person who had never seen a dog before might think was a dog. Highly amusing. Flamsteed was so entertaining so far! Davie almost wanted to clap at him and munch peanuts. But no, they were here to learn about... rocks. At least Davie knew about Newton's laws (and the first one should really be called the law of inertia, professor), though he didn't immediately know what the connection was between that law and their seats and the new topic of rocks. Rocks? Links? Ummmmmmmm. Davie's first thought was about the asteroid belt just outside Mars' orbit, but then he started picturing asteroids and Earth, and then asteroids hitting Earth, and then the history of Earth, and his hand shot into the air. "Some people theorize that rocks brought life to our planet," Davie volunteered helpfully. "Scientists have found signs of life on stray comets, so some people believe that comets and asteroids --- which are just big chunks of rock --- could have been carrying early life organisms, proteins, water, and the like when they smashed into Earth's surface." It was a cool theory, but not the most plausible one nor easiest to test, in his humble, science-interested opinion. “STELLAR reference, Ensign Truebridge,” he applauded, his voice cracking eeeeeeever so slightly on the last name. For reasons. Ahem. Anyway…. “Panspermia, as the theory is known as, is often times overshadowed by its destructive counterpart - the one that many of you have referred to, the impact theory. But evidence supporting the notion that the very building blocks of life on earth have come from comet impacts continues to surface to this day. Back in August 2015, scientists showed evidence that early comet impacts influenced amino acids to change into peptides. Stellar, take 3 points.” And yes indeed Newton’s First Law of Motion was sometimes referred to as the Law of Inertia. A pity the young man had not brought it up. Inertia was a fun word to say and rolled off the tongue rather pleasantly. SPOILER!!: NORAH! Quote: Originally Posted by Sararara Lieutenant Commander sounded even BETTER when it was ~~Professor~~ Admiral Flamsteed saying it. She could get used to that for sure. Norah sat up eagerly so she wouldn't miss any of what Flamsteed said, 'cause this already looked like it was going to be a CRAZY cool lesson. With her parchment and quill set for note taking, she listened to the first question and put a hand up in the air as soon as he'd finished speaking. Rocks were always fun. Unless they were being thrown at you, but nobody liked to talk to mean people who'd do that anyways. They just made SENSE, y'know? "Rocks have been around for a reallyreallyreally long time--right?---so maybe if you know a lot about 'em you can study them and see when or how they got created and THEN maybe it'll tell you something about how something astronomy-ish happened. Like how the planet was made 'n stuff." SHE couldn't tell all that from a rock, but somebody could, probably. There were some super extra smart people out there. She had him...until the ISH. The ISH was an answer breaker, but he still nodded his head and smiled at the Hufflepuff. And was Pebbles finished telling Mr. Bronwyn how she was? He would just hold her in the young man’s general direction a little bit longer. SPOILER!!: BLAISE! Quote: Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo Its name was a lint roller and the Professor hoped he'd used it earlier? Eeerr..."Most definitely Admiral!" Blaise lied brightly with his absolute best dimpled smile. It was a glance over at his notepad that had the smile fast fading when he realized the quill had scribbled something along the lines of 'he lied boldly, not an ounce of fear nor shame inside his small frame'. "Cross that out right now." He hissed, swatting at his floating instruments. All it took was the Professor catching eye of it and he'd be ruined. The Ensign bit didn't make anymore sense to him than it did before but now he had questions about that TOO. "I was Captain of the First Year boat we came over on, can't I be Captain again?" This time the boy paddle!wiggle!air swam his way over to chair THAT HE NOW NOTICED and quickly scribbled his name like he'd seen everyone else do. One thing his quill never messed up. Also, was that a rock? He...was sure that was a rock. Did they talk to those in this class? Was that how it went? Seemed like it cause now they were talking about the importance of them in Astronomy ~~not astrology~~ and earth itself. "The moon we have is just a rock, in fact it's there cause of the whole crashing of two other rocks so really if we didn't have the first big space rock crashing into baby!earth we wouldn't have the glowing rock we now do then we'd never have tides and all the water would be flat then my cousin Tyler could never teach me and Bentley how to surf cause ...yeah." He knew where he was going with this, right? “Cross what out?” he asked, eyes squinting towards the young man. He couldn’t float closer to him since Pebbles was apparently not done and her voice did not carry very far. He needed to remind himself that first year though in this way. Big dreams and big ambitions and unique out of the box perspectives. Just don’t crush this one, alright? He did not have the tact for letting people down gently. Just ask Alexa Cambridge about her dead star her first year under the astronomer wing. And the man didn’t do honorary titles - you either were or you weren’t. “While I am sure others will acknowledge your captain-ship on the first year boats, in my classroom there are different guidelines and standards necessary for that title. As capable as you may be for boats across the Black Lake, you are not quite there yet in here.” That was...delicate enough...right? RIGHT?! Being too concerned with out the first year would handle this let down...he kind of sort of missed the rest of his answer. But there was something about surfing... SPOILER!!: PAULINA! Quote: Originally Posted by Squishy As strange as this class was turning out to be, Paulina had to admit that it was pretty cool to be referred to as Captain Paulina Holiday. An added bonus was that the Professor didn't appear to be scary. A little weird, but definitely not scary. Not even bothering to question what was up with the rock Admiral Flamsteed was talking to, Paulina double checked to see that her pip was in place. Good. It would suck if her marks suffered as a result of some silly thing that she had forgotten to wear. At the first question, she raised her hand. "Well, the terrestrial planets are made of rock. Other objects in space - for example asteroids - contain rock." Was she missing anything? Paulina was still trying to get used to this classroom arrangement and it was a struggle. Crossing the fingers in his mind for NO tears - not that the man was superstitious enough to believe that sort of thing really worked - he was pleased to have the distraction of another raised hand. “Yes yes. Good Good.” SPOILER!!: JANELLE! Quote: Originally Posted by Daydreamer11 Class had officially started and the "Admiral" had thrown out the first question of the day. Janelle listened to the answers that some of her classmates gave and raised her hand to add her thoughts to the conversation. "Some planets are made up of rock like materials so they kind of are huge rocks in the sky." That was a huge oversimplification, but that was the answer that Janelle was going with. Then she decided to add a bit of trivia to the mix. "There used to be an old muggle television show called the "Third Rock from the Sun." Of course they were talking about the earth." Unfortunately, Janelle knew more about old muggle shows than Astronomy......but she was working on that. OH? He was not familiar with this show. But what a clever name! It surely must have been an incredibly educational program. “Very good,” he nodded. “And I will add that to my watch list.” He wondering if his frequent muggle hobby shop had that in stock….” SPOILER!!: MARISOL! Quote: Originally Posted by HogwartsStudent11 Marisol blinked. Rocks? Like meteors? What was the difference between a meteor and a meteorite? And then there were asteroids. Did those always come in belts? It was plainly obvious that Mari hadn't studied this kind of astronomy since what here in Scotland would be the Spanish equivalent of Primary Four! Yikes. Uh-oh. The fifth year realized that she had automatically put her hand in the air out of habit. But she had no answer, and now it was her turn to share. "Well. Um, the Earth is a rock, right? Except some planets are made of gas.... But there're meteors and asteroids and, like, other stuff." Marisol slow-clapped for herself in her head. That had sounded really smart. Oh, God. Nodding his head, he offered the Slytherin an encouraging smile. “Yes, thank you.” As disjointed an answer as it may have been. SPOILER!!: CHLOE! Quote: Originally Posted by fanficfanatict Chloe was trying not to be anxious. Now that she was at Hogwarts and in proper classes she was going to soak up every last grain of information and school experiences even if it killed her. Just hopefully it wouldn't come to that. She knew Hogwart's mortality rate. The Professor, the one who was calling himself Admiral, was really, really weird. Chloe kind of liked that. Even if her expression did not betray anything. She was keeping it neutral for reasons. He got even weirder, though, when he called his rock a she. How exactly did he know the gender? Could he check? Was there a way to assign gender to rocks or was it as random and imperfect as human gender assignment? Good for thought. His proper question, though, she didn't know the answer to and she didn't want to guess for fear of being wrong. Oh? Did this first year want some face time with Pebbles? He was sort of getting that vibe from her and seeing that the rock was done describing her mood, he slowly turned his arm so she could look at the Ravenclaw. There. Face time acquired. Now where was the next raised hand? SPOILER!!: NOELLE! Quote: Originally Posted by ChanceCoeur Rocks?? They were really talking about rocks? Noelle could have pouted... but she was too busy pinning her one little pip on and saluting everyone that she saw with a live long and prosper with the fingers apart salute. Rocks were boring to her. And for this class which she FLOATED into... she was expecting more. She didnt know what but MORE. ~~Ensign~~ Noelle raised her hand but didnt wait to be called on to answer the questions. "Isnt most of the universe made up in some sort of rock? Like meteroids, the moon is a rock! And there are a lot of rocks here on Earth." Hey, that sounded.... okay. “You pose a VERY interesting inquiry, Ensign Summers. One that has plagued astronomers for YEARS. Just what IS the universe made of? Rocks fall into a category called baryonic matter and astronomers have been able to, thanks to the lingering radiation left over from the Big Bang, been able to measure the density and composition of the universe. This baryonic matter of which rocks belongs to, makes up ONLY 4.6% of the universe. 4.6%!” But the truth of the matter was...humankind may never truly know the answer to just what the universe is made of. It may always be beyond our reach. FASCINATING! SPOILER!!: KATE! Quote: Originally Posted by Anna Banana There were plenty of things Kate was not sure of when it came to Astronomy class. However, there are a few things she was absolutely certain of right about now. 1. The professor was completely CRAZY! (But in a good way! He made class fun!) 2. She had no idea what this Captain and Ensign stuff as all about, but she was willing to go along with the flow. It had been her goal to be an Aspiring Astronomer since she was a first year, and she had never once made the cut. 3. Sitting in a hovering desk was annoying, but at least it would keep her from falling asleep. 4. She hated having only one of those little circle things to pin on her shirt. That was the same number as the first and second year, and it made her feel like such a little kid. ...so anyway, the first question was being asked, and naturally Kate had no idea what the answer was. Astronomy and rocks? Hmm... She gave the answer a good thought, though, and raised her hand. "Well, I know they call Earth the 'third rock from the Sun'," she said. "Earth doesn't seem very rocky to me, but it's known as a rocky planet, for some reason." So there it was. Kate's connection between rocks and Earth. That was all she had for now. “Perhaps it is the oceans that have you thinking the Earth isn’t very rocky?” he asked. It was what happened when one only looked at the surface level of things. Things like Hogwarts houses. SPOILER!!: KYROH! Quote: Originally Posted by Kaos.Doodles Question about rocks? Easy, easy? Kyroh looks around as he listened to all the answers before him. Sure they were good, but nothing stated the IMPORTANT, OBVIOUS thing. Very important. So his hand shot up. "Rocks are important to astronomy because they can kill you if you're hit in the head by one when you're floating up in space. And we don't want a whole bunch of dead bodies floating in the atmosphere, because Earth is precious and dead bodies are not. So we have to learn about the silent space killers." …………...what? Entirely unsure of what he had just listened to, Airey nonetheless found it INCREDIBLY amusing when he probably shouldn’t have and began to laugh. Perhaps a little too loudly. Oh sweet solstice, leave it to a Ravenclaw to come up with that one. Just one thing wrong with the story… “Bodies would not float in the atmosphere,” he said after catching his breath. “Not naturally, at least. Like how we are up here thanks to magic. Bodies in the atmosphere would…” Actually...no, he was just going to stop there. “Thank you for that little display of humor. Take 1 point.” Aaaaaaaaaand moving on. SPOILER!!: CALEB! Quote: Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom As usual, Caleb was having trouble following Flamsteed and his craziness around the class, but that wasn't why he was here. He was here to LEARN. Flamsteed always seemed to be on the goofy side but in the end it always ended up making the class more interesting and easier for Caleb to follow, so he was good at ignoring it at this point and focusing on the REAL stuff at hand. Which was apparently...rocks. Huh. Rocks had a LOT to do with the Earth and the universe. They were like...everywhere. The whole world was a rock basically, but he knew Flamsteed was looking for something a BIT more than that. He raised his hand. "Rocks can tell us a lot about our planet as well as the planets around us. For example, the terrestrial planets, the ones closest to the sun, all have the same sort of core and makeup. So rocks can really tell you where the planet is from and when it was created," he explained. It was a very rough explanation but it was something. “Mmmhmm. That is the general gist of things,” he nodded. Perhaps a bit too general. SPOILER!!: DOT! Quote: Originally Posted by Cassirin Dot grinned hugely at her title, although she was Wojack-GUSEY now. Had been for almost three years. Didn't he remember it yet? "Thank you, sir. I..." She glanced down at the pips peppered all over her uniform and swiftly went about removing the extra ones. "I thought they were polka dots. I really like those, you know, on account of my name. I didn't know they were... sorry." He could just have... all of these back, okay? "I really like polka dots, Admiral sir. They're my version of your snazzy suits." Just so he knew. They MADE HER, okay? It wasn't really nice of him to be so distracting with the pips, because it made Dot confused when he asked his question. Like... rocks in space? Or the ones on the planet? Or... huh? "What about maybe moon rocks, sir? Because people have all these theories that the moon was once scooped out of part of the earth or that it was sucked into our gravity from asteroids that got too close, or whatever theory, and you can test moon rocks and see what's really true. Compare them to earth rocks, or to rocks that crash to earth, and see whether moon rocks are like those at all." Was that a dumb answer? It didn't seem to properly answer the question. Also, hiii, Kyroh. No finger wave for him, because he got distracted, but Dot saw him and smiled in his direction. Polka dots. …. “I wonder what Starfleet would think of your interpretation of their pips,” he wondered out loud. Sweet solstice. He could only imagine some of their faces. “Just please, for next lesson, follow instructions.” He could hardly blame her for wanting to wear so many, however. Official Star Trek pips were quite valuable among collectors these days. “Yes. Excellent.” In relation to her answer. Not the polka dot confused pips. SPOILER!!: KAYCEE! Quote: Originally Posted by LilFox06 Kaycee tilted her head as she watched the ~~Professor~~ Admiral. She didn't really understand the whole pet rock thing. It was weird. Dogs were pets. Not rocks. Rocks didn't love you. Anyway. Blah blah. Rocks. Space. She raised her hand lazily. "Asteroids are made of rocks." Or something. Probably. "Asteroids are in space. Astronomy." Kaycee totally knew about science. “They certainly are,” he chuckled. SPOILER!!: HEATHER! Quote: Originally Posted by lazykitty "It's 'Xanthopoulos', Admiral." She had only been at Hogwarts for three terms, starting a fourth and had been in Gryffindor for all of those, so he should know this, mmhhmm. Also, she thought Newton's First Law was the one about 'whatever goes up, must come down'? Or was it the 'whatever can go wrong, will go wrong' one? Either way, not very comforting when one was floating high in the air with nothing but a sandbox to catch you. Which made Heather hook her legs around behind the front legs of her chair. Because there was no way she was proving Newton's First Law, which ever one it was, today. Nope. "Studying rocks can help tell how old a planet or astoroid or meteor is and what it's made of. Which can also tell us if the planet/astoroid/meteor could've, at one time or even presently, supported lifeforms." AKA, whether or not there's aliens among us. It could happen. Scientists have found evidence of water on other planets and water is a basic building block of life. “Right. Xantho…..poulos…” he repeated. He would even go back to his office to practice. Only he would probably forget by the time he got back to his office that he had told himself he would. Maybe he should just stick to calling her by her first name like he did with some others. Heather was a safe name. Still repeating her name in his head, he only offered her a distracted ‘mmmmmhmmm’ in response to her answer. SPOILER!!: ELLERY! Quote: Originally Posted by Casey O Ellery didn't have very high hopes for this class, considering it was BASICALLY staring at the stars, which WAS cool in its own respect, but trying to pass itself as a science was NOT cool. It was observing, not studying. In her opinion, REAL branches of muggle science, like psychology and biology and chemistry and physics, should be required at Hogwarts, not a sleep-deprivation class. Buuuut, it WAS her head of house, so she was probably going to suck it up and try to enjoy it. Plus, flying. That was always fun. She adjusted her name tag firmly. She had a long name, so, y'know, her hand was cramping a little. Yeaaaaaah. He had a pet rock? She kinda found that cool, but also…he wasn't even really an adult. Try not to judge, Ellery. "There's the asteroid belt. Loads of rocks. Between Mars and Jupiter, I think, the gas giants and rock planets. Oh! Earth is CALLED a rock planet I think, and I bet it's NOT because of Wrock stars." Pause. Stare. Pause some more. Stare. BURST INTO A FIT OF LAUGHTER. “Take a point for the joke.” Although now he had some imagery with asteroid belts tied in with Lieutenant commander Scabior’s answer and the astronomer gave an involuntary shudder. SPOILER!!: TIMMY! Quote: Originally Posted by Star-Lord Timmy raised her hand hesitantly, not too sure of her next answer. "Meteors, asteroids, and comets are known as space rocks that travel throughout the solar system," Because that pretty obvious. But the small blonde was also building up to something. She just couldn't get it off the tip of her tongue. Ugh. "Space rocks have always been a big part of our planet's history. Like the large asteroid that killed dinosaurs millions of years ago," There it was. The Big Bang. “Yes, very good. Although they are not limited to just our solar system,” he nodded. Just to make sure that the Gryffindor, and the rest of the class, were not only thinking on an immediate scale. Although he had set them up to do so. Good going, Flamsteed. SPOILER!!: ZANDER! Quote: Originally Posted by ArianaBlack So erm, yes most definitely sticking to the english version next time. Now that that was figured out... He'd just take a... well sort of float in one of the sandbox thingies or whatever they even were. SOPHIE BROWN. Aheeeem. He went all sorts of goofy-faced seeing her swim up and pick a spot next to him. Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii Head Girl. Also LOL were people watching what was going on with Yoongi over there? Poor kid was most definitely still afraid of heights no matter how hard he tried to decline it. Merlin, he had it bad. Turning away from Yoongi, Zander went back to give Sophie Brown that ridiculous smile of his. Had Professor Flamsteed already started the lesson? 'Cause honestly, everyone else had some pretty good answers. So he was just gonna sit back and let them take a jab at it. Only common curtesy, y'know? Zander was just doing all of you children a favor. You're very welcome. Especially you, first years. ... And man, Zander had some mad respect for Professor Flamsteed, but this whole rock adoption stuff was still weird. Also hi pebbles. His blue eyes glanced over the Head Boy and the astronomer offered a small nod before moving on to the next raised hand. SPOILER!!: SOPHIE! Quote: Originally Posted by feeheeheeny Rocks... and their links to the field of astronomy and the planet as a whole. Was the whole class going to be about rocks? Was THAT why Pebbles was here, and MORE pet rocks were going to be offered up for adoption? A class... about... rocks. Well, could've been worse. Somehow. Probably. Soph kicked back (not literally) and let everyone else respond because they seemed to be super excited to offer up their answers. By the time most of her classmates got their turn, there wasn't a WHOLE lot left to say, at least about rocks in GENERAL... but eventually, Soph's hand raised anyway because she knew better than to stay too silent in Airey's class. He always gave her that LOOK like, Come on, Sophie Brown, quit holding out on me. "Uhhh, so... rocks have an important link to astronomy 'cause... well, okay, first 'n foremost, I'm sure this is NOT where you're goin' with this question, but I'm gonna go my own way - so the kinda rocks we'd be talking about on planetary bodies are made up of silicates, right? Which are rock-forming minerals made up of oxygen and SILICON," hence the name, for those young'uns who didn't know, "'n this is important 'cause there's hardly ANY rock in our whole Solar System when y'think about it 'cause there's WAY more hydrogen atoms than silicon atoms in the whole Solar System, like 20,000 hydrogen atoms to ONE silicon atom or somethin' wild, so rock is gonna be pretty scarce compared to the hydrogen that makes up a lot of the Jovial planets. BUT," because she was going somewhere with this, "rock DOES make up the majority of the inner terrestrial planets 'cause..." briefly distracted by Zander's face and his ridiculous smile next to her rahhhh, "'cause... the more 'bundant materials in the Solar System like hydrogen, methane, 'n..." there was another one in particular, ammonia, she couldn't quite get off the top of her tongue, "... 'n they can't condense to hang out with the rock 'cause of the Sun's HEAT on the inner planets - they're HOTTER since they're closer to the Sun so it's harder for those planets' bodies to hold onto those lighter elements, y'know?" DID HE KNOW? WAS SHE MAKING ANY SENSE? "So since the lighter materials can't cling onto the inner planets' atmosphere, but silicon 'n oxygen CAN, they'll condense 'n form the silicates that makes the rock of our inner planets." Or something. "But there IS rock at the core of the outer planets, too, s'just not a lot, whereas rock DOES dominate in the inner planets 'cause of... thermal energy 'n..." stuff, "yeah." Better than stuff. "Important 'cause we NEED 'em." Got a little carried away there, but she was done. Which was oh so conveniently right next door. And Airey just simply pointed towards the Head Girl and looked to the rest of the class. “I hope you were all taking notes. Brilliant, Miss Brown. Take 3 points.” SPOILER!!: DAXTON! Quote: Originally Posted by Felixir If he heard 'Live Long and Prosper' just one more time, Daxton was sure he was going to go completely insane. He hadn't returned the weird salute thing, and had simply nodded his head instead. As the classroom filled up, the volume started to creep higher and higher. Daxton frowned slightly and looked around at his classmates. It was a strange thing about crowds, there was noise coming from everywhere, but you could never quite pinpoint where the bulk of it, or the loudest contributor, was speaking from. Well. Generally speaking. They were in a class with Charlotte Kettleburn and her band of merry Gryffindors, so doubtless most of the noise was coming from them. Daxton was just trailing down that line of thought, and wondering about the volume levels in the Gryffindor Common Room, when Airey Flamsteed happened. Yelling. Hadn't David Truebridge mentioned the man was Head of Gryffindor House? Yeah. Believing it now. Daxton hurriedly clamped his hands over his ears as the yelling started, but thankfully it seemed like it would not continue. Unsure, the Ravenclaw uncovered his ears again, eyeing Airey Flamsteed suspiciously, just waiting for that next yell to sound. But it seemed as they were getting right into the topic matter, and so Daxton listened. ... The man named his rock, and was offering more for... adoption. Well... somehow, Daxton found himself completely unsurprised. He eyed both man and rock appraisingly, both in their ridiculous attire (was it called 'attire' if you were talking about a rock? or just... craft supplies?), while Airey Flamsteed spoke and asked the first question. Daxton had no intentions of answering out loud, but he had his pen and parchment ready, and was quite willing to record his own thoughts. It was also handy, because if he was wrong, nobody else would need to know. He wrote extra small, too, in case anyone thought about being nosy. SPOILER!!: Notes Daxton Prince First Year Ravenclaw Astronomy Rocks Rocks can tell us about the history of the earth, either through the fossils they might consist of or contain, or their own physical structure, or what processes occurred to create a particular rock - elements, chemicals, pressure, atmospheric influence, etc... - the deeper you go, the older the rock, most probably, and therefore deep down towards the centre of the earth, there may be answers as to the planet's creation/formation/deeper history, which links back to Astronomy Would it be awful for the man to admit he missed the laptop? Something about the first year typing out his words reminded him of the infamous Stephen Hawking and quill and parchment just did not have the same esteem that muggle electronics had. Pity magic was the way it was. Alas. SPOILER!!: ZEKE! Quote: Originally Posted by Hera Live long and prosper... sure... sure... but not REALLY prosper, right? There were limitations to prospering? ... Zeke half listened and half tuned out as Flamsteed made his usual start of term introductions... he'd been here, done that, bought the t-shirt... And just WHAT was Newton's first rule? law? thing? What? Instead, he used this time to attach the 'pips' to his uniform, because apparently they were a thing. Why were they doing this? Pips? Titles? What was the point? It wasn't going to help them get through OWLs or NEWTs when that time came. Would it? He tuned back in just as the first question was asked... and no he didn't care about adopting a rock. Rocks weren't pets, rocks were rocks. Good for throwing and holding things down with. Figuring though that the answer was easy peasy, Zeke raised his hand and offered his response. "All rocks are space rocks, because they're all in space ..." yep. Planet formations and comets and meteors and THINGS. They all came from the same place. SPACE. Not...the sort of response he had come to expect from the Gryffindor and Airey would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed. But he tried to keep a neutral face as he...kind of sort of just glazed over that response and quickly moved on to the next student. SPOILER!!: STEFAN! Quote: Originally Posted by Stefan Yeah, yeah. Live long and prosper to you too, Admiral Flamdude. Ethan gave the man a half-hearted Vulcan salute because...well, he’s really not into Star Trek, but he’s quite enjoying his title, Captain. Of course, as expected, Flamsteed was on to his usual speech, but wasn’t entirely listening to it. For some reason, he wanted to get into action right away because this roleplay thing was getting the best of him. He was about to offer an answer when Captain Sophie started to talk. Ethan just stared at her, amused by her knowledge. Merlin, how much information can she take really? Half of what she said didn’t make sense to him, and it didn’t help that she mentioned names of elements. Shrugging, he casted his glance back at the floating board in front of them and waited for the theory part to be over. Who was remaining silent it seemed. No harm no foul there. Thank you for your attentive listening. SPOILER!!: OWEN! Quote: Originally Posted by Tazzie Star Trek. Mm. Owen knew of the reference, of course. He'd seen bits and pieces of the movies back at home. He knew his stepfather even had some merchandise, but unlike him Owen wasn't such a die-hard fan. But it was tolerable. It was a remnant of home and these days he needed those remnants because being surrounded by everything magic was just so overwhelming. Anyways, Sir Isaac Newton first law of motion was to be blamed for why they were on rocking chairs? An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Owen had it memorized. Remember the stepfather? ...Yup. So, they'll be staying that way unless there was an unbalanced force, hmm? He hoped that force would come soon. Then the Admiral was showing them a rock. Pebbles? Owen's grin grew. Their Professor definitely knew what he was doing. And Owen was up for adopting a rock. He could probably put it inside Sushi's fish bowl. So the two of them could serve as each other's company. Great plan, eh? Oh, Admiral sir was asking them a question. His brain was actually working, and he had an answer. Somewhat. Owen raised his hand and spoke up, "Because space rocks...they collided against each other like really hard, Admiral Flamsteed." He was also doing the whole colliding motion with his loose fits hitting each other, "Then they formed this very large and very hot ocean of boiling rocks which later became the earth once it cooled off." That's why rocks played a big role in earthly things. "Everything came from rocks." “Yes, good,” he nodded in a bit of a half daze while glancing down at his sundial watch. Needed to move along here soon. SPOILER!!: BRIAN! Quote: Originally Posted by laurange Okay, so there was actually a reason Brian loved Astronomy and that wasn't so much the fact that he loved learning about planetary formation theories and whatnot but because it was pretty much the only lesson he could ramble on about physics and not get weird looks. And Brian Woods was a huge fan of Sir Isaac Newton so when ~~Professor~~ Admiral Flamsteed referenced him in like the first SENTENCE, it made Brian very very happy. Maybe he could sit down with the guy and discuss Flemming? And his rules and when it was left and when it was right? Or just discuss electromagnetism in general because the whole thing was stumping him. BACK TO THE POINT though, Newton's Law of Motion applied in a pretty easy way. If he didn't do anything, he would pretty much stay put unless there was an outside force. Then he would move until an outside force happened. Easy stuff. BEAM. But uh rocks? Why were rocks important? "They make good pets," he said suddenly, his brain not processing information properly before it all came spilling out. Oh no. Now he had to say something smart so that he wouldn't be squinted at. But he couldn't think of anything smart to say! OH NO. OH DEAR. OOOOH NO. "And uh the terrestrial planets - that's the four closest to the sun - are made of rock. And there's an asteroid belt, also made of rock. And the cores of the outer planets are at least partially rock. And uh Astronomy rocks?" This is what happened when Brian Woods freaks out: total mental shutdown. No intelligent thought going on in THIS noggin. Nope. Yeah, he'd just hide now. Could he hide under the table? Was that an option? “THEY DO INDEED!” he cheered. 100 points to Hufflepuff? Was that a bit too dramatic? It was also a personal opinion and he supposed he should not impose his pet preferences on others. So...no 100 points to Hufflepuff. Boo. “I DO suggest you all go look for Quill articles from last term. I am sure there are some in the library if you ask. Brilliant little piece about pets and familiars you all ought to read.” And he was too distracted now to process what he was sure was an excellent answer, so he nodded and gave the boy a thumbs up. SPOILER!!: CHAR! Quote: Originally Posted by Tegz "We don't?" Charlotte asked in genuine astonishment. Really? She usually got the things she wanted eventually, and if she didn't then she was PRETTY SURE it was because she stopped wanting them, and not because she couldn't have them. But oh now she was TORN because Davie seemed happy enough about being a sign, and Char wanted to be what Davie was, so she had to be one TOO. DILEMMA. She WAS wearing the pip though. She didn't think they looked like any pips she had ever seen, however. Probably they were vegetable pips. That would explain why she hadn't seen them, because she avoided eating her vegetables or LOOKING at the vegetables that she had to eat, if she could help it. Aaaaaaand all this redshirt stuff went over her head. Totally. *"Oh, its a muggle* thing, okay." Nod. That was explanation enough. Muggle meant weird, and also almost entirely outside of her realm of experience, and also usually pretty easily dismissed. ESPECIALLY if it was super OLD muggle things. That was even before her MUM was born! Even before DAVIE's mum! AND probably both their dad's combined! ~~so old~~. "Don't worry, I won't die. My mum warned me about people dying here, and I won't do it."** She said this last part to be reassuring okay? It was COOL. She was PREPARED. And she was FLOATING and enjoying it. Also she WAS wearing a skirt, but since she had stockings on underneath, it was okay. Charlotte commenced making puzzled faces at her head of house though. Because okay, who would confuse NOMY and LOGY? Dumb people, that was who. Also what did he mean about pseudoscientific hokum? Astrology was magic, not science. Probably he didn't have the inner eye. That was okay though, she didn't either. At least probably not. She was pretty sure. Her mum was a seer after all, so if she DID have the inner eye she would know by now maybe. This was irregular? Char looked around. Okay so she didn't get to float in what was prooooobably an anti-gravity mist very often, but it didn't seem THAT weird to her. She was FAR too busy a) puzzling over adopting rocks, and b) internally gushing over how SMART her best friend's answer was to properly volunteer one of her own (She gave him a very enthusiastic thumbs up). Besides, most people were saying stuff and Char already knew some of it and was bored by the rest. Instead she started doodling costumes on a piece of parchment. ... pet rock costumes. Pebbles would look stunning in a cape. He wasn’t sure if she was expecting a genuine answer or not...but to avoid any possible dream crushing and waterworks...he was going to avoid doing just that. “That is certainly reassuring,” he said, perhaps with a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny bit of sarcasm to his tone. But it wasn’t noticeable. Except maybe to Pebbles. SPOILER!!: REA! Quote: Originally Posted by Govoni ...Rocks. Why were they important to Astronomy? Reagan honestly didn't know. ...buuuut everyone else's answers were pretty great. So, she took to jotting those down instead of providing one herself. See, her mind had immediately jumped to sedimentary rocks, and how their many layers were like trips into the past. It wasn't as focused on in their magical world, but it was still very interesting and education about human life. However, that had little to do with space rocks...probably. She was out of her depth here. ...BUT SHE WAS PAYING ATTENTION; making a lot of eye contact, grinning at her peers for their brilliant efforts. Also, YES, SIGN HER UP FOR A PET ROCK. He imagined Captain Penrose had stellar handwriting. He seemed to recall it being pleasant to the eye. Oh right. Lesson. Yes. Anymore hands? SPOILER!!: NOEL! Quote: Originally Posted by Samia Oh, they were doing a class on Pebbles. Aaaaand Noel had no idea what to say. So he simply watched as the first years took over and gave their theories. It was amusing really. Kyroh's answer though! It had him chuckling. First years had nothing on Kyroh Scabior. Nope. And then there was Sophie Brown. How did she do it all? Can anyone even dare to answer after her? On a principal she should always go last in answering things, yeah. Nope? No more hands? His blue fell on Commander Wallace and lingered there for an uncomfortable second too long. SPOILER!!: MILO! Quote: Originally Posted by DanialRadFAN01 HE wasn't the Professor? Milo wasn't sure how to react to this. Yes he noticed the uniform but he was the adult in the room. Right? He wasn't like seventh year or anything? Was there a new Ministry approved military that had taken up a post in Astronomy at Hogwarts this term. He'd heard his mother and her friends talking about the strange things that had happened here when he was growing up but not this. Milo decided to appologize and look around at the other kids who were greeting him with little to no confusion, apart from a few other first years he noticed. "Sorry...Admiral." Right so Milo was right, he was the Professor but he was apparently an Admiral too. That was alright. People could have more than one job, it wasn't any of the Ravenclaw's business. Not that Milo was good at staying out of other people's business but he would try since this was his new Professor/Admiral. Rocks though, there was a little rock he was holding named Pebbles who was like his pet. Rocks would actually make good pets. They wouldn't run away, or be loud, or take much feeding. Pretty self-caring. But they weren't soft or wanting to cuddle or be petted. "Rocks Admiral, sir," the term still felt weird coming from his mouth but he would go with it, he did have the pips on his uniform and Milo did now as well, "Rocks made up of all the different minerals in the whole wide, big, galaxy flew together at the beginning of time and made planets like earth and the other solid ones." OH WAIT THERE WAS A HAND! “STELLAR!” he said with some dramatic pointing. SPOILER!!: BENTLEY! Quote: Originally Posted by Davvy_Wavvy Bentley was so confuuuuuused. OMG Nobody told him he'd encounter a subject that would confuse the life out of him. And his head of house, half blind star man was equally confusing. Confusion was Bentley and Bentley was confusion. He had gotten the whole write your full name down bit though..and he did that... Bentley just hugged himself as the man started talking. He was mad..truly truly insane. He supposed he should have figured that out when the man introduced a box at their party that had absolutely no explosives or treasure or anything fun in it! Sigh. And by the looks of it..he was no admiral. The eleven year old threw skeptical looks at the astronomy professor. His grandma Moore was in the muggle army and he did not act like he did. Starship? What was a star ship? "Rocks are good for throwing I guess. Sometimes my cousins and I throw rocks at the mango trees in hopes of knocking some off. You can also use rocks and pebbles to skip across water and stuff. And sometimes..Grandma Rainbow decorates rocks and puts them in her garden." Mango….had he ever savored a mango? He was ALMOST positive he had had dried mango once… Trying to keep his GASP at the mention of throwing rocks at bay - and not doing so well, but he did get over it because skipping stones was a pastime he did enjoy and was, well, technically throwing rocks after all - he simply nodded his head with a small smile. No connection to….astronomy there...but now he was stuck thinking about mangos… Mangoes… Oh hello class, what? He looked down at his sundial watch. Oh yes. TIME TO MOVE ON! “You all raised stellar points,” he applauded the class, literally. Just his hand was sort of smacking up against Pebbles as he did so. “Each as valid as the last, but today I want to focus specifically on the aspects presented by your classmates referring to cosmic collisions and planetary geology. Just the basics.” He paused to clear his throat and tuck his legs up underneath him so he was sitting crisscross applesauce in the air. Just call him Professor Broda. Only no, don’t. He much preferred the sound of Admiral Flamsteed. “As was brought up in our discussion, some 6.5 million years ago approximately three quarters of all life on Earth became extinct - an instance in our Earth’s history that many refer to as ‘the extinction of the dinosaurs.’” Just to put it all in layman's terms. “This extinction marks the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Paleogene period and geologists and planetary geologists refer to this geological instant as the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary or K–Pg boundary for short. This geological instance has been under great scientific scrutiny for centuries, with rocks and fossils dating back to that period being carefully examined by specialists.” This was all just basic background necessary for the punch line of the...er...non-joke-lecture. “Now, rocks dating back to this period all indicate some sort of global catastrophe, but the most telling clue found in these rocks is a layer of grayish clay found in K-T boundary era rocks. All of them. When this clay layer was inspected, unusually high concentrations off an element called iridium were found. This element is EXTREMELY rare in rocks from the earth’s surface and with the concentration rate found...the only plausible solution was that it came from elsewhere. Thus, a large meteorite impact DID occur - along with other supporting evidence. But all this...everything...just from examining ROCKS!” So who wanted a pet rock now? Never know. Some of them could be extraterrestrial. “Now, the location of this cosmic impact is believed to be near Chicxulub in Mexico, and the way this has been determined is...surprise surprise...but examining rocks. The Chicxulub crater, caused by an asteroid impact, and the K–Pg boundary coincide precisely, but some will still argue that other craters on our planet are THE one.” He paused for a moment as her, er, sort of went all over the place here...but it was ALL important. “Our focus today will be on craters, but before we get to that I would like us to brush up on some basic terminology,” he said as he waved his wand towards the board to make three words appear. Quote: Originally Posted by blackboard asteroid meteoroids meteors meteorites “Who would care to give me the definition of ONE of these?” he inquired of the class. “Or rather than a definition a little factoid will do as well.” OOC: thank you all for your patience <3 Class will resume approximately 18 hours from the time of this post. __________________ When you're stuck in a moment and your spark has been stolen .................................................. ........... this is our time to own it, so own it..................................... baby we were born with fire and gold in our eyes Last edited by sweetpinkpixie; 09-10-2015 at 05:14 PM.